our teammmm!!! plus our german friend, Janina
















On our last day of working, with "G
Goofy" our haitian helper, and the woman who we built the house for
















Coke break!! Robe walked all the way into town to get us cold cokes!!! What a great little worker!















Rice and beans......yummm!!

pictures

a little boy who had just returned from school while we were in the process of building his family's house
















a view from the back of the "tap tap" (truck that we rode to get from place to place)--Grand Goave on a Market day


















me holding one of the little babies at the orphanage














My friend Lauren and I, fresh off the "hair braiding" train. lol
















playing hand games with the kids at the orphanage

last half of the trip...

Sunday June 13th- Thursday June 17th







So going to sleep saturday night came relatively easy for me.....i was on an air matress, it was a bit cooler, and it started to rain!! And the sound of rain always helps me to sleep......unfortunately I slept a little too well...





I woke up early sunday morning to find my head drenched.....immediately I thought, geez I must've sweat so much last night!! But then I realized that the rain had leaked into my tent!! I had to laugh at myself because I had never before put a tent fly on, so I guess it served me right! I had left my suitcases in the other tent with lauren and steph, and so I was hoping most of my stuff was dry......but i couldn't have been more wrong...



Come to find out, their tent was even more soaked than mine!! All of our clothes, electronics, journals, etc. were drenched!! I remember being so frustrated to the point of almost crying....my phone wasn't working, my ipod wasn't working, everything that I had written in my journal up until that point was gone, and not to mention everything smelled!! But, then I remembered what our friend TJ had said in the beginning of the week...."Choose it"......so I stopped myself in that moment, and I told myself, ok Sarah, well this sucks, but you can either get all upset and mad and dwell on it, or you can take about 10 seconds to be frustrated, and then get over it. It's not that big of a deal, and well, could be worse right?? Yeah, it could be worse, atleast I still had my camera with me and it didn't even get wet!! lol

So I chose to get over it, and well I just had to laugh because I knew that I would look back on that experience and laugh. And I was right....and I didn't even have to wait that long to say "hey remember when it rained and there was a flood and everything we owned got soaked?" lol....we were already laughing about it when we got back from church. Everything by then was pretty dry, except we had laid it all out on the ground so everything was just covered in sand and dirt and ants, but hey what the heck, lol.

After church, the whole afternoon and rest of the day Sunday was pretty chill. Some of the kids came from the orphanage to hang out with us at our beach site. That's when the hair braiding party started. lol....if you sat down somewhere and there were little girls around, they would swarm you and want to braid your hair. And well, my braids that Kim had done a few nights earlier were getting kinda loose, so I just let them go ahead and rebraid my hair. And dang, those girls are fast and man do they braid tight!!! There were a couple times when I had to clench my teeth because it hurt, but overall it felt pretty good.....I even fell asleep while they were braiding my hair! lol.

Monday through Wednesday were filled with building more houses, dancing to world cup music, eating rice and beans, playing with kids, oh, and washing clothes in the sink!! lol

On Tuesday afternoon we ended work a little early and brought all the kids from the orphanage to our beach site for a birthday party. Since none of the kids know when their birthdays are, we decided to have a big party for them, and they all turned one year older hahaha. Actually, that afternoon didn't start out so great......

We stopped working early on Tuesday and it was already decided that a few people needed to stay with the kids at the orphanage until the rest of the group could get the beach all decorated. So myself and a few others stayed at the orphanage to hang out with the kids and kind of pass time until the bus came to pick us up. I was enjoying playing jump rope with a few of the kids when all of a sudden, I realized I didn't feel my camera in my pocket......my heart immedieatly sunk.

I quickly dropped the jump rope and ran over to my bag and took everything out......meanwhile kids were jumping up and down and trying to get my attention.....but I was panicking....I couldn't even remember when the last time was that I had it. When I couldn't find it in my bag, my immediate thought was, one of the kids must have taken it out of my pocket when we got off the bus....they were always wanting to hold it and take pictures....and when they saw the string hanging out of my pocket, they would always point to it......so I thought for sure thats what happened....so I started kind of "charading" a camera and walkin around to the kids and pretending to be using a camera saying "camera?" "camera?" hoping by the slightest chance that one of them would know what the heck I was saying....lol pretty unlikely

Then I went up to a few of the women that were inside the orphanage and kind of acted out that i lost my camera.....and they spoke a bunch of Creole until one of the women said ""ahh....truck truck". "You saw it in the truck?" I said.....and she shook her head yes.......now I was pretty doubtful that that was in fact where my camera was....because I was sure that if my camera had fallen out of my pocket into to truck, somebody from my team would have seen it and told me that I dropped it.....but I had little hope.

It was about a half hour after I lost my camera that the bus came to take all of us back to the beach. I wish I could have been more excited.....I was lookng forward to this party all week but all I could do was feel sorry for myself. I kept thinking to myself, "God, I've lost my phone, my ipod, my journal, and now my camera on this trip. You must be trying to teach me something here, because pretty much everything I value is gone." but at the same time, I felt a peace come over me....if God really was trying to teach me something, then I'm going to trust Him. Afterall, most of these people lost everything in the earthquake, including loved ones. If they can be this happy, surely I can be too. So I tried to embrace this thought....at the same time I hoped and kept praying that somebody from my team had picked up my camera.

