Three day weekends. They are the greatest. And as interns, we are pretty much had one this weekend and it was wonderful! Absolutely wonderful. Especially since we traveled to another NWHCM campus at Mole St. Nicolas, more commonly known as the Mole. All the interns went, Mary, Lisa, Kelsey, Kelly, Melissa, Morgan, Tore, Caitlin, Logan, Spencer, Sinclair and myself along with some of the staff, Ashley, Katelyn, Sam, and Jack. The main point of our trip was that Morgan and Caitlin will be serving at the Mole campus for a large part of the remainder of their time here, so we drove out with them and stayed for the weekend. We left on Saturday morning. Originally the plan was to leave at 6 in the morning. But this is Haiti, which means we run on Haitian time, so we actually didn’t leave until around 7:30. But luckily, what was claimed to have been a seven hour ride on a military truck (basically just a glorified tap-tap, just bigger), actually turned out to only be 5 and a half with many stops. Thankfully, this also meant that I didn’t have to go to the bathroom behind a bush. And upon getting there, the five and a half hours was completely worth it!
Our weekend at the Mole was basically like a mini vacation. Upon getting arriving there, we were able to unpack and settle in. We then had lunch, which was fantastic! We each had two chicken drumsticks, sweat potatoes and this fried bread with meat inside. Not to mention, cold juice. It was sooo delicious!
After lunch the girls went downstairs to change into our bathing suits and then we all loaded up into the military truck to head over to the NWHCM orphanage where the guys were actually staying. We hung out there and played with the kids at the orphanage, some who had just recently been moved from the baby orphanage in St. Louis to the Mole, so many of the interns recognized a few of the kids.
After the guys dropped all of their things and we played with the kids, we loaded back up for the short ride to the beach. The beach at the Mole was so incredibly pretty! We went swimming and laid out on the sand for several hours. Many of us even swam out to a coral reef to go snorkeling. The water was so clear. It felt very nice to be able to get out of the heat and relax by the beach, especially after the long journey to the Mole earlier that day. One thing that we have noticed is that it appears that Haitians typically don’t like to swim all that much. The beach was almost completely empty, and many of the Haitians who were there on a Saturday, we not in the water.
When we arrived back at the house after our adventures at the beach we hung out for a bit and took showers. After my experience at the Mole, I can officially say that I showered outside, in the cover of a tarp. Quite the adventure. Soon we went up for dinner, which was rice, beans and instead of the typical chicken or unidentifiable meat in a Caribbean sauce on top, there was LOBSTER!!! It was delicious. And we also received cold cokes to drink. The dinner was excellent.
Once we had finished indulging ourselves at dinner, Jody, the wife of the couple who runs the Mole talked to us about her own experiences with voodoo having grown up a missionary kid in Haiti. It was really cool to here a personal perspective and I definitely gained a lot of insight on it. Once Jody had shared her experiences with us, we gathered around the tables in the common eating area and played board games and cards. I was in the group that played Apples to Apples. It was a ton of fun getting to have fun and hang out with the interns in a different setting than our normal ministry in St. Louis du Nord. Not to mention, Apples to Apples is always very entertaining. I ended up coming in a close second place, behind Kelsey, and we all had a blast.
The next morning we were able to sleep in a bit before church. For breakfast we had the fortune of eating homemade donuts. They definitely hit the spot considering I have been craving Round Rock donuts from pretty much the moment I left the U.S. Something different that I have never tried before in the states, is that we had hot chocolate with our donuts. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who does not like to drink coffee in the morning, or even those who do. And speaking of coffee, there was what certainly tasted and smelled like American coffee. Even though we all really love Haitian coffee, it was a nice treat and a great taste of home.
The church service we attended at the Mole was very similar to the one in St. Louis except a little shorter and instead of having an actual building as their church home, they meet in a tent. It was really cool to see, how the people of God don’t have to have cement walls, or real roofs or even fancy million dollar sanctuaries in order to worship the Lord together. During the service, there was a time for anyone new (when Americans aren’t there, the church is less than 100 people) to stand up and introduce themselves. We did this and had to say our name, state we were from, church we attended, and why we were in Haiti.
At first, I was contemplating if I should say that I was actually in Haiti to minister and love on special needs kids at the mission’s Miriam Center or not. Due mainly to the fact that many in Haiti feel that special needs kids are cursed or animals. I knew that being Christians, it was likely that many of the Haitians in the congregation would not feel this way, but I still didn’t know if special needs kids were socially acceptable to the Haitian Christian community either. But as I was thinking this in my head, I realized that the Lord has sent me here not just to love on and minister to these kids, but to advocate for them. To show others, that these kids, while they may be different, are still loved and desired and worthy of God’s love. That I was sent here to not only minister to the kids of the Miriam Center, but to minister to the people of Haiti and show them that special needs kids are still people, who have feelings and emotions and who want to play and laugh and be held and loved and cared for. That’s why I am here. So I introduced myself as Allyson from Texas who is here in Haiti to serve and minister to the special needs kids of the Miriam Center. Who knows if it had any effect on anyone in the congregation by seeing that an American girl would travel 15,000 miles from home to love on kids with disabilities. I may never know. But it certainly did have an effect on the American girl who traveled 15,000 miles to love on kids with disabilities.
