Trip to Haiti

Recently, I had the opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Haiti.  Here is a brief summary of some of the events that took place and the things that I learned.

Starting with the flight to Haiti, we saw Cuba out the window and a bunch of sand bars. Then, as we flew over the island of Haiti, I saw a bunch of resorts on the coast and was thinking "doesn't look so poor to me"... until we flew another few miles and I started looking at thousands of houses with no roofs on them, massive dry beds from floods and erosion, and a tiny airport with no planes accept for the one that we were in. My heart sank a little.

When we got off the plane, we were bombarded with people forcing acts of kindness (like carrying our bags) with hope of receiving a tip, men hitting on the ladies in our group with hopes of marrying them and leaving the country, and a police man was back-handing a man who was on his knees begging for mercy. As we started to drive away (with about 17 people crammed into two cars), we noticed that the traffic in Haiti is complete chaos. There literally is no order on the roads -- no stop signs or street lights (with the exception of about three in the entire capital city), no lines on the roads, and no restraint from driving head-on at people coming the opposite direction. I guess the guy driving us lost his mirror on the way to the airport.

As we drove down the road, we saw buses that had paintings of Jesus and other Biblical figures on them, but it hardly meant anything when we saw the scantily dressed women on the other side of the buses. I guess Jesus is used as a more of a good luck charm there, rather than their actual savior. He's just one of many spirits/deities that they attempt to appease, along with any number of other superstitious signs and acts that they learn about from their witch doctors.

However, this trip was really not at all negative. These were just the shocking things that stood out on the first day. The rest of the trip went really smoothly, partially because we were sort of sheltered from the culture during a lot of the trip. The house we were staying in, as well as the two adjacent orphanages that we were working on, had large walls, gates, and security guards. It was good for our safety, but I couldn't help but feel that we were missing out on the true Haitian experience at times.

Anyway, the rest of the week consisted of working on various projects, like remodeling bathrooms and kitchens, painting walls, cleaning and organizing things, cooking, etc. We also cleaned out a pool, so that we could have a baptism ceremony on the first Sunday. That part of it was extremely encouraging, because about ten people got baptized and actually (hopefully) recognized Christ as their savior and the one true God. It was good to see some light and hope in Haiti after some of the things we saw on the first day, assuming that these people were genuine about their faith. I've been told that a lot of people come to even the Christian churches for the wrong reasons there (imagine that), like finding American spouses.

During the week, I found myself working on a lot of projects with the girls on the trip, because I wasn't manly enough to do half of the projects that the guys were doing. A lot of the stuff the guys were doing also required a lot of skills that I don't have (like welding, plumbing, and electrical work). Anyways, the reason I point this out, is because I think God was really changing my heart about being a father in the future. For the past few months, I had been considering just disciplining myself to be single for the ministry. I was even lacking the types of desires that I used to have about marriage and was quite content in my "singleness." However, when one of the orphan girls (named Eevee -- see my profile picture) spent the day with my friend Hannah and I in the kitchen, my heart started to crumble. Eevee is a four year old girl who had three other orphan friends, all of which were adopted in December. Without her friends, she lost a lot of self-esteem and confidence and was pretty shy to begin with (or so I'm told). My friend Hannah had to work on something in the kitchen, so she asked me to hold Eevee for a few minutes. After looking into Eevee's eyes for about a minute, there were all these indescribable thoughts and feelings going through my head. I wish I could explain them, but essentially, I think that God was giving me a glimpse into the future by having me work with so many women and children that week. In other words, I became a softy. I just can't imagine going the rest of my life without being a father now.

Toward the end of the trip, we went outside of the city which we had been staying in. The culture is entirely different when you go into the outskirts, the villages, and up in the hills. We took a hike to a waterfall that passed through sort of a village-type area in the hills of Haiti. The people in the hills were especially joyful, despite having nothing but scrap metal houses and their farms. However, they were still very aware of their own poverty. One man ran out from the bushes, set his baby on the ground near a couple of girls on the trip (hoping that they would take him in), and retreated behind some trees. The girls were shocked and sadly had to ignore the child, because if they showed any interest in him at all, then the man would expect us to take the child with us. I didn't actually witness this part of the trip, but I was told about it.

Anyways, I think that pretty much sums up the key points of the trip. I might think of more later. The only other thing that comes to mind, is that, when we flew into the states, the difference of wealth between our country and theirs finally struck me. We flew into Miami and saw miles and miles of street lights, skyscrapers, etc. At the airport, our leader gave us $26 dollars to cover the next three meals during our various fligts. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world knowing that the average Haitian makes about that much in a month. I was going to waste that much money on a few hours of my life, when they're working hard and begging for a fraction of that per day to feed their families.

I am happy to say that Christ was working mightily on my heart during this trip, as well as the rest of my team and many of the Haitians, too. I was especially thankful to see the amount of unity that was in our group, despite none of us having anything in common with each other.