When we got back to the beach, I immediately ran to my friend Steph and asked her if she had seen my camera. Then I asked a few other people....and when they said no, I had lost all hope. I was thinking, "God I know it's just a camera, and I don't care if I lost it, but all of those pictures and videos from this trip are gone, and it's too late to even make up for any of them....I'm going to have a hard enough time talking about this trip to friends and family back home, I NEED those pictures....." I was so upset, so I ran to my tent and immediately started crying. I wasn't feeling good either, and I didn't think I had any energy to be around anybody while being upset....so I layed down on my air mattress and cried, and then prayed, and then tried to sleep.

I was just beginning to accept the fact that I had lost my camera and trying to muster up the energy to be ok with it when all of sudden I heard Steve, one of the guys from my team, yell my name outside my tent. "Sarah, Kim has your camera!". I opened my eyes and bolted up....I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. I wiped my face and stepped outside......he later told me that my face looked like death when I stepped out to say "oh my gosh really? are you serious? Oh thank God, thank God" hahaha. I could see Kim in the distance taking pictures of the kids with the baloons at the party, and I don't think I've ever been happier in that moment. lol.....I know, I know its really lame that I got that upset over a stupid camera, but like I said....it wasn't the camera I cared about, it was all the memories that were stored from that week.....620 pictures and 40 minutes worth of video. If you know me, you know that's a big deal to me.

So that was one of the big tests I think God put me through that week......and well, I'm not sure I passed but it was another moment I can look back on and say, "remember when that happened and you had to trust God, and remember that He didn't let you down"......I've had several of those moments in the past year....and even if I would have lost my camera, God would have had a reason for that, and would have brought me through either way. Definately a growing moment.

The rest of that day was so fun....I loved playing with the kids, especially in the ocean when you would have like three or four kids hanging on you and splashing you at all times. That night was the last church service of our trip. I had two little girls sit by me....and one of them fell asleep on my lap. And as hot and humid as it was, I loved it and wish it could have lasted longer. That was really the last time we got to hang out with the kids.

Wednesday was our last full day in Haiti. Mid morning I started feeling really rundown and achy. At first I thought maybe it was just soreness from kids hanging all over me the day before....but it was more like an achiness you feel when you have the flu. That and I was just really tired. I was really bummed because the plan was to go up this beautiful mountain later in the day to see where the new orphanage is being built. But I told myself no, because I knew if I were to push myself, the ride home would have been miserable. It ended up that nobody went up the mountain, because by the time we got back to the camp I think we were all pretty exhausted and started getting into the "ok time to pack up and go home" mode. The rest of the day I was kind of depressed. Depressed because I was feeling blah, and because it was our last day, and I wasn't ready to leave. I hated that feeling, having to leave and not knowing if I would ever get to come back. The World Race team and the members of our team that were staying were talking about the next day, because they were all going back to Jacmel after dropping us off at teh airport to go to a haitian wedding. How cool.....and yes, I was so jealous. That didn't help my mood either. Neither did the fact that I absolutely dread packing, especially when its packing to go home.

That night was really cool though. It was raining really hard. So a bunch of us from our team and the World Race team took shelter under the partially built dorm building at the beach. We started singing worship songs, and once it came to be about 8:30, the generator went off so it was pitch black, and all you could hear was the downpouring rain and our voices. It thundered and lightning every so often too......and the coolest part.....we felt an aftershock! You couldn't really tell it was an aftershock, and honestly I thought it was just thunder......but it was definately a different sound than thunder....a deeper rumble, and well, it's kind of hard to explain it any further. But it was cool.

The next day was bittersweet.....I was excited to be going home, but definately not excited about leaving my friends or the haitan people. I was looking forward to ice in my glass, but not excited about not being able to enjoy haitan cuisine everyday! Anyway, the plan was to leave our beach at 6am so that we could drive around Port au Prince awhile and see some more of the destruction....but since we were on haitian time, our driver didn't arrive til about 7:40am.....it was a bummer that we didn't get to see more of the capital, but there's always next time :)
So we got to the airport around 9:30am.....the trip seemed a whole lot quicker on the way back than on the way there.....probably because it was daylight, and I wasn't completely overwhelmed by everything. lol......we got to the airport and it was time to say goodbye to our friends. It was weird, because although I was saying goodbye, I didn't even think about the fact that they weren't coming with us, and we wouldn't see them for two and ahalf weeks. Nope, that didn't hit me until I was in Miami, and I got really sad lol.
Going through security and customs went pretty smoothly...Kelly, a girl from our team was the designated leader and was in charge of getting us through the airport adventures....she did a great job tho!! We went through the whole customs/ getting our boarding passes in about 45 minutes...not bad at all. And the holding area was air conditioned.....and we were so thankful!! lol......We got into Miami and had to wait on the runway for about a half hour because of some sort of delay due to the bad weather......we had minor delays with both of our flights due to weather. When we got to Miami it was so crazy to see all the restaurants and luxuries that we had been missing for the past two weeks in the airport......everything we take for granted all in one place. All that was going through my head was trying to imagine what it would be like for a Haitian to come to America for the first time and what would be going through their heads and what they would be feeling as they entered Miami airport. I can't even imagine.

