Santa Came to Haiti!

Not only was I anticipating Roy's return visit, being with 26 people mostly under the age of 40, and awaiting a package from my family, I was waiting for Lauren Hayes(one of my best friends from college and roommates my senior year). She came just in time to be my Christmas present this year. Let me tell ya santa really provided. The best part was that I got to share my life here with her, which becomes increasingly hard to explain to people in words.
The best part was that I got to share my life here with her, which becomes increasingly hard to explain to people in words.

Of the 26 visitors, they came from four different universities. Eastern, Quincy, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. Eastern and Quincy has a developed Haiti Connection, Northwestern came a long to explore the possibilities of developing a relationship, and Roy's daughter came from Notre Dame.

We were in Gros Morne for a few days. We helped carry rocks to build a house, visited with people, played with kids, we went swimming (some of us, including myself jumped off a 30ft cliff) and spent  time with Haitians, enjoying their culture.

We then (all 29 of us) traveled for over 7 hours to another part of Haiti. We were the main attraction as we drove through towns. white people in the back of pickup trucks on top of our luggage.

For three days we were in a small town. Did a lot of hiking, did some work on some of the EIU projects, were present to the community, went to the market, had a small talent show,, sat in on a few meetings, played games with kids in the community, and continued to be present to each other and the Haitian culture.

Since I am EIU... It was also very cool to see what the group from my university has been doing for so many years! Like everyone in the group but Jen and Roy's daughter, I had never been to most of the places we visited after Gros Morne. Majority of the group, did not know me, and assumed I had been to Haiti, or the very least been involved in the Haiti Connection before making a year commitment... Their surprise and responses when I told them I was never involved in the Haiti connection, or have never traveled to Haiti, was humbling to me.  

Seeing one of my best friends, old friends and new friends leave was really difficult. I might have even shed a tear ... I think a lot of it was a lot of jealously. Knowing they were going home just in time for Christmas with their families made it really hard.

After the group left and as we were driving Jen and I decided we were going "home". We were excited to go back to the life and people we are familiar with, back to our own beds, and our community...

Heres what we did for Christmas:

                              On Christmas Eve, Jen and I made our debut in the choir we joined....

On Christmas day we didn't run to see if Santa came, wake up our parents, open presents, or get ready to go to see our families. We woke up like any other day. Jen and I enjoyed cornflakes and soy milk for breakfast together, which is always special..... We spent the rest of our day skyping our families, did some preparations for our meal, listened to christmas music and made some cakes.
We then went to a place here in town where people live that have no home, family, or both. We shared some cake, sodas, and were present with them for some time. It was a very special way to spend Christmas.
It was defiantly a different and very special Christmas.
Not being home for Christmas was a real challenge.  It was the first year away from my whole family on Christmas. Yes it was a challenge, but I survived Christmas without them. After facing that challenge, I know I am being blessed in so many other ways.

some pictures from our traveling with Roys group......

This man gave the group these plantains to say thank you.

Steven....Trying his best to speak to the kids. 

Part of the assembly line we had to carry rocks.

 The present lauren got from Steven. It is supposed to resemble what is around a lot of goat necks to                                                                                                  keep them out of the neighbors gardens....

A massive truck passing us while we were driving on a road not big enough for two cars, at the edge of a mountain. 

stud

stud

                                                     Our little community christmas tree

A Quick Update

I am really behind in updating. We have had a very eventful month, and it is only getting crazier. A little over three weeks ago we had a visitor come here, and for the first time it was someone we knew!! Our campus minister, Roy from EIU came for a few days. We were lucky enough to travel with him for a day. We were also very fortunate to be able to see some of Haiti's natural beauty. Roy was able to take us to see and to go in a beautiful waterfall in a town called Sodo

.

people laying in the water, walking, drinking rum, and there were some ladys naked taking a bath.

Jen and I beginning to walk in the waterfall. To the right, the group of boys insisted that they needed to guide us.

how much can fit on one truck?

I spy something that stands out......

A good portion of our town, from a mountain with thousands of trees that have been planted.

I went back to first grade the other day at the Jesus Mary school. Where I learned my abcs, and how to count to thirty. I went before school started so in hopes that if I was already there, I would cause less of a distraction. I was wrong. For the first hour, I would notice a head turned around staring at me for what felt like ten minutes.The teacher had about 40 kids in her class. It wasn't like a class in the states where the teacher has 25 kids, has them all engaged and has decent control over them.  There were kids paying attention, and behaving, but it seemed like a lot of them were leaving to go to the bathroom, fighting, yelling " He is eating crackers in class!!" pushing, not paying attention, all while the teacher continued with the class.

