Back Tracking Haiti~Day 6

BEACH DAY!!! This day was supposed to be a day of complete relaxation as we drove through Haiti sight-seeing on the way to the beach. Every year we go, we set aside this special day to recover, recoup, and rediscover what God did through us the week we served. It's really quite needed as Bob, Dr. Dada, and I agree. However, my body decided to pick up a bug and I spent the 6 hour truck ride, hunched over in pain, barfing out the window. It was pretty gruesome so I'll spare you most the details.

 Roadside Art Seller

Our first stop was a little hideaway atop the mountain where Haitians hawk their goods for a price. I LOVE bargaining with them and even though I was deathly ill, I made it a point to step out and buy a few things. Nothing can ever get in the way of a lady and her shopping! Nick bought two lovely little jewelry boxes and I bought a statue of a woman balancing a baby on her hip and a basket of goods on top of her head. This fits in perfectly with all the other little statues I have collected on our trips and was a tribute of all the things we women tend to balance in our lives. In fact it's kinda a remembrance for me of the last year. While we there, we were able to take a good look at the city below with a breath-taking view that included the shoreline and farther islands. It's a great spot to pray that God's will would be done over Haiti...

Mountain-Top View of Port au Prince

As I was about to fall over, we hopped back into the truck and headed towards the fallen capitol of Haiti and some shopping for those who could stand up straight. By this time it was only Fi, Dan and I in the truck. As we pulled up to the capitol building I made myself look at the ruins. It was in that millisecond of a glance that I felt overwhelming shame. Here I am an American, facing the devastated capitol of another country with it's countrymen living in squander right outside it's gates, and I'm gawking like a school girl on a class trip. I began to think upon the images that burned themselves into my head last year of Haitians sobbing at the capitol gates thinking there was no hope if this happened to their countries main government building. No direction for their country. I began to think about our response as Americans to the rubble of the Twin Towers and Pentagon. Will we always remember? Will we always be so patriotic? Will we always fly our flag with pride? Do people my age even care? (I think patriotism for my generation is another blog topic you will see soon so stay tuned!) There was so much to think about while taking video of the earthquake survivors who set up camp across their capitols gates. This ladies and gentlemen is the worst of it.

Haiti's Capitol

We were on the road again and this time inching along due to market day which everyone and their mom come out for and trucks without tires stuck in the middle of the road. The truck ride for me was waaaay more comfortable than those in the cage. In fact, one team-member said that the cage ride was "quite traumatic." We soon found ourselves free of the traffic, diesel smells, swirling dirt, and moving out into the country where the sight of the ice blue ocean greeted us on one side and displaced "city-Haitians" on the other. Not sure why, but the sight of the blue and gray tents dotting the mountainside with the occasional open fire and woman giving herself a bath in broad daylight, disturbed me more than in the city. See, these people are disconnected to their families and friends, the city, schools, it's market's-meaning fresh food and clean water, and placed in a new community of people they may never have associated with before and without the "assistance" other tent-cities are getting. My heart goes out to those families and I pray that they will have the strength and courage to rise above their situation and choose to live the life our God wants for them.


Finally, we pulled up to the Indigo Blue Resort! After getting our keys, Nick and I bolted for our room and left the newbies oohing and aahing over the ocean view. Not that we didn't care, but we new the ocean hadn't changed since the last time we saw it and we also new that there was air conditioning in the hotel room! Besides, the faster you change into your suit, the faster your your having fun. We were soon squishing white sand between our toes only to find half of our team with huge grins-heads bobbing in the salty cool water, while other's were fascinated to just walk ankle-deep in the waves looking at the fish and shells that washed up on shore.

The sight always catches my breathe as islands float in the distance beneath cotton candy clouds with the occasional sailboat dotting in and out of the scene. It's quite poetic really, the long wooden boats with their dirty sails swaying in the wind make me think of pirates, and the half naked men casting their nets and fishing lines to real in the nights dinner. It's such a beautiful place to reflect about God's provision through creation.

Arg! The Pirates Are Coming!!!

We the spent the remainder of the evening in the pool-due to jellyfish spawning starting at 5:00, sipping freshly squeezed fruit juice, kayaking, playing pool basketball, taking pictures, and just hanging out. Then we gathered for a scrumptious buffet style dinner and the last session of Dr. Dada's teaching on Nehemiah.

Da' Mayo Boy's  Kayaking 

Da' Mayo Girls Chill'n

Da' Mayo's

It was a wonderful way to end a trip filled with sights, sounds, and smells that will be forever burned into our senses and a way to say goodbye to a people whose faces are etched upon our hearts. A people who live in a country of such contrast between devastation and beauty, rich and poor, sick and healthy, good and evil. A people who God wants to use to change Haiti.