The first thing everyone wanted to do was eat American food.....so we split up to go different places......some of us, including myself, went to Pizza hut while the others went to Starbucks. Not gonna lie, it was sooo wierd to be there because the last time we were there was before Haiti and it was like deja vu......i didn't like it. lol I was jealous of myself because I was like awwww the last time we were here we were all excited and pumped to be going to Haiti!! So we ate our food and yeah later I regretted it.....
Then we just hung out and waited around.....played cards, charged our phones, etc. oh, and listened to the Oh Africa song on someones phone lol. We made friends with this girl named Emily who was traveling back from Spain, she was there for three weeks tutoring English to two little girls in a family over there.......she is a Christian too so she saw us do the devo and thats how we all met her. That was cool.
Our flight from Miami to Detroit was delayed until about 9:45.....so we got in around 12:30 and got back to Akron close to about 4am.........longggggg 24 hour day!!! Not gonna lie, it kinda sucked not having my phone the whole time because people were calling their friends and families the whole time and I had to borrow someones phone to call and tell my parents what was goin on but I couldn't talk to them for very long. I just needed to tell someone about our trip so that I could verbally process......but that wasn't possible for me until we got to Detroit....and then my friend Haley, who picked us up in a chapel van got an earful on the ride home!!! lol. We got back to Detroit and it was a blistering 65 degrees......and we were alll freeeezing!!! lol


That basically sums up the trip. It was such an amazing experience. Kind of hard to put into words actually. To be honest, as much as I want to share my experience with everyone, the number one question that just makes my skin crawl was "how was your trip?" I hate it because theres so much more to it than just, oh it was good! But, I know that most of the time when people ask that question, they aren't really expecting a novel, so "oh it was good" is all they want. But I wouldn't being doing the trip justice if that is all I said.....so its definately frustrating to try and explain to people my experience......the experience, was amazing.....but the state of the country is devastating, but the people are incredible.....see, it's kind of a bipolar explanation. But God is definately at work in some crazy remarkable ways, and it was so cool to be a tangible part of that, and hopefully I am fortunate enough to be able to return to Haiti sooner (rather than later) and continue to rebuild and be amongst the Haitian people once again!

more pictures

Look at that sunset!!!




Mission of hope.....the orphanage/church
















building houses.....this is what they looked like

















this is how we rode to our worksite....everyday!

Saturday June 12th

So today was our official "off" day that we just spent relaxing....well kinda. We went to this part of Haiti called Jacmel, more of a tourist part of Haiti because there were really really nice hotels and beaches. The ride to Jacmel was quite interesting.....awesommmmme, but interesting. lol lets just say we all had bruises the next day....from the two hour drive through the twisty turny mountains with 15 of us piled into the back of a small dump truck. Haha I remember sitting at the office while we were waiting for our ride, because nobody knew how exactly we were getting to Jacmel. Lol mode of transportation was always a surprise....although it ususally was standing in the back of a pick up truck. But theres no way that would have been safe driving through the mountains. Anyway, I asked Pastor Lex how we were getting to Jacmel and he said in his haitian accent, "you all gonna go in back of truck, hows that?" lol I sort of just laughed because I couldn't really tell if he was joking or not....he wasn't.
So in my mind I'm thinking, oh my word, we are going to fryyy in the sun. lol which we did, but riding in the back of that truck through the mountains is another experience that I will never forget.....it was SO fun.! The view was just breathtaking, I've never seen anything like it. And once we got to the ocean, it was even more phenomenal, the ocean was clear blue, (I swear I have a picture on a calander just like one of the ones I took). So pretty.

And for lunch, we went to this little place on the beach. I wouldn't call it a restaurant, there were only like 4 tables. It was like we sat down, and they brought out food. And they just kept bringing out food. I'm talkin fried conch and plantanes, followed by a plate of two fish, followed by a huggeee lobster, followed by rice and beans. lol lots of food!! And it was quite an overwhelming experience since I had never really had seafood before......never thought I would ever eat anything that still had eyeballs either! But, while in Haiti......once again, its all part of the experience! And it was actually really really good!!! I didn't eat too much, because I wasn't sure how my stomach would handle seafood so I didn't want to overdo it.....but I was satisfied, and proud of myself for eating something I would have never tried before. lol

After that we all jumped in the ocean, and the waves were so strong! We were the crazy Americans who kept trying to bodysurf the waves, lol. It was cool too, because we got to meet some of the kids from another orphanage called Hands and Feet (run by members of Audio Adrenaline I'm pretty sure).

The ride home was quite eventful as well. We stopped at this hotel so that Lex and Renee could meet with the manager to talk about a wedding that was going to take place later that week. Meanwhile, we sat in the bed of the dumptruck, and some of us got out and did yoga. Haha....not me personally....lol, but those who did got some stares. After about an hour, we headed back to Grand Goave, another 2 hour ride all squished in the back of that truck, but it was fun. The sun was setting too, and since we were in the mountains, it got kinda chilly. But I loved it, because it was a nice break from sweating!! lol. On the way home we stopped and Lex and Renee had bought us ice cream.....and this was THE BEST ice cream I have ever had!! SO good!

