I can't believe its New Years Eve. This past year has been so amazing and has gone by so fast. This has by far been my least glamorous new years but I wouldn't change it for anything. Today, I went on a walk through the village and I finally remember why I'm here. It was so nice to see more of the people and to be able to interact with them. Tonight during devotions I shared that yesterday I kind of struggled because I was pretty useless when it came to building the Pastor's house, but I know that's not why I'm here and today just confirmed that. These people are so happy we're here and you can tell that just by showing up you've brought them a little bit of hope. I don't know about you but I can't think of one person (besides my mom, but mom's don't count) who is happy when I just show up. It was really refreshing and I'm glad I've found my place again!
Tonight, we finally got to shower! With a bucket filled with 1 gallon of water. I never in my life thought I would think of those shower camping bags as a luxury, but nonetheless - here I am thinking that very thing. We still showered in the Pastor's house. The walls are up but the roof has yet to be put on so we showered underneath the stars. Such a beautiful sight! I'm pretty sure I still have shampoo in my hair though, but honestly, who cares? There was a community church service held at the Prosper Church of God. It started at 8 and is supposed to end around 2 AM. Kenda fell asleep in my arms. I love that little girl, but man is she dead weight when she's sleeping! My arms are so tired! We just left (it's about 11:30 PM). Because it's going so late we had to move our things out of the church and the men are sleeping outside and us 4 women are sleeping in the cooking house. Right before we got to bed Woody tells us to be careful because their are rats. I was like you're joking right? He didn't seem like it was such a big deal, but HELLO, I don't want to be sleeping with no stinking rats! I need to hurry up and write this so I can hopefully fall asleep quickly and not wake up until morning!!
I still can't get over the church service we were just at. Although we were all pretty tired and having a hard time keeping our eyes open - the Haitians were singing and dancing and thanking God for the past year and lifting up 2011 to him. I don't think this needs to be said, but 2010 was not, in my opinion, a good year for Haiti. Starting in January they were hit with a 7.2 earthquake. Followed by 40 after shocks reaching 6.0. Then there were the spring rains that brought mud slides. We've all heard about the Cholera (I've got some interesting news about that - I'll share in a minute), presidential election chaos, the riots, Hurricane Thomas. Ok, seriously, need I go on? Does that sound like a good time to you???? It makes me feel so guilty that even after they have been through all of that they wanted to be in church praising GOD for the things he has done for them. I'm ashamed to say that never in my entire life have I once thought about going to church on New Years Eve. I want to get dressed up and go out with my friends. Definitely something to think about. Thank you Haiti.
Back to Cholera. Once we got here we were informed that if we were infected with the disease we would not die. We would have flu like symptoms and that's about it. For starters, our immune system is a lot stronger than the Haitians. And secondly, when Haitians get diarrhea they quit drinking water in hopes of drying it up. Cholera dehydrates the body and all that needs to happen is more fluids need to be taken in to flush the sickness out. It's so sad that so many people died from Cholera because they didn't have this knowledge or a clean enough water source. But it does make me feel better, not that I was too worried to begin with, about the whole situation.
Well, it's been a long day and as I mentioned before, their might be rats joining us tonight so I need to get to bed ASAP before they show up to party! Goodnight God! Thank you for this amazing trip, these amazing people, and the amazing year you've given me. Please be with our group and help us to get some sleep and be rested for tomorrow. I LOVE YOU! AMEN!
Haiti: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
Read about my first trip to Haiti here.
Haiti: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
Read about my first trip to Haiti here.
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