Great things happening here in Haiti

It’s finally here. All the weeks of planning, packing, and getting things ready and now, we are finally in Haiti. Yesterday was a really long day. We started off the day in Fort Lauderdale, leaving our hotel by 4:30 am after getting about 3 hours of sleep. A couple hours later, we were going through customs in Port Au Prince. I was surprised by how quickly we made it through customs here in Haiti. The most entertaining part was probably Mike worrying about the stamp in his passport. Not only was he so excited to get the first stamp, but he was worried that it wasn’t going to be stamped exactly straight on the page. Thankfully, it was close enough that it didn’t cause problems for him.The trip from the airport to our temporary home in Gonaives was one of the most frightening journeys that I have ever been on. (*Note* I may exaggerate a bit, but hopefully you will get a taste of the feelings that we had riding in the car.) Roads in Haiti are mostly rock, with giant craters that swallow up cars and small children. Ok, maybe not small children, but it’s scary. Our “chauffer”, Brian, is very comfortable driving on the streets of Haiti.However, none of us are quite used to driving like this. There aren’t really any traffic laws here.I think the only word of advice that I heard is “don’t get hit by anything.” Cars weave in and out, narrowly missing other cars, motorcycles, people walking, animals, and whatever else might be in the road. At one point, Heather and I were laughing hysterically, simply because the ride was so bumpy that we were wondering how the car wasn’t falling apart.

Somehow, we made it to the house. After a few hours of getting settled in, we were off to help with the feeding program at Jubilee. Pulling up to the schoolhouse, I was amazed by the number of kids waiting for us. The minute that I stepped out of the truck, someone tackled me from behind, with a couple kids grabbing each of my hands. These kids are great! They just want to be near us. They have learned some English, so over and over I would hear, “What is your name?” My minimal Creole doesn’t seem to matter right now. Just a smile and a hug and we are best friends! It’s impossible not to just love them when you see those eyes staring up at you. It’s going to be hard not to take them all home with me.

Getting ready for my first night of sleep here I remembered two key things:

Mosquito net tucked in – check

Bug spray on – check

I have been warned about the mosquitoes. They won’t get to me tonight.

Today was an exciting day. There were definitely some harder moments, but there is so much good being done by all of the people here that it makes it all worth it. After breakfast, (which, by the way, was amazing! I don’t think I have ever tasted mango that was so good!) we headed back to Jubilee to hold a medical clinic. We have three women who are nurses, and a crowd of people gathered to come see them. Right away, after getting organized, we all had our roles. Some people were working our “pharmacy,” others were diagnosing patients, I was on wound-cleaning duty with Sarah, and all of us were ready to love on the people and play with the children. Shortly after Cody, Angel, and Deedee started seeing patients, a few of the Pakistani members of the UN showed up with their own doctor. It was amazing to see all of the doctors, nurses, and translators hard at work. One of the translators was more familiar with Spanish than English, so at one point, Deedee was discussing a diagnosis with one of the UN men in English, passing the information on to the translator in Spanish, who then spoke to the patient in Creole. It was amazing. Around lunchtime, the Pakistani men brought out food and shared with all of us that were working in the clinic. They were so friendly and insisted that we eat with them. I don’t think that I ever imagined sharing lunch with the Pakistani military while in Haiti. Our God is pretty amazing. He has provided so much for us so far on this trip. I’m excited to see how the rest of the week goes!

Thanks for reading all of this! I know it’s a long one, but there is so much going on! We really appreciate all of your prayers. God is doing great things here.

Much love,

Jen