Haitian Time

We got up around 7 am this morning and ate our breakfast oceanside. I love that every morning we get to enjoy our breakfast outside listening to the waves crash against the rocks. This morning we had french toast and fresh bread and it was really good. The food out here is not nearly as sweet as America but I am starting to really like it and it makes you feel way better.

Today we had a lot of experience with "Haitian Time." Some people like to just call it island time. This means that the people here will tell you to be ready by a certain time but they won't actually be ready for at least and hour and a half after that. Like today we were supposed to leave at 8 to head over to the orphanage but the van did not get here until 8:30. These people have no sense of rush. It is also very hard for us communicate out here so we never know what time to be ready. You just have to learn to roll with the punches and let whatever happens happen. Its the best mindset to have while you are out here.

While we were waiting for our van to arrive today we saw a Haitian lady out selling merchandise. We decided to walk over and see what she was trying to sell. She had all kinds of handmade items that she was selling. She had bowls, bracelets, globes and paintings. They all had there very own personal touch to them. She was a very nice lady and did not charge very much for her items. She also told us that she had made all of these herself. She did such an awesome job with it!

We arrived at the orphanage and were immediately greeted by the children. They all had big smiles on there faces and were yelling our names when we got out of the van. We went and sat down on a bench and soon we had kids climbing all over us. They were full of smiles. There is a two month old baby at the orphanage. The baby is not an orphan her mom works at the orphanage. The mom came over today and just handed me the baby. I literally fell in love with this little girl immediately. She had big eyes and was looking everywhere. It was so fun to hold a little baby. Below is the two month old baby.

The principal of the school asked us today if we would be willing to tutor students. Within like five minutes of the asking us he had a classroom of twelve students prepared for us to teach in. He told us that these students needed to work on there math skills. In my mind I was imagining it would like an American school where you would sit around the table and just work on math facts. Boy was I in for a surprise. These twelve kids were climbing across the tables and crawling under the tables. They were all yelling at each other. We had absolutely no control over them. They were just doing whatever they wanted to do and no one was going to stop them. When we finally figured out a way to teach them, we found out that these kids are actually really smart. We were working on their addition and subtraction facts and the students would come up to the board and draw the problem out for us. I was really impressed with that no if only we could get them to all sit down and be quiet. Haley and I learned that we just had to adapt to the craziness of the classroom and figure out new ways to explain the problems to them. We both walked out of the classroom and looked at each other and said I don't think those kids got a single thing out of that lesson. If anything the students taught us how to quickly think of activities. It was really hard for us because we are so used of using resources to do lessons. These kids don't have paper or pencils so we can't write out problems for them to do. We can't have them complete activities. We have to get really creative with what we do.

After our  crazy morning of tutoring we went and played with kids for a little while. I had bought a couple of soccer balls for the kids prior to coming out here. Today I noticed that the kids were out playing with it. They were so excited to have a ball and to be able to play soccer again. I will be really surprised if that ball makes it through the week. It was so dirty and was already loosing air by the end of the day. My little thumb sucking friend came back to my lap today around 1:00. I found out that she is only two years old and doesn't usually get a nap. She made herself comfortable on my lab and with in minutes she was softly snoring. I could have held her all afternoon but with the blazing hot sun beating down on us we were both sweating and she was slipping in my arms. I carried her over to the girls cottage and just set her down in one of the bunk beds. While I was looking around the girls cottage I noticed that some of the students had pictures of there sponsor families hanging on the wall. It was so cute to how much the kids appreciate and enjoy getting pictures and letters from there sponsor families. We were informed that one of the girls has a 90 year old grandma sponsoring her and her college is already paid off! I just thought that was amazing.

Some of the older girls decided that they wanted to put my hair into corn rows today. I have never had corn rows done on my hair. Let me tell you that these girls are really good at braiding. They get right down to business and they are not the least bit gentle with your hair. There were points when I was about in tears because it hurt so bad. I could not believe how painful it was to get your hair done in cornrows!

