January 4th - my 3rd day in Haiti

my third day in haiti was a good one. very very productive!! i cleaned alot that day. it started off by waking up on the roof to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. not to mention, warm weather. i woke up late so ran to grab my camera to hurry and get a pic before i lost the sunrise and was late for devo's. and of course, i tripped on the way back outside and scraped my knee and a TEENY part of my brother's lens (not any part that matters just the side! OOPS). i'm a klutz! buuuuuuuuut i would say the scrapes were worth it, what do u think? 

by 830am i was taught by a haitian lady how to properly stick ur head and upper body into a barrel and scrub with bleach and water :) because someone threw a tshirt that had baby poop on it into the barrel not realizing that the mission puts water in the barrel not trash lol

when i first got to haiti this trip i found out my friend navius was very sick. they aren't sure exactly, but think he has MD, muscular dystrophy. he's only 26. i first met him in 2003. ..... the top pic was taken in 2004 the bottom pic in 2011.

he's a good guy, and i hated to hear that he was sick! they thought (when i was there this year) he had TB (which he was diagnosed with before recently) because he was coughing really bad and pretty weak. miss maureen had told me on the 3rd he was coming in on the 4th to see the doctor. so after i scrubbed the barrel i went downstairs to play with John at the front of Miriam Center when i saw TMan walk by. i asked him if he had seen Navius and he told me where Navius was. i wish i could describe the feeling to u that i had when i was walking down the hallway with all of the sick kids and adults and teenagers waiting to be seen by the nurses/doctors. i imagine back in the day when Jesus healed the sick, and wished that He was here to heal all of these people who were coughing or crying. it breaks my heart to see/hear that. after what felt like forever, i finally saw him. i laughed when he shook his head in disbelief cuz we hadn't seen each other in almost 7 years. tho we had kept in contact over the years - not with pics just phone/email. it was good to see him smile!!!! he introduced me to his uncle, said that is who he stayed with around the corner from the mission. i crouched beside his chair and we spoke the 30 minutes until his doctor came. it broke my heart when the nurse and his uncle had to help him get out of his chair and walk into the room. i had to walk away to hide my tears. i went back to MC until i saw him come out with his uncle. the doctor told him to get an xray the next day of his lung to hopefully get some infinite answers on why he was feeling down (later to find out it wasn't TB but pneumonia). alot of people shook hands with him and spoke words with him while we stood there, including jack, they had gone to school together. navius left with his uncle on the mission's four wheeler thing - idk what it's called lol i told him i'd come visit him sometime.

meet emily, my sister from another mister. we met the first night, she's grant's sister. and she is pretty darn cool. after i saw navius that morning emily & i met in grant's room to begin our 4 hour mission to super clean grant's room and bathroom. we organized food & clothes & medicine, put more - i say more cuz he already had one - pics up of him/natasha above his bed :) hehe (hey- i had to tell that part!! it's sweet!!), but i didn't kill the huge roach that was running at me. sorry, grant. we let it run into the dirty clothes. after i screamed bloody murder then laughed like mad :) it was huge - i couldn't touch it!

lunch was good that day - or maybe i was just starving. of course, it was pretty stinking good every day. unfortunately, the mission americanized their food - they only served plantains once at the st louis mission and everything they had they turned into something american (chicken and dumplings, vegetable soup, mashed potatoes & gravy with beef & vegetables, ETC). i'm not complaining - it was great - i just was craving some real good creole food!

here is a plate of yummy food in la baie (not on the 4th sorry i am deceiving u) - my stupid self didn't take a pic of the AMAZING and best meal i had the whole trip in la baie - but this lunch was good! (and yes paul that is the spicy ketchup u gave me to bring!)

i wish i would have kept better track in my journal on my trip. it would have been easier had i been able to type it - i'm just a slow writer lol i can't remember everything we did after lunch. we did go to navius early afternoon - emily, jack, and myself - and talked and laughed for an hour or so. my pictures show me (lol) that the MO group had a lil VBS with the Miriam Center kids so i went around and took pics and then played with some of the kids with the balloons.

john! this girl also had a special place for john in her heart :)

they had different 'stations' set up. coloring. play-do. balloons. bubbles.

DEN DEN!!!

this kid is awesome. i wish i knew his naaaaame.

