PLC Days 6 and 7: Dio's, Montfort, Salsa, Wahoo Bay, and More!

Days 6 and 7: June 23^rd-24^th, 2018

Sak pasé, blog readers?

Sorry we missed yesterday, but you get a double dose of Haiti action today. It’s Max back again with our sixth and final blog from our trip to Haiti. This covers our activities on Saturday and our trip to Wahoo Bay today.

Yesterday we split up into two teams. One team headed to Dio’s, a special needs orphanage, while the other group headed to Montfort, an orphanage and school for the deaf and hearing impaired. I had the privilege of spending the morning with the amazing kids at Dio’s. The kids had a range of disabilities from minor to major, but every kid was such a blessing for us to work with. Even though we spoke different languages, and some of the kids could hardly speak at all, we found a way to communicate through games, coloring, mirrors, and much much more. I don’t mean to flex on y’all, but I got my nails painted with some sparkly nail polish by a 5-year-old while laying underneath a parachute. What’d you do today?

After our stint at Dio’s, my team also got to visit the Haitian Olympic Training Center. I think the coolest part about this is that we went there expecting to only spend 20 minutes walking around seeing the different facilities, but instead we spent over two hours playing all sorts of different sports with the kids and adults alike. The boys took on a team of Haitians in basketball and sadly fell in a 14-22 loss. The upside is that from now on we can claim that we only lost to the Haitian Olympic Basketball team by 8 points. Nice! Everyone had an amazing time using the facilities at the training center and I am definitely looking forward to doing it again on a future trip.

The other half of the team got to head to Montfort for the morning. This is a larger orphanage that is for kids with hearing disabilities and the deaf. Montfort is amazing because it had a large school as well as a farm to try to keep the place as sustainable as possible. One thing that many of the team members who went to Montfort appreciated was the fact that you could have more in depth conversations with the kids through writing. A struggle that most of us encounter when we are down here is the inability to communicate with the kids because we don’t know enough of the language, but by using the whiteboards that the team brought to Montfort, they could ask whatever they wanted to. Many of the kids could communicate fluently in English and that made the conversations that our team members were able to have so much more meaningful.

After the day’s activities, both teams met up at Fleri bakery for a pizza dinner. The food was amazing as usual and we got to play lot’s of fun games on the TapTap ride home. For those of you who have played “Zoo” then you know how quickly you can pass the time while playing! We ended our night with a salsa lesson with Jean! Everybody got to show off their dance moves and when Jean finally thought we were good enough not to embarrass him, he invited us to go dancing with him at the salsa night club. The high schoolers and Barry all got dressed up and headed up to the Elite Hotel to dance the night away. We spent the next 2 hours salsa-ing to our hearts content while the rest of the team was sound asleep. I definitely was missing that 2 hours of sleep this morning when I rolled out of bed.

This morning we went to Grace Church and had an amazing church service with the people of Titanyen and Grace Village. This was yet another opportunity for us to see a different type of worship than we are used to and all I can say is, “Goosebumps!” We then got to spend the day at Wahoo Beach. It was a nice change of pace to be able to see the natural beauty that Haiti has to offer. We spent the day swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, riding jetskis, and relaxing after our week of service here in Haiti.

As I am writing this right now, we are all in the living room watching a slideshow of pictures from our past week. It is always fun for me to be able to reflect on what we have been able to do over the last 7 days and how close the 25 of us have grown together as a group. I can honestly say that this has been one of the most life changing weeks of my life. From the littlest things like learning a new word in creole with a boy in Cite Soleil, to the bigger things like learning to salsa with all of my new friends, everything we did had a meaningful impact on our lives and we will carry these things with us for the rest of our lives. I am always blown away by how big of an impact we can make with such small actions. If the team has taken anything away from this trip I think it can be summed up with these three things:

1   1. Live your life in the order of JOY. Jesus, others, and yourself. This plays into every action you make on a daily basis and is one way you can do little things to make a big impact.