Roy came again this past week and brought 26 people from Eastern, Quincy, and Northwestern. I am working on that update....

Thanksgiving In Haiti

While everyone was at home enjoying a nice thanksgiving meal with family and friends and lots of good food............We were too. We had a frozen turkey reserved at one of the grocery stores in Port-au-Prince. Yes we reserved it, we thought it might be one of the only butterballs in the country. Although I wasnt able to walk down the street to my aunts house, see my cousins and be with my family like we normally do, here we have our own little family. We were joined by Barak, a priest, a visitor Sr. Jean who has been with us for three weeks. Also it wasnt my moms appetizers, and my aunts cooking and desserts, but we had a good Americanized Thanksgiving. We had a turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, gravy, and I made my moms pumpkin bars!  The food at thanksgiving time is really a plus, and something I missed, but we celebrated and right outside our gates were people who didnt have enough to have even one meal.
                I didnt get to come home to be with my family, see all my friends, go shopping with my mom at 4am for nothing but to watch all the crazy mommies fight over a toy, have pumpkin creamer in my coffee, and watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation the family favorite.  It was a year for change for even my family who went to the other side of the family for thanksgiving (I believe for the first time in all that I have been alive). Although I missed them, I got to skype them, hear what they said they were thankful for at dinner, and hear their voices.
        

This is our dinner table. Laurie took the picture, but she was there too.

 Pre-dinner table.










                                                                                                    I got the honor to carve the turkey...

Thanksgiving day started by going to visit the schools. We have had a visitor here, Sr. Jean. and she has never seen the schools. Being conscious of the meaning of the day, waking up here made it 100x more obvious that I and so many others have so much to be thankful for.
We went to watch the flag raising and then go to the school across the river to see the progress of the project! My favorite part of the flag raising is when they have to pray. They are supposed to be closing their eyes, but when there are white people there, this makes it ten times more challenging for them. I got a few pictures of this precious moment, and was appropriate for Thanksgiving day.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                        

We then went across the river where kids who are too small to cross the river go to school. There is also a little girl who has been at the school for three years. She has been in the preschool because she has a developmental disability, here there is no means to help children like her.  Here is a few pictures of her, with the smile that says she is so full of life.

On Friday, we went to Jean Rabel. A place were other RJM sisters live, and our friend Guardyne who was here with us for a month. These three days were a little vacation for us. We were able to relax, have some fun, and see a new part of Haiti. We went to the market that is really hard to describe. There is tons of people selling items for hair, bedding, clothes, fresh cut meat, rice and , fruits and veggies. If you need something, that is where you go. The streets are full people, who are walking, tons of women selling, few people buying and as one of the sisters said " if you need to talk to someone, you will find them at the market" On market day, thats the place to be. We also went to the "beach" which was full of big rocks and garbage. We were able to find an area with sand, but we were weary to go in and just stuck our feet in and found shells.


Jen said, lets take a picture together.
Then she said lets pretend I am pushing you
 in (the running water filled with garbage and
who knows what else)....

                                               



This donkey was just standing while his owner was talking. Im sure he was planing his escape.

 This boy was following us through the whole market. Carrying his chair on his head, then when we parted him, he decided to carry it above his head. He didnt talk to us, just following the white people.

This is us at dinner, again Laurie took the picture... We ate our dinner in about 20 minutes, but after we shared stories for maybe an hour or more each night. Mostly told by Sr. Nazareth who is Spanish who combines English Kreyol and Spanish in her stories. She doesnt try to be funny, but the stories she tells are priceless a lot to do with the word choices and integration of multiple languages. She told us about how they were robbed and the money ended up in the latrine, and about a woman who had something wrong with her breasts and they were past her knees.

 

Also you can see in the picture there is no door behind me. Where they live, they have no doors, its all open air. Their showers and toilets are under their big roof or overhang, and has walls, but it is still in the open air.Being there did result in a few bug bites, but they live closer to the people, and has a welcoming  refreshing feel.

It took 4 hours to get there, driving through the mountains there is not a shell station to stop at to use the bathroom.... So the side of the mountain was the only choice. Here is a picture of Laurie that Jen took when I was using the facilities because there might have been Haitians across the mountain with a clear view of what I was doing...

                                This little girl and I were playing, she fell and scraped her hand
                                    and this is the expression she had as she was standing up....

  The beach we were at, along with some fisherman boats that I thought were so cool!

I went to a meeting with Jen and ended up playing with the kids.....

                                    This is how the little ones line up to go to class in the morning.

                                                               And a little toddler butt....