STEPHEN!!!!! <3

stephen playing :)

John had a blast!!

get the balloon get the balloon!

i know this kid's name.. i know this kid's name... i know it.. i know it... ahhhh... i can't remember :(

 i do remember supper came quickly and we had dishes this day. and devo's were good, as every night! and cards, as usual, after devo's until lights out!

it was a good day.

the journey began

i spent New Year's Eve with my friend, paul, and his friend, katie, at the O'Hare Intercontinental Rock & Roll Ball. paul was shooting the bands playing (rusted root, breakfast club, too white crew, and michael dermott) so i helped. it worked out that i stayed there and just took the hotel shuttle the next morning to the airport to start my journey to haiti.

i wanted to get there super early so i left the hotel at 830am (flight was at 1130am). i tried my best to get my bag to 50 lbs but it ended up being 60 lbs so i dumped all my waterbottles since i knew that was alot of weight right there. i took that out and put a ziplock bag of clothes in my carry-on and it was right at 50 lbs. everything went smoothly - i was the only one wearing the yellow shirt so another girl, elizabeth, came up to me. she knew a few others that came shortly before we boarded so i met laura (my 'travel buddy') right before we got on the plane.

when we got to JFK we didn't know where to find the shuttle so finally found out we needed to take the airtran. an hour and a half after we landed we were on the shuttle to the hotel. we get to the hotel only to find out that they 'don't have reservations for 8 rooms' for us. we tried every name we could think of including all 25 of ours and they still had nothing. so finally i looked up barb's number & left her a voicemail. she called me back shortly & we talked - she emailed jody, who called the hotel, and it was all taken care after that. at that point i had found out i was the only one who had been - the others who had previously been (which was only 2 girls out of the 24) were coming later, including the girl who organized it. so i think it was good i was there. tho i'm sure they coulda handled it on their own :) i asked the hotel mgr what the issue was when we came, why nothing worked, including jody's name - she didn't elaborate so it made me think it may have been in jose's name (since that's who she was talking to) - very frustrating that the hotel didn't work with us and were pretty rude to me the whole time. BUT it got worked out after an hour or so and we all ate pizza and watched the Rose Bowl. so it was GOOD :)

of course i couldn't sleep that night. i tossed and turned and tossed and turned. finally 4am came and i got up to get ready. the flight to port-au-prince was smooth. as soon as i saw the mountains of haiti from the sky i felt like i was home. i had a huge grin on my face until we landed. when we got to port-au-prince it was way different than the last time i went in 2007. they shuttled us from one end of the airport to the other. went thru immigration. then baggage where it took forever and i almost thought i wasn't going to get my check in bag! 2 people in the group actually didn't and that REALLY sucked!!!!! but they didn't complain. and they didn't get their bags until the day we left haiti. they were troopers!

jacques met us at the airport - we squeezed into a taptap and went from the big airport to the small airport to barely catch the small plane (19 passenger) ride to port de paix.

it felt like the pilot lost control when we got close to port-de-paix. at first it felt like turbulance then it was kinda outta control and everyone looked around at everyone like 'uhhhhhh what's going on'. but then we were flying smooth within 2 minutes-ish. it was kinda scary tho lol so i jokingly said 'the sun must have gotten in his eyes' lol

first person i saw when getting off the small plane in Port de Paix was Joseph! it was good seeing someone i knew! i met him in 2004 when he was security at the front gate of the mission. he and emmano and jack took us all to the bus - jack stayed behind & emmano drove (he's an awesome bus driver for the record). i reintroduced myself to joseph and the journey to st louis du nord began. everyone that traveled with me on that plane had their cameras out and were clicking away - everyone had to take a street shot before they got in the bus and thank goodness there was joseph behind them to tell them to get out of the middle of the street since the scooters/trucks stop for no one lol i didn't get my camera out at all the first day because i wanted to take haiti in. driving down the streets, smelling and seeing and hearing the sounds of haiti was refreshing. i was back. and i was happy and excited to be back. i couldn't stop thinking about seeing john and navius and grant and meeting melonnie and seeing who else was there! it'd been too long and i knew the mission was going to have changed alot and it did!

as soon as we got off the bus, i saw the switched miriam center (used to be known as heaven's waiting room - where john lives - see previous post) and the birthing center. and there was john!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the gate was shut so i had to say hi thru the gate but just saying his name and bon jour was enough to get him laughing and smiling. i pointed at him like i always did since i met him (my way of saying i love u & he does it back) and he just bent over in laughter. i was so happy because i was pretty sure he remembered me at that point. melonnie came down to greet us - i introduced myself. she said she saw my intern application, i explained i spoke with barb and jody about coming in march for a year and my situation. she said we would talk. john was playing with some americans so i went upstairs to put my bags away and get some water. then went back down to see him until supper time.

