March 29th, 2014 First Day Impressions

            AHHHH! We’re back in Haiti! I absolutely love it here, I feel so secure here like I’m supposed to be here.  As we prepared to come I was so excited I thought about what the house was like. What the country was like. What the people were like and about the people I might get to see again. I couldn’t remember what it was like to not know what anything was like. I can feel God here 100% I know that this is what we’re supposed to be doing and who is supposed to be here. I love how beautiful it is here. Even with the poverty and how run down it is here. Its just beautiful in its own way. The last time I was here I fell completely in love with Haiti and I’m excited to watch that love grow. I cant wait to start working in the hospital and meeting the Haitians needs. I’m excited to see what God does to this team and the Haitian people throughout the week. Keep us in your prayers!(:

RaKay Gross

3/29/14

     Does it make sense that it’s hard to put into words my first impressions when I’m not really sure I knew what I expected?  When driving through the streets from the airport to Pastor Voltaire’s home, the scenes played out like all of the news footage I’d ever seen from Haiti: people EVERYWHERE along the sides of the road, overloaded vehicles and motorcycles traveling within inches of each other, garbage lining the streets and curbs and side-by-side shacks made out of any material they can find.  It did feel a bit like I was viewing a documentary except it was accompanied by the sounds of horns, and voices, and the (warm!) wind on my face and the smell of dirt and exhaust and garbage.  

  We are so blessed to be taken care of by Pastor Voltaire who has us safely tucked away in his private residence, cooking meals for our hungry group of 14, and providing interpreters and men to accompany each work group to our respective work sites.  Within in a few hours of arriving we had been fed and were on our way to work….I got to travel today to the widows home and photograph some of their progress and help with various tasks.  And that’s where I started to see some of the beauty in the Haitian people.  I was greeted on my way up the stairs by an adorable little girl, Sharma, and was soon joined by her brother and sisters.  They wanted to make funny faces and see their pictures and couldn’t stop smiling and laughing at their images.   From my third story post I had a view of women doing their laundry, mothers scolding  toddlers or doing their daughters’ hair, and of groups of people sorting through piles of trash for something, anything useful.   Haitian men were helping our crew, having a purpose for those few hours, and when I spied a young boy eating sugar cane on a rooftop, he motioned to me to take his picture (and gave me a smile and a thumbs up when I did).   The need here is overwhelming and the challenges are great.  But I am excited at learning more about the Haitians….starting with church tomorrow.

Tonya McLeod

Day One