Best Weekend Ever!

This past weekend was probably the best weekend I’ve had since I’ve been in Haiti.

It started on Saturday afternoon after lunch I had nothing to do so I felt the urge to get off the Mission and do something. My friend Sadrac was heading home as I asked him if I could go with him and meet up with Diana who was at the other Sadrac and Wicky’s new place. Michelle joined us too!   

There is something about walking outside the mission gates, there’s a feeling of freedom and excitement because you are doing something new and different. This time was especially exciting because I was going to go on a tap tap for the very first time. Lindsay was at the beach so I was disappointed she wasn’t experiencing this with me. So we stood outside the mission gates and Sadrac waved down a tap tap. The tap tap came to a stop and I was doing all I could to keep my excitement inside. We looked inside to see one full tap tap, we said we would catch the next one… but before we knew it people were squeezing over to make room. Michelle and I squeezed our bums on the bench and Sadrac held on to the back with the guy who collects the money. Since we were only going to Source-Matelas we were only on the tap tap for no more then 2 minutes. We gave the man one Haitian dollar (there are 7.5 Haitian dollars in a US dollar) and jumped off the tap tap. We talked through the village to get to Sadrac and Wicky’s house. We sat in the front room of their new place Wicky played guitar and the rest of us sang along.

After a while we decided to head out on a mission. Diana usually helps with the lesson in kids church so being palm Sunday naturally we needed to go find palm branches for the story. We grabbed the machete walked back into a forest more or less where we could find palm branches. It was very entertaining watching the guys climb the palm trees to get the branches, they soon gave up and we decided cut branches off of smaller trees.

This was the first time I had really walked around a village and it was an awesome moment for me. I was soaking it all in… I am actually in Haiti. I loved just walking around the village, watching the children playing in the river. As we walked by the houses the children came running yelling, “White people, white people” in creole of course.

We walked back to the mission with palms in hand, I’m sure it was a sight to see for people driving by. We arrived back the mission just in time for super.

Here is a link to some pictures from the day! CLICK HERE!

Every Saturday night is girls night at Diana’s all the Jr. high girls go up to Diana’s after dinner. Lindsay and I joined in on the fun.  We paint nails, do a short devo and watch a movie. This week’s feature was ‘A Walk to Remember’.  This is just a fun night of winding down and getting to know each other on another level.

After the movie was over Lindsay and I headed down to the guesthouse to make a cakes for the party we were planning in the Village the next night! As mentioned in previous blogs we live next door to wonderful people… on one side is Claudel, Madame Claudel and their three children and on the other side is 6 guys who work on the mission as the interpreters. The time has come for the guys to move back into their village so we decided to have a going away party. We are going to miss them so much. So we made a chocolate cake and a vanilla confetti cake only to wake up the next morning to our cake being served for breakfast.  Lindsay and I were shocked and laughing all at the same time. We took it away and put it in a safe place. Thankfully not a lot of the cake was eaten.

Sunday morning we went to church and had a wonderful morning at kids church! The kids enjoyed the story with props and Wicky sang with them. After church, Lindsay, Michelle, Wicky and I headed into Cabaret for lunch. This was Lindsay’s first time on a tap tap and it was exciting to experience it with her, I was just as excited my second time as we were going to be on it for longer then the day before. When we arrived in Cabaret we all jumped off the tap tap, one after another Lindsay, Michelle and I bumped our heads on the roof, the Haitians all laughed at us. We walked to Yolty’s and had some yummy goat for lunch, a new experience I have come to love. After lunch we went on a hunt to get cell phone cards and change American money into gouds, both tasks we completed without any trouble.  We then headed back to Wicky and Sadracs house so Lindsay could see their place. We sat there for a while and then started to walk to the mission and got picked up part way there by Wakine, Sadracs friend who drove us the rest of the way to the mission and  up  the hill to the village.

