Journal Entry 7/28/2008

Big old eyes.......she was so cute. She was laughing so hard at the toy she had in her hand :)


Last night was the coolest night! I almost put a sheet over me!! It was crazy! We went to a school this morning to sing and play with the kids and give them food. It was a really small school just cement with benches. The distribution was a challenge because a crowd started gathering trying to get to the truck. We finished in just enough time; jumped in the bus and jetted out. We had PB and J for lunch and then some were chosen to go back to the Good Samaritan and some did the filtration stuff. I went to the Good Samaritan. I love that place. When I went this time we brought some lentals (some food for the kids). A man named Dustin came with us this time. He is a missionary that just started working with the mission of hope. We walked back to the kitchen area and asked if we could cook the lentals right then. The woman made up some excuses about not having oil, but I told her she didn't need oil to cook the lentals. I told her we would cook them, but she had some type of beans cooking in the pot and said she couldn't cook them yet. I asked her who the beans were for because there was obviously not enough for all the kids. She said "the weak ones"...I asked where the weak ones were and she said in the room. I walked in the room and there were kids laying on the cement floor and on the beds. Most of them were asleep, but one little boy was just crying on the bed. Some one had set him up there but he was so tired of crying he was falling asleep. Dustin and I went over to him. Dustin sat on the bed with him and rubbed his little tummy until he closed his eyes and stopped crying. He was so adorable...I just prayed as Dustin rubbed his stomach that whatever pain he was having would go away. Just to put him asleep. And.....he fell asleep as Dustin rubbed his stomach. I am going to put a picture of him at the end of this journal entry. His body was so cute, but so malnourished. The reason why we were so worried about the lentals being cooked was because we were told some of the food she has been given before has ended up in the market place instead of the kids stomachs. Anyone who can do that just has no conscience. How can you take food from a child's mouth when they are starving. I asked one of the translators to ask one of the kids if they had a meal at all that day and she said no they had not. No telling if they had a meal the day before that either. It just infuriated me. The kids we were playing with in the play area seemed okay though, they didn't seem to weak because they were running around so happy to see us. I was just happy to be there because they were so happy we were there. I really didn't want to leave when it was time to go because I wasn't sure if we were even going to get to come back. I wish I could just change one of those kids lives. I struggle so much with thinking about how many people I know in the U.S. and how there were about 29 kids at this orphanage....and how if just 29 people that I know adopted 1 of the kids, or just sent money for one of the kids, how much better their life would be. It seems so easy to think about, but I can't think about that because it makes me sad. I think the kids think their life is fine. They don't know any different so all they knew is that there were these really nice people that came to play with them...and came back a few times to play with them and hold them and love them. That was enough to make their day...and week. I would love to see them again after this Haiti trip. I hope this isn't the last time I will see them. When we got back to the mission we loaded 1,000 bags on the truck to go to the schools tomorrow. We had fish tonight for dinner and the head was still on it...but it was SOOOOO good! :) The first picture is one of the boy that was sitting on the bed. The picture is from the first time we came. The pictures underneath the first one are pictures of the kitchen area at the orphanage and the bathrooms (or holes in the ground) and the kids beds. The kids bed area looks really good in this picture, but there were flies all around and most of their sheets were soiled. The lady in the picture of the kitchen is they lady who is head of the orphanage.


This little girl was sooo proud of her red dress. She would just smile everytime I told her how beautiful she looked in it :)


This little girl loved the bubbles I had...she kept blowing them and did a really good job at it too!


This was the kitchen area.


This is Dustin...he is the one that asked about the food with me and rubbed the little boys belly until he fell asleep.


Where the kids slept.


These were the bathrooms...if you walked by them you would see they were really just holes in the ground.

