For the most part, Wednesday until a little after lunch was pretty uneventful. Other than playing with and doing projects with July and Stevenson,which is always so much fun and I learn so much from just watching them. They teach us how things are done here in Haiti and then we just help them to understand and reinforce house rules and keep showing them ways to divert temper tantrums and how to behave. Before our teams got really involved and took over, there was very little structure and behavioral problems were rampant. Alot of healing has already been going on but there is still more to do with them and everyone is aware and working hard at it. I will tell you more about our orphans at Rescue Children Orphanage after my daily blogs.
Then, I had a chance for Anna,Andy and I unexpectedly to head out in the afternoon to Love A Child with Pastor Randy, Michelson and the TV crew to finally see the place, meet the founders Sherry and Bobby Burnette, Carole the nurse who heads up their clinic and ofcourse Dukens and Clepson! So, with 5 minutes notice we left again, hoping for no more trouble from 2 days before with the rioting. Pastor Randy was so nice to take us out there and he drives like a local Haitian as though he's lived there is whole life lol! He's great and got around people and animals and tap taps like nobody's business.
As I had mentioned before, when you leave Port au Prince and head almost due east, the landscape really changes. Beautiful mountains, green this time of year. Still extreme poverty but atleast they can have farms and more animals to survive. It was cool because Michelson has never been out there before. He fell in love with the area and said he will one day marry Geralda, have 2 children and build a house to live in beauty and peace...
So we turn into the Love A Child compound and almost immediately in front of us was a dead donkey sprawled across the dirt road which had clearly been there for some time. Very hard to see considering we were within inches of driving over it's legs just to get around. Not pretty. But after that we drive down a long curvy dirt road and to the left was the medical clinic. There were people gathered around under a tree. One person I recognized right away was Carole the nurse who Paul had worked closely with. And there, sitting on the wall just smiling (remember they didn't know we were coming at all that day) was Dukens! I recognized him even before Andy! I cannot tell you how happy I was to see him! He and Andy immediately hugged, slapping each other on the backs and then he came up to me. Oh the hug he gave me was so strong and so, so good to have after so long. It was another precious moment.
Then I met Carole and we asked where the Burnette's were. Carole explained they were off taping for some Christian broadcasts about the new homes going up for the earthquake victims down the road in Camp Hope. It turns out Love A Child is not in charge of the victims currently but will be when Love A Child finishes building all 380 homes.
All of the sudden though, a truck pulls up and there they are, the Burnette's on their way somewhere else. In the back of the open truck were all these young guys holding on. We came right up to the truck and I introduced ourselves to the Burnette's. They were very kind. They stopped everything they were doing to do interviews with the TV crew and then we talked more. I asked where Clepson was. He had been behind me in the truck for atleast 10 munutes and never said a word! They pointed to him in the truck and I couldn't belive it was him. I gave him a big hug and asked him why he hadn't told me he was there. He told me because he did not want to interupt and had to wait. Manners, to the extreme!
So I here I was standing in Haiti with Michelson, Dukens and Clepson, Anna and Andy all together. Words will never describe how happy I felt. The trip would have never been complete without seeing, talking and hugging my 3 guys with my two own beautiful children as well. It was such a happy time to bring everyone together. If on;y Paul could have joined us but he was still working his tail off over at the clinic and couldn't leave.
Sherry and Bobby then invited us to follow them down the road to the property to see the new site where the framework on the first two homes were being built for the earthquake victims. Very, very cool stuff. One of the guys there working had flown down from our church in another team to help work and live at Love A Child and volunteer his time toward these efforts. Pastor Randy as well went out there later for a couple of days to do the same.
Then, Sherry offered to take us in the back of her truck (donation from Joyce Meyers Ministries) and go back into Camp Hope. I would say that out of the 9 days there and all we saw, this was probably the second most heart wrenching time there for me personally. As we drove back down this dusty, dry road with large cactus trees blooming around us and walls of cactus growing that keep animals in, the tents started to appear. Tents and more tents. Wheelchairs parked out side the tents like cars in our driveways. Amputees, little children, pregnant women. As we got further back in, I saw 2 children pumping water from a drilled well so they could carry clean water back to what they call home now since January. Remember it rained there each day and you can't help but think of these displaced families when the rains are heavy as the mud builds up and they pray the posts will stay standing. Many people around Port au Prince are not so fortunate to have tents like in Camp Hope. Sheets, plastic bags and even clothes are being used to try and create shelter with just sticks. I have always thought quilts are pretty but what I saw there were quilts of extreme poverty being made to find shelter and I couldn't find anything of beauty in them at all. Only sadness.
We got out of the truck and began splitting up into little groups, walking around between the tents. It was not flat surfaces to walk on. More like standing in a stall of a barn but it did not smell so that was nice. I went off with Andy, Anna and Michelson. I would greet them in Creole, always wave to those down the rows and rows of tents and take photos after always asking in Creole first. There were a few times when people came up to me and asked for food and diapers. Michelson explained we were only there to visit and not to deliver goods. You have no idea how hard this was. It bothered me deeply that they kept asking for food. Why? Why was this a problem? Wasn't Love A Child taking care of that? I decided I wanted Michelson to ask a woman how often they receive food. I was told every 21 days....Was this correct? How? I later learned that the oganization ARC is in charge of the people there until the new homes are built and then Love A Child will move them all and take over helping with food, etc.? **Take note everyone next time you donate money. ARC stands for American Refugee Committee. Another large organization making promises and doing nothing. Disgusting. I found out that the Burnette's have been appauled as well and had a confrontation with ARC earlier that very day. They will be continuing to push this organization until the food and supplies are delivered. What about in the mean time? Don't know...
The funny moment was when we walked up to one tent. It was all women who were amputees. I had no notice before we left to go out to Fond Parisien and was wearing a dress (bad move on my part). All of the sudden as I'm standing in front of the women and with Andy and Michelson, mind you, the wind kicked up and blew my dress straight up!! The women all laughed hysterically and so I laughed along with them! If I could bring them a little moment of making fun of me and hearing them laugh like they did, so be it! The one lady as she kept laughing, stood up and was trying to show me how I should put my dress between my legs to keep it down! It was so cool that even though we were from two very different worlds and circumstances, it just didn't matter because we were both women, mothers, sisters and knew what it meant. I will always treasure what she and I shared. We must have all laughed for 5 minutes and then I took their hands to say goodbye and walked away.
I know we all talk about and hear how we should appreciate what we have. You can hear it all you want and I can tell you over and over we should, but the reality is that until you decide you need to need to do more and your heart makes it happen, you won't really be able to fully understand just what God had blessed us with.The smells, the sounds, the sights are what makes us wake up to what exists all around us and right now we are oblivious to it all. A guy my husband Paul knows who does missionary work all around the world said it best," We here are asleep to God and His true glory. In other countries, they have no choice. They are always awakened by the darkness that exists around them so they have no choice but to seek Him.They have nothing else to distract them from God like we do here." So well said....
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