2   2. The Yes Theory: Say yes to anything and everything! Life can be as exciting & fulfilling as you wish. So long as you're willing to seek discomfort.

3   3. No matter how hard we try, Haiti is something more amazing than we will ever be able to explain and do it justice. The people’s kindness, faith in Christ, and love is unlike anything you will be able to find anywhere else in the world. We always come to Haiti expecting we are going to make the big impact, but in reality it is Haiti who makes the biggest impact on us.

Thank you all for staying updated on our blogs over the last week and we can’t wait to see you when we get home. We love you all.

Goodnight and God bless,

Max Nelson

PLC Day 5: Water Truck Round 2 and LaPharre!

Day 5: June 22^nd, 2018

Hey guys!

 Max here again, but before I dish the mic off to our guest writer Karen Stich for the night, I have a quick story about last night. So Nelson and I were hanging out with some people from the other team and they brought us some chocolate right before we had to go to bed. We both had just brushed our teeth so we were saving it until the morning like the good Christian boys we are. I set mine on the table, but unfortunately for Nelson, he decided it would be a good idea to set them next to his pillow. The next morning at church (will be explained below) he kept smelling chocolate but he had no idea where it was coming from. It wasn’t until we got back to the guesthouse and Ryan said, “Jeez Nelson, what happened to your back?” that we realized what had happened. The evidence was not only on his back, but smeared throughout his sheets as well. Bringing the laundry to the ladies this morning was awkward to say the least! Alrighty, I am going to give the fingers a rest, but I’ll be talking into Karen’s ear as she writes the blog! Dish the ish to Mrs. Stich:

I have to admit that I usually am the one that has been reading this blog afar from the comfort of home for the last four years.  Following along with what my kids have been experiencing and trying to imagine what it is like.  I can tell you, there are no words that describe Haiti. These blogs only scratch the surface of the emotions we all experience.  Ryan, myself, Katie Ose, Sam Pesquiera, and Max Nelson will attempt to recap Friday as best as possible.

Today was the “early” day. Up at 5:30 to attend service at Church on the Rock.  It started as a “tent” church after the earthquake of 2010 and now is a large warehouse-like building where roughly 2000 people can worship together.  It is not your garden variety service.  Haitians walk/dance/sing their praises up and down the aisle while the Pastor loudly professes (screams) into the microphone.  Some parts feel more like a ROCK concert instead of a church service.  Very moving to say the least!

After breakfast, we split into 2 different TapTap groups.  One group went to visit the Haitian History Museum and LaPharre Orphanage.  The other group choose to do a 2^nd water truck day in Cite Soleil.  Learning the history of Haiti shed a lot of light on the culture, including why there are so few dogs in Haiti.  Dogs were used by the French to control the Haitian slaves.  Today, you rarely see dogs on the streets, mostly goats.  At the orphanage, the kids enjoyed face painting, parachute, soccer and bracelet making. 

The team that went to deliver water repeated 2 of the 3 stops from Day 1.  Everyone agreed that they each carried more water buckets than ever before, even Max was asked to stand in line to get someone’s bucket filled! 

10 more of us had the opportunity to visit the hospital of sick and dying children.  First, we got a chance to feed the kids.  After they ate, some were taken outside.  The healthier ones were able to play in the courtyard.  The sicker kiddos were held and loved as much as possible.

Tomorrow, the groups have a choice to either go to Montefort orphanage for the deaf and Metalworks (a metal market where we can barter for their wares) or Dios orphanage for special needs kids and the Haiti Olympic Training facility.  Afterwards, we are meeting back at Grace Village for pizza at Fleri (Healing Haiti’s bakery and restaurant). 

Till tomorrow, au revoir!

Karen Stich feat. Max Nelson

PLC Day 4: Grace Village and Elder Visits!

