Mission to Haiti 2012
from Julia Jordan-Lake (The baby)

“only one life ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last”.

The previous line was used in last nights devotion. Each night we have had a chance to debrief and process our day as a group. Waking up, we were greeted with mystery meat or as we later agreed upon, “spicy tuna”. After breakfast, we walked to the market. Sort of like the hip, organic farmers markets, but…not. We learned quickly to make way for various chickens, donkeys, pigs, and children carrying huge bushels of bananas. The “parking lot” at the end of the market held roughly 30 donkeys…and their waste. On the walk back, we stopped to buy cold beverages and were thrilled to hear a karaoke cover of Rhinna and see Reese’s peanut cups.

An hour or so later, we met up with six Haitian nurses under the shade of the church roof. We split into three groups where translators helped the Haitian and American nursing students understand the similarities and differences in their programs. We sojourned back to the house to share lunch with our new friends and then had some down time before teaching English at a local school.

Despite common opinion, we are NOT from Texas, we are NOT French, we think Haiti is VERY hot, we have NEVER killed chickens, and we are indeed white. The experience filled us all with a great sense of joy and we shared experiences all the way home. A favorite part of walks in Grand Goave is always the cries of ” aaaaaaayyyyy yoooooouuuwwww!!!” from children when they see our group.  Charly and others now echo the call. This little call and response brings back warm memories of Soulja Boy hip-hop music.

Ah, home. The cold showers were once again the highlight of everyone’s evening downtime.  The cinnamon-banana oatmeal for dinner was complimented with rolls and NON-SPICY!! Peanut butter. We’re off to check out the Saturday night life. It’s five o’clock somewhere…which in Grand Goave means smoothies and a rehearsal for our debut cover of “In Christ Alone”.