We were all really uncomfortable on the ride home lol, because we were all sandy and wet, and our bodys were sore from the ride into Jacmel earlier that day. So even though most of us couldn't feel atleast one of our limbs, we passed the time by singing. Since I was sitting by my friend Stephanie, and Alexis, Lex and Renee's daughter, (both whom are obsessed with High school musical), we passed the time by singing High School Musical songs. lol

When we got back we were all pretty whipped!!! By the sun, by the ride, so we were all pretty much ready for bed!!!

I had moved my stuff into a different tent by myself because since the day before, my stuff had become infested with ants. And I'm all about new experiences and roughin it in a tent, but I had one too many bug bites already, and I wasn't really up for laying in my bed full of ants and getting bit all night. So i shook out all my stuff and moved to a different tent, and this tent had an air mattress!! SCORE! I felt bad for leaving my friends, but they were able to spread out a little more and blow up their air mattresses. That night was glorious......until the next morning, that is.....that story to come later......

Wednesday June 9th- Friday June 11th

The next few days were pretty similar, so I decided to include them all in one post. I think it was Tuesday night before church when our team sat down and really talked about how we could be better at making everyone feel useful and being more productive while we were out in "the field" building houses. The general consensus was to split up into teams of about 5 people....that way we could cover more ground and each person could have at least one specific job they were responsible for, and it was a more organized way to make sure everyone had a part. So starting on Wednesday we put this new idea to the test. It went a lot smoother than the previous two days. We worked faster and more efficient, and it was good for team bonding too because we could actually have a conversation while we were working.

One thing I will never forget is working with some of the haitian kids. They are such hard little workers!!! This one kid, I think you would pronounce his name Roe-bay....he always wore a hat and gloves while he was working, and he was always sweating, but he never stopped working. It was funny because if I was struggling to hammer the nail into the wood, he would want to try, and of course, he would get it no problem. lol. He even walked to the market to get us all cokes....and of course we gave him one too!

By the end of this day I felt so much better about building these houses. I was actually really excited for the next day.

It was actually a really nice night to sleep that night because it wasn't as hot. Either that or I had just gotten used to it. Whatever it was, that was the first night that I slept great! Which made the next day of work even better!

On thursday the group I was in tarped a house for a family with a little boy named Steven. He was such a good little singer and dancer, so he kept us pretty entertained while we worked. One thing I think is really funny is that they are like obsessed with Akon down there. They would keep singing his songs and then point to you to sing with them. They don't even know what they're singing because it's in english, which made it even funnier. Haha. Also, since the World Cup was starting the next day, they kept singing the Wavin Flag and Oh Africa song....which we all learned rather quickly....
What was cool about this day was when we were done, this woman and her sister who were going to be living in the house we had just finished tarping, gave us each a huge hug and kept saying Merci, Merci, Thank you so much, God Bless you. It was the first time that I could tangibly see what we had given to the families. Because I think it was really easy to fall into this mindset of working on one house, finish, move to the next, finish, move to the next....but you don't realize that you are changing these families' lives after every house you complete because now, they will actually have a legitimate roof to sleep under, some of them for the first time since the earthquake.
Honestly, that is what got me through those times when I was just too hot or too tired to continue. I think it gave all of us an extra kick of motivation because we all saw at least one example of how thankful these people were to us and to God, and it was really cool to be a part of something that helped changed someone's life.

On Friday we continued tarping houses.....the World Cup started this day so what made this day different than previous days was that the game was being broadcasted all over radios and random tv's that you would see inside these little tents. Some haitians were even charging goudes (haitian dollars) for their neighbors to come watch the game if they had a tv. Of course, the game was all in Creole so we couldn't understand it. But.....when the Oh Africa or Wavin Flag song came on the radio, which was probably once every 20 minutes....we all got super excited. They were catchy songs, and they were loud so you couldn't help but dance....and the haitian kids loved it too so it just made me smile! haha....now whenever I miss Haiti, I just listen to those songs and I get sort of a homesickness for Haiti. lol

The sunset that night was phenomenal.....boy I am going to miss those sunsets too!! The colors of the sky were so vibrant....and the sun fell right into the ocean. And almost immediately it would get dark!

Tuesday June 8th

It was our second full day in Grand Goave.....it was very much like the first. We woke up at the crack of dawn at around 5:15am and ate breakfast and got ready to go to work!! We got to the worksite and everything was just a bit chaotic and frustrating.......nobody really knew what was going on or what we weres supposed to be doing. We couldn't ask any of the Haitian workers either because of the language barrier. And it almost felt rude to just jump in and take over what they were doing because it is just like us to want to do it our way as Americans, and here they are doing things the way they know how and probably don't really want Americans taking over. So with these thoughts running through my head, I wasn't exactly motivated to jump in and try and help. That plus I hadn't had the first clue on how to build a house, so I was completely out of my element.



