Haiti.

Wow, where to even begin? So, Avriel and I went to visit our NPH site in Haiti last week. After Saturday’s Confirmations (I’ll attach a couple photos…I was the sponsor for two of my girls, Jacqueline and Lucy), we caught a quick couple hours of sleep and by 3:00am Sunday morning, we were on the road. Five of us went: Janvier, Vern, Renzo, Avriel, and myself. Those 3 boys are currently working on a water improvement project so they stayed for two nights while Avriel and I stayed the entire week. We arrived at the border around 8:00am. Really, there’s only one word to describe that area: desolate. It was a mess of dust, crowds of people, discarded car parts, secondhand motos, and flooded buildings. However, the view in the distance of the mountains and a lake was pretty gorgeous! We made it across after about two hours of waiting with minimal problems. As we drove into Haiti, I was taken aback by the black and white differences between the countries. While the DR is green and lush with lots of vegetation, Haiti felt kind of like a desert. It was arid and soooooo dusty. We drove past some of the tent villages: wow. I can’t even imagine living like that.

Our NPH Haiti branch has two different sites with many different branches. On top of the mountain in Kenscoff is where out main NPH home is. It has 400 kids from preschool to 8^th grade age. Down below, in the city of Tabarre, is where everything else is located including the hospitals, baby house, and the home for the high-school and university students.

So on Sunday morning, after the drive up on what you could only very loosely call a road, we made it to the top of the mountain, Kenscoff. And guess what? It was cold! I got the wear a sweatshirt and I LOVED IT! Immediately, we were greeted by loads of kids and welcomed by Jacinta, one of the volunteers there. We got settled in and hung out with a bunch of the kids that first night. I got lots of practice in Creole!

On Monday morning, we got to witness the beautiful Haitian sunrise. The view walked out of our bedroom in the volunteer/visitor house was breathtakingly amazing. At 8:00am, there was a presentation for a head nun that was visiting the site. The Kenscoff home as 300 external students in addition to the 400 kids, so all 700 of us piled into the amphitheater. I was SO impressed by how well-behaved all the kids were waiting for the nun who showed up an hour late. After that, Avriel and I embarked on a journey going from house to house (there are 22 houses there) asking the mets and madams about the water system in the house…that was a bit challenging being as our Creole skills are basic at best, but Avriel’s actually getting quite good at it. We then spent recess with the kids and spent lunchtime as well as the afternoon hanging out with them. By 5:30pm, it was dark and cold out and we were able to get lots of reading in!

 Tuesday was our last day in Kenscoff, so we took full advantage of it! We spent lots of times with the kids, particularly two that has previously been living at our DR home while they got medical treatment in Santo Domingo. Jacinta teaches the behaviorally-challenged kids in the school and she lets us take out the well-behaved ones for an afternoon of soccer and football. I also made the trek way up the hill to the oldest girls’ house, Santa Ana. I introduced myself as the volunteer in Santa Ana in the DR home and got a nice photo to bring back to the girls.

On Wednesday morning, Avriel and I took the 5:30am transport down the mountain to St. Damien’s hospital. We made it just in time for 7:00am mass with Father Rick. Every morning, he does a mass to bless all of those who have died at the hospital during the previous day. There were three bodies at the mass and it was mainly in Creole. After that, we went into the hospital and visited the cancer ward where we were able to see four of the kids who have come through of Santa Maria house in the DR: Nayilan, Sofi, Matzali, and Jimica. We spent hours and hours playing together. We also visited the abandoned babies room, which I have to say was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

 Over the next day, we spent a lot of time visiting the different NPH locations in Tabarre. We went to St. Anne’s, the baby house where there are 35 babies!! We went to Don Bosco, which is where all of the high school and university students live, and I got to meet one of my cousins godsons! We also visited Kae St. Germaine, which is essentially a special needs school and therapy center that NPH runs. And finally, antoher one of my favorite parts was visiting the Father Wasson’s Angels of Light program (FWAL). This program has about 200 kids whose families were devasted in the earthquake. Contrary to the orphanage, these kids do have families who care for them, but their families are living in extreme extreme poverty in the tent cities around Port-Au-Price, so NPH has taken them in and is sending them to the on-site school. It’s an amazing program! The kids actually all live in containers, like the type of containers you see on the back of a semi-truck. They have just cut in windows and doors. The kids live so simply but also seem so happy for what they have!

 For the two nights we were in Tabarre, we got to hang out at the Visitor Housing with the volunteers, which was a lot of fun! Interestingly enough, the Visitor Housing is located right next to a bunch of the UN camps, so we got to see a lot and hear a lot of what was going on with all of that too.

On Friday morning, we hopped on the 8:00 am bus back to the DR and arrived in the capital around 5:00pm. As Avriel and I were processing things on the way home, we decided that it certainly wasn’t one of those trips where you come back feeling really happy and relaxed. In reality, we saw a lot of poverty and sickness. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t awesome! We saw some amazing views and meet some even more amazing people! I hope I get the opportunity to go back!

Currently, we are the midst of Christmas CRAZINESS. We have Las Mañanitas every morning at 6am for 10 days where we go singing from house to house looking for the baby Jesus. Between that, piñata-making, dance preparation, gift preparation, Outreach events in the nearby bateys, regular office work, visitors, the various different Christmas events, and a case of bronchitis, I’m feeling stretched pretty thin. Not even copious amounts coffee is helping me kick this exhaustion, but in another week, we’ll all be able to breathe again! Here’s some Confirmation pics: