UDallas Women's Basketball

Monday, July 22, 2013

We're Back!!

We would like to apologize since it has been almost six months since our last post!  We are back now and can't wait to update you on our team.  Our first post is from Christy Allen, our senior post player from Michigan.  She is writing about her trip to Haiti she took earlier this summer.  Enjoy the post from her perspective.

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!









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