Earlier I had talked about how these people live on Haitian time. Today they went to go and get the van fixed. They had told us that the van would be back in the early afternoon to pick us up and bring us back. That was around 2 in the afternoon. We waited around for the van and waited. We played with the kids for awhile. Soon we had to go to the bathroom. I am a person who can deal with some interesting scenarios but these bathrooms are not my choice. I mean unless I would absolutely have to go I will not go there. So we were all waiting around and had to go to the bathroom and also were very hungry. It was not 4:30 and we had not gone to the bathroom or ate anything since 8 am. I mean a girl can only wait so long. Sean had asked me if I would be willing to take the tap tap back. This is pretty much a Haitian taxi. You sit in the back of pick up and the pickup has like a bench on both sides and then cover over top and you can only see at the back. Luckily, our tap tap was empty sometimes you seem them with people just hanging out the sides. In the tap tap you just ride around and once you see the place you want to be dropped off at you tap twice on the side of the truck and they drop you off. It was fun to ride in one and they are super cheap it only cost us 15 cents to ride in one. Below Riley helping me through my first tap tap ride. He was so excited! :)

We finally made it back to our hotel for the night. We all quickly ran to the bathroom and then went to get food. I was so hungry. I order a full meal which consisted of a salad, three layer sandwich, and fries. I pretty much inhaled my food it took us a little under 10 minutes to eat our food once it had arrived. Haley and I were still hungry after not eating for so long so we decided we would order some dessert. This dessert was like God's gift to earth. It was literally the best chocolate mousse I had ever had in my life. Lisa had order a flaming banana soaked in caramel. It was really good except that the caramel stuck to your teeth really bad. It was like eating one of caramel apple suckers. The sad thing is after eating all of that food I still hungry! I feel like a bottomless pit.

In our room I got a new name tonight! I am now being called the bug slayer. I was laying in bed typing out my blog. When all of the sudden these huge bug like the size of cockroach came flying through my room. I instantly started screaming and Haley just laughed at me until it flew right next to her. So I jumped out of my bed go and find the bug and get it our of room. In the process of looking around for it I looked at the floor and screamed. There was a crab. Yes, thats right a crab crawling across the floor. Haley and I were both scared and didn't know what to do. I was laughing/ screaming while looking at it. I finally grabbed a garbage can and put it over top of the crab. I was sliding the garbage can across the floor when all of the sudden Haley jumped and screamed again. She didn't see my hand pushing the crab and she had thought the crab was pushing the garbage can by itself. We were both laughing and crying on the floor. Once we stopped laughing I finally guided the crab back outside. After that I told Haley that the bug was still somewhere in our room. For some reason we both looked at her towel and saw the bug at the same time and jumped and screamed again. Our neighbors probably think we are crazy by now. I used the garbage can once again to get the bug out of our room. I am hoping we have no more creepy creatures in our room tonight! This also reminded me that tonight I was eating supper and I had felt something on my arm so I swatted at it. I swatted and gecko jumped off my arm and on to the table! My goodness I hope that was all the critters I have to deal with on this trip! Below is some of the kids playing with the soccer ball I brought!

I am finally adapting to the Haiti lifestyle. My showers have the occasionally blackout. This is when the electricity goes out and I just finish showering in the dark. This is actually pretty relaxing! I am also getting used of keeping my mouth closed while showing. The water will make you really sick so you have to be super careful when taking a shower! This trip is making me realize all the little things in life that I take advantage of!

With Love,
Abby

Haitian cuddles

Today was our first day of being in the classroom. School in Haiti starts early, we had to be at the orphanage at 8. There school days are also a little different, they start school at 7 and our done by 1. Upon arriving at the school we were greeted by the principal and all the orphan children. These kids literally have there own little life style. They have a little garden in which they had planted potatoes. Along with buckets where some of the older orphans wash the clothes and small clothes line where they hang up the clothing. You will also see the older orphans preparing the food for all of them. They also have a small farm where they have goats, chickens, cats, and dogs. One of the things that makes me super nervous out here is that the area the kids play on is not that safe. I mean they have a fire cooking all the food and the kids are just running all around. The ground is covered in rocks and the kids are just running across the rocks with no shoes on and they just pick anything off the ground and put it in their mouths. They are also building a secondary school right now and kids are just play on the construction site! It makes me super nervous but these kids don't know any different.

