As my Squad and I arrived to debrief, I don’t think I was truly prepared for everything I’d see that week. We got settled in and my team and I had decided to walk to a local pizza place. We got a little lost and turned around and went to another one closer to the hotel. As we were walking, my teammate Dasia mentioned how the city we are staying in has the highest rates for sex trafficking in the Dominican Republic. I kinda didn’t know what to think of that or what it looked like for those women. As we walked closer and closer to the pizza place, it became more obvious where it was happening. Right in front of us women had been sold into this awful thing or were trying to provide for their families in ways that they haven’t learned is wrong. That night I laid in my bed and thought about it nonstop; it was almost the only thing on my mind most of debrief. The next night a squad mate and I decided we wanted to be able to go out and prayer walk and be able to pinpoint exactly which women were involved in this so we could pray for them from afar. We watched documentaries on it and tried to learn as much as we could with the wifi we had. The next night, as we prayer walked, it was very obvious on where it was happening as we walked around the community a little more. I began to get so extremely angry with all these people. I prayed so much for patience for myself and talked everything out with some of my squad mates. I left debrief knowing that there is nothing I can do right now for these women except pray. I have to trust the power of prayer and trust God. Although these awful things are happening, I have to continue to tell myself God has this and it will be okay. I have safely arrived in Haiti and I’m loving it here!!