So we spent the whole day just kind of doing odd and ends kind of jobs. I was kind of exhausted, and felt kind of suffocated. Not only because it was 110 degrees outside but because there were 26 of us Americans and probably 8 or 9 Haitian workers al in the same area all trying to work on the same two houses. Those of us who weren't really good at anything yet were just kind of floating around watching the others of us who actually knew what they were doing. Not gonna lie, this was probably my least favorite work day.......thank goodness it got better from here!! lol



I wasn't angry, I figured it would take a few days to kind of find our niche and figure out what was going on. Plus I kept thinking, gosh, it is so American of me to want this whole thing to be organized and structured and efficient.....I need to just stop stressing while I'm here and be more like the haitians. lol



For lunch we had Humanitarian meals ready to eat (MRE's)....they were made for people to eat and stay full for the whole day. And boy, did it fill me up. The consitency was more like baby food, and if you were given the opportunity to eat one in the states you would probably be like no thanks, but when you're hungry after working really hard, anything tastes good. The only thing about MRE's, is that they sit pretty hard in your stomach, so you kind of regret it later. lol.

After lunch it was back to work. We were all really tired, but kept going. One girl on our team had to sit down and she started feeling really light headed and dizzy. So a group of about 4 of us decided to go back to camp and kind of help her feel better. I wasn't feeling so hot either, I think it was a mix of the sun, heat, lack of sleep, and the MRE....lol. So when we got back to camp we helped the girl who was feeling sick into a nice cold shower and she immediately started to feel better.

That afternoon we just sort of hung around until the rest of the group got back. My friend Steph, Lauren, and myself used my phone to call our friend Haley, and then I let Steph call her parents and then I called mine. I didn't even know that I could call internationally, but I was in my tent and my phone started ringing and I was like, oh I guess my phone works! But I only used it once....due to an incident that happened later in the week.....

That night before dinner I got into conversation with Warren, one of the guys from the World Race team. He had just gotten back from his 11 countries in 11 months mission trip through World Race, a branch of the organization Adventures in Missions....I was really curious about World Race, since that sounds like something I might want to do someday. And after talking to him about it, I got even more excited about it.....we will see what the future brings!!!

Tuesday night was our first church experience. Girls had to wear skirts, and guys had to wear khakis. It was super hot even though it was dark.....but I have never experienced worship like this. Children were singing at the top of their lungs and raising their hands, it was so ironic. Once again, I was surprised to see the amount of joy that was coming from these people!! They sang the song "How great is our God", and it was really cool because the whole church was singing the same tune, and even though some were singing in Creole, and others in English, and others in German, we were all praising the same God. It gave me goosebumps :)

.......continued from previous post....

so getting to our beach property camp site which was our home for two weeks took roughly around two-ish hours. We were all sweating like crazy on the bus because there was little ventilation through the tiny windows......it got crazy dark shortly after we started driving so we didn't get to see much of Port au Prince. After the initial chattyness of the excitement after everyone got on the bus, it was pretty quiet. We were all just really tired and all probably had a million thoughts racing through our minds.

Once we got to our camp, Mary Yve, the lady that cooked all of our meals while we were there, had made us a lovely meal. Shortly after, members from another team that were staying at the camp (from World Race/ Adventures in Missions) had just returned from church that evening. We had a short little meet and greet, and most of us just went to bed.

I remember laying in the tent that night... I shared a North face tent with my friends, Lauren and Steph....but anyway, I remember being so ridiculously hot that I was like what the heck was I thinking?? Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night, nor the first couple of nights because of the heat.


Monday, June 7,


Kim woke us up around 5:15am.......and the sun had already risen!! I was really tired because I hadnt slept at all the night before, and I'm not much of a morning person anyway. We had our first meal in the daylight, so we could actually see what we were eating, lol. Rice pudding and bread. Mmmm so good!! And I'm not being sarcastic either......the food there is actually really really good!! I held an open mind the entire time i was there.....I never ate anything I didn't like! After breakfast, we all piled onto the bus that had brought us to the camp the night before, except this time there were 26 of us (our team plus the World Race team plus two other girls from Germany). I was already sweating like crazy, there was no escaping the heat. It was only like 6:30 am and already it was scorchingly hot!!! I remember TJ from the World Race team had come up with a good motto for the week......"Choose it". Meaning, you may find yourself it a crappy situation, but ultimately you can choose how to react to it. Are you going to be testy about it, or are you just going to let it slide off your back and be ok with it. That phrase stuck with me the whole week.....actually kept my spirits up!! I told myself, I'm not going to let petty things like being so hot and sweaty and gross or being dirty bother me. This is all part of the experience, so I'm just going to embrace the heat, and be thankful for the cold showers :)

So we got to the orphanage around 7am and Renee, one of the missionaries at Mission of Hope (her and her husband, Lex who was also the pastor of the church WERE Mission of hope basically), started telling us what we would be doing each day, building houses in the village across the highway from the orphanage. A few of us chose to stay at the orphanage with the kids in the morning. There were three of us from our team, one from the World Race team, and Kristina, one of the girls from Germany who stayed at the orphanage. It was pretty low key, which was good for me for the first day. We just kinda hung out with the kids, played hand games (which they love) and got to know each other, as well as a couple of the older women who could speak some english who were there taking care of the babies.

