Yesterday we drove into Haiti. The bus ride was glorious. The bus had air conditioning and electricity, which is kind of funny because the house we are staying in doesn’t reliably have either of those things. There is in obvious difference between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. When we got to the city I noticed that there were a lot more people walking around than I was used to. It is a lot dustier here as well, mostly due to the earthquake that occurred here two years ago. Everything is written in French or Creole, which is awesome because I can put my six years of French to good use now; I already made it successfully through a conversation about braiding a girl’s hair with one of the ladies who cooked dinner for us.
When driving to our house last night, I noticed how dark it was. There are no street lights and as we were driving I could make out some tent cities where people are still living even though the earthquake happened a couple of years ago. It was overwhelming driving to our home for the next month. There were tons of people crammed on to buses and trucks, trash, unwelcoming smells, random fires, horns honking, and all of it could barely be seen in night’s darkness. All I could think is what am I getting myself into?
Tonight, after a day of rest and preparing for the week, our house worshipped outside. My team is living with two other all women teams. Nineteen girls in one house, exciting, but that’s also a lot of girls for one house. I’m still excited though. During worship I looked up and saw the stars in the sky. There were so many, especially considering the size of the city we’re in. It made me think about how if the city had street lights, they wouldn’t be able to see as many stars. Haiti has faced a lot of darkness in its past and is facing a lot in its present but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have beautiful things in their lives. Sometimes the dark things they face just make the beautiful things stand out that much brighter. God is bringing light to Haiti.