Lindsay had to do some work and I continued to make the arrangement for the party. We were trying to get Pizza but there was no pizza to be found so we got BBQ Chicken from Cabaret. The party started around 8pm and it was perfect, We had food, cake, coke, music and good friends! It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend!

I will attach pictures from the party later!

Love, Blessings and Tap Taps,

Leeann

Construction

Construction has started full fledge here on the mission… As I sat outside earlier and I could hear the noise of big machinery working away and I know that is going to be the “new sound” and the “new quiet” here at the mission. Needs changed after the earthquake and we are building to meet those needs. As I sit here an think about it all I can’t help but think about the spiritual construction God is doing in Haiti. God takes us through experiences to mold us, construct us into what he wants us to be and to fulfill his purpose. Similar to here at the mission, many prayers have been answered. We did not pray for the earthquake but we will soon be able to complete the hospital, which is an answer to prayer. We have had doctors and surgeons here performing surgeries and the church is filled with true worshipers of him.

Last week was an exciting week at school. Last week there was 2 football players from the Philadelphia Eagles come to help and visit the Mission of Hope. On Tuesday they took time out their busy schedule to talk to our class. The kids were able to ask questions and get autographs; we all enjoyed it!

On Thursday our class of 8 plus Michelle left campus for a well-deserved beach day. The kids have a reward system for being on time for school, Diana rings the bell at 8am and they have 5 minutes to get to class. If everyone arrives before the 5 minutes is up they get to put a bell in the toy bus. The same happens after recess, so they have the opportunity to get 2 bells a day. Once we get 50 bells we go on a field trip. I was happy to arrive when they had 38 bells in the bus. It was a perfect day for the beach. We spent the morning by pool and the afternoon by the ocean.

Friday was a different story. It started raining after dinner on Thursday and continued most of Friday morning. Diana had gotten sick after returning from the beach, which made me supply teacher on Friday… It was scary but I made it through.

This morning as I was getting up and getting ready for the day I listened to my neighbours singing and worshiping. I didn’t want leave. I feel truly blessed to have met these guys! If I wasn’t neighbours with them I would have gotten to know them as well as I have. It truly was the sweetest noise!

This evening like every Tuesday I went to the incredible worship service down at the church. After church we went to visit Job and Smider who I will talk about in another blog soon! They are two special need orphans who live here at the mission that have stolen my heart. I ended my night by riding up the hill on the front of the ATV with Michelle in the driver seat and Lindsay and Diana on the back; all of us were wearing skirts!

I will blog again soon!

Here is a link to some more pictures...Click here to see pictures

Love blessings construction and worship,

Leeann

The Body Of Christ

Just a few hours after writing my last blog, I was hit with a sickness… a bug.  A couple people had been getting over it the day before and apparently gave it to me. It was horrible… vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever and achiness. This is something us staff here on the mission lovingly call Haitian Sensation. Me along with many others continued to get this bug… for most it was a 24 hour thing but for others it was a few days. I thank God that the worst of the bug was gone very quickly although it lingered for a few days. On top of all this there was a bunch of people on vacation. When I think of all the sickness and vacation and all the work that was being done by others while some were either sick or away makes me think of the Body of Christ. We as Christians are all part of the body of Christ and work together. We here at the Mission Of Hope function as a unit like the body of Christ, some of us have smaller rolls then other but they are still vital to make everything run smoothly here at the mission. When someone is away or sick others compensate for them. Last week we experienced this big time and I praise God for my Mission of Hope family who helped me with the girls while the van der marks were away and when I was sick.  The staff did an amazing job at filling the gaps to make everything run smoothly.

Needless to say I am happy that the van der Mark’s and Diana are back, refreshed and go to have a relaxing week off. Pray for them as they jumped right back into their roles full swing.