Day 4: June 21^st, 2018

So there’s this Spanish magician right? He is about to do his final act and says he is going to make himself disappear for the grand finale. He says “Uno, dos…” and POOF he is gone without a tres.

That was Barry Gerst’s joke tonight at dinner and Nelson though it was the funniest thing he had ever heard!

Welcome back to another blog extravaganza with your boy Mizzle Nizzle. (It’s Max guys don’t worry and no one has ever called me that… like ever.) (No for real like never in my entire life) Tonight I am joined by the gals from the most West of the Virginias, Brae and Maria! It is Maria’s first trip to Haiti and Brae’s fourth trip. Nelson and I got up with the boys nice and early for a quick ab circuit and “morning yoke sesh” because we are such superb athletes. Our lesson from this morning: take something ordinary and do just a little bit extra, and you get something extraordinary – Abraham Lincoln (Probably) – Nelson Linscott. Here’s another quote Nelson shared with us this morning: “Those were really good tacos” – Martin Luther King Jr. (Probably said that at some point, he seemed like a taco guy).

Let me just pause for a moment to address the fact that as I am trying to write this blog, Nelson is making a “strombony of himself” by attempting to do a british accent that really just sounds like an Italian Borat. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

After our morning workout we had a pancake breakfast and loaded up on the TapTaps to head north to visit Grace Village and the elders in Titanyen. On our way, we stopped at the 2010 earthquake memorial and mass graves which serve as the final resting place for an estimated 300,000 Haitians who lost their lives during the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that changed the lives of Haitians forever. One of our Haitian guides shared his brief recap of the events on that fateful day and it was a great experience for everyone. We then headed to Grace Village where we got to play and spend time with all of the kids. I met a little boy last year when I came down to Haiti and I we had a great reunion this morning when I saw him for the first time in a year. Brae also had a similar experience when she saw a girl that she hadn’t seen in five years! We all had a fun time getting to interact with the kids with games like tag, thumb wars, soccer, and dance offs.

After our morning stint at Grace Village we had the opportunity to do 8 different elder visits split between the two halves of our team. I was back at it learning more creole phrases with the kids, but I also got to put lotion on a few of the elders which really took me out of my comfort zone. There aren’t many things that are more intimate than putting lotion on another person and it is one of the few opportunities we can truly be the hands and feet of God when we are down here. Brae and Maria had another valuable experience working with the elders by washing their feet and painting nails. We also ended up bringing picture bibles for the elders who are illiterate and other household supplies that they were in need of.

After our elder visits we got a tour of Fleri Bakery and Restuarant in Titanyen. This was a super cool experience for us to see how much work goes into making the bread for a community. Fleri has 26 independent clients who the sell wholesale to, who then resell the bread into the community in Titanyen. Fleri goes through 110 pounds of flour an hour and crank out bread everyday of the week. Business has been booming and they directly put $10,000 back into the community of Titanyen just from buying the supplies needed to make the bread last year. After Fleri, we spent more time at Grace Village watching Croatia upset Argentina 3-0 in world cup group play while the staff fixed a flat tire on one of the TapTaps. On our way home from Grace Village it started pouring rain. And when I say pouring I mean raining cats and dogs with a 40 mph crosswind that was blowing sheets of rain into the back of the open air TapTap. Luckily for Cameron and I, we had chosen to sit up front and were nice and dry while the rest of the team looked like they had gone to a water park. (Sorry guys love you).

After we had dried off, we had Haitian food for dinner and then grouped up with the other team to have one large super-group meeting where we got to sing worship songs and our nightly devotional. You will be pleased to hear that “Servant Leader” made another appearance at tonight’s meeting. Tomorrow, half of our group will be heading out on a second water truck day and the other half will be visiting the Haitian History museum and a orphanage called LaPharre. Thank you all once again for keeping up to date on the blogs and we will catch ya on the flipside tomorrow.

They always say yee-haw, but never haw-yee. – Nelson Linscott

Max Nelson