During July 2013, I traveled first to Atlanta, GA to meet up with my mission team and then on to Haiti. I volunteered through Christian Sports Medicine Alliance and teamed up with International Sports Federation for this trip. While in Haiti, I assisted in conducting the first ever basketball camp in the village of Neply. It was a really big deal for them! We partnered with MyLifeSpeaks for all of the activities in Haiti. This is a truly amazing organization that is doing so much for the Haitians. With MyLifeSpeaks, we spent time helping with a feeding program, kids’ church, a program to educate and assist expectant/new mothers, and tutoring/feeding for restavecs (child slaves) and the most at-risk kids. I also got to spend time with some of the kids with special needs, who do physical therapy with some interns at MyLifeSpeaks. At any time between activities or at night, we would often play games with the Haitian kids or visit with some of the Haitians who worked as interpreters/guards/cooks for MyLifeSpeaks.
The trip was truly astonishing! I must tell you that I think I had the most wonderful mission team. There were 8 of us (4 girls and 4 guys, ranging in age from 19-34) that came together in Atlanta for a day and a half of training and bonding. We came from CA, OH, VA, TN, TX, and GA. Three of the guys knew each other before the trip, but the rest of us were meeting for the first time. Some how we bonded quickly and worked really well together. While in Haiti, we met every night for a time of reflection, devotion, and prayer. We were comfortable enough with each other that we all did some laundry together (including underclothes) in the same big bucket in Haiti. After 12 days together, I was actually very sad when we had to go our separate ways to catch flights when we got back to Atlanta, which is unusual for me. As my plane departed from Atlanta, I was teary-eyed and began praying for each member of our team as we made our way back into this crazy, busy world.
I could write forever about the experiences that I had in Haiti because every time I turned around I was literally experiencing God. In order to try and keep you reading, I’ve decided on 3 things to share. The first two are probably the most touching experiences that I had and the last one is – well – it just sums up part of what it is like living in Haiti.
After going to an evening church service, myself and two others from my team were visiting with one of the Haitians who works as an interpreter. His name is Wonder. What an awesome name! He shared with us some of the cruel realities of living in Haiti, such as the feeling of hopelessness and no love. One of his stories I won’t even share on here – it’s that harsh. Wonder is an incredible young man who literally glows with God’s joy! He was finishing up his education in Haiti that week that we were there and has plans to go to either Brazil or the US for medical school before returning to Haiti to take care of his people. It was a little strange because as Wonder was speaking, there were times he kept looking straight at me. It was like the two of us were the only two people standing there (even the other girl standing there said she’d noticed that too). Wonder said, he was filled with joy because he could hear God speak, and if you hear God speak, you have to listen. He told us that he went with a doctor who was delivering a baby for a woman just down the road from where we were. The baby was born with spina bifida and the doctor wanted Wonder to tell the mother that her child would never walk. Wonder refused to tell the mother because he knew that it would leave the mother with no hope. He later felt that God told him to give money to this family. Again looking at me, Wonder says, when God speaks to you, it’s not going to be something easy. Wonder needed his paycheck to pay for his exams, but he told MyLifeSpeaks to send his check to the family and tell the family that it was from MyLifeSpeaks. Wonder wanted his donation to be a true sacrifice that he did for God. While spending time with Wonder, you could see an innocent sparkle in his eyes as he spoke of God and the hope that he gets from God. To see this coming from a man who has seen and lived through some terrible things, is just amazing. I felt challenged by Wonder to give more over to God, and I kept thinking about what God has in store for me that I needed to hear those words from this man. I was so moved that night that I asked to take a picture and then Wonder gave me a big hug that was full of giving! I wish that I could more clearly capture in words what I saw and felt from Wonder on that night.
