Tuesday, May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015

Waking up in Haiti is an awesome thing. I would do it everyday if I could. I woke up this morning and went and sat up on the roof and looked out over Delmas (the area of Port-Au-Prince that we are in). It was so awesome, and exactly what I loved waking up to. 

We spent the day out on the water truck. When doing the water truck, we deliver water to tent cities in a city called Cite Soleil. Cite Soleil is the poorest city in the western hemisphere. There are no other organizations that deliver water to them due to the danger of the cite. This seems like such a strange thing to me considering I experienced nothing but loved rom the swarms of kids that wanted hugs and love from us. On past trips I witnessed and experienced some dangerous things, but nothing that wasn't dealt with or that was dangerous to us missionaries. 

As we drove to the water truck fill station I saw huge changes in the cities since the last time I was here. There is no longer garbage lining every street. There are still some large piles of garbage around, but it isn't literally everywhere as it used to be. I also noticed that the infamous Haiti smell (which was a horrible smell basically a mix of food from the markets, feces, and animals) was not nearly as prevalent as it was before. Although it is only a short a ride and I'm sure that smell is in other parts of the country still, the smell was a lot less "smelly" I guess, in cite Soleil and the surrounding cities. 

Driving into Cite Soleil I didn't see many, if any changes. There were still the tents on top of tents with garbage surrounding them. There were children that came running in packs yelling "hey you!!" and trying to get our attention. The lines of women and children waiting for water were just as long. There were a couple of men in line, but most of the time it is women who are to do the work. 

At the first stop there were 3 girls that decided they were going to do my hair. They gave me some crazy hair-do's and I think they ripped out about half of my already thin hair, but they loved doing it so I let them. I did have to tell them a couple times that it hurt though, good thing I know how to say that in creole!! The first stop weren't to is also the location of where Healing Haiti is building a church for the people of Cite Soleil. It was cool to see the site of the church, and the process of it going up. They had to dig through garbage, feces, and bodies of people in order to find a spot that is just right to build the church. That is truly amazing. 

The second stop that we delivered water to seemed a little quieter. Many of the children at this stop were babies or infants. I sat with 3 babies on my lap for awhile and then I made my way over to help with the hose to full people's buckets. I haven't done that part very much on past trips so I wanted to get some experience with that. While I was filling buckets, the people were almost getting in fights wanting me to fill their bucket first to assure that they would get water before the truck ran out. It is crazy, and very sad to see the desperation and severe need for something that we have at the tips of our fingers whenever we want it at home. 

One thing that I was reminded of today is that in Haiti, there is no such thing as on time. Haitians have their own sense of non-hurriedness. I am someone that hates to be late for things and I need a schedule and I need to stick to it. That is actually 100% impossible here. I need to learn to relax and just let things come as they do.  It's totally fine that things switch around and schedules get changed, but I am not a fan of slacking around. I am getting back into the Haiti way of life, and by the end of the week I will be on Haitian time. 

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