i love this boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

john photography. this is the front gate of the miriam center looking into the mission courtyard

john photography!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was so proud john could take photo's then i looked at the photo's and almost cried - they're really good!!!!

i saw grant the first day, met his sister emily who i clicked with right away. grant preached about how it's not about us but about God. and that put everyone's priorities in the right order i think. i know the sermon helped me later that week to make a decision to go to la baie instead of stay at the mission. i will elaborate later as i'm trying to stick to the day by day. i didn't journal alot and regret that, it would have been somuch easier if i could have typed it all out! i'm a slow writer lol by the time i write the first thought i have had 15 other thoughts so it doesn't work too well ;) melonnie told me right before supper the first night that navius lived downtown st louis and his health wasn't doing well - that they figured it was MS (made sense too). so that made me kinda sad. i decided i'd ask maureen the next time i saw her.

all in all the trip there was very smooth and i thank God that He allowed it to be. the first day was good - we were able to get settled and rest and meet others. i reeeeally wanted to sleep outside, but i knew it was going to rain so slept in the cabin - which BTW - they made a new girl's cabin that is AWESOME with new mattresses so bed bugs weren't bad this year i only got a handful on my face :)

they say one day in haiti feels like 3 maybe even 4 or 5 days! and that is a very accurate saying lol especially if u take a nap - u will definitely feel like one day is more than just one day! i only napped one day out of the whole trip tho. i kept busy and on my feet the whole time and enjoyed every moment!!!

1 reason haiti and the mission have my heart

i met stephen, the kid on top, when he was a baby in 2003. they didn't think he was going to make it, but he did! i met john (middle) in 2004 & denden in 2007. john & i really connected the first time we met so it is always great seeing him. they are in the disabilities ministry at the mission i go to so i get to see them every day i am there in st louis du nord :) i love it - it makes me so happy. as grant said one day - they don't care about you or your background whether you have a good career or college education. they just want you to go down there and play with them and pick them up and go outside and pay attention to them. they just want to love you and you love them.


it used to be Heaven's Waiting Room now just the Miriam Center. they have physical therapy every day/week and it is so good to see how far they've come in the years. they went from not being able to use their hands or move around or communicate to being able to communicate with actions and oui/no/ok/ou/mwen and feed themselves and go to the bathroom by themselves and take pictures with my camera to be able to color, etc. it is truly amazing to see the improvements each time i come back. i love it almost as much as i love them!

me and one of the miriam center workers with stephen and a lil girl (ti fi). this is john photography :)

me and stephen - more of john photography :)

john is seriously a good photographer!

i took this. i loved this boy. he was newer than the rest. i didn't get his name the whole week :( the Haitian ladies told me but it was hard to understand them. but even if i didn't know his name, it didn't matter. we still had an awesome time!

JOSHUA!!!!!!

john photography - it's cool to see me thru his eyes

John photography - i love this pic & these swings for the kids to play on!!!

John photography - he told me to pose like this (by showing me)

the boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! john was too busy playing tho lol

John photography - this is Owen. he loves sunglasses. if he could sit with a pair on he would be happy.

i love john's big heart. i also love that Miriam Center and the birthing center switched - now the kids have way more room to run around!!!

John photography - DenDen loved the glasses tooooo!

John photography - don't forget Stephen :)

it was hard communicating with him. especially when he tried to it just looked and sounded like he was crying. but u could tell he enjoyed it when u sat with him and held his hands or talked to him or had toys and played with him. he's so handsome.

 john seriously cleaned my glasses off before putting them on lol

to cool :)

i love john and miss him so much already!

pretty sure John put these on Stephen the wrong way on purpose! lol

before she did this John pointed to her taking temp's of other kids and then himself. he was telling me it was a daily routine. he's so smart it makes me so proud and happy.

pretty sure he's still kinda new since he is still sitting like this. once they go thru physical therapy after awhile hopefully they can break this habit. i'm not sure if it's possible but i didn't know it was possible for john to do as much as he is now and he is because of NWHCM

pretttty sure her name is natalie? this is her and emily playing with lego's.

John photography - more me thru his eyes :)

this kid was fun - he loved the swing so much i could never get a good pic lol