After arriving at the school we met with the principal (Elisse) of the school. He explained to us what all his goals for the school were. This man is a very driven and has big aspirations for his school. One of his main goals for the schools is to have it be the best school in Jacmel. Elisse is also a very faith driven man. When we started the meeting he first said a prayer about how thankful and lucky he was to have us here. I forgot to mention this in my blog yesterday but we had just crossed the river before climbing the mountain and Elisse had stopped the whole group and asked us to get in a circle. We prayed in the middle of the street with cars zooming past us. He has no shame in showing his faith! He also told us that the reason he is going to have the best school in Jacmel is because they believe in God and anything is possible with God. It is just crazy to see how much faith these people have. Elisse showed us around the classrooms they are very small and compared to our schools are not set up in the best way possible. After we got done seeing how the school was set up we got a chance to hang out with the kids.

Today while we were meeting with some of the teachers discussing plans a young gentlemen walks into the room. He didn't say anything but he pulled one of the volunteers outside. The man then walks to the back of our van and writes in the dust " I am deaf." The guy was trying to sell us necklaces. These were very pretty necklaces and I ended up getting one. Soon the principal was explaining that they have a huge deaf community out here. I think it was so cool to see all the diversity and how these people make a living out here. This guy did not give up he found a way to communicate with us and try and sell his necklaces.

Barb the founder of Love takes root talked to us about the importance of just being there for the kids. She asked to just go sit on a bench and play with the kids and show them that someone cares about them. She said that we just need to love on these kids as much as possible. So I went and found a bench and within seconds I had kids jumping all over me. They were all asking what our names were. These kids are also very good at pronouncing our names along with remembering them. It has been quite a struggle for me to pronounce there names. I have to sit there for like five minutes sounding it out. They have way different names then what we have. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have them down. One of the hardest parts was the language barrier. I have no idea what these kids are saying. I now know what it feels like to be an English Language Learner in the classroom. I am slowly starting to pick up on the French. Each night I look up a few new phrases so I can talk with kids.

I also made a new little friend today. She is a feisty little girl when I first came across her she was hitting some little boys with a branch. So I just picked her up and brought her to a bench. She seemed really upset. After a little while she dragged me over to the swings and we swung for little bit. All of the sudden she tried to jump of the swing and fell pretty hard on the dirt. She got right up and didn't even cry but she wanted to be held. So I went and found a bench and just let her sit. She soon got very comfy on my lap. Other Haitian girls were trying to get her off my lap but she would not move! Soon I had many girls piling on my lap. They all seemed very tired and just laid there heads down. The one little girl who fell off the swing just sat on my lap and sucked her thumb! It was so cute! I knew this would be one of the moments I would never forget. In the photo below the girl with her tongue out is my new little friend :)

After hanging around the orphanage we headed back to our hotel and enjoyed the perks of being on the Caribbean. Our hotel is nestled in a little cove that has small beach for guests. So Haley and I put on our swim suits and laid down by the beach for a little bit to relax after a busy morning. We also tried Haitian mac & cheese today! This mac & cheese puts ours to shame. It was so good. I have feeling I am really going to miss the food when I leave.

Tonight while we were eating our meal we were discussing technology and what a huge impact it has had on our society. For instance these last couple of days I have rarely been on social media except to communicate with people otherwise I put it away. It brings a sense of relief I feel like we are tied up in the use of our phones. We have become so dependent on them that we don't know how to operate without them. We also noticed that Haitians are the same way. These people are walking out of there shacks carrying iPhones. Somehow they have found ways to purchase a phone. The kids at the orphanage also know what an iPhone is because they are constantly asking to take photo with our iPhones. I swear that is one of the few English words these kids know.

