Haiti

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig.

um… I mean-- New York again, New York again, hustledy bustle.

That was lame.

Anyways, regardless, I am back in the States. 

My week in Haiti was eye-opening, to say the least. I spent the whole first day just kind of in shock at the poverty. We delivered clean water to the poorest neighborhoods of City Soleil, each huge truck of clean water costing 5 US dollars. Yeah. 

Each time we arrived to deliver the water, we were greeted by dozens of small voices chanting, "Hey you! Hey you!." I didn't really know what to think when I was getting off the tap-tap and there were children just swarming and reaching to be held-- most half-naked, some in their birthday suit. 

What could I do but embrace as many as I was physically capable of?

The first child I picked up kicked or punched any other boy or girl that would approach me. The desperation was real. 

The next day was a little more my speed. I took part in a wound clinic that the nuns hold 3 times a week throughout the community. Getting to the wound clinic was a story in itself. 3 of my team members and I shoved in the back of a Toyota SUV with two nuns, a Haitian volunteer, and another American volunteer. We drove through what looked like an umbrella city. Umbrellas and tents everywhere, people swarming all over the place, and somehow our vehicle driving right through the middle of it. 

We held the clinic, no joke, in the middle of an alley. All my nursing school instincts were telling me hand hygiene! But that wasn't really an option. 

After one demonstration of how to treat the wounds from one of the sisters, we were thrown right into it. And to my own surprise, I went to work without hesitancy. I had no problem with any of it. I was just in the zone and focused. After about a half hour I realized my face was literally raining sweat onto the poor guy's legs I was hunched over working on. 

2 hours later, all the patients had received fresh dressings (and there were a lot of them). 

That particular experience was one in which I felt I really contributed my part. 

We were able to see the village which the organization I went with, Healing Haiti, established. It has a foster-home type of set up with several houses having a mother & father figure parenting several kids. They have their own church, cafeteria, school, medical & dental clinic. One new addition to the school was the library, which one boy about 10 years old was excited about and supposedly visits every day to teach himself English. 

On that same day, we went to visit 5 elders that Healing Haiti keeps in touch with. Members of my team were able to wash them and treat their skin with lotion (I'm not scared of nasty wounds, but deathly afraid of old people--makes a lot of sense), while the rest of us sang worship songs with what became our traveling band. 

We were able to visit a couple of orphanages and share faith lessons with them. This was a really neat experience for me, especially with the first visit. As I approached the orphanage, I was immediately greeted and embraced by a girl about the age of 13. As the visit continued, I just felt the Spirit leading me to shower this girl with love. I can't really describe the connection we had, but it was just joyful. 

So those were the highlights of the week. I don't really know what else to say. I feel like I didn't do enough to actually make a difference. The poverty is overwhelming. And coming back here, especially to New York City, everything just seems so…available, dispensable, meaningless. 

The one thing I will say though, is that the faith of Haiti as a nation is remarkable. On every single taxi there is the name of Jesus! Imagine that in the Big Apple! There'd be a riot, for sure. 

In general, I am reminded of Matthew 23:12

"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

God Bless Haiti