Six weeks have gone by so fast and I don’t update this blog nearly as much as I want to… I fall into bed exhausted every night amazed at what happens in one day here at the mission.  I live with the medical team coordinator so sometimes her walky-talky goes off in the night.  The other I heard it… we had a police officer come the gate with abdominal pains and vomiting, we also had a child who was in a motor-cycle accident come in early this morning with a foot injury. While I sleep there are still people hard at work somewhere on the mission.  I don’t even know about half the work that goes on here at the mission but I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again I am very excited to be here in Haiti a part of such an awesome organization who loves Haiti and the Haitian people soooo much. Its not very hard to fall in love with Haiti.

Another update… If you remember me talking about my friend Gabby who had a skin graft done on both of his legs. He is doing so well. I went to visit him on Monday night; my visits last week had been very short because I was watching the girls. So Monday night I told him I would come visit him and play cards. While I was there he hoped up on a chair, he later got up and was walking. I was speechless! I was so excited that he was up and walking… he was just as excited that he was up and walking and mobile again. Now when I go down the ward I go into his room expecting him to be lying in the bed but sometimes hes up and about sitting in the hall. He seems to be healing well except one of his legs is getting infected as his foot was swollen yesterday. Continue to pray for him as he continues to heal and pray that his spirits stay high as he stays in the ward for a little while longer.

In other news… Lindsay, Jeanine and I are finally almost settled into our new place and I’m excited about our bar fridge that should be arriving in the next couple days. The last couple nights we have been able to go down to our apartment and just sit outside and chill. Its so nice just to have a space to go and relax and wined down after a busy day.  The apartments is still a mess, it slowly but surely will get organized and feel like home. I will post pictures when it looks a little better.

So that was my past week and a half! Crazy busy but I loved every minute of it because I’m in Haiti and that is where God has called me to be right now and I know that I know this is where I am suppose to be!

Love, Blessings and Haitian Sensation,

Leeann

One Month in Haiti

I have officially been in Haiti for 1 month now so I thought I would share some stories of my Haitian experiences.

Haitian Experience Number 1: Cockroaches

In my second week here I stayed at the Rumford’s house while they were away in Florida. I was there alone so I had been using just one of the bathrooms but when Lindsay became officially staff she came to stay with me. One night we were getting ready for bed and she went to use the other bathroom as she had used it that morning and her stuff was in there. She found cockroaches, I tried to be all brave and went and got my keens and threw it at the large cockroach… not a good idea… it jumped and I screamed. After a few minutes of that we decided to just close the door and use the other bathroom, the Rumford’s would be home in a couple days. The next morning in class the van der Mark children told me they could hear us screaming at 10pm. It was good times. Lindsay and I’s  first Haitian experience together.

Haitian Experience Number 2: Church of Hope

Haitian church is my new favourite… I look forward to it every Sunday morning and Tuesday evening. As I’ve said in my previous blog, God is at work in the lives of the Haitians and I am honored and excited to experience it.  That have also had kids church once since I’ve been here and there are about 400 children in a small semi covered room singing and dancing. Diana told a story with one of the interpreters and we gave out Candy! It was so much fun!

Haitian Experience Number 3: Tarantula’s 

I was sitting in the classroom on day, just minding my own business; teaching the girls. Out of nowhere came a tarantula sitting on the bin beside me. I think Bridgely pointed it out! I screamed and then I got the kids all worked up so we had to take recess so Teagan and Diana could catch the large spider. Diana and I ended up saving the day by trapping him and setting him free in the trees.

Haitian Experience Number 4: Mice

After the Rumford’s arrived home I moved into a room at the guesthouse.  One night last week I was ready to go to bed around 10pm and I walked into my room and there was a little mouse sitting on the top bunk of my bed. I silently screamed and thought about what I should do. I went over to the van der Marks to get some help; Cheryl gave me some sticky traps to catch him with. I took those back to my room and in a few minutes I caught the mouse. He began to scream and I ran out of the room because I didn’t want to hear the mouse struggling. A lady from one of the medicals team came and helped me get him off the tray and set him free.

Haitian Experience Number 5: The Market.