With Love,
Abby
" Let all that you can do be done in love." 1 Corinthians 16:14

The upward battle

Today we saw a whole bunch of sites throughout Haiti. We started out our morning eating breakfast oceanside its amazing how you travel less then a 400 steps and you see the poorest of houses and life styles and the next second you are just surrounded by the ocean. Our breakfast this morning consisted of fresh fruit which was so good and french toast ( my favorite breakfast food!) After breakfast we piled into the mini van to go visit the orphanage that we will be working. The mini van has quite a smell to it. The put extra gas cans in the back when they are driving and they didn't realize that the gas can had a hole in it. So needless to say the whole van smells like gas and so do we. We got to orphanage and were greeted by the principal and his family. They are the ones that take care of all the kids. They are very nice and sweet people. We also got a chance to meet some of the kids. They are so cute and happy! If the kids from the states were given there living situation they would not be happy. These kids have barely any toys but they all seem so happy. When we arrived all the kids were cleaning the buildings or helping prepare the food. One of the little girls found a jump rope and asked Haley and I to sing the jump rope so she could jump. The girl then decided I should take a turn at jumping. Let me tell you this is the shortest jump rope ever and I am very tall. Lets just say not much jumping occurred.

We got a quick tour of the school and where we will be teaching. The classrooms are not very big and there is like no air flow. So teaching in 90 degree weather could be a little interesting for us! We were only at the orphanage for a short period of time before we squeezed into the van to go hike the mountain. We fit 12 grown adults into this minivan along with 2 kids. The kids were told they could come along if they made there beds and got creme in there hair. Only two boys had done that so they could come along with us! It was little tight in the van. Thankfully we had to only travel about a half hour to get to the drop off point to climb the mountain. Bobby (our driver) dropped us off in the middle of the street in the middle of the market. In the market there are a lot of people along with a lot of people on motorcycles. They are just zooming past us as we are trying to navigate our way around the mountain. The market is full of Haitians trying to sell food and clothing. We saw a lot of rice and chicken. The chicken is not bagged our anything it is just skinned and then sitting in a card board box. I can't believe the people don't get sick from it. Once we got out of the market we reached a flat land that consisted mostly of dirt and palm trees. The photo is from the river we crossed.

We came across a river that was pretty wide but only a little deeper than my ankles in parts. The river was one of the hardest parts to see on this journey. Since they can not afford to build a bridge people driver there moto's (motorcycles) and jeeps through the water. So when we were crossing the water we had to be cautious of the them. There are also people who just park in the middle of the river and start washing there cars. There were also lots of people bathing in the water. They would just sit in the water and rinse themselves off with water. They would also do there laundry while bathing in the water. I think the Haitians got quite a kick out of watching us cross the river. The bottom of the river was full of rocks that really hurt your feet. So we were all slowly making our way. They all just watched us cross and laughed! Once we crossed the river we started climbing up the mountain to the Bassin Bleu. This is waterfall found in the mountains that has 3 pools of water. We had been warned that this was not an easy hike before beginning our trip. The first half a mile was easy. Our whole group was joking about how they said that this was tough and we didn't even break a sweat. We all shortly regretted that comment. We literally turned a corner and it was just a steep incline zig zagging through the mountain. These paths are also not that nice. It is on gravel so you have to be careful that you don't fall.

When it started to get steep we also lost the shade of our palm trees and were directly in the sun. It was one hot walk. I don't think I have ever sweated so much. At one point one of the Haitian boys that is the same age as us looks at Haley and I and says this is the easy part and starts laughing at us. I am telling you these Haitian people are in insane shape. We were just walking up the mountain once. They say that many of the people climb the mountain multiple times a day while carrying 5 gallon pails of water. I have no idea how they do it. At one point Haley and I had decided that the hike up the mountain was harder then pre-season of volleyball. After a long journey to the top we finally made it to the waterfall. The water was such a pretty blue! It only took us a matter of seconds to get into the water. We had to swim a little ways to reach the waterfall. Once you saw the waterfall it made the whole hike up the mountain worth it. It was so pretty. The pictures do not do justice for what it looks like. My favorite part of the waterfall was laying on your back and just floating next to it. You could hear the water falling along looking at the trees and rocks surrounding and seeing the clouds at the top. It was so pretty and relaxing. The best part of this waterfall is it was not full of tourist. There were maybe twenty people there so you could really take in the view and enjoy it.

