Haiti - Day 3 (and a snippet of Day 2)

Day 2 is hardly worth mentioning as we spent the majority of it lounging on the beach.  We figured that since the trip was birthed out of a desire for a second honeymoon, we should at least take one day to relax.  It was nice.  On to day 3.

We woke up at 7 and headed to the port, which was basically a dock with a small fairy, a few motor boats, and some vendors selling street food.  We were headed to the small island of La Gonave.  It is one of the poorest areas of Haiti and many refugees from the 2010 earthquake relocated there.  At the port there's no such thing as a boat schedule.  As soon as the driver packs his boat to max capacity (think sardines), he heads out.  So if you want to get to the island at a decent hour, you have to hit the first or second boat out.  Otherwise, you may be floating in the boat as it sits at the dock waiting to fill up for several hours.  Hence our early arrival.  We sat, dripping with sweat, floating in the boat for about 30 minutes before we finally left.  So I was already feeling a little whoozy, and for quite a while, the boat would start and stop as we drove through currents of trash in the ocean in attempt not to suck it into the engine.  We crossed 14 miles of open ocean in this little boat.  

We pulled into dock at La Gonave island and were met by about thirty men standing shoulder to shoulder.  They helped pull all of us up to the dock only to bombard us in Creole.  I had no idea what they were selling me, but I couldn't help but notice the only thing around aside from a bunch of trees and beach was a plot of open dirt filled with "motos" (motorcycles).  These were their taxis, and the only way to get into town.  So after a flurry of grabbing hands urging me to ride their taxi, our Haitian missionary friend directed me to one.  There I sat on the back of a moto, behind some random Haitian man that held my life in his hands.  I considered hanging on to his waist b/c that seemed safer, but after clinging to him for a few seconds I decided to hold on to the less stable bar behind me. And this is how we drove into town on the short stretch of paved, but far from smooth or flat, road (and the only stretch of paved road on the entire island). "Surely these motos never wreck, these guys are experts," I told myself.  With the authenticity of the whole experience all I could do was smile the entire ride.  We were in the thick of the real Haiti. This was too legit! .  

We arrived at the Wesleyan mission guest house.  It was attached to the Wesleyan hospital, the only hospital on the island.  We checked in, half sea sick, half dehydrated and I was feeling a headache coming on.We decided to give the Haiti World Vision director a try.  And guess what!  His phone actually rang today.  

He answered and I told him who I was.  I told explained that we were on the island of La Gonave.  "Oh ____!"  OMG!  OMG!  OMG! (He actually said the words) was the first response I got.  "I have been sick and out of the office!  OMG!  OMG!!  When did you get to Haiti?!?"  He asked as if seeing his job flashing before his eyes. "We got here two days ago and took the boat over with our friends to La Gonave island."  "OMG!  OMG!!  I've been sick!!  I just got back to the office!  OMG!  Ok, how long will you be on La Gonave?  I can have her there early tomorrow morning."  I knew that was probably not a good idea b/c we had to head out early to get back for our friends to make a Dr's appointment.  But what was I supposed to say?  "Ok, sure, as long as it is very early.  We have to leave early."  "Ok, I will call you back," he responded."   Our missionary friend motioned to her husband (the Haitian) to get on and tell him tomorrow would not work (she knows early in the morning means it wont happen til like noon).  In Creole, he basically tells the guy he needs to make it happen today, it was early enough in the day and we came all the way from the US to see her."  So the World Vision director says he will makes some calls and get back with us.  

We ate a delicious Haitian lunch (fried chicken and lots of carbs) and heard back.  They would be there with our sponsor child this evening.  We had been told she lived 3 hours down a very rugged dirt road on the other side of the island so I was expecting it would take a while.  So I drank some Gatorade (the only thing that kept my dehydration headache manageable, I couldn't drink enough water we were sweating so much......we said goodbye to air conditioning at the end of day 2 and never saw it again until we were in the airport leaving Haiti!).  Then we took a tour of the Weslayan Hospital and took a hot nap. 

At dinner time we had more carbs and got the call that she was in the town we were in.  So we waited in anticipation.  