This past Saturday I went into Cabaret for the first time with Diana and Sadrac (one of the interpreters. His friend is teaching him to drive so we went in his friend’s car. We went out for lunch to a place called Yolty’s then went to the Market. It was huge, people everywhere selling stuff, children coming up to you trying to get you to buy stuff from them. I wanted to pull out my camera many times but didn’t think it was a good idea.  

Haitian Experience Number 6: Animals in the Village.

Saturday I moved into what is called the Village of Hope. It consists of 4 buildings with 4 one-bedroom apartments in them each.   Right now there is only people living in one of the buildings, one is almost done and they’re 2 more still in the building process.  Sitting on my porch I can see cows, horses, goats, chickens and turkeys.  I hear them at night and the rooster starts at random hours of the night. I am getting use to the sound of roosters and soon it won’t even wake me in the night.

Haitian Experience Number 7: Rain

I thought I would touch on the rain since I’ve had so many people asking me about the rain. We experienced rain on Saturday night but in other parts of the country there was flooding. Pre- earthquake rain would break the heat and would be a joyous thing. Post earthquake rain took on a new meaning. There are many people in tents, not North American tents but tents made up of long sticks and a bed sheet on top. Needless to say these tents are not weather proof, after 5-10 minutes of rain the sheet and people inside the tent are very wet; some of which are amputees or injured which means open cut getting wet and infected. We here at Mission of Hope are okay as far as the rain but please pray for those who are in what we call “Tent Cities”

In my evenings, after dinner I walk down to the makeshift ward, which is in the High School. I visit a couple patents and their families as well as hang out with some of the Hope House kids who are at the ward periodically. This is also my form of exercise as it is about a 7 minute walk down the hill, coming back up is the exercise.

Some of the Creole phrases I know…

Koman ou ye? How are you?

Koman w rele? What is your name?

Sak ap fet? Whats up?

Bon jou/ Bon Swa/ Bon nwi Good day/ Good Afternoon/ Goodnight

On Ale! Lets Go!

Jezi se bon!  Jesus is Good!

Mwen Grangou! I’m Hunry

Woy! Is something you say when you are surprised meaning “oh my goodness!”

I moved into the Village of Hope on Saturday and I can’t wait for Lindsay to get back today so the three of us can get settled in. Yes three… things change everyday! The Johnsons now have a teacher, who lives with us her name is Jeanine, she is really nice. She is pretty busy getting things organized with the Johnsons so just pray for her and her transition to Haiti. Also pray as the three of us walking together and live together, 3 girls at 3 different staged in our lives.

Overall the last month has been incredible. We have awesome neighbours... on the one side is the Worship pastor and his 3 Children, they are very nice. Two doors down on the other side are 6 of Mission of Hopes interpreters. They are all very nice Godly guys who are going to be change their Nation for God someday! Pray for them!

I’ve met the most amazing people, Godly people with incredible stories. I feel so blessed to be here surrounded by so many people who love the lord and have such wonderful servant hearts! I am joyfully anticipating what will happen in the next 4 months.

Prayer Request:

-Pray for the van der Marks as they are away on Vacation this week to the Domincan Republic. Pray that they are having a wonderful week of rest.

-Also pray for Diana who is in Florida for the week with her parents.

-Pray for Grant and Sandy as they take on the new roles this week in the van der Marks absents.

-Pray for my time with the girls this week as they have been somewhat hard to teach, adjusting to their parents being gone and Diana being away too!

-Pray for all my new Haitian friends! 

-Continue to pray for Gabby! I go visit him often and play cards… he is healing very well! 

-Pray for Lindsay and her travels back to Haiti! Praise the lord her brothers baby arrive so she could see him before she left. She flew to Fort Lauderdale last night and then into Port au Prince this morning morning! I can’t wait to see her! 10 days has seemed like forever!

Love, Blessings and Wonderful Haitian Experiences,

Leeann

 

Aftershocks

This Monday morning at 4:30am and Tuesday morning at 1:30am Haiti experienced 4.7 aftershocks. We haven’t had aftershocks that big in a while so needless to say it shocked people. Just when you think you are in the clear they start again. The clinic was full of injuries from the aftershock … not from building falling but from people running out of their houses and falling. One of our interpreters sprained his wrist and another hurt his foot. The past couple nights some people have chosen to sleep outside so they do not need to run out of their house in the middle of the night in fear. Each aftershock brings back emotions from the initial earthquake for those who experienced it. It truly breaks my heart that my friends are living with this fear that they do not want to sleep in their own house. We have it so good in North America; we put so much faith in material things that could be gone at any moment.

Ana and Mina Memorized a verse in school right after the earthquake… it is very literal but very true.

God is our protection and strength; he always helps us in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid even if the earth shakes and the mountains fall into the sea.

Psalms 46:1-2

Please pray for all my Haitian friends and Mission of Hope staff that they would continue to turn to him for comfort.

Pray for the aftershocks to stop.

Also pray for my friend Gabby in the ward. I have been going down to the ward almost every night to visit patients and hang out with people down there. Gabby has a wound vac on his leg and told me he told me today that he was going to have surgery tomorrow. He told my friend Sarah thet God is healing him and his going to continue to heal him.  Just pray that his surgery would go well tomorrow and that we would have a quick, smooth recovery. I will go visit him tomorrow and see how everything went. I also just talked to Cheryl about him and she said that he has been a patient of theirs since they first opened their clinic; he would come daily or weekly (I can’t remember what she said) to get his dressings changed on his Ulcers. Cheryl said they have been trying to get him to the states to get this taken care of but praise the Lord we have surgeons coming to the Mission of Hope who can not only help earthquake victims but help people like Gabby. So tomorrow he will have a skin graft done and this will prayerfully fix his problem and the Ulcers won’t come back. So pray for Gabby tomorrow, he is probably mid-twenties, hes super sweet and whenever I see him he has a smile on his face! I will try to post a picture soon!

Love Blessings and Praying for the aftershocks to stop,

Leeann

P.S. I just had another Haitian experience… I was sitting outside writing my blog and this is a PS because this was suppose to be a serious blog but I walked into my room to go to bed and there was a little mouse sitting on my top bunk… I started to silently freak out and then went over to the van der Marks to get help. Cheryl gave me sticky pads to trap him with. I put them on the floor and he soon got scared and basically jumped right onto the trap. He began to squeal as I was screaming through this whole thing too.  So I ran back out of the guesthouse and a volunteer from the medical team got him off the sticky trap for me. Now I can go to sleep knowing there isn’t a little mouse sleeping with me.

Home

Home, what does the word home mean? As I battle with homesickness and move place to place, longing for a place to settle in and call my own and Mission of Hope is full with people helping post earthquake I think about what the word home really means.  According to dictionary.com it is a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household.  Graduating from Tourism and Travel I laugh at myself because after being away for short periods of time I’m longing to go home. I have experienced many new things in the past two and a half weeks and it’s just the beginning. God is molding me and teaching me that HOME is where he plants me. Haiti is my home for now. 

For the past week I have been staying in the Rumford’s house while they were away in Florida on vacation. They arrived home yesterday so Lindsay and I will be living in the Guesthouse for the next couple of week. Yes Lindsay, I am very excited that I now have a friend and room mate! I met Lindsay for the first time when we traveled to Haiti together on the Canadian Forces plane. Lindsay is a nurse who came to work at the clinic and ward for a few weeks but has decided to stay for the next four months as the Medical team coordinator assisting Cheryl with all the medical team scheduling and communication. This not only is a blessing to Cheryl as this will help her with her work load but I truly believe God send Lindsay to be a friend to me for my time here.  I am excited to get to know her more and have someone to go on this journey with me.