After spending some time in the water we started to head back down the mountain. Some of the things that I noticed on the way down were the houses and kids. I actually looked around on my way down because I wasn't so focused on climbing! I had multiple kids come up to me and ask for money and water. They would just grab your hand and ask. It was so hard to just keep walking and ignore them. Most of these kids were not wearing any shoes which just amazes me. The kids also did not have any toys most of them were either carrying water jugs or playing with a stick. Most of the houses we saw were made out of cinder blocks with just a tarp over top as there roof. It was really neat to walk through the mountain and experience what they go through on a daily basis. Once we got to the bottom of the mountain we loaded up the van and head back to our hotel. The picture on the left is Matt and I swimming in the water!

The first thing Haley and I did was drink a whole bunch of water and just sit. We were exhausted from the hike. After we regrouped we went and got a meal. This was our first meal since 8 am and it was now 6 pm. I didn't realize how hungry I was. I order some creole spaghetti. The only difference was that it had ham in the sauce along with onions and peppers. It was very good. Remember how yesterday I was saying they had such large portions of food and I have no idea how they eat it all? Yeah, I take that comment back. I don't think I have ever ate so much food so fast in one sitting! After our meal we headed back to our rooms to relax and unwind for the night!  We stopped for a photo on one of our breaks while hiking the mountain.

One of the thoughts I had today while climbing the mountains was I can't believe how happy these people are. I mean these people are way more happy! I mean they live in absolute poverty and yet they have so much joy in their life. They don't worry about anything nor are they in any hurry to do anything. They are just so easy going. They are also so kind to each other. I mean they are always helping each other out and so friendly towards us.
The picture to the left is Haley and I at the waterfall!

The photo on bottom: See the little town in the background? Thats where we started!

As I was watching people bathe in the water they were having such a good time. I mean these three little boys were running around giggling and rolling in the dirt having the time of their life. Let alone if I was taking a bath in the river I would be complaining because I missed my shower. It just amazes me how they have find joy in excitement in everything.

With Love,
Abby

Change in pace!

Today was our first official day in Haiti. We stayed at hotel in Port Au Prince the hotel was very nice. It felt so good to actually have bed to sleep in. In the early afternoon we got picked up and had a two hour drive through the mountains. I love just sitting in the car and taking in all of the views that the country has to offer. One of the big differences here is they don't have traffic laws. So people drive all over the road and there is no speed limits which can make it interesting. On our way out of town we saw a guy riding on top of the van! Its like these people have no fear of anything. Words can't even describe the beauty that we saw today driving in the mountains. The roads were so curvy and at moments we were just hanging over the edge of the mountain. I was thankful that I was not driving. It is also interesting when you encounter a truck on these roads because they are very narrow.

Another thing that I noticed while driving is lots of women and children are carrying containers of water up the mountain. These people are walking many miles just to fill up a container of water and we have it where we can literally walk to a sink and fill up a glass of water. It really makes you realize how much we take for granted. I could not even imagine having to walk through the mountains to retrieve water. We saw one young lady balancing a FULL 5 gallon bucket of water on her. That takes some serious talent. I have no idea how they can do that.

We have had to do a lot of adjusting today. I forget how hard the first day can be to adjust to all of the differences a country has to offer. For instance in order for us to drink the water we have to filter it through little filters that attach to our bottles. Electricity is also a luxury out here. Randomly throughout out the day the lights will just all turn off for a short period of time before coming back on. They also do not have very much hot water out here so our showers are all with cold water. The cold water actually feels really good since it was around 90 degrees here today! Its just all these little things that we have become so accustomed to. It makes you so much more grateful for what you have.

