Reflection & Observations

Haiti was an amazing experience indeed.  I'll be posting more specific stuff regarding the various things we did and experienced while in Toytoye, Baptiste, Belladere and Port au Prince but today I'm going to post more about some of the things I took away from this trip. One of the biggest, if not THE BIGGEST thing I took away was this:

Appreciate EVERYTHING you have.  

(Even the things that you complain about!)

1. Next time you go to spend that $2 on a bottle of water rather than grabbing a cup from the tap stop and remember there are women and CHILDREN who carry buckets of water on their heads, sometimes walking to and from the pump for MILES on rocky "roads" just to have water clean enough to drink.  Water that won't potentially kill them if they drink it.  Water they need for cooking, bathing and laundry. Water they cannot simply get from their closest home sink. Water that requires more than one journey a day to ensure you have enough of it.
2. Look at your shoes and thank God for them.  Imagine walking (actually hiking - who am I kidding) miles over rock filled dirt roads or paths up and down a mountain with nothing more than a pair of flip flops.  Don't forget to picture yourself doing this with a 30 pound, 5 gallon bucket of water on your head and whatever you are carrying in your arms. Oh, and then try to imagine doing all that without any shoes.  Yup - shoes aren't a given for the people in Toytoye.
3. Air conditioning.  Make that trek to the water well and add in that it's 95 degrees in the shade with 1000% humidity. You do cool off when it gets dark - kind of - if you're lucky enough to live high enough up in the mountains.  Our last night in Haiti was spent in Port au Prince which was out of the mountains and so hot I moved the mattress I had outside just to get a slight breeze (and with it also came mosquitoes and the smell of burning garbage.)
4. Electricity and indoor plumbing. I won't get gross but use your imagination and you still won't be able to grasp it fully.  If you are lucky enough to have a working toilet (i.e. our team in the house we were provided by Food for the Hungry) don't flush anything that doesn't come out of your body and with the heat... take out the bathroom trash OFTEN.  That's all I have to say about that.
5. Showers and anything resembling hot water. Dare I remind you to grab a bucket for that well walk?  Cold showers and bathing is refreshing however after having spent the day in the heat. And soap - one of the women visited by a gal on my team was beside herself with joy to be given 2 bars of soap so she could wash hands and keep her children clean.  Basic soap too - ditch your nice smelling, moisture rich beauty bar or liquid, anti-bacterial gels. Soap you'd probably find in an auto garage yet to her it was as precious as gold.  While we're talking showers, you can also ditch a certain level of privacy - folks would just "shower" at the pump. 
6. FOOD.  Grocery stores.  Fresh fruit and veggies.  Pizza and Chinese food delivery.  That McDonalds drive thru or the Starbucks coffee you picked up today.  The only chicken nuggets I saw were the baby chicks of the chickens roaming free in the front "yards" of homes and on the roads throughout the area. If you don't grow it or raise it yourself then yeah, you don't eat mostly.  Don't forget that in order to grow your own food you have to water it. Better grab a few more buckets for one of those trips to the well or to that stream that is also a good, HILLY few miles away.  But don't drink from that stream mind you - the neighbor's goat probably did its business in it and well, I hear typhoid isn't fun.
7. Screens on your windows. I'm positive some of the bites I have on my body came while I was sleeping since the only air flow we really had was from open windows. And while I'm at it, be appreciative for windows at all, and doors. Some folks had no windows and merely a doorway with a sheet hanging in front of it.
8. Medical care.  Quit complaining about insurance premiums and Obamacare and remember there are people who may very well DIE from the sinus infection they get that we get medicines to treat. Preventable diseases run rampant because there are no doctors or actual medicines available to ensure you don't get sick.  We can DRIVE 10 or so minutes to see the doctor and complain about waiting 15 minutes past our appointment time while there are people who have NO access to basic medical care and suffer through ailments we whine about as we pump ourselves with readily available OTC and prescription medicines.  Going to work with a cold is no fun.  Imagine the last time you went to work sick.  Now imagine your job was farming land in the hot 95 degree heat for HOURS on end having had not much more than rice and beans, maybe a banana or two or a mango and hopefully some water.  Did I mention there is no hour break for lunch (if you have food) and mini-breaks throughout the day lasting more than maybe a few minutes?
9. Dentists.  Yeah, just dentists.
10. Pain medications - ladies give birth at home gals and yeah, it's ALL NATURAL ALL the time and there is a good chance, if she's around, either your mother or grandmother or mother-in-law is going to be delivering your baby. Heck, it could be the gal next door (and next door isn't exactly a house you can see from yours it's just one that is closest to you).
11. Your kids well being.  If you have kids look at them and imagine how your heart would break if you couldn't feed them (and I'm not talking missing out on a McNugget run) or had little fresh water for them to drink or had to watch them suffer in pain from some illness or disease they had.  One little girl the team visited had the newer disease pronounced "chicken-goon-ya" which is also referred to as the "bone breaking" disease contracted from mosquito bites. Debilitating joint pain making it hard to even move along with rash and high fever.  The only treatment is Tylenol type meds to treat symptoms till the disease runs its course in about a week or so.  Even with Tylenol imagine watching your child suffer through that - but now picture watching it without being able to give your kid ANYTHING to take the edge off.  Hug those little rascals a little tighter next time you see them.
12. Clothes.  For the most part, folks had clothes.  They had what appeared to be our leftovers - things you'd most likely turn your nose at if it were given to you as a choice.  Don't worry about anything matching and if it is 100% in tact then you're already ahead of the game.  Many of the smaller children either had on just a shirt that barely covered their tiny bottom cheeks (which were just adorable I have to say) or a pair of undies and no shirts.  It was also not uncommon to see folks, in this 95 degree environment in jeans and sweatshirts. 