7/27/08- Journal Entry

Today we got up at about 5:30. We had breakfast and then we rode to a church. Jason did the sermon and had a translator. Adam sang a song too. This church was filled with people and it was so HOT. Jason did an awesome sermon. He talked about how emptiness can only be filled by Jesus Christ. I was looking around at the church when he was speaking and I could see so many nodding heads. I think I really was surprised to find out once I was there that so many Haitians seemed to already know Jesus and already have a personal relationship with him. I began to realize some of them have a better understanding of God than a lot of people I know in the U.S., that I see everyday. It made me think about what I should be doing back at home. Jason talked about how God is all knowing (Psalm 139). In Verse 8-12 he is an everywhere God and this could be scary, but in the end he will bring abundance. In verse 12-18 is the most amazing part of scripture. This God knows you personally. Emptiness can only be filled by him. We have the choice, but sometime we feel emptiness and turn to other things. You have to know that God is all knowing and already knows your struggles. He is your best friend and all you have to do is talk to him. David has 3 steps to prayer. This first step is for God to search me. The 2nd step is for God to test me, know my thoughts. The 3rd step is for God to lead me. The people at this church did not know what we had brought them that day. We had a truck full of bags with food in them. We were there to bless the church that day and everyone in it. Some people in that church were hungry and hadn't eaten in 3 days. They didn't know where their next meal would even come from. Some were struggling with other things in their life. The food bags we made yesterday were going to be handed out to the 500 people after the church. It was so organized. We stayed in a straight line making a tunnel shoulder to shoulder and as people came out of the church we handed each one of them a bag, looking them in their eyes, and smiling. Some of the little ones had to be carried through the tunnel because the bags were too heavy for them. This was the first time I felt tears welding up in my eyes. The feeling you get when you hand a hungry person food is amazing. When you squat down to give a little boy or girl a bag of food and you see their eyes light up, it makes you melt. We weren't throwing the food at these people, we were handing it to them and showing them love. I did a really good job of holding my tears in, because I knew I had to be strong in that moment. If I started crying they wouldn't understand why. They were so happy :) One lady walked out and just fell to her knees at the end of the tunnel. She was truly blessed she said. She had prayed in church that the Lord would bless her with food and her prayer was answered as she left those steps of the church. There was a crazy man there yelling that he hated our government. He said he loved us though. He talked or really yelled about how we were in Iraq and something about going to Cuba, he made eye contact with me and pointed at me as I got into the cage we rode in the whole time and said "I like U.S people...you are good people, you do good, but I HATE your government!!!!" He went away eventually because we ignored him. As soon as we handed the last bag out we had to jump back in the truck immediately and ride off because people in the town heard about us handing out the food so we had to get out of there. We came back and ate lunch, an awesome lunch I must say. Then we went back to the Good Samaritan Orphanage. Mike and Laura the leaders that planned our week told us we were the first group that ever wanted to go back to the Good Samaritan. They said other groups get so overwhelmed and just say they can't handle going back. That wasn't in my head at all, because all I could think of was how happy those kids were when we were there and how much fun I had with them. If I could have gone to that orphanage every day I would have. Anything to make those kids smile. I don't think I talked about the little girl that was at the Good Samaritan the first time we went. She was laying in the bed and had some kind of growth on her chest. There was puss on her bed when they rolled her over and she was really weak. There were 2 holes in the growth...like someone had tried to get the puss out themselves. She needed to get to a clinic. They got money from the mission and took her to a clinic to get what I think was a sis(no idea if I spelled that right) drained and cleaned out. When we came today she was back at the orphanage and was sooo much better. I am going to put a picture of her at the end of this journal entry. She was so happy and just running around. I was so happy we could get her the help she needed. After the orphanage we came back and bagged more. For dinner we had MRE's I had black beans and rice. I was put in a group that was put in charge of coming up with some skits for the school visits. The main idea of the skit was to come up with what the kids should do if a disaster strikes like a hurricane. Becky was really good at coming up with some stuff for the skit. She is awesome with kids. I will talk more later about exactly what we did in the skit, but we just let them know they need to meet and have a plan with their family if a disaster strikes. Also we wanted them to know that this may be a really scary time for them if a disaster should come, but they can always turn to one person. This person doesn't live with them in their home but he is their best friend. They can pray to him for strength. The awesome thing was that when I asked them if they knew who this person was??? They knew exactly who it was...It was JESUS!, they would yell. We also did bagging today. It was pretty hard but I really liked doing it....I was a runner a lot (the person that took the bag and then went to the different stations to get everything put in the bag). We also got to put our name in a box tonight to see if we would get chosen to stay up the mountain when we go up to the school on Wednesday. I didn't get chosen...I really wanted to go, but I guess there is a reason why I wasn't chosen. I know I will enjoy anything I do here....I love it and I feel so blessed to have this experience.
This is a picture of the little girl we took to the clinic. :)

Beautiful Haiti.

I wanted to post some pictures of how beautiful Haiti was.... these are a few.

These 2 pictures are of the view I had on the mission where we stayed.



On the way back from a school they took us to a resort to eat dinner. It was an awesome meal. These are some pictures of how beautiful it was in Haiti.







This was the meal they brought me out at the resort. It was hard to believe I was eating like this when right out of the resorts gate it was a different world...so much hunger.

This was the inside of the restaurant.


This little boy was offering a boat ride for $1.00.

Journal Entry #2-My first full day.

