Carpe Diem!

A beautiful, new day greeted us when we got up this morning.  Our disabled Tap Tap also was parked in the driveway which was a welcome surprise with our items inside intact!  The Tap Tap will be out of commission for a while.

We were eagerly anticipating our visit to Montfort Institute.  When we arrived, we were approached by 120-plus deaf students.  They were ready to get attention and hugs, and immediately started to play with us.  Each of us had the opportunity to interact with the children, playing with the parachute, making bracelets, playing the Elephant game, Rock Electricity, soccer, jump rope, cards, story telling, and just sitting and chatting.  Many of the older kids were fascinated about life in America, and how white deaf Americans have jobs and this gave them hope for their future.  They were amazed at the different signs in English and French.  We also learned a few signs in Haitian Sign Language.  The team got a tour of the grounds - they have a farm where they raise goats, peacocks, cows, rabbits and chickens.  They also grow bananas, mangoes, plantains, and other fruits.

During our sharing time this evening, many of the team members shared that they were touched by their visit to Monfort and how the deaf kids loved our visit.  The kids want us to come back soon.  Some of the words that were shared by the team included contentment, perspective, love, "proudness", cherish, awesome, fun, and heart touching.  We shared how much fun we had and that we did not want to leave.  We also shared stories on what we witnessed at Montfort.  We especially loved seeing the smiles on the children's faces and the thrill they showed when some of us told them we are deaf.  "You deaf??"  "White deaf???"  "Is he/she deaf?  Same??!!"  They were surprised that we came to be with them - "really????"  When Bob (one of our leaders) was asked what he thought of the day today, he said "WOW". 

We wrapped up our evening by picking up dinner from a Haitian restaurant named Kokoye in Delmas 31 in Port au Prince.  It was ironic that most of us got American pizza from a Haitian restaurant!  We also celebrated Mr. and Mdme. Keslet's 22nd Wedding Anniversary ("marriage birthday").
We had the opportunity to ride the Tap Tap back to the Guest House after dark for the first time - it was interesting to see traffic at night and the city lights in the mountains.

A Day to Remember

Today started out as usual. We would slowly one by one come out of our bedrooms and join in our morning conversations until breakfast was ready. Our day's plan was to go to Leveque to meet some deaf residents that are in need in the community on our prayer walk.

After our devotion and prayer we ate our breakfast and embarked for our trip. There was some concern about making the crossing near the fallen bridge as it was about 2 feet under water.  We approached very heavy traffic as trucks, buses, Tap Taps, motorcycles, and SUVs fought to get in line to reach the flooded crossing. There was a lot of people milling about watching and also directing traffic.  When it was our turn, there was trepidation as the other team had some trouble making the crossing yesterday when their tap tap stalled out just a few feet from reaching the other side, but luckily they were able to get out eventually.  Our driver, Max, started the crossing and it went well until we got about 10 feet from the other side when the engine stalled. He tried to restart it several times with no avail. Several men started coming towards us and we became a little nervous of what their possible intentions were as we were helplessly stuck in the water.  In the Tap Tap, we all prayed for safety for ourselves and for the people around us.  As it turns out, they were simply being kind and trying to be helpful and worked to help Max get the truck started for several minutes. When that failed, several men got behind the Tap Tap to push it forward a few feet. We were amazed they could get it moving with our team still inside! Then an ambulance SUV got behind us and was able to push us out of the water onto the dry land.  Unfortunately, the engine and the muffler were full of water.  Several Haitian people came and helped push the Tap Tap back and forth trying to flush out the water.  A Mack truck pushed us to a different area out of the way of the busy traffic.  While waiting for the Tap Tap to be fixed, we were overjoyed to be reunited with both deaf girl and boy on their way to Haiti Deaf Academy (HDA).  One of our team members said "We were stuck, but God gave us 'Hope.'" This helped us put our experience in perspective.

We all stayed near the Tap Tap while waiting for the guys to attempt to fix the vehicle and talked with both kids, and their mothers.  At that point, we abandoned our plan for the day and focused on getting back to the guesthouse.  Some of the Healing Haiti staff from the guesthouse came to the rescue and got us home safely.

After a delicious spaghetti dinner prepared by our staff, we had our nightly devotion.  The main focus was on trusting God and having faith in God as He kept us all safe.   Many of us shared our experiences and word of the day.  Some of those words included patience, chaos, teamwork, trust, adventure, blessed, reason, and Hope.

We had plans for today, but God had other plans for us.  We had to learn to go with the flow and trust God.  Plans were made that were changed every few minutes.  We may never know why these plans changed or did not go the way we wanted them to, but God had other plans and God has his reasons.  He alone knows the plans.

Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Water Day #2 and Visit to Montfort

Today is Thursday! It was a sunny morning that we woke up to see. We started the day with a good breakfast and a devotion about how we are often stretched in our personal lives like rubber bands. We prayed for wisdom to know what our priorities are in life and to take care of our own health as we serve others. We took off at 9 am to Cite Soleil to meet water trucks at the areas that needed water the most, areas #19 and #21were filled with children happy to see us and lots of buckets to fill.  We went back to the Guest House and changed our clothes quickly to go to the Montfort Institute and visit with the deaf students. We were excited to see them using American Sign Language with us and many shared happy moments learning how similar we are.  We were lucky enough to catch the kids together celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of their school.  We stayed to watch their celebration with the partner hearing school and donated 2 suitcases of clothes, soccer balls and children's French books. From there we went to a local market that sells metal art that we all enjoyed. We had Haitian food for dinner tonight - Chicken wings, Haitian Meatballs, Rice with beans, Potatoes, Beets, spicy Cole Slaw, and fried Plantains. It was a good dinner for us all to try. We had our evening devotion and our daily words to share. After a short rest we went out for an evening swim at the pool. We will be heading to Leveque tomorrow for the day. Have a good night!