Today we also got our first official Haitian meal. I love the food out here it is so good but they make huge proportions. For both meals today we had chicken and rice. If you ever travel to a country like this you need to try the chicken. It is so good!! We had to put our orders in for the chicken early because they had to go catch and kill the chicken before we could eat it. Thats a little different then back home. They also serve huge proportions out here. I have no idea how people can even finish there meals.

We are now sitting in our room finally getting a chance to relax and unwind from all the events. Its so relaxing I am sitting and bed listening to the ocean waves crash with fresh sea breeze blowing through our room.

With love,
Abby

We made it!

We finally made it to Haiti and it is such a relief to be there. We started out the day leaving Minneapolis and flying to Atlanta. Surprisingly the airport was super busy and we went through security and only had enough time to go to the bathroom before we boarded our plane. Our flight to Atlanta was good. We then took a flight from Atlanta to Port Au Prince. After getting off of the plane the airport was super confusing and everything was in French so we had no idea what we were doing! We made it through customs without any problems. We were greeted by our organization Love Takes Root upon our arrival. We took a little jeep down the streets of Port Au Prince.

The streets here are nothing like the ones you find in the states. For one I don't think they even have traffic laws. They all just drive like mad men. Secondly if you think the roads are bumpy at home these roads feel like you are driving through a cow pasture. Almost immediately you can already tell that the country is very poor there are people everywhere just walking around the streets. The streets are absolutely filled with garbage and people just start the piles of garbage on fire. So you are driving down the streets and right out the window is a fire.While driving downtown we stopped at a stoplight a little boy came up to our car and started washing all the windows. We just watched him clean all the windows on our little jeep. Once he finished he stared at Haley, Lisa (her mom), and I. He wanted money so bad and he just keep staring out us and giving us this look. I felt so guilty not giving him any money knowing that I could easily afford giving him a couple of dollars. We all just turned our heads the other direction of him because we didn't know what to do I was never so thankful to see a light turn green! Sorry that today's blog isn't more entertaining! Tomorrow we are traveling through the mountains to Jacmel to find our orphanage that we will be working with. Thank you all for all the support you have given so far! Its greatly appreciated! (Hopefully tomorrow I will have pictures to post!)
With Love,
Abby
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord God will be with you wherever you go."Joshua 1:9

Why Haiti?

Well the time has officially come for me to leave on my crazy adventure to Haiti. For those of you who don't know much about my trip to Haiti here is a little background information. First off I am senior at Buena Vista University and will be student teaching in the spring. I am going to Haiti as part of class. As preservice teachers we are required to log eighty hours in the classroom over the course of January. When we were in the meeting discussing the details of this experience the professor mentioned that we could go anywhere we want. That sparked an interest in me. I have always wanted to travel to a third world country and serve kids that are underprivileged. So I talked to my professor about what I wanted to do. She quickly mentioned that she had connections to a school in Haiti if I would be interested in that. She also said that their was one other student that had interest in going to Haiti for our field experience. We both decided that we wanted to move forward with our trip and get more details about we would be doing. We reached out to Dr. Rick Wilkerson who is the founder of the Love takes Root which is found in Jacmel, Haiti. Love takes Root is an organization driven to help children around the world who are facing dire circumstances by delivering basic aid, education, and the seeds for sustainable future. After multiple meetings we finally got the details of our trip figured out. Hayley, the other student that I will be traveling with decided that we both wanted to do this and it was time to book our tickets. We were both excited and scared that the trip was actually happening. We then met up with Barb Wilkerson (Rick's wife) to discuss the details of the trip. Barb explained that we will be teaching students how to speak English along with how to use chrome books. I am excited to see what the classrooms will be like and also to get to know all the children. Barb also informed us that we get to take the kids the beach on one of our first days there. I can't wait to spend the day at the beach with the little ones. Even though this is not labeled as a mission trip we will be doing a lot of mission work while in Haiti. We will be providing students with the necessary skills to be successful in the real world. We will also be showing the students what it means to be loved and cared for. Your thoughts and prayers will be greatly appreciated as we embark on this trip.
With Love,
Abby
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord God will be with you wherever you go."Joshua 1:9