When she walked in, it was so weird b/c I felt in an odd way almost like I was seeing my long lost child.  In that moment I had a flashback to when I was at a Women of Faith conference and they encouraged us to sponsor a child.  I prayed God would show me which child to pick, saw her sweet nine year old face and that was it.  Here we were just shy of  9 years later and in walks this beautiful 17 year old girl.  It was her, no doubt about it.  We talked for a while and I was glad to hear she only has two years left of school (which is ahead of schedule for Haiti) and is hoping to go into nursing when she is done.  As we talked some more, things started to look a little shady.  

I kept hearing her say she doesn't live with her mom, only when she is on vacation and not in school. Of course all of this was through a not so great translator.  So it was hard to tell when the translator (who happened to be the World Vision director for the island) just couldn't quite convey what was being said or if he really didn't know the answers to some of our logistical questions about World Vision.  I asked her about her trip over to the town we were in (thinking of a terribly bumpy 3 hour car ride they had mentioned to us previously) and she said it was fine.  I asked if it was bumpy.  She said it was smooth.  I asked if she had ever been to the main island of Haiti (where we were) and she said she had, that is where her school is.  She said her school was in Cabaret.  SAY WHAT?!?  "Did you say the town of Cabaret?  As in her school is in the town of Cabaret on the main island which is 20 minutes down the road from our resort last night?  That Cabaret  And you live there????" I asked.  "Yes, that is where I go to school and live with my cousin."  "So you mean to tell me you took the boat ride over to see us too when we literally were staying a few minutes down the road from you on the main island???" We all had a laugh about it but....yeah....shady.  Especially after I had asked the translator (and island director of World Vision) what the money we send her goes to.  His response was that it goes to all of the children in the community that are part of the program.  "BUT SHE:S NOT LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY!!" was my first thought.  That's weird.  

I failed to mention her entourage.  When she came in she had her cousin with her (a family member must be present at sponsor meetings), the director of all the World Vision programs on the island of La Gonave (the translator), and a young man with Beats (look alikes) hanging around his neck.  This guy was the case worker that lives in her community (or the community we were told she lived in).   We asked him what is the criteria for them determining a child needs to be sponsored.  He said, rather vaguely, that all of the children in the community need sponsorship.  And the stipulations were that the parents have to be willing to move to the area of the development program and a few other things. "So the parents have to move to where the program is, but she doesn't have to live there year round? " was my thought. Things got a little weird, especially when our missionary friends were talking to him and he said he didn't know where the town of Cabaret was.  Everyone knows that town, they said. Not to mention one would hope he knows the town she is now living in......  

We took a bunch of pictures, gave hugs and that was the end of it.  Even though things got shady (we also discovered the devopment program is not connected to a church), we really enjoyed meeting her. She has a sweet spirit and I do feel like God was in the meeting.  I wish we would have been able to pray for her but there was a lot of weirdness in the air and we felt like the director was kind of stand offish.  They are also very protective of the children, which I totally respect.  So we didn't ask to pray for her but I know she was encouraged and felt loved.  We also got her a bunch of gifts that she seemed to like.  So despite the weirdness, we really enjoyed meeting her.  

We went to bed super early that night, only to not fall asleep for like 2-3 hours, because of the heat and the bed springs jabbing into my bones.  

We will definitely be calling World Vision.  I'm not sure who dropped the ball.  Of course it started with the Haiti World Vision director in Port Au Prince (the OMG guy that had been sick and out of the office).  He is the one I had contacted weeks earlier from the US and he gave me his email address and told me to email him directly from then on.  He says he never got our emails after that. And maybe he didn't.  But he did have the dates we had given him.  Maybe people start this process and never actually carry through with the visit part?  Maybe he really was sick (it better have been malaria or typhoid, something that had him out for weeks for that to be justifiable.  Just sayin'.).  He really was a nice guy but I don't know how he just forgot we were coming or didn't get the messages.  

