Reflections of the Weekend

It’s been a while since I have written. But it has been a fantastic weekend. Very restful and full of loads of memories. The groups left Thursday night and early Friday morning, which meant for one long night. Staying up until midnight was exhausting. This last statement makes me rather nervous for my transition back to the states in a little over a week seeing how midnight is only 11pm back in Texas. I can’t recall to you a time in college that I have been in bed at 11pm. It’s going to take some MAJOR adjusting that’s for sure. For anyone that I may come into contact with the week that I get back: I apologize ahead of time for possibly being lame and going to bed at an unreasonably early hour.

The transition back to the American lifestyle: not so awesome. My weekend however: totally awesome. Once the groups left on Friday we kind of just hung out. I played downstairs with the kids since we don’t go to Bonneau without groups. It was awesome because when the groups head back to the states, they also leave a whole lot of really great supplies (including bug spray, children’s clothes, toothpaste for the kids, peanut butter, batteries, etc.). So the Miriam Center was able to stock up on a lot of needed supplies. That afternoon we did Outreach which was such a joy and learning experience for me as always.

Saturday was quite an adventure. It was Logan’s 22nd birthday, and being an intern, all the other interns (myself included) helped him celebrate. We first decorated the whole staff lounge using decorations for Melonee’s office including Valentine’s Day streamers, construction paper, and a birthday crown made out of pipe cleaners. We do it right here in Haiti.

For lunch we all hiked up the mountain to this really nice restaurant for lunch. The place is actually apart of a hotel here and the owner was nice enough to show us around. This place was one of the nicest buildings I have been in since arriving in Haiti. I mean, by no means does it compare to an American hotel, but the electricity is on 24 hours a day when there are guests, there are tvs and bathrooms in each room and every guest room came with it’s own balcony that overlooks all of St. Louis. It was beautiful. The meal was excellent as well. I ordered goat and with it came rice, beans and plantains(best ones I have had since being in Haiti). We also tried some Haitian pickles. The key word being here: tried. Not enjoyed. They were dill for sure, but not nearly as crunchy as normal American pickles. And there was still this weird taste to them that I can not describe. The biggest joke of the meal though was that about five of us ordered Papaya juice. This was under the non-alcoholic portion of the menu, but for some reason had a VERY strong smell of beer. We have been cracking jokes about not drinking the papaya juice ever since!

After finishing lunch we hiked up a little bit farther to a place known as the overlook. When I say hiked I mean we were on Haitian roads (which might was well be American hiking trails). This experience certainly showed me how out of shape I am. The overlook though was breathtaking. You could see practically all of St. Louis from there and even all the way to Tortuga. It was gorgeous. As a group we circled up and prayed over Haiti, the mission and the people there. It was a really cool experience I hope I never forget. Please join in with us in praying for Haiti.

When we finally arrived back at the mission we got ready for our trip to the waterfall in La Forge. This is approximately 4.5 miles away from the mission. Typically when we have groups here they walk the 9 miles round trip to go swimming here. But since there were no American teams here, Melonee agreed to let all of us interns take motos to the waterfall. Motos are exactly what they sound like: the Haitian version of the motorcycle. Motos along with tap-taps are the Haitian forms of taxis and mass transportation if you can even say that Haiti has a form of mass transportation.

The moto ride was quite the experience. I rode with Kelsey and sat in the middle. I don’t know how I would have felt being on the end thinking the whole way about falling off. A huge thank you to Kelsey for being brave enough for me. We can officially cross this one of the Haiti bucket list.

Apparently though, when telling our drivers of these motos we road “La Forge”, they got this confused with “La pladge”. So instead of taking us to the church where we could have easily hiked the small distance to the waterfall, they dropped us off at a beach called Charlie Beach. We still had a blast though. The girls went into the water while the guys stayed behind to watch our stuff. While hanging out and getting a much needed refreshing swim we played the game I Never. It was a lot of fun, and I had a blast that afternoon getting to know each of the girls better.

That night we watched a Rob Bell film called Raindrops Like Stars. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was a little long which was difficult at times late at night after a fun filled day, but I was able to get a lot out of it. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he spoke of how has individuals we can own something, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we possess it. You can be rich and own a lot of things, but not necessarily possess a lot. And you can be poor and not own a lot, but possess much. It really struck me serving in a country like Haiti that definitely owns so little, but possess for much happiness and love for others.

