WORLD RACE MONTH 2
Where: Titanyen, Haiti
When: February 8th – March 4th
Who: All 42 squad mates together!
Ministry: Mission of Hope (An awesome organization! Look them up!)
Currency: Haitian Gourdes
Dress code:
Knees are bad, so cover em up! During ministry days, we are required to wear skirts that cover our knees and shirts that cover our shoulders (it’s so hot!). During our free time and on our off days we are allowed to wear shorts, but they still must be longer. And guys can pretty much wear whatever they want…lucky them.
Food:
The food here is delicious! It is very Americanized food and there’s
plenty of it. Most days for breakfast we have oatmeal and cereal. For lunch, it usually is pb&j or some other type of sandwich. Dinner is where the magic happens!
Monday – chicken curry and rice
Tuesday – sweet potato mash and rice
Wednesday – spaghetti
Thursday – BBQ chicken
Friday – pizza
Saturday – pasta with shredded chicken
Sunday – cereal, pb&j (or optional box dinner if you pay $5)
Lodging:
We are living in bunk rooms. My room is shared with 11 other girls (The Worthy Pearls and Eklektos). We each have our own twin bed which includes a two inch mattress and a bug net. Also, our room has electricity off and on during the day, so we are able to have lights and fans… sometimes.
Bathrooms:
Our rooms have attached bathrooms and cold showers (which are actually awesome when you literally sweat all day and just want to cool off). Also, there is the rule “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down”. You get the point.
Laundry:
I’m getting pretty good at hand washing my clothes in a metal basin! It’s actually quite relaxing and kinda fun. The Haitian women have coached us on how to do it correctly.
Ministry:
– Painting: our squad has been painting non-stop. We have painted the orphanage, bathrooms, guesthouse rooms, offices, and the kitchen. We are pretty much professionals now.
– Grass cutting: who knew that cutting grass with a 24-inch machete was a thing… well it is.
– Goat ministry: we were given the opportunity to bless local villagers with pairs of goats. The goats were donated to the Mission of Hope from an 11 year old boy named Jaden who sold duct tape wallets to raise the money.
– Tree planting: My team got to walk around the village of Turpin visiting homes and planting coconut trees for them. We were able to witness some cool things such as planting a tree for a voodoo priest, listening to a Haitian boy sing and play the guitar, and praying for 100 year old women who was the first believer in her village.
– Village time: several days we were able to visit villages and play with kids. It is so awesome how open and excited the kids were to interact with us.
Adventures:
Waterfall Climbing (2/13): for our first adventure day we traveled 2 hours to a waterfall. We got to climb and take tons of pictures at the top. It was beautiful! Afterward, Alyssa Quini and I got the chance to talk to and pray over a voodoo priest.
Mountain Hike (2/20): about half of our squad decided to go on a hike up a mountain by the beach. It was exhausting, but so rewarding when we finally reached the top! We took tons of beautiful pictures and got some awesome tan lines.
Overall, this month has been great! It is so different than the Dominican Republic. It has been so good to get to hang with the whole squad and just be together. This month has been really focused on community and all the fun stuff that it comes with.
Thank you so much for your continued love and support! If you want to contact me, you can do so on Facebook and I’ll get back to you when I have wifi. Love you all!!!