7/26/08 8:17
Done with my first full day in Haiti. You won't believe where I went today. Good Samaritan orphanage. When I was looking up adoption agencies a long time ago, it is the orphanage that some kids were from. When I looked it up on the internet and saw some pictures the orphanage seemed so good, but I was told when I got here it was run by a not so honest person. I saw kids there that I saw on the internet. This one little girl stuck out to me on the internet and I saw her there. I remember her name was Bene. It was the weirdest feeling when I saw her. I had to ask for so much strength when we were there. I have been praying about needing strength and I didn't even cry. I think before I just felt sorry for them and felt so much pity for them. After today I have a completely different feeling. We sang with them and then played with them. I have never seen so many kids in love with bubbles. I actually expected the orphange to look better then it did. It was just amazing how they have so little, but when we got there they were praising the Lord and so excited. I held kids with no pants on, kids so dirty their skin was white with dust, kids with skin rashes, kids that smelt, kids that had urinated on themselves but had not been washed. I didn't care one bit. It was like they were all mine...they showed me so much love. They were so excited for us to be there.....it was amazing how little they had but how happy they were. We did so much today other then going to the orphanage. We made food bags. Each bag feeds 50 meals, or has the nutrition for 50 good meals, some people eat the rations differently. We packed 2,000 bags today. If you X's 2,000 X 50 meals ....you get 100,000 Mouths Fed. I really like doing the labor. I just feel like I am helping so many people out. I love it here. I really feel like this is something I could do for a long time. We had a great Haitian meal tonight and then we went to the orphanage on the the Mission. They sang and danced and were so happy. Now I am just waiting for a shower. So much more happened today...but it is my turn to get in the shower. Oh, one more thing. God really prepared me for this trip in a funny way. Before I left I started to have some little bugs running around my house. I have never really had this problem before, but it got really bad about 3 days before I left.....so bad that I actually had one (a roach) in my bed when I pulled down the covers....Anyways, this morning I woke up and was in the bathroom. When I first got in there I immediately saw one...it was about the size of the larger Charleston roaches...but I didn't even make a sound...I took off my shoe and killed it. Well, about 10 min. later I am standing there putting my hair up and I look down at the door and this enormous...and I mean ENORMOUS!!! Roach crawled under the door...my papa always told me that when he was in World War II he saw "rats the size of cats and roaches the size of rats."...well I finally believe him! This roach looked like a bird...it had to of been atleast 5 inches long....NO LIE! I have to say I let out a little "OH MY GOSH" on that one....it crawled back under the door before I could compose myself enough to do anything about it...I think I would have mounted it though if I could have killed it.... it was crazy...so...yea, God prepared me for this trip in a few weird ways. I appreciate it though!! :)I thank him for the strength too at the orphanage! OKAY SHOWER TIME!...or Bird bath time...whatever you want to call it. :)Above my post is a picture of the little girl I saw on the internet...Bene. I also posted the meal we had tonight...it was so pretty I had to take a picture of it!

a video of the area near the airport.

Journal Entry #1 7/25/08

It is hard to write because I am using my cell phone for a light. When we got off the plane we were greeted by some men playing instruments telling everyone, "Welcome to Haiti!" We went through customs and I had no trouble with getting all my medicine in, thank the Lord :) We waited for our bags for about an hour and then we were escorted to the bus. We had "security"...I felt a little important. Haitians were asking us for money as we were walking to the bus, but the guards made them stop. They told them we were there to help and to stop bugging us for money. When we were in the bus I had the most erie feeling. As we drove I didn't pull out my camera like I normally would do. I just looked. I don't know if it was because I just realized where I was or what, but I got a knot in my throat almost like a worried feeling. The man driving the bus was an excellent driver and the bigger vehicle always goes first I found out. We moved through the streets so fast, I was just trying to take it all in. The generator is on right now and it will stay on until 5:15 in the morning. When it cuts off we will get up. There is one shower for 18 girls to use. It is not really a shower, but we squat down and put our head under a fosset (did I spell that right??). Of course no air conditioner, I wish I would have bought a battery fan, because when the generator cuts off my fan does not work. Right now I have the fan about 2 inches from my face :) I am still in a puddle of sweat though. I know I just have to get used to it. I will have to try to remember everything tomorrow, because my light is keeping people up. We have a long day tomorrow they say...I am so excited to be here! I feel so blessed :)

I'm Back :)

I am back home. A little later then we thought. Our plane was delayed in Haiti by 3 hours, so we missed our flight in Miami. We had to stay there for another 24 hours before we could catch another flight to Savannah. Then we drove to S'ville on a charter bus. Where do I begin.... I am not even sure where to start so I figured I would type my journal entries from my trip that I wrote each night. I am going to type one from 7/25/08. I wrote it at 11:40 P.M. It was the day we flew in.