Miracles and Smoothies

This morning, our devotional was about putting our trust in the Lord and letting His plan happen. This was an inspired message because nothing went according to our plans today. The day started out with three team members very ill and unable to get out of bed. As a result, we had to change all of our plans, but God knew where He needed us to be.

First, we headed to The Apparent Project: www.apparentproject.org
This is an amazing company that provides jobs for local Haitians that otherwise would not be able to support their families. We were able to take a tour around the building and see how they make the beads, pottery, and sewing projects from recycled materials that they sell in the shop. An amazing part of the production facility is the daycare, where parents are able to have their young children close by during the work day.

Our team leader told us about a man named Mario, or "The Smoothie King", who in March had been robbed and shot twice in the face.  You can read more of his story here: https://www.crowdrise.com/mario-castins-road-to-recovery---medical-and-recovery-support-
We didn't think that we were going to be able to meet him because he has been recovering, but the Lord has a plan and Mario showed up and talked with us. We were able to support him by purchasing bracelets that the Apparent Project makes and donates the money to Mario's recovery. We also got the Mario Special smoothie at the Clay Cafe above the shop. Yum!

After a brief lunch and a check-in with our sick teammates, we visited an orphanage for children with special needs. As soon as we entered the gate, a few of the children who could walk came up to us and gave us hugs. We went inside to see the rest of the kids and were met with many smiles and hugs as we walked around and interacted with the children. Many of the children there couldn't walk because of physical disabilities, but that didn't stop them from scooting across the floor to say hello and get some attention. One little girl had he most amazing smile. When she looked at you, her whole countenance lit up. It was so beautiful. They sang for us and made us smile. Looking from American eyes, this small, overcrowded room would seem tragic. Yet, there was so much love and appreciation for the small things in that little room that we left feeling full of hope and love. These kids truly are lucky because they have a home and people who take care of them.

When we returned to the guest house this evening, we were incredibly blessed to have our three teammates up and feeling so much better. It was such am miracle that their sicknesses were short lived and that none of the rest of our team became sick. So many prayers were answered today in ways that we weren't expecting. We know that God is watching out for and performing miracles for our group as we yield to His will and follow the plan that He has for us.

Water Day #1

Water Day #1

This morning, we all woke up after having a good night's sleep.  Then we ate a hearty breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, oatmeal, pancakes and Haiti's native mango and grapefruit juice!  Some of us realize that native fruit here is very different than what we taste in US.  We had our morning devotions and then boarded the Healing Haiti "TapTap" and headed to Cite Soleil.  The translation in Creole is "Sun City."  We made three water stops.  Each stop was very unique.  At the first stop, we were greeted by excited young neighborhood children.  Some members of the team interacted with and tended to the children by sharing our love and other members filled 5-gallon pails as the residents waited in line to gather their water.  Due to the heavy rain last night, it was shorter at each stop than usual because they got the water from the rain.  We also visited Hope Church which was built by Healing Haiti and opened on February 28.  It is a very beautiful place.  The second water stop was near the coastline.  After our team distributed water and gave hugs and love to the children, we walked to the pier to see the ocean.  Along the way, we saw people catching fish with nets from the pier and the boats, as well as cleaning fish.  Our third stop was the shortest stop because it started to rain.  We were greeted by many children wanting our love and attention.  What we did not expect was to witness God's work in reuniting a Haitian deaf girl with Bob and Meredith.  We had been "Hoping" to see her on this trip with the Deaf team.  We were all thrilled to witness this reunion of friends from our team and this beautiful Haitian friend.  It was the perfect end to our first day in Haiti on the Tap Tap.  After returning from the water stops, we were able to enjoy and appreciate swimming in a nearby pool up the hill.  Then we came back and ate another delicious meal by Healing Haiti Guesthouse's own cook, Kislet, and had sloppy joes.  We had our evening devotions and wrapped up the day by picking our word of the day and sharing our testimonies of God's work.  Many of us are truly humbled to be doing God's work and spreading His love to those who we visited today.  As a reminder of why we are in Haiti, Bob showed us some videos relating to Healing Haiti and viewed some testimonies from previous mission teams which was very touching.



After a fun evening of games and laughter, we are getting settled in for another good night's sleep for our trip to Montfort tomorrow.  More on that tomorrow, stay tuned...

 

Happy Reunion

What fun it was to see the Healing Haiti staff at Guest House 1 when the Deaf team arrived from the airport this afternoon.  Several of them had been practicing their fingerspelling and sign language so they could greet us.  

One of the first blessings today was the gate agent at MSP who took our random seat assignments and arranged for most of us to sit together on the flight to Miami.  The time passed much more quickly as we chatted more easily because of our close proximity.  Then the flight attendant on the Miami to Port-au-Prince flight allowed us to move to empty seats and once again we were able to enjoy each others' company en route.

Travel Day starts early.  The new experiences in Haiti and the heat and humidity have tired everyone on the team. The sunsets early, too, and most of the team has already headed to bed.  We all want to be well prepared physically for the challenges of Water Truck Day in Cite Soleil in the morning.

We will add more tomorrow.