Mid morning, the kids had to go to school so there wasn't really much for us to do at the orphanage. So we crossed the highway and headed into the jungle to the village where houses were being built. I was surprised at how hard the other teams were working! I almost felt bad for having to be able to take it easy in the morning.....don't get me wrong, hanging with the kids was still pretty exhausting! Since mostly everybody who was working on the houses already had jobs, we didn't really have anything to do except observe really, or play with some of the kids that were hanging around the houses in the village.

We ended the day at about 4pm, everyone was so tired!! We went back to camp and had to organize all of our stuff we brought down (including supplies, donated clothes and shoes, gifts for the kids, food,, etc. into piles. So that took probably about a half hour, and then we all could do whatever until dinner. I chose to take advantage of the shower.....I have never appreciated a cold shower so much in my life. The whole time I was in the shower i was thanking God that He provided us with such amazing accomodations at the camp. We had two toilets and two showers for each gender. And we could even flush our toilet paper!!! (lol we weren't allowed to flush our toilet paper in Honduras, so I was expecting it to be the same in Haiti).

So cold showers and regular toilets were a saving grace for sure.

That night we had chicken pot pie, and by dinnertime everybody was so hungry!!! It was probably the best meal I have had in a long time, no joke. Food tastes so much better after you've had a hard day's work! After dinner we all sat around and talked about things we've learned and reactions to the day and such, and then Caleb, one of the guys from our team played his guitar as we sang worship songs. It was really cool, singing always brings a group together :) After that it was about 9:00....and we were all ready for bed. But again, i did not sleep well. I'm a picky sleeper I guess, my body just can't sleep if its not at a certain comfort level. It must have taken me like 4 hours to fall asleep......and even then, once someone started snoring, or a rooster crowed, or a donkey squeeled I would wake up. lol and trust me, that happened a lot. Haha I look back on it now and laugh.....

....well thats all for now.....Tuesday June 8 will come next!!!


Sarah C.

sitting on the bus.....sweating like crazy!!!
collecting our luggage in Port au Prince

Home!

Bonswa friends and family! We are home! With so many stories to share......I'm not even sure where to even begin. I guess at the beginning right?? haha. Well let's see, it was such a long time ago but I'll try to do my best to capture everything.....

June 5th/ 6th

We met at the Chapel at around 2am to head to Detroit airport. We were all so pumped! On our way it started raining pretty hard, actually we found out that earlier there had been a tornado in Toledo, so we were driving through the remainder of it. It was kind of nerve wracking but we made it through :) We got to Detroit around 5am and immediately got in line to get our boarding passes. After that we went through customs and security and all that good stuff. By the time we got to our gate to sit and wait for our plane and grab a bite to eat it was probably around 6:15 am. Our flight to Miami took off around 7:45am......and landing in Miami was so cool! We saw the weee little island that in January we were riding scooters down those Miami streets on our Campus Focus Florida trip......haha who woulda thought I would be in Miami 5 months later en route to Haiti??

Miami airport was so hugeee and there was so many little shops and restaurants......it was like a gigantic mall. It felt like we walked forever to get from the terminal where we landed to where our gate for our next plane was. Once we got there we put all of our carryon stuff in one area. At that point, many of us were hungry, and some just wanted to sleep. So some of us stayed with our stuff while others went to find food. The next four hours were filled with sleeping, journaling, talking, eating, playing cards, and of course, anticipation!!!

Our flight to Port au Prince got delayed about an hour and a half....so by the time we boarded we were just ready to be there already. But once we got on the plane, we sat on the runway for probably a good half hour. That put us into Port au Prince probably two hours behind. Landing in Port was so cool though!! There were mountains everywhere and if you looked out the window you could see just all of the destruction from the earthquake. It was like looking at a picture from Google maps......it just didn't seem real yet. I wasn't able to get any pictures because I actually wasn't sitting by a window, but from where I was sitting I could still get a bit of a view.

When we walked off the plane through the terminal you could immediately feel the heat. We had to walk to another sort of warehouse building to claim our luggage. We were all kind of nervous, because we heards stories about how crazy the airport was from those of our friends from Campus Focus who had been there before. But actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was crazy hot, and a bit chaotic, but overall everything went rather smoothly. Baggage claim was a bit crazy too.....they throw all of the luggage in a massive pile, and you have to get a cart and try and pull your luggage out quickly. It sort of reminded me of that scene in Disney's Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan where she tries to get her luggage out of the heap.

Haha anyway, so once we all got our luggage we had to make our way outside the airport to find our ride. While we were walking, Haitians would try to come up to you and help you carry your bags so that you would give them money, but we were instructed to say "no, no" if they tried to grab it from us. When we walked outside there were people everywhere. I can't imagine being by myself, it would be kinda scary. But Kim and Stephanie and Caleb knew who to look for since they had been there before, so we all just followed them. Once we found our guy, "Big" was his name, he yelled in Creole at all the haitians who were tryin to help us, and so they all left us alone after that. Haha. Next task.....crossing the street.

