Learning Curve (edited)
The alarm goes off at 5 in the morning in Carrefour. I awake to realize the sun has not arrived to illuminate the roof of our campsite. This makes it challenging to get up and bring down our cots from the top. 6am am rolls around quickly and not certain if I’m dreaming, however the constant cry of the dozen roosters across the street confirmed it for me. Breakfast is ready and head towards the food table. I greet my fellow peeps with a grin and find a seat to enjoy the morning nutrients. Didn’t take long to realize the first meal was going to dictate my performance throughout the day. With that in mind, I focused on eating the healthy fats and carbs first, followed by any sweets I could fit into the morning supper. Knowing 7am is when we need to report for our VBS (vacation bible school), I replenished my two water bottles and made sure repellent was applied along with other necessities. By this time, the sun should be on the Horizon giving a beautiful orange/amber sky we all appreciate. We line up and do our head count. The leader provides adequate instructions for the day’s game plan. I tie up my sneakers, switch to some thin shorts & shirt, slap on my mini back-back and proceed out the door.
The community and environment both give off a sense of humbleness to be honest. It was wise to go into this experience without expectations because you never knew what awaits you the next hour. In my previous years, it was challenging to open up to people. Fear and selfishness were my go-to's that lead me towards a narrowed lens in life. Today, I balance that out as much as possible—perhaps only to remind me how far I’ve come and where growth needs to prevail. Being the visitors in Haiti, I was adamant to know behind the culture of the Haitians. My immediate target was to break the ice and strike up intro conversations with the security guards, truck drivers and translators. The advantage of having available translators during this excursion paid off—even though half of them spoke Spanish, the energy was quite intense. My back-up plan was to pull the soccer (futbol) card if conversations got dry—fortunately not a lot of those cases occurred. I was fortunate to get to know the locals and in return, they experienced my character.
The community with kids was a blessing. Enjoyed spending as much time as I could during VBS and outside those walls. Apart from language barriers, they are beautiful in their unique way. When communicating, I did my best using simple gestures and body language, however most of the time, I probably got made fun of. Either way, I got them to smile.
I was given the opportunity of playing Jesus as part of a skit our group assembled. Don’t know if that was good or simply confused them more, but a few ended up calling me Jezi Jezi instead Jorge (maybe they just forgot my name). An impacting memory I have of the children, is during a small project. Members of our organization required moving a few assembled desks to new classrooms. The rooms were on the second floor and had to maneuver our way up the stairs. Luckily these stairs were exterior rather than inside. These desk aren't the small individual one's you'd see at your typical elementary school. They assembled these more like your lunch tables that had length. Halfway through, we were feeling the pain, yet only had a couple of more trips to make. By the third round, a few boys witnessed our struggle and ran quickly toward the stairs. We seen them approach and attempted to grip the corners to help. We quickly addressed them saying ‘NO, stay back’ in efforts to prevent accidents and avoid serious injury. Remarkably, they didn’t budge or move and remained holding their ground. We continued to tell them to stay clear, but their ears were muted and continued to help until the last desk was positioned in the room. Afterwards, I embraced their courage and thanked them (merci) for their strong will—I know I could use more in my life.
Much more fellowship occurred the next few days with the children and community. Want to thank you for your prayer and helping me fund this trip, thus be able to witness a remarkable village. Because of your assistance, we were able to absorb the community and respect their passionate humbleness towards everyone. Not only did we add a deeper compassion filter, but our hearts will be shared just how beautiful the people of Haiti are.