During the basketball camp for 8-12 year olds, I had a team of 6 kids. Let me tell you – kids in Haiti aren’t used to standing in lines so the fact that we taught them to stay in a line as we went through drills was quite an accomplishment. On the last day of camp, we had the kids play a game of 5-on-5. My team had played their game but did terrible. One of my girls would just run with the ball instead of dribbling it. We had an odd number of teams and the last team had some tiny kids so they called my team back on the court to play again, thinking it might be a better match up since we weren’t very good the first time. Both teams had 6 kids so we let them all play. Ericka did better and would dribble the ball once every 2 or 3 steps, which was an improvement. Then, one of my boys (Brenton) actually made a shot! After the shot went in, Brenton threw his arms out like a plane and started running straight to me at the mid-court. He practically jumped into my arms. The look on his face was beyond priceless…there aren’t words to describe the joy and sense of accomplishment he showed. The entire team swarmed us, and they had a big team hug, jumping up and down. I had to remind them that we were still playing a game. Even after the game was over, the kids came to give high-fives and hugs. When they got their camp tshirts, it was like they’d just won the Olympics. Each day of camp, we’d give the kids a PB&J sandwhich and juice while someone shared a Bible story. For some kids, that was the only food they’d get that day. In the village, you don’t see toys. You don’t see a playground. And even the basketball court…we had to sweep the goat droppings off of it before camp each day. These kids don’t get to experience games and playing like we do. To give them that time to be a child and to feel like they have accomplished something was incredible. If one small accomplishment leads to another, then maybe – maybe hope can be given to these kids as they continue to grow into young adults. One of my team members said that in her small group at camp, the interpreter just started laughing at one point. She asked him what was so funny. His response - it’s just that the kids are having fun. He was moved to laughter seeing the kids being kids. There’s so much we take for granted.
Finally, to give you a smal idea of what the conditions were like…As you will see in the pictures, the basketball court was in the sun. We were on the court all morning and then again in the afternoon. After the small kids camp in the early afternoon, we would play some of the adult Haitians until 4:30 or 5:00. One day they told us that the heat index was 113, and that wasn’t the day that felt the hottest to me. Once I got moving and got drinched in sweat, the heat didn’t seem so bad. It was just the act of getting started. The place where we stayed…I shared a room with 7 other ladies and slept on the top bunk. There was no AC and we had to limit our water use (no hot water). That means you follow the saying – if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down. Starts to stink a bit. We took Haitian showers. You turn the water on and get all wet. Turn the water off and soap/shampoo up. Turn the water on and rinse off quickly. That’s it. I tell you what – I lived for those showers each night! We had all the drinking water that we needed, with the exception of a short time that we did run out and were waiting for the bus to get back with more. I was woken from my sleep one night around 3am because of a fluttering noise near my ear. I grabbed my flashlight and found a cockroach sitting near my pillow. I wanted to scream but held it in so that I wouldn’t wake up all of the other ladies. I climbed down from bed to grab my flip flop. Of course, the roach moved and I couldn’t get to it to kill it without possibly knocking it down onto Leslie who was sleeping below me. It had crawled between the headboard and the wall. I moved toward the foot of my bed and hung my legs off the side. I had my flashlight on for the rest of the night to make sure the thing didn’t come near me again. Needless to say, I didn’t get anymore sleep that night. I can take small spiders, but cockroaches make me cringe. As the other ladies woke up the next morning, they were all looking at me like I was weird and wondering why I was laying the way that I was. That next night before going to take showers one of the girls grabbed her shoe and started hitting the ground a few times. My friend had reappeared over by her and she’d been able to smash it!! Thank you Kelly for giving me some peace of mind so that I could sleep a little bit more the next night. I was honestly challenged a bit by the surroundings. I really enjoyed my time in Haiti but because of the living conditions, I was ready to come back. It’s easy to get all sweaty and gross when you know that you can go home, take a nice long shower, and then cool off in the AC. It’s a different story when you take a Haitian shower and continue sweating after you get out. It makes you grateful for what we have so readily available here at home.
For anyone who wants to hear more about my trip, I have many more stories to share!! We did a lot of fun things in the evenings such as a moto ride to a mango orchard, sail out into the ocean – jump in and swim – then sail back to the shore, watched the Neply soccer team play a neighboring village team, experienced the “shops” to get Haitian souvenirs, and went to a very nice beach and snorkeled (had a jelly fish tap into me). Each day was full of experiences and blessing from God!