As a side note: wives - see how long you can go without ANY contact (in-person, voice, email, text - NOTHING) with your husband and what that does to your appreciation for him.  I hope this rings true for husbands too but since I'm not one I don't want to presume anything. ;)

When all you have is God, you truly have all you need.  

I saw this truth every single day I was there.  The things I describe above I saw first hand and you know something?  I saw it all in people who didn't complain and smiled.  Men, women and children. I saw people who were content in conditions that we, as an over-indulgent, spoiled country see as horrific and deplorable.

Philippians 4:11New International Version (NIV)

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Something I didn't see - not a bit of vanity.  While folks donned their best attire when we'd come visit them and their children there was no focus I saw about outward appearances.  No manicured nails, no fashionable haircuts, if you were gray there is no hair color at the corner store, no lipstick and mascara.  Pedicures?  You walk barefoot day after day on rocks and dirt and the last thing you want is soft, callous free feet.  Jewelry?  Outside of seeing a few modest necklaces the only jewelry I saw was on me and the team I traveled with. Mis-matched clothes, dirty and with holes. Deodorant?  I believe that is a luxury for many.

Don't get me wrong - none of what we have in our country is inherently bad nor should we not take advantage of the luxuries we have.  But I ask anyone reading this to think about the things I write and think about the PEOPLE who live everyday of their lives content with very little and thank God for each and every little thing you have and that we all take for granted.

Personally, I have come back with a new sense of priorities and humility not only from my observations but my experiences too.  To name a couple:

• I was out hiked by a grandmother - at one point she even looked back and asked me if we needed to stop a bit and rest the legs. I wonder if she'd ever see a white woman let alone one with a face THAT red before.
• I made the choice some mornings to not eat the remainder of the previous night's goat in a stew for breakfast because I had the luxury of a protein bar in my backpack.  Props to the mighty Fu - she chowed down that goat hoof like nobody's business!  Haitians don't have much of a choice on what they eat and nothing goes to waste.  If you have hoof and intestine stew for breakfast you eat hoof and intestine stew for breakfast.  PERIOD.
• I'm lazy.  WICKED LAZY.  I can be because I have the ability to be that way.  In Haiti, lazy isn't an option.  ISN'T AN OPTION.  If you don't feel like the long trip to the water well YOU GO ANYWAY.  There is no "it's too hot to go" or "I'm too tired or sick" excuse or mentality.  There is no calling out sick from working on your crops or "I'll do it tomorrow."  Lazy and "I don't feel like it" could very well mean starvation, sickness and yeah, starting/running full speed down the path of a much shorter life span.  And no, that's not me being dramatic it's me being truthful.

To everyone that prayed for me and for the team again, THANK YOU!  We all managed to avoid any major health problems while we were in Haiti and were able to spread God's love to many in our short time there.

I ask that you continue to pray for the people in the areas we visited.  They had not received a drop of rain in about 3 weeks for their coffee and veggie plants.  Not only did we pray for rain but alongside the community, we helped prepare the fields to receive that rain God did send a couple of the days we were there.  Hearing that thunder and feeling the drops come down was one of the best things EVER!  No irrigation systems or pipes for water (yet) so please pray for rain to continue to fall on all the crops and prepared fields so they can grow and be plentiful!

Pictures and more updates will come soon but slowly.  TTFN...