Haiti Mission Trip Recap- Monday Part 1

I've been trying to write a daily blog recap of the mission trip I took to Jacmel, Haiti in July.  I am still using my journal as the primary source material.  I was on "disability" at the end of last week as I took off most of my left pointer fingernail with a potato peeler and haven't been able to type. Still uncomfortable, so we'll see how far I get today. I'm starting in on Monday, which was our first real "work" day. This journal entry also starts with an episode that I did NOT tell my husband about during my occasional and brief phone calls. I didn't want to freak him out too much.

Monday, July 11, 2010
7am
Loving Light Hotel roof deck, Jacmel, Haiti

Last night ended up being very interesting.  We went to bed around 9pm and I was having trouble falling asleep.  From 9:30 until about 11pm, there were some men shouting (Kreyol and English) and banging on doors outside of our room.  About every 15 minutes, someone would bang on our door really aggressively and shout and wake us up.  Eventually Jennifer (long term missionary who was also staying at our hotel) came upstairs from her room to find out what all the noise was about and yelled at them and told them to leave.

It was scary.  There is no peep hole in our door.  The lock is minimal (I could probably break into the room by throwing my body against the door if I wanted to) and there is no 2nd way out of the room.  I laid awake for quite awhile praying for safety and thinking of what I had that could be used as a weapon if needed.  It was not a good feeling.

Patti and I agreed there was no way we were going to open our door.  Our room was in a little hallway nook so it was not out in full view of the rest of the hallway. And if we had opened the door and someone had rushed in at us, there would have been no place to hide in that small room.

It's 7:15am now. Devotions were supposed to start up here at 7am, but no one is here except me and Patti. Hmm... (It turned out that our only clock, on Patti's IPod, reset itself to a different time zone in the night, so we were  actually up on the roof deck at 6am waiting for devotions, thinking it was 7am.)

While I'm waiting up here, 2 other things from yesterday. There were quite a few kids who tried to bite/pinch/scratch as a sign of affection.  I can't quite figure that one out.

After church yesterday, some of the kids took down the welcome banners and rubbed the glitter from the signs off on to each other.  They rubbed some on my arms and it still isn't off all the way.

It is overcast today with a slight breeze.  Praying it will be a little cooler today.

Typical pre-devotions morning time, journaling and watching Jacmel start their day

Monday, July 12, 2010
5:30pm
Loving Light Hotel room

Home from our first word day! We talked to Gary - team coordinator- and Jennifer and found out what happened last night with the people banging on our door.  Apparently another relief group staying here finished their work assignment and left today, so they spent last night celebrating.  They got pretty drunk and then couldn't find their interpreter.  They thought our room was his room and that he had passed out in there, so they were trying to wake him (us) up.  So, it was scary, but not actually dangerous.

8:30pm
LLH roof deck

After breakfast, we divided into work teams.  The Texas teams basically took the jobs they wanted and then said, "You can come if you want, too." There is a lot of tension in our group right now because they have totally separated from us and have made it clear they couldn't care less if the "non-Texas" people are even here. (They were never mean, just focused on their own little mini-group within our whole team.)

I ended up on the kitchen team because I'm a woman.  =) I didn't mind being on the kitchen team, but didn't like the fact that most of the rest of the people had a choice and I really didn't.  Patti and Gina were also on the kitchen team.  I think tomorrow we will be at the medical clinic with Wanda. 

We spent the morning under the tree by the kitchen working on watercress with Marjorie and Erika.  Erika taught children's church yesterday and is Pastor Roderick's wife.  It was fun to sit in the shade and listen to the ladies talk.  They taught us the Kreyol words for the foods.  They grow an amazing amount of food: watercree, carrots, onions, cabbage, beans, coconuts, cucumber, some kind of melon/pear fruit, bananas, potatoes, tomatoes.  I don't eat any of it unless it is cooked, but it looks wonderful!

The never ending watercress bowl

Julie, sorting beans

Michaela, the brave soul to tackle dishes the first day

Marjorie

The women cook over 2 or 3 small coal fires in big metal pots.  There are also come gas burners inside the kitchen hut.  There is no refrigerator or freezer, no oven, no dishwasher.  They make all their food from scratch every day. If they don't grow it themselves, they trade at market for the food they need.  They get money for the children's food through the child sponsorship program of Restore Haiti, and then our team's food is paid for with our team fees.  White rice is handed out by the government, but I haven't quite figured out how much or how often it comes.  They eat a LOT of white rice.  They start cooking around 5am and don't stop until 8 or 9pm every day.

View inside the ktichen

After kitchen work -- it took me all morning to deal with that bowl of watercress! - we had lunch, which was a weird "spicy ham" sandwich on a hot dog bun.  It tasted like a hot dog that was ironed into a flat shape.  I think now maybe it was Spam? (What exactly that meat was is a mystery that I never solved.)

In the afternoon we were at the church, but it was pretty unstructured.  We played with the kids.  I walked with Jennifer and Patti to see the medical clinic. It opened the week before we got here. I wanted to see the inside since we're working there tomorrow and I brought so many medical donations.  At a house next to the clinic, they were playing loud music and dancing in the street (path), so I danced a little too. They thought that was funny.  The clinic is tiny, dark and hot.  There is a medication room, a check in room, a waiting room a vitals room and an exam room.  The whole building is probably 400-500 sq. feet. It is small.

Outside of the new medical clinic

Neighborhood kids peeking into the clinic to see the white people

Medical supplies shelf

Other medical supplies

It rained this afternoon and wasn't as hot.  I didn't sweat through my clothes! Rain apparently stops everything here, the water for the kids wasn't delivered because of the rain.

The kids lunch (through sponsorship program) was supposed to be around 1pm, but it was served until around 2:30pm.  They make a big line and pass plates down one at a time until they are all in the meal tent.  Today the kids had a full plate of white rice (3C each?) and a big spoon of stew with beans and vegetables. It smelled really good! Only the kids who are sponsored get to eat.  It was around 200 kids today.  The rest just hang around and play. (The unsponsored kids also asked us periodically if we could sponsor them RIGHT NOW so that they could eat. It was sad.)  The adults who are around at first and I guess at any other meals they may have the kids only eat if tehy have enough, otherwise they go without. We have been told that most kids only eat one meal a day. 

Food line - passing the plates into the meal tent

Food Line

Waiting to pray so they can eat. Yes, every single child
completely cleaned their plate every day we were there.

We helped a little girl this afternoon who had severely burned the top of her feet a few days ago.  Patti, Jennifer and I cleaned and bandaged her feet for her. Luckily I had my hikers first aid kit with me so we had all the supplies we needed, and I had an extra pair of socks. I gave her my extra socks to protect her feet because she had no shoes. (That was pretty cool actually because it was the only day I had extra socks with me!)  We learned later from Wanda (nurse missionary) that this girl had been to the clinic the day before with no parent and Wanda had cleaned and dressed her burns. It is a problem for the health workers there that kids are often sent to the clinic alone which means that the children have to understand, remember and communicate to their parents information about treatment or medication. Usually that info doesn't make it all the way home.

Girl with burned, bandaged feet

Tomorrow: Find out how God lifted my spirits after our first hard day of work!