I tend to think the ball was dropped by the beats guy, the one that lives in her community, the case worker.  He is the one that probably knew she was not living in the community during the school year.  I'm not sure if that is ok for them to move out of the community and still be sponsored, though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense if our money goes collectively to all the kids in the community because how is she benefitting from that if she's not living in the community?  Not to mention that in order for a child to be able to be sponsored the parent has to be willing to relocate to the community where the development program is.  So I do think something went awry there.  

Are we going to stop sponsoring her?  And do I think sponsoring children is a ploy?  No way!  I was so glad to see she seems happy, is focused in school, and has goals for after school. I can say that we will no longer be sponsoring children through World Vision.  We have 3 other sponsor kids through Compassion International and we get letters from them and the pastors of the community programs all the time.  Those kids are getting the Gospel and have a tight connection to the church.  We get letters from the pastors of the Compassion kids often, telling us the spiritual needs of the area and giving us a lot of insight into the area and the children.  I am a HUGE fan of Compassion.  But that is part of the reason we went to see our child sponsored through World Vision.  I don't feel as connected to her b/c we hear from her much less often and because of her age.  I was afraid she would be aging out soon (come to find out in Haiti it's not until 21 years old).  So this is not to discourage child sponsorship.  One cool side note about child sponsorship effectiveness.  Remember the hospital we toured, the only one on the island?  Well, the director of that hospital was a Compassion sponsored child on that island growing up.  You never would have guessed that from seeing him now.  And I have heard many stories of Compassion kids growing up and now making a huge impact on their countries.  Just wanted to pass that along b/c I firmly believe in child sponsorship still.  Just so long as they are sharing Jesus with them and not just padding one hell hole for the next eternal one.  That is my only disappointment with World Vision, but I was very happy that our sponsor child was doing well despite that beef.  

And after tomorrow's blog, I'm going to introduce you to an incredible opportunity to sponsor a child through our friends.  Remember those pictures I posted of those children?  Those kids need help and the ministry that is in the works to help them down there is some of the most effective and amazing work I have seen in a while.  Can't wait to introduce you to it and tell you about the rest of our trip!

Haiti - Day 1

In order to get to Haiti from San Antonio in one day, you have to take the 6 am flight out of San Antonio to make it to Miami in time.  So we were up at 4 am on day 1.  We had six bags packed and two carry-ons.  The carry-ons contained all of our clothes and the six bags (well, 3 bags, a pack n play, a baby carrier and stroller) were FULL of cloth diapers and clothes that so many of you guys generously donated for the orphanage our missionary friends are working with.  Did you catch that? SIX CHECK IN ITEMS and no baby with us so the carrier and stroller were not on the complimentary list = expensive!!  But these were all pretty necessary items that you can't get down there, I really didn't want to have to choose between them.  So lots of prayer went in to the bags issue.

We attempted to upgrade 24 hours prior to First Class since you get 3 complimentary bags each and it was only $110 dollars to do so.  Because our flights were mixed airlines (American and US Airways) and they are in the midst of a lovely merger, the long and short of it is after much hold time both airlines reported that neither of them were authorized to upgrade us to First Class.

Plan B - I asked both airlines if they have some sort of humanitarian waiver since all of the checked bags were to help an orphanage.  The outcome of those conversations was basically that the airport check in agents were the ones with authority on that and they couldn't guarantee anything for us. Hence our 4:45 am airport arrival.  We knew there would be some finagling to get the bags on at a decent price. I would have to dig deep and pull out my Central American Missionary Kid bargaining skills that I hadn't used since my trip to Peru in 2010.   

On our way to the airport I was perusing the options for a Plan C and remembered seeing that active military got some comp bags on American.  Well, we weren't technically "active duty" anymore, but Mike is "active reserve," so we thought we'd just throw that out there.  We arrived and placed our ID's on the counter.  I knew she was missing something on the website but could tell it was useless to argue, and it was a slight relief to me b/c despite the agent's recommendation on the phone and a few other opinions that it would be ok to use our ID's to get that allowance since he was active reserve, it still felt slightly dishonest to me.  And as it turns out, it gave God a chance to show up.  

