Disclaimer: This blog was written on short notice; hence, there’s not much structure and it’s quite random. Such is the life on the race, haha. 🙂
Starting last night and going on till Saturday is our squad debrief – a time of processing these last two months, as well as a time to recuperate after a month of manual labor. Although we’ll be in Haiti until the end of the week, yesterday was our last day of ministry at Mission of Hope and BeLikeBrit. We were certainly put to work this month, and some were relieved that yesterday was our last day of having to lift heavy buckets, shovel lots of dirt and rocks from one pile to another, and our last day of having to wash concrete out of our clothes and hair.
As we loaded onto the bus to head back to the compound, though, I was saddened. Once again it seems as though I got used to the life, culture, and ministry routine of a country, and I’m finding it difficult to leave to head to another. The beauty of the World Race is that I get to see and experience so many things in other countries. The frustrating part of the race, however, is that once we get acclimatised to a location and ministry, we have to pack up and head to the next country. I so wish I could stay and help out at Mission of Hope and BeLikeBrit until they’re completed. And although we sometimes felt like slow Americans who got in the way of the construction projects, it was nevertheless a privilege and a joy to work alongside such humble, strong, and fun Haitian men. I give those guys major props for doing what they do with their bare hands and under their circumstances.
Each day during debrief we’ll be given the opportunity to journal and process all that’s happened since we’ve left the states. When journaling about last month, I guess I didn’t realize how much happened in the DR, and it already felt like centuries ago. Part of me still feels like we just got here in Haiti, too. I find that time is such a interesting concept on the race. Days of the week end up running together, and much of it seems to be going by rather quickly. I wish it would slow down.
The thought of returning to the states this Sunday for our connecting flight at JFK to Europe is exciting and terrifying at the same time. Exciting in the sense that I’ll get to eat ice cream and chocolate again! Yay! Terrifying in the sense that I might be overwhelmed after seeing so much poverty and having begun the process of living simply. The travel days from Haiti to Romania will be long and interesting, that’s for sure.
Here are some key experiences/random things from this past month:
- A bunch of us took an excursion on one of our Sabbath days and swam to an island located about 30 minutes (walking distance) from the compound. Now, I’ve always been able to swim, but I have never gone swimming in a deep area for an extended amount of time. I’ll admit I was nervous at first, but the swim took only about 10-15 minutes, and it was SO worth it. The coral was beautiful, and we saw hermit crabs, sand dollars, starfish, and lots of sea urchins. It was quite the adventure. 🙂
The island we swam to
- On another one of our Sabbath days our squad took a 3 hour drive to an absolutely gorgeous beach in Jacmel. The beach was sandy (whereas ours is rocky), and there were actually waves! The house where we kept our belongings for the day belonged to the E.R. Doctor/former youth leader of Bethany Hamilton – the awesome surfer chick from Hawaii. He now lives in Haiti and has two ministries running: Haiti Baby and Surf Haiti. We got to hang with him for the day and rent his surf boards, too. So, yes…for the first time ever, I attempted to surf! As much as I wanted to kick butt at surfing, I failed miserably and had my body thrown about by the waves constantly…but I never wanted to leave the water! It was way too much fun.
On the way to Jacmel
Team Monarch!
- A few of us got to sing with the Haitian worship leaders at church one morning, and I once again found that there is nothing more beautiful than the sound of people singing to the Lord in multiple languages. The night we practiced with them was such a blessing. While singing “Revelation Song”, them in Creole and us in English, tears began to well up in my eyes. I love having the reminder that God speaks all languages, and He loves to hear it all.
Church on Sunday morning
- I’ve been able to fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the waves on the shore each day.
- I panic whenever I hear noise above me in the trees, for fear that a mango or coconut is about to fall on my head. It’s already happened to a girl on the squad before. Who knew fruit could be dangerous?
As always, thanks for reading! Your support means the world to me! Peace and blessings!
