Hello everyone. This is Jason, reporting for email duty on Day 4 of our trip. Thank you for the prayers and support, and for being among the group of people we would have our kidnappers contact should we be held for ransom.
Today we attended a local Haitian church right after breakfast. We stayed for about an hour of worship that was in Creole, and it was a pretty awesome reminder that we all serve the same God regardless of the circumstances. God is bigger than the poverty in Haiti, and this worship service was evidence that the people here believe that. We were greeted with smiles from those we walked by as any visitor would probably be greeted. There wasn’t a lot of pointing or staring; they weren’t there for us.
It seemed like the people who went were grateful to be there, and that it was important. That was thing that struck me the most: people were present. Not present as in they showed up, but that they were there in the moment and focused. They weren’t there to socialize, they didn’t appear to be forced into going, and they weren’t constantly looking at their phones (which a lot of them do have). In fact, I only saw one phone the whole time we were there and it was because someone was taking a video of the worship team singing a song. But being present back home seems to be more of a rare occurrence. Since arriving, we have not had our phones with us during the day, which means no checking work emails, no texting, no checking the news every 30 minutes (ok that one is probably just me), and no browsing social media the instant there is a lull in conversation.
We ended the day at an orphanage close by with just the six of us and a couple people from Healing Haiti. We brought supplies with us: bubbles, jump ropes, coloring books and colored pencils, and of course a soccer ball. Surprisingly, the coloring books stole the show. We had fun coloring with 20-30 kids there, playing keep-away soccer in some rain puddles, and then letting the kids teach us some of their games. The best thing about spending time with them was the reminder that kids are kids wherever you go. They argued over which coloring books they got, hoarded the bottles of bubbles we brought (they literally disappeared in minutes), and laughed at us when we didn’t know what they were trying to tell us. But during that whole time, they were just happy we were there and that someone cared. And even if we hadn’t brought those things to play with, they would have been happy enough playing with our hair and taking turns asking, “What is your name?”
It was hard when they asked if they could keep the things we brought, because the policy at Healing Haiti is that everything comes back to their base. I’m pretty sure any one of us would’ve just offered to buy new supplies for Healing Haiti and let the kids keep everything. But we understand why they do things the way they do. Just like water truck day, we have to abide by certain rules because that is how things will change. Giving things away and getting people used to that is unsustainable, and having kids used to mission groups giving them things means future groups could not visit without getting bombarded.
A big takeaway thus far has been to build up Haiti rather than feel good about giving stuff out. Tomorrow we are making a couple stops before the airport, and I already wish we had more time here because it truly is inspiring to see nonprofits doing work that is both effective and far-sighted. We’ve all had an amazing time so far and are humbled to see joy in a situation that many of us would have a hard time finding it in ourselves.
-Jason
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