Haiti Mission Trip Prep - July 2010

Yes, I do feel dumb that it has taken me two months to get around to this. I am going to share a little of what I remember of preparing for my mission trip to Jacmel, Haiti in July. No, I am not preparing for a mission trip right now. Are you crazy?

One of the most unexpected things that happened as I prepared to go to Haiti was the speed in which my funding was completely covered. I spent a few months working on planning - things like making an appointment to see the health nurse for shots, applying for my passport, etc. - before I officially told people I was going and mentioned needing financial support.  I was really worried about the money part. I felt like I was supposed to be going on this trip and agreed to go, but did so without knowing where the money to cover the expenses would come from. But, God totally provided and my worry was for nothing. Within 2 weeks of telling people I was trying to raise money for this trip, the money was there. There were many people at my church who were very generous. I also had a gigantic garage sale at my house with all the money raised going towards my trip. There were about 20 families from church who donated items for the sale, and I had a crew of about 8 women who helped me price and worked at the sale.  The help turned out to be life saving - I came down with strep throat in the days leading up to the sale. My temp was around 103 and I was too insane to do any work or price anything. I ended up having to sit to the side at the start of the sale to finish the pricing!

"You could help price instead of standing around taking my picture!"

The garage sale was exhausting but a huge hit. It put me over the total funds I needed for the trip by $5 - the first of my "supplies" money.  After the sale, I still received almost $500 in donations, so I ended up with a large chunk of money to spend on supplies to be donated at our work site in Jacmel. 

Pretty soon after the sale, within a week because I was still on the strep throat antibiotics, I had my appointment with the travel nurse. This was the second week of June, about a month before my trip. The Health Department travel nurse is awesome. She had tons of information for me about preventing, recognizing and treating different illnesses, and also general information about safety while travelling.  One super cool thing about this part of the prep -- I have a friend whose husband works with my husband who went to Africa in summer 2009. She told me about the awesomeness of the travel nurse, and also told me that the shots end up being pretty pricey because they aren't covered by our insurance. I needed the shots, right?, so I made the appointment anyway and then worried about the "where is the money going to come from?" part. For real, 2 days before my appointment, I got a call from the travel nurse's office saying that they had just THE WEEK BEFORE switched to being able to accept insurance so I should bring my insurance card. Yes, that is right. Instead of paying for a visit and shots, I paid my $30 co-pay and that was it!! I ended up with 3 shots, a RX for malaria pills and a general antibiotic (for intestinal stuff) and a TB test. Little Man was very proud that I didn't cry.

Showing off my shots

Money covered, shots received, passport arrived in the mail. I got to move on to the "fun stuff" and start buying the things I needed for my trip.  I had a pretty comprehensive list of supplies from the sending agency, so that didn't end up being too difficult. Other than that I couldn't find rehydration salts anywhere. I packed keeping in mind that I would be trying to leave as much of what I brought as I could.  I also decided to make the trip even more of a challenge by planning ahead of time to not shower the entire 8 days I was in Haiti. It seems like a really dumb thing to do now, but at the time I was thinking "Avoid water as much as possible" because of fear of disease. So I bought lots of camping wipes which became my shower. I cannot even tell you about the disgustingness that became my hair. That is for another day.

With items purchased, I moved on to the supplies I would be donating in Jacmel. Again, I worked from a list given to me by the sending agency. I ended up filling a 49lb bag with items (lovingly packed by my super-organized-packing husband at 10pm the night before I left) that were on the list. Mostly basic first aid and medical supplies. Also, school supplies (Walmart's "back to school" sales started the week before I left, so I got some awesome $.25 deals!), bras and underwear, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. Pics below.  The 2nd grade class at Eric's school donated 22 pairs of flip flops along with really cute letters for some of the kids there.

School supply donations

Flip flop donations

Bras, underwear, "feminine products", hair ties, toothbrushes...

Medical supply donations

I'm not going to lie, I did freak out a little bit about how much stuff I was bringing with me. I had this grand plan that I would only need one bag, but I ended up bringing 2 bags at max size and capacity. So much for "packing light"! I probably spent 2 hours the night before I left packing and repacking my bags. Probably not necessary, but it gave me something to do!

Next time: The emotional side of preparing to leave...