Saturday night was eventful. It absolutely poured! Kelsey, Lisa and I went to go play in the rain. Loads of joy! In the middle of the night, around three or four in the morning Morgan and Caitlin(two of the other interns who had helped with a group of Americans)arrived safely back from the Mole. Everyone had told us that they would be getting back on Sunday. So we knew this, we just didn’t think that Sunday went four in the morning. It has been great to have them back though!

For church Sunday morning we did things a little different. Instead of taking only a few of the kids to church since there wasn’t a group here so only staff could bring a kid, we decided to have our own Miriam Center Church service upon the kids request. It ended up working out fantastically and we will probably be doing a lot more of this in the future! Autumn and some of the moms lead worship which all the kids got to play different bells and tambourines for. Papito did a message and the kids got to be involved in parts. It seemed to workout a lot more nicely from the typical church service we go to across the street and was just easier on the kids. It was certainly a nice change for many of them.

After church (both Miriam Center and the normal one everyone else went to) we ate lunch and then went back to the beach again. This time, we got Jackeson (a Haitian who works at the mission) along with Papito and Nehum (a Haitian who works in the Miriam Center) to come with us so that we arrived exactly where we intended to go. We ended up not being able to cross the river needed to get to Charlie Beach that we had been to the day before, so Jack navigated us to another one instead. Thank goodness he was with us! This beach wasn’t quite as nice as the beach we had been to the day before, but it was still relaxing. I accidently ended up getting burnt. Oops. It was hard to enjoy the time there though because there were so many kids around us. You wish you can help them all, but you can’t. It’s really hard. There was a little girl within this crowd of children who appeared to have severely burned her hand to the point that all of her fingers were fussed together. It’s really difficult to know that if she weren’t currently living in a third world country that she would have received surgery and loads of therapy and been a lot better off than she is now. It breaks my heart.

Today we prepared for the groups to get here. This consisted of moving chairs and mattresses around and clearing out old storage rooms for a group of 40 from Canada (there are a lot of Canadians here this time, but I am still going to refer to all white people as Americans more than likely). Once we were done with this we began to practice a skit we have been working on. Melonee has agreed to let us do our very own intern skit for the orientation rules tomorrow morning rather than simply reading off the rules from a sheet. It should be fun and I will definitely let you know how that goes!

When we had finished practicing I went downstairs to help feed. Lunch for the Miriam Center went fairly smoothly today. It was pretty uneventful for me until I got to the very VERY last kid to eat today. His name is Yeah-Yeah. He actually isn’t apart of the Miriam Center, but is a member of the community Outreach school. Just recently Autumn, Stephanie and Heather have agreed to allow him to eat here because he is so malnourished. He is pretty old, about nine or ten, and I can wrap my fingers around his THIGH. It is soooo heartbreaking. Another fact about Yeah-Yeah that hit me hard today is that he is blind and deaf. This made me think of Helen Keller. Yet Helen Keller was famous. She has movies about her, quotes painted on peoples walls, a coin engraved with her for whatever state she was from. Many, many people know of the life of Helen Keller. But very, very few people know of the precious life of Yeah-Yeah. Yeah-Yeah does not have a movie about him, or quotes or even coin. He doesn’t even have food to eat at home. But he does have a smile on his face that beams like the sun. ALWAYS. No one really knows about Yeah-Yeah. He is not famous to many. But he is famous to me. He will forever be engraved in my mind. He may not be know to many, but I am making him know to you.

Outreach this afternoon was great. I was able to work one on one again with a little girl. We worked on playing with toys since she has visual impairments. This was another afternoon in which I thought: “If only they were in America”. A boy who came with one of the kids we were working with has not been able to walk on the bottom of his foot for 13 years. He came to Autumn since she was helping his sister, but without surgery, there is really nothing we can do. Without surgery that is pretty common in American and other countries that are better off. It’s hard to face some days and can be a little overwhelming at times.

I know there will come a day when I no longer see faces that this each day. I will go back to America and not see little girls with burned hands or 15 year old boys who can’t walk correctly. I will go back to America (sooner than I would like), but I pray that I never forget the things that I have seen her. And I pray that you don’t forget the things that you have read.

That was pretty much the extent of my day. The groups of Americans arrived this afternoon/evening. It is really sad to know that in a little over a week I will be leaving this incredible place that I have learned so much, experienced so much, and loved so much.

Please pray for energy. I am starting to feel a little sick and I burned my leg a little bit on the moto ride (don’t worry mom: I’m fine. It’s not that bad). But I could really just use energy. In no way do I want to check out early when I still have 8 days to pour myself out here in Haiti.

Also, please let me know if there is anyway I can be praying for you.

Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know. For God understand all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve.” Proverbs 24:12