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 :)