Haiti:
Recently I just returned from a mission trip in Haiti. Even though I was only there for a week it was definitely a life changing experience and I look forward to going back next summer, or somewhere else equally as needy.
While I was
there we spent probably four of the days at a children’s home run by the
Missionaries of Charity. The house was home to close to 300 severely malnourished babies and toddlers on the first floor, and 20 or
so orphans on the second floor. Our responsibilities while here were to feed
the kids, change their diapers, replace their sheets if they were soiled,
change their clothes, and really most importantly get them out of their cribs
and hold them or play with them. The second floor housed the orphans and they
were healthy but our responsibility with them was solely to play with them and
show them some love since many of the kids had lost their families in the
earthquake.
We also
spent a day to day and a half at “The House for the Dying”. This was the most
traumatic day for me. The house is a large hospice care for hundreds of dying
individuals. They are all dying for various reasons, many of them have
tuberculosis, some with AIDS, others with infections, cancer, and various other
illnesses. The really striking thing about being here is it is much dirtier and
darker than any hospice or hospital we would ever see here. But also every
single person in this building is going to die, and of illnesses and many
things that are completely curable things here in the states, but for them it
means certain death. It was really hard to spend much time here because the
older woman are so happy which is hard to understand because they know they are
dying. And also there are many children here as well.
Its very
striking and heart wrenching to walk into a place where every person you see
will die within months, and yet people are smiling and singing, and the
children are playing and coloring. This was definitely a very hard experience,
and really difficult to come to terms with the fact that I can’t help them even
though there are successful treatments out there.
The last
place that we went, and where I enjoyed being the most, or rather learned the
most from being there was the tent city. The particular one we went to, because
there are many all over the country, was home to 20,000 families so 60,000
people. The conditions here were terrible, the “tents” were made of tarps and
sticks, or branches, or anything that they were able to find. My group helped
build benches for the two empty school houses that they had built on previous
missions as well as “beds” which where just boards raised off the ground so
that they didn’t have to sleep on the floor in the dirt and mud.
We also
spent a lot of time with the kids playing soccer and making crafts, things that
they cannot do very often because they can’t afford the supplies of even a
soccer ball.
There was
one day that we brought 600 pairs of shoes, couple hundred bars of soap, and
piles of clothes to hand out to the people living there. Before we knew it
there were hundreds of people crowded around the little one room schoolhouse we
were in pushing and becoming aggressive to get in. I was in the back of the
schoolhouse where there was an opening. As things began to get more out of
control, around 40 grown men gathered outside that window and were trying to
jump in to get the shoes. I had to stand there and pretty much throw them back
out the window. This day was the most intense experience because as things got
more chaotic and a seeming riot was forming you realized the disparity of the
situation for these people. Who knows the next time they will have a chance at
a decent pair of shoes. The escalation of the situation was not out of greed
but out of pure survival instinct to take advantage of the necessities while
they were within their reach. It was a very eye opening experience.
The entire
week was full of different sights, scenes, and experiences. All of which make
me appreciate everything I have here living in the US and everything I take for
granted every single day. Being there also inspired me with a spirit to do my
part in meeting the needs of the world, since I have been so blessed in my
life, its my duty to help those that are not as fortunate because of
circumstances way beyond their control.
I cannot wait to go back to either
Haiti again, or maybe the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, or Honduras. The next
time I go back though I’ll definitely be bringing some of my teammates with me,
its an experience I think that is beneficial to anyone and everyone!
- Christy Allen
Enjoy some pictures from the trip!