The last 5 days have there has been a lot going on down at the church of hope. The President of Haiti declared Friday Saturday and Sunday National holidays to fast and pray for the country.  The Church of Hope held daily services from 6am-12pm and again at 6pm-8pm. A few times over the weekend, when relaxing in my room I turned the fan off so I could hear the singing. You could hear the worship all the way at the top of the hill almost a kilometer away. I feel like I’ve been repeating myself every time I blog, but every Sunday I go to church there are more and more people.  Sunday morning Lindsay, Diana and I went down to church together around 9am and found a spot at the very back.  We arrived during worship; the energy in the room was very high! During the three days churches all over the country held services to pray for their country and people during this desperate time. Many gave their lives to Christ growing the kingdom of God! I can’t wait to see how many people are at church this Sunday after the services. Also yesterday was Carnival or Mardi gras here in Haiti, yet another holiday and there was another service at the church.

Lindsay and I went down to church yesterday and sat with the Hope House children.  On Monday the missionary kids and I went to a Valentines party at the hope house. This was my first time meeting all of the kids it was craziness but fun! Monday and Tuesday night at church I have been sitting with my new buddy Widler from the hope house. Widler is 5 years old, he is very cute and sweet, I love him!

I’ve been in Haiti for two and a half weeks now and have truly fallen in love with Haiti. They are the friendliest people I have ever met, the food is fantastic and the views and sunsets are breathtaking.

Love, Blessings and Home Sweet Haiti,

Leeann 

P.S Here is a link to my Pictures of my time in Haiti so far.

What a busy week!

So I think I owe you all an update. It’s been a crazy busy week.

I had a full week of school but I was just observing and helping because of my fast arrival. The girls are doing very well for just starting to learn 5 months ago. I hope my Creole is as good as their English in 5 months. I think that with one on one attention they will improve greatly.  I am really looking forward to teaching them and watching them grow in the next 5 months.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go into Port au Prince with Cheryl when she took some doctors back into town. Where to begin… Between the mission and Port au Prince we passed numerous tent cities. These are people who had lost their homes and have made homes using large sticks and bed sheets.

As we drove into the city you started to see large buildings flat as pancakes, you’d see the sheet of concrete that was the top of the building and the rest of the building under it. Then you passed building that were still standing but were not structurally sound. We passed one building that was partly broken but was being held up by pillars. It wouldn’t take that big of a push to have the rest of that building come completely down and there were people sitting right on the rubble in front of it. Then we came up to the Presidential Palace, we got out to take a picture and it was like wow. That was the symbol of the destruction for me. This large majestic place was in pieces; Haiti’s government building was gone.

Driving out of town we passed many piles of rubble. Trucks were taking loads of rubble from the city and dumping it along the roads out of the city. Also on the way home Cheryl pointed out where people had marked out plots on the land. They had taken rocks and formed squares to claim plots of land where they were going to rebuild their homes. Soon that area will be covered with houses.

Needless to say, it is going to take a long time to get back to “normal”.  It was very sad to see a country that didn’t have much to begin with, in this state. Garbage everywhere, rubble everywhere, I’m still taking it all in. It is much different for those who know what the buildings were like before the earthquake, I will only see from pictures.

On a brighter note church was PACKED and I mean PACKED today… Sanding room ONLY. When I thought we were full about 2 songs into service another bus load arrives. It was incredible. There was a guest singing group there today so we had a short sermon and lots of singing! The whole church was a party, it was so much fun! I couldn’t understand a word people were saying but the energy in there was so awesome! Double the amount of people went up for alter call again today. Haitian Church is my new favourite thing!!

Prayer Request:

-Pray for energy- those girls and the sun ware me out!

-Pray for the medical teams that continue to come in. They were working very hard. Pray that they don’t get discouraged; We have lots a few patients this week.

-Pray for the van der Marks as they try to get the twins adopted to go on a much needed family vacation.

Love Blessings & Overflowing church!

Leeann