So on to Plan D.  I explained that all of the bags were for an orphanage and asked about a fee waiver for humanitarian aid.  She said she didn't know and proceeded to type on her keyboard.  Then she said that she would give us the first two bags free.  Which after the fact, apparently is the new policy, but it is nowhere on the website.  So that was a surprise, but what about the other four check ins?  She typed away again and after a while said the computer was giving us a total of $700 for the other three check ins!!  Excuse me?!?!  We all kind of choked, event the agent.  She called someone and talked a long time on the phone getting confirmation about that price.  She got off and in a relieved tone said it would only be $380 for the other four.  She might have been relieved, but we were not!  Mike got on the phone and began to call my dad to circle around b/c we were going to have to leave two of the items.  I pushed again and asked if she could waive the fees for humanitarian aid, particularly since two of the items would have been checked for free if we had been traveling with an infant.  "Can't you just pretend I have a baby with me?" I asked.  She said she wasn't authorized but thankfully got her supervisor.  The supervisor came over, I explained what we were doing, asked about the humanitarian waiver and reminded her that they would ship the carrier and stroller free if we had a baby.  In a very business-like manor, she approved it and told the lady just to charge us for the second bags, which were 40 bucks each. 

We waltzed through security having paid only $80 for six check ins!!  This was less than we were expecting to pay even if they waived the car seat and stroller!!!  An hour into our trip and we had already seen God do something pretty amazing!!  

We arrived in Haiti about 6.5 hours later.  I was quite impressed with the airport.  You can always judge the quality of an aiport by the cleanliness of the bathrooms, and they had a full time bathroom attendant.  So that was a surprise and customs and baggage collection went down surprisingly orderly and with no hassle. When we got into our friends' car, another miracle had just taken place.  They had fit all of those bags into their small SUV, along with five passengers.  

 As we drove an hour and a half to the town we would be staying in, getting to know the missionary friends and taking it all in I was surprised by how similar it was to, well, every other country south of the border.  I sometimes forget how odd the United States is in comparison to the rest of the world. We really do live in a bubble in America.  The driving was the typical "every man for himself" gig with lots of honking to let people know you are coming.  When the car slows down you are bombarded with people trying to sell you stuff through the window, mostly food.  The scenery was beautiful, ocean on one side, mountains on the other, dotted with trash here and there. The country is very colorful, with most stores and vehicles brightly painted and random names written on them. People don't drive with their a/c on in the car (if they have it that is) b/c gas is 8 bucks a gallon so we quickly became accustomed to the smells and heat of Haiti. Think humidity coupled with lots of smoke, diesel, random stinky smells -standard south of the US border smells. Of course with all the similarities at first glance, as you get to know a country, their culture and values a little better, you begin to see their uniqueness.  One of those things that stuck out to us right away is the respect the Haitian culture has for elders.  They are very respectful and actually listen to them when an older person asks or tells them to do something.  I found that really refreshing.  Sometimes I think because of America's obsession with staying young looking, it carries over into a lack of respect for people that are old and the wisdom that comes with it. Another blog for another time. :-P

We arrived at our resort (think 2.5 star hotel in the US with amazing scenery and food) sweaty and exhausted.  Before checking in, we tried to call our Haitian World Vision contact.  His phone went straight to voicemail.  That would happen every time we tried to call for the next 36 hours.  We did a little snorkeling and swimming and waited about an hour for our dinner to be served.  If we hadn't been so tired, it would have been quite relaxing and entertaining b/c we were serenaded by a local band playing Haitian style music.  I'm going to upload a video of the band.  I never would have expected a banjo to be typical instrument used in Haitian music.  They also use accordian (which wasn't as suprising), electric guitar played like a bass, some fun percussion instruments and shakers.  I really enjoyed the joyfulness of their music.  We scarfed our food and passed out on our hard beds.    And that was day 1.  

