3 months in Haiti come to a close tomorrow. It is hard to compress everything in my mind. So much has happen this summer. So many faces. So many stories. Everyday I feel a little more Haitian.
What I will never Forget:
Arriving in Haiti in the middle of a tropical storm and getting soaked. The storms here have been amazing. Just about every other night. Lighting strikes so close that you go blind for a few seconds. The sound of thunder is deafening with the mountains behind us. The streets turn to ragging rivers – I had some fun driving through them.
Driving through Port Au Prince again and again and never getting accustom to the endless supply of trash everywhere. I think someone told me that Port Au Prince has the most trash per capital in the world – I believe it. I have been many places and this tops the list.
Placing bets on when the power would come on.
Waking up with nothing planned to do for the day – but then being so busy that I had to schedule my own bathroom breaks.
Waking up and wondering what vehicle would start up.
The impromptu glow stick party that got out of hand with glow stick fluid sprayed everywhere in the living room. That was awesome, I felt I like I was in the movie Avatar walking around at night.
The awesome times of community worship at the base on Saturday nights.
Hanging out on the roof at night and watching lighting storms in the distance or shooting stars.
Doing Insanity workouts in the morning.
Eating Rice and Beans every day for the first 2 months. Plus PB-J’s almost everyday for lunch.
The humor, laughs and smiles of the Haitians.
Blue and Gray Tarps.
The heat.
The sweat.
The fireworks we launched off the roof on 4th of July for the whole community to see.
Many hours spent in the Hammock talking or meditating.
Seeing the Joy in the Pastors we worked with.
Holding our translator’s new born baby only hours old.
Doing 24 hours of prayer at the base.
Rubble everywhere.
Sleeping in the bed with Troy and Thomas because there wasn’t anywhere else to go.
Taking 3 different sets of Cipro to fight away those nasty bowel movements that never seem to stop.
Being blessed by the hospitality of all our ministry partners.
Being blessed by the Haitians that prayed over me.
Playing soccer with the kids right outside our gate.
The crazy Haitian traffic that never made any sense to me. It seemed that they intentionally create their own traffic jams.
The U.N. and their guns.
Beans and Rice. I think I said that already.
The Hope of Haiti.
I could easily keep going. It was an awesome summer and I was so blessed to be apart of what God is doing here. Thank you to everyone that has kept me in your prayers! I am heading back to Michigan tomorrow for a few weeks and then plan to move down to Georgia where I will be working with AIM stateside. I will continue to fill you in.
blessings,
Neil
*First Pic, is me with Michealson, Samuel and John. Some of our translators that I got to know really well and enjoyed working with.
**Second, is from Katie Rowland.
