Hello all,
I just wanted to say thank you SO much for supporting me on my trip to Haiti. I
had so much fun! I wanted to write to tell you all what happened during our
trip, and tell you what the current situation is too. Dad and I took off from
the airport in Louisville and spent all day traveling. We stayed in Miami that
night. Then we got up, flew to Port-au-Prince (where the earthquake mainly hit)
and I have to admit I was a little surprised that I saw as many buildings
standing as I did. There were some buildings flattened, and several "parks" were
filled with blue tents where the Haitian people have lived since the earthquake.
The sad part is that those people living in those tents were with their whole
families, so there were like 5 people per tent. We then took the very fun,
rough, and intense plane ride to Port-au-Paix. We rode in a 19 seated plane
where we took off and landed on a gravel road. We had two people get sick during
the ride. The rest of the day we spent all day just getting used to the missions
layout and what all we could do to get "plugged in" to.
The picture below is of
Presley, the 6 year old that is now in the older kids orphanage. He was riding a
tricycle around when I took this picture.
The next day was Sunday, so we spent the morning
in church, where all the Haitians came dressed up in their finest clothes and
had a service. Then our group took the children over to the mission where we had
a VBS with them, and let them color. That's where I met Stephensen. He lives a
few blocks away from the mission, and I saw him several times when I left the
mission. I told him I'd hopefully be back soon. The rest of the day Sunday, we
spent all day just relaxing from our trip to get there, and I got to play with
the babies. I met this little boy named Presley, he's about 6 years old, and he
was "my" baby for the week. (I've got pictures up on Facebook if you want to see
him)
The second day (Monday) we went to Tortuga (an
island north of Haiti, where some of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed). We
got ready to go, walked down to the beach, which was covered in trash, and got
on a small sail boat and rode for an hour over to the island. We did a VBS with
a school there, and let them color, and then came back.
Tuesday I went to Ansefoleur, a city in Haiti
where the voodoo temple is. We had a VBS with a school there, and went to the
voodoo temple. When we were preparing for the voodoo temple, talking to people
who had gone the previous year, I was expecting this very uncomfortable, dark
place where the people were, it was a little dark, but otherwise I could tell
that the voodoo doesn't have as large of an effect since the earthquake from
beforehand. Several of us had talked about it and said that the Haitian people
were starting to realize that the voodoo temple was losing its power because
when the earthquake happened, the voodoo religion didn't really help any, it was
the Christians that came in to help.
The next day
(Wednesday) was our trip to the orphanage. We had a 4 hour bus ride on an
unpaved road, but we got to see some gorgeous parts of the island. It's amazing
how beautiful it is. When we got to the orphanage, the kids were still in
school, so we had lunch, and looked around a little. It was literally a large
enclosed field, with 2 buildings, one for the girls to sleep in, and one for the
boys to sleep in. The kids got out of school, and ran in, changed clothes, and
came back out to eat, then to play with us. We had a large soccer game going,
and had toys that we played with like Frisbee and some other games. Then we did
our VBS and took our 4 hour trip back home.
Thursday was
just a day to spend at the mission doing ministry there. Me and a few friends
were at the baby orphanage most of the day, and the others did an activity with
the disabled kids that lived there, when we took the babies back to eat, the
Haitian ladies that worked there told us we were going for a walk, so not
knowing what we were really doing, we got the kids ready, and left. We walked
out the mission, and turned the corner, and realized we were taking the babies
to get shots. We sat down inside the office, and held them all while the ladies
gave them shots. A Haitian lady from the village was sitting beside me when I
sat down, and I looked over, and she had a HUGE smile on her face. She seemed
very happy that there were Americans there with the babies while they were
getting their shots. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out at the
mission. We did have the def school come in and we did a VBS with them too. One
night, I don't remember which one, we went down to the Gran Moon (the house
where the old people live that the mission has taken in) and sang with them.
They are the happiest old people I have ever seen.
Friday we were
planning on having a fun day, and taking a hike to the water fall with the deaf
school. It was cancelled due to the fact that we wanted to make sure we all were
able to catch our planes to America, so we left the mission Friday afternoon.
When we got to Port-au-Prince, I hadn't seen dad since we got to the airport by
the mission, so we got on the tap taps and rode to the hotel. The second group
got there and told us that the last group had gone to another hotel. (my dad was
in that group) at first I didn't think about it, but then it freaked me out a
little, but one of the moms said they talked to one of our security guards and
they said they were fine. We got to swim in the pool some and relax so it was
somewhat nice. The next day was spent traveling to get back home.
Now as you can
probably tell, I loved Haiti and hope to eventually get a job with the mission
and work there. My hopes are that I can keep going and when I graduate, work as
an intern that summer and come back for college. Then eventually get a job
there. The only problem is money. I am also going to Greece this year (March
13th-18th) with a leadership conference at school, and can't afford both. I
would appreciate it greatly if you continued supporting me. I want you to all be
aware that I will be doing as much as I can to raise money on my own, but some
back up support would be great. I have to have $500 to settle my seat on a plane
to go down by February 4th, so if you would like to support me, you can click on
the links found on this website, or go directly through the mission to support
me (at www.nwhcm.org) please email me back and tell me so I can figure out if I
will be able to make it. I promise to keep sending updates out and you can check
on Facebook to see anything that happens too. I greatly appreciated all the
support this year and wanted to say thanks a LOT. You helped me find my passion.
Thanks again,
Andrew Smith
(859) 537-7039