Haiti - The idea and how it came about

I have been so surprised by the interest in our trip to Haiti and I was so surprised at how much I gleaned from the whole experience, not only while there, but the craziness leading up to it and even today, the opposition I faced after the fact.  It's so much that I decided I would blog about it.  First a disclaimer on the blog itself.  It's super old, I got the brilliant idea to begin blogging and quickly found it is NOT for me.  I don't enjoy it at all.  Most of the previous posts are from when Adiya was a baby and I was basically just blogging for the family.  So don't say I didn't warn you, they will be boring.  But I think the blogs about Haiti will hopefully inspire and incite you to action, if nothing else to get you praying for the country, the people and the work being done there.


So back in April, Mike and I decided we wanted to do a second honeymoon somewhere.  We had been looking and considering locations and one night, while packing some small gifts for the children we sponsor, out of the blue it popped into my head that we should try to visit our child that lives in Haiti b/c she is 17, about to age out of the program I assumed.  It was like God spoke to both of us in that moment and we were like, "yeah, let's do it!"

We looked into it, found we needed to give 3 months notice.  Guess what, we were 3 months and two days out from the dates we had set aside for our trip. We knew the organization (World Vision) would only take care of us in country while we were actively visiting our child but wanted to make a trip out of it and spend several days there, since it was birthed out of a desire for a second honeymoon.  We contacted a few of the missionaries my parents knew that work in Haiti.  The basic gist of their responses were that they don't recommend us coming if we don't speak the language or know the country.  It is a very difficult and quite dangerous in places country to navigate.  I figured as much, which was why I wanted to get some advice from them and find a local contact.  None of them lived in the area we would be going to so we continued praying, not feeling we should throw in the towel.

About five weeks from our trip date, we discussed it with my parents and decided that if we didn't have a local contact that would be able to help us get around and kind of keep tabs on us, it probably wasn't very wise to go.  We didn't feel comfortable proceeding with the trip, but yet I didn't feel like I should just give up and tell our World Vision that it was not going to happen.  So we waited.  We made the decision on Saturday and I remember sitting in church on Sunday and something that was said in the message jabbed at my heart, as saying it wasn't over yet, even though it basically looked impossible, or if nothing else, foolish for us to proceed.

That afternoon, my dad calls me all excited.  He says as he was sitting in church that morning he got a message from one of the missionary families in Haiti.  They hadn't given me their information b/c the wife and daughter had been recovering from an intense bout of Typhoid and a few other illnesses. Well, she was fully recovered and was contacting my dad asking when they were coming to visit.  My dad mentioned they wouldn't be able to come for a while but that Mike and I had been looking into coming.  He also mentioned that our trip was going to be quite complicated b/c we had heard back that in order to see our sponsor child, we would have to make an additional trip, but this one by boat to cross 14 miles of ocean to see her b/c she lives on a small island off the coast of Haiti.  Guess what!  The missionary guessed the island we had to visit.  Turns out, she lives right next to the port we would have to go to catch the boat.  And they had a place for us to stay and would love to pick us up at the airport (and hour and a half away) and help us get around.  CRAZY!!!  And more "non" coincidences kept appearing.

So it became quite clear that God was in this trip.  We started connecting with the amazing missionary couple (ok, just us wives, you know guys don't do that sort of thing :-P) and were able to fund raise hundreds of cloth diapers for a couple of the orphanages there that don't have anything, the kids literally just pee and poo on themselves.  That shocked me how many of you guys gave and still want to give, cuz I know cloth diapers aren't cheap!  We were also able to get lots of clothes donated for the children and some toys for the babies, which are really non existent in those orphanages.  So we were all loaded and ready to go.

ONLY ONE PROBLEM!  I hadn't heard back from our local World Vision contact that was coordinating the visit with our sponsor child.  The logistics seemed complicated and the US office recommended I call him in Haiti since we were getting a slow response from him confirming logistics.  So I did. He was awesome, but we had a bad connection.  He told me to begin emailing him directly.  So I did. And that was the last I ever heard from him.  So here we are, a week out, tickets bought, bags packed.  But thankfully, we had our missionary couple we had been connecting with over messenger that had stepped up to help us out while there.  So we weren't too worried.  We would go and hope the wheels were turning on the Haiti side so we could meet our child.  I will blog about all the craziness that went down with trying to get a hold of the visit coordinator and how the visit ALMOST didn't happen!  We really couldn't believe it!