In Haiti, you have to be super careful when crossing the street, because I guess the rule is, if you hit someone when you're driving, you're supposed to just drive away. Cars apparently have the right of way, and nobody is shy when they drive. People just sort of push there way through, so theres a good chance of accidents occuring, but its every man for himself. There is constantly honking going on and traffic everywhere.....its madness, sheer madness. I would never be able to drive there.

We all safely were able to cross the street with all of our luggage and we made our way to this giant white bus that would be our transport to our camp to Grand Goave. It was a nice bus....I think it was donated to Mission of Hope. We all loaded our stuff and got on the bus. First impression.....SOO HOT. We were all dripping with sweat. It was starting to get dark as we were driving to Grand Goave. It was only like 545pm but it gets dark around 6pm there. So we really didn't get to see all that much of Port au Prince from the ground since we had gotten in pretty late and it was getting dark. But we saw enough.

It was hard for me not to drop my jaw at what we saw.......there were some parts where it was like you couldn't tell where the rubble stopped and the tent shelters began. Everything was just so packed in, like sardines. It was hard not to feel sad at what we were seeing. There were so many thoughts running through my head.......how did this country get like this....so impovershed...even before the earthquake? How in the world is this going to be cleaned up?? And what the heck am I doing here? How in the world are we supposed to help this??? Where do we even start? So many thoughts, and emotions. I was mostly sad, but angry too....I don't understand how the rest of the world could let this country get as bad as it has.

And I couldn't help but feel hopeless for this country. I remember thinking how could anyone live like this??? But after living there for two weeks, there's still just something about Haiti, it's the joy of the people, that make it possible. I've never experienced so much joy from people as I did from Haitians. It makes you think.......here in America we have everything we need, and are packed full to the brim of just stuff. And yet it seems like we are never happy, like weare always wanting something more than what we have. In Haiti life is so much simpler. People aren't even fully dressed, and some don't even know where their next meal is coming from and still you see so many toothless grins and laughing children. Every haitian you pass greets you with a friendly "Bon jou" or "Bon swa" depending on the time of day.....ha. you would look like an idiot if you said "Hi" to every person you passed here in the United States.

Well thats all for now......more to come later!! By the way.....our team leader, Kim Conrad mainatained a blog while we were in Haiti and brought her laptop so she could update frequently......its kimconrad.blogspot.com........she did a good job at giving the details of our days......her and four others of our team are still down there until July 5th.....so please keep them in your prayers!!!


Peace and Love

Sarah

Haiti, here we come!

Ok, so we leave in approximatey 62 (ish) hours for detroit......(yes i actually took the time to count in my head the number of hours) lol. I'm way excited!! People keep asking me if I'm nervous, and surprisingly the answer is no. Atleast not yet anyway. I remember getting ready for Honduras and like up until the day before I didn't feel nervous either. It's cool how God can give you a peace about these things.

Yesterday we had sort of a "team hangout day" at my friend Steph's house. She has a pool :). It was great to just sort of chill before our big adventure, kinda casually get to know each other better. Although not all of us were present, I still got a good vibe from everybody. I think our team will mesh pretty well. We also put together little goodie bags for the kids that are at the orphanage in Grand Goave. Actually it was Steph's idea. She went down as part of the team over spring break and she said that most of the kids at the orphanage have no idea how old they are or even when their birthdays are. So she had a great idea of throwing the kids a birthday party!! So we are making them a cake and decorating with balloons and ribbons and giving them candy, glowsticks, noisemakers, sunglasses, and waterbottles. Steph said the kids absolutely LOVE sunglasses, so I'm sure they will be thrilled. Also, she said that when she was down there most of the kids had no way of carrying around water with them. So they would soak a rag and suck on it, or find anything they could use as a cup, like an old medicine bottle. So I can't wait to see their faces when we whip out water bottles for all of the kids!! Just goes to show you how much we take for granted......

Tonight is going to be fun/ interesting. Tonight is our first campus focus of the summer.....and afterwards our team has to bring all of our luggage to the chapel and pretty much open everyone's suitcases and shove in as much as we can into all our bags that will weigh no more than 50 lbs. This includes all of our own stuff we are bringing down, but also everyone's sleeping bags, donated clothes, toys, medical supplies, and tools such as shovels, pickaxes, hammers, drills, etc, not to mention the 60 water bottles that we are giving the kids. So needless to say it's gonna be like a giant puzzle, haha......i love puzzles!!

So after tonite our responsiblity is to not get sick or get ourselves into any life-threatening or health-threatening situations and get lots of sleep. lol......I should probably just lock myself in my room....haha just kidding. So prayers for health/ safety would be much appreciated :)

Well that's basically all for now. This is probably my last post seeing as how I probably won't have time before we leave to post again. I probably won't be able to post again until I return from Haiti, so this blog will probably start exploding with blogs and pictures soon after I return....

But thanks again for all of your prayers and support :) I can't wait to share my experience....


Until next time...

N'a wè pi ta (that's see you later in Creole)

Sarah C.