We headed back to the house for lunch after church. Right before we sat down for lunch I was able to call my dad to wish him a happy Father’s day. I am very thankful that we were able to call from the Mole, and if you are reading this day, once again, I am sorry I couldn’t be there, but your father’s day hug is coming on July 11th, so get ready. Once we had finished eating, Jody announced the that we would be heading back to the beach in 15 minutes for the next survivor challenge. Mary and I took our time getting ready knowing that we wouldn’t be participating since I am the mascot of Dife, and she was the most recent (and first) survivor voted off the Dife tribe since we is leaving soon.
When we arrived at the beach it was announced that each of the teams would be given three buckets and an hour to build a sand castle that would be judged by a panel. Turns out, Logan from the Dife team goes to the beach every year with his family and builds super legit sand castles every year. Basically he is a sand castle prodigy, and while the Green Goblins constructed a pretty cool drip castle with two separate moats, Dife built a castle that looked like it could compete in a contest off the beaches in the U.S. It was pretty intense. Being the honorary mascot of Dife, I am thrilled to announce that they one the challenge and will not have to vote anyone off.
Once the challenge was over we all went for a swim. It was actually really cloudy that day and eventually began to rain. And not just rain a little bit, it completely poured. But it felt really good to swim in the water during the storm. We stayed in talking until we heard thunder off in the distance. We got out pretty quick after that. All of our stuff was completely soaked, and the ride back in the military truck was pretty entertaining. Once we got back to the house, the Costello’s supplied us with dry towels and we all changed.
We hung out in our room for a bit listening to music and talking. It was great to get to know Mary, Kelsey, Kelly and Tore even better. I am so thankful to have these girls as a part of my community here. They are all so great and it is such a blessing to get to know each of their hearts.
Dinner our last night at the Mole was American hotdogs with homemade buns and brownies. They were quite delicious. After dinner we hung out for a bit, but went to bed fairly early in order to get up at 4 am to head back to the main campus.
4 am was VERY earlier, but we managed. It was sad to say goodbye to Morgan and Caitlin but I should be seeing them in a few weeks before I leave which will be nice. It was kind of scary to drive in the military truck in the dark. Especially when we yell “heads” when we need to duck from tree limbs, but in the dark you can’t see them as quickly. We got hit a couple of times, but we managed. I wish I could have captured the beauty of the Haitian countryside as we drove along. It was absolutely breath taking. We made it back to the mission around 9:30. After we unpacked, I took a nap until lunch at 12:00. It felt really nice and surprising the generator was on during the day, so I had a very refreshing and cool nap.
It felt so great to be back at St. Louis and it really is starting to feel like home. After lunch I had another Outreach session with Autumn Today we had two girls and went over full body massages. Today during therapy I was also able to use the small amount of Creole I have learned to save one of the girls from peeing her pants. I felt very accomplished. If you could please be praying for Autumn, she contracted a Staph infection while I was gone in a couple of her mosquito bites and scrapes. She is on medication, but seeing how they are on her leg and hip, it is difficult for her to walk. Please pray for quick healing so we can get on to our therapy, especially with a group of people with a huge interest in the Miriam Center coming in tomorrow!
After outreach, we had staff meeting to go over everything that will happen with the groups coming in. It was pretty boring considering 99.9% of it didn’t have to deal with me since I don’t have a group, but I did learn when the Miriam Center would have groups to help us downstairs. So that heads up was nice. After the meeting I went down to play with the kids for a bit. Isaac was excited to see me after my absence this weekend, and it was very heartwarming to see the smile on his face when he saw me. Gilbert also told me he had missed me. It made my day. I pushed a kid named Steven around in one of the toy cars for quite a while. It was a joy and I was very thankful for our time since I had not been able to spend much one on one time with him. The kids are really starting to steal my heart.
We had our dinner in the staff lounge tonight while going over the Bible study we are doing as a group, we our intern leader Melonee. It was nice to eat inside in the air conditioning and we had a really great time discussing the devil, temptation and the deceitfulness of his ways.
After our Bible study, we came back into the staff lounge to watch the Lion King, eat sweets and drink some cokes to celebrate one of our last nights without groups with Mary. Mary is leaving on Wednesday with her dad and people from her home church back in Austin to go to another mission called Mission of Hope Haiti. Mary has a heart for the deaf, and Mission of Hope has a rather large ministry for the deaf. I am very excited for her, but will miss her greatly. Fortunately, we are both from the Austin area and go to college in Texas, so I am praying we will be able to keep in touch. Plus we are going home on the same day, so we are going to check flight schedules before we part, praying that Jody put us on the same ones.
This weekend and tonight have been great ways to unwind from the last 10 days and I feel ready for the next group to come in. Haiti is really starting to capture my heart, not just the place, but the people. Please pray for an energized week and that I would be able to pour everything out to these incredible kids that the Lord has created in His imagine.
”The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor. You cause grass to grow from the livestock and plants from the people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth-wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength. The trees of the Lord are well cared for-the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. The birds make their nests, and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.”
Psalm 104:12-17
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