They say that when you go to Haiti, you get "bit" by the "haitian bug", symptoms of which include the following:
-you secretly don't want to wash your clothes when you come home because even though there's an awful stench coming from your bag, it's a stench that brings with it a vivid reminder of Haiti, and you don't want to let it go
- you find yourself craving bread with peanut butter, and rice and beans, and a special haitian sauce called "maggi tut sauce". You may even find yourself grazing the international or ethnic aisles of your local grocery stores to try and find it.....i never had any luck.
- when you walk down the sidewalk or are in a crowded place, you find yourself wanting to say "bonswa" to everyone....but realize you are in America, and you're lucky if anyone walking down that same sidewalk even makes eye contact with you....sad.
- when it's hot outside, you tell yourself, to buck up because you've actually worked in much worse......88 degrees at eight o' clock in the morning, now thats what i'm talking about! lol
- you find yourself for awhile after you return to the states, on haitian time.....running an hour and a half late, getting up at the crack of dawn and ready for bed at eight o clock at night :)
......thus there are many more I could list but you get the idea.....but yeah, me and many of those that I know who have been to Haiti have been through all of these, and can relate. It's all of these experiences, but its just the haitian culture and the joy that you see on these people's faces that just make you want to be there. It takes a long time to get situated back into normal life after something like this, and I guess you never get over the 'bug'......it's always going to be a part of you....so whenever you think about Haiti, you have this excitement within you, and a longing to be there!
It's so awesome to see such a huge response of people in our community wanting to experience Haiti. So far, there's been four "group" trips involving students of Campus Focus.....there's also been a few other instances of individuals going back on their own........but in total there's probably around 40 students from our college aged organization who has been to Grand Goave and have worked with Mission of Hope......so in May there will be atleast 2 more trips....and as our little community of "haiti-goers" expands, I'm sure the frequency of trips will as well....
I have been thinking about going back for quite awhile now......and after the most recent team got back a couple weeks ago, and after hearing all the similar stories again I decided I probably shouldn't wait much longer to go.....especially since I'll be graduating in about a month and who knows what will happen from there!
Sooo I went ahead and emailed Renee about possibly coming back to work with them again. I love that Renee is so accessible even though her and her family live in Haiti!! I actually feel a lot closer to them because we got to spend some time with them when they came up to Akron for a week and visited.....a couple of friends and I even took Alexis, their daughter, to Cedar Point!! So, with all of that and being that she is so quick to respond on Facebook, it makes going back to Haiti so much more easier to plan....
Little had I known that she was getting A TON of messages from several other akronites asking her when they could return to haiti......I was thinking initially that myself and maybe two other people were gonna go down, but shoot with us Akronites, when you light a match, you don't just get fire, you get an explosion!!
So, all of that to say, it has been confirmed that I, and several other of my peers will be traveling to haiti the week of May 15th.....some students are even going to stay for two weeks.....although I REALLY wish I could.....money and work don't really allow it. But that's ok, I'm trying not to look at it as I only get to go for a week, but rather, I GET to go back for a week!
Although I am a little nervous about how the money is going to come through, I trust that where God leads, He also provides. I know that doing this kind of work.....Kingdom work... should not be hindered by something so material as money.
So that's pretty much all I have right now for an update.....ask me more if you would like!
I'm wayy excited......deja vu anyone??? lol
Sarah