Songs for Haiti...

Here are some more links for videos by various artists for Haiti

Come Together Now: A Song for Haiti from some of today's top christian artists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7v4_YHBSPc&feature=related


Young Artists for Haiti- Wavin' Flag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7L1BIDELc



Somos el mundo por Haiti (We are the world in spanish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7L1BIDELc


"Far Away" Music Video| Lecrae| (Haiti Relief) [OFFICIAL]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rerU_NYwD8


Tyler Ward- Tribute (A Song For Haiti)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Icfh1JxjRc



....these are all really really good :)

Peace,

Sarah

A Mission of Hope...

Hello friends!! Thanks for checking out my blog!! As most of you know, I'll be leaving for Haiti in exactly 12 days! I can't believe it's actually happening......and how quickly it came up!



Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined myself traveling to two different third world countries in a year! If you would have asked me a year ago what I thought about traveling to another country for missions I would have told you, "I'm not interested", point blank, no hesitation. But it's funny how God can change your heart if you let Him. I could go on forever about how God has set a change in me this past year, but I'll spare the novel. lol......just let me say, don't doubt God's capabilities, because anything is possible. Anything.



I first experienced a taste of missions when I traveled to Honduras for 10 days in December 2009, with a group of friends from the college ministry I am involved in called Campus Focus. This was the first time I had ever set foot outside the country, and first time I experienced a whole world different from my own. I remember seeing pictures of third world countries in geography textbooks throughout my years of school, but actually being in a third world country is totally different. It gave me an appreciation for what I had, and truly opened my eyes to how much we as Americans take what we have for granted. I was angry at first, angry at how truly selfish and ignorant our culture has become. In Honduras, time wasn't defined by schedules and clocks and appointments, or what have you. Time was defined by people. You didn't have to worry about having to end a conversation with someone because you were worried about getting an important text message or phone call, or missing a TV show. Not once in the 10 days I was in Honduras did I look at my cell phone. That's something that I miss, and can't wait to experience again in Haiti.

When I returned from Honduras, my life was completely changed. The way that I viewed my life, my outlook on life, my purpose in life, etc. Something else in me changed too. My whole life I felt like I belonged in little ole' Ohio. I was quite content in just staying in Hartville, Akron, wherever, and figured that would be where I would remain my entire life. When I got back from Honduras, I knew that my heart belonged elsewhere. Whether that be Honduras or some other country, I'm not sure. All I know is, while in Honduras, I felt so much more accomplished in the sense that I felt like I was actually DOING something to help the world. I knew that my purpose in life was to help people, not sit behind a desk staring into a computer, and definately NOT retail (lol). I feel like I belong somewhere where life is simple, and people matter, relationships matter, showing people God is what matters.

So, when the earthquake in Haiti happened, I felt God tugging on my heart once again. I didn't necessarily feel like I was supposed to get up and go to Haiti right away. I knew that if I were to go down there, I would be completely helpless and probably useless. There was just so much chaos going on, I figured it was best if I just waited and see if God opened another door, like He did for Honduras. And sure enough......

There were several students from Campus Focus who felt like they were being called to go down to Haiti shortly after the earthquake. Over our spring break, a group of about 12 students, led by one of the interns of Campus Focus, traveled to Grand Goave, Haiti (about an hour and a half drive from Port au Prince), at a Mission of Hope base. They had sent out several emails to several different organizations around Haiti, searching for an opportunity where their skills could be of use. Mission of Hope was one of the first to get back to them, and so they planned their trip and headed down. While they were down there, they helped rebuild part of the orphanage that was destroyed by the earthquake, as well as hung out with the kids at the orphanage. They also did a good job of making it possible for other Campus Focus teams to return to the site in the future. I had several friends that traveled on this trip, and so when they returned, I couldn't get enough of their pictures and their stories. I had been praying, and felt assured that if another opportunity to travel back to Haiti were to arise, I was going to take it.

Shortly after the team got back, Kim, the intern who took the first team down to Haiti, started making plans to take another team down during the summer. I was so excited, because I felt like this was the door being opened for me to go to Haiti. I had several conversations with Kim about this trip, so she knew I was for sure interested in being part of the team this summer. So as the end of the semester started coming to an end, more people had expressed interest, until about 14 of us committed to going to Haiti this summer. Out of those 14, four of those people are from the spring break team, and will be returning to Grand Goave for the second time. While those four will be staying in Haiti for a month, the rest of us will be there for two weeks.

So there you go. That's basically a short version of how the whole trip came about. I just want to thank all of those who have supported me financially and prayerfully for this trip. Thank you for being a part of this trip with me. I'm not sure exactly if I will be able to post on this blog while I'm in Haiti, but I plan on journaling every day and then posting on this blog on a day by day basis when I return with pictures and what I experienced while in Haiti!!

Meanwhile.....here's a link of a video of some of the Haitian workers at the Mission of Hope site in Grand Goave and their families singing the "We are The World' song that was first released by popular artists for Haiti back in January. Enjoy!!!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=426414507322&ref=nf

(hopefully the link works)

Peace,

Sarah C