Haiti

This spring, I went to Haiti with a sixteen other students, teachers, and health care professionals. In the Dominican the landscape is gorgeous! The fields are so green and lush. There are so many trees and the grass and plants are so long and pretty. We drove 3 hours on a bus to the Haitian/Dominican border where there was market day. There were people everywhere and many people were carrying huge amounts of supplies on their heads. We walked over the border with all our luggage a little nervous but I made it through completely safe. There was a huge difference between the Dominican and Haiti. On the road to Terrier Rouge, we saw many people walking, riding bikes, and riding donkeys. Once we got to the clinic and school we saw the kids who were all welcoming and precious. We got to go on the roof of the school which had a great view of the village and Haiti. There in Terrier Rouge, we organized the pharmacy in the clinic, worked in the clinic, packed over one thousand of bags of food (rice, beans, flour, cooking oil) to send to Port Au Prince victims, played with the children at the school, and took great video footage and pictures of the devastating poverty that grasps Haiti. I decided to sponsor a child at the school, Ruth Fama who was in mourning for the loss of family members in the earthquake. Once she arrived home, she knew that she wanted to return and help the country through ministry and start a non-profit organization to benefit Haitians

I would like to share a journal entry from my Haiti Trip. I know you will not be able to truly understand this unless you have been, but here it is.

Blog:
We walk through the village of Terrier Rouge each day, clearly we are a spectacle as the children call out “blan, blan”, but somehow I feel like I belong. Things are so simple yet the people are so happy.
Little children running around in dirty tattered t-shirts, running up to me grasping me as if I am a prized possession. Their smiles are so genuine with a sparkle in each of their eyes that grips me more than their pulls.
Here in Haiti I feel at home, like I belong, and there is truly no place I would rather be. I am filled with joy and peace. It is serene, it’s like heaven. I feel like I can be myself, be free. I want to stay with the Haitians. These wonderful people want to play, touch, know, and connect with me.
Most everyone in the village of Terrier Rouge is friendly, although some are not. This hurt me at first, but then I realized, I am just here for a trip, 5 short days, here to help. After that I leave, but these children, teenagers, and adults they will still be here living in this poverty with little to no hope of a brighter future. I will go back to lots of clothes and accessories, electricity, running water, air conditioning, a safe home, wonderful school and education, and a loving family that supports me. They don’t have any of those things, those things that I so take for granted.
These people with nothing are filled with joy, but so many in America those who even have so much are unhappy and eternally unfulfilled.
I have learned that there is no equation stating that money, fame, or popularity lead to joy and fulfillment. How can I waste and complain and buy so much I don’t even need, when there are people I saw and spoke to who are dying and starving with nothing and no one to help them.
But now I am in love, in love with Haiti, in love with the people, in love with the school, in love with Terrier Rouge, in love with God.