Haiti Life Changing Experience : Part 1

I have been thinking for 3 days on how I would start this post and really I still haven't gotten it together yet, but here it goes.


A week ago today I spent the whole day traveling to Haiti and wondering how it would be; would it be as bad as the media has said, will I come home sick,( especially since I forgot my Malaria meds), would some kid want to come home with me, or better yet how many kids would I try to get back here to the states? All of those questions went away once the plane landed.


Colline Foundation had a great idea to send us t-shirts so we would know who each other were at the airport. Chris, one of the Foundations organizers, saw me right away and welcomed me. Boy did I feel so much at ease! I found what I believed to be my suitcase right away, prayfully I realized before we got to the car it wasn't and quickly found the correct one.


Now for the bus/car ride to the compound, after living and visiting different places in the world I just knew I would be well prepared for Haiti, not so. Once outside the airport it looked like a bomb had exploded and people were everywhere. Once we had arrived at the compound, 2 armed guards were out front and slowly opened the gate to let us inside a completly different world and relief.


The New Life compound housed volunteers from all over the world and provided you comfortable quarters either indoors or out, my group was placed indoors. we were provided 2 full meals a day, clean room, shower with no hot water and internet service. There was a total of 20 of us from all walks of life and ages, and yes I was the oldest. The first night we introduced ourselves, found out the plans for the week and headed to our rooms.


There were 3 groups set up to help: Children, Medical and Construction. I choose working with children.


Our days began at 5:30 in the morning so that we could have breakfast and drive 2 hours to the school with our personal body guard(policeman). I had never seen so many tents in my life! They were everywhere. Any available spot was a tent housing people. We passed an outdoor market and were told the people who lived in the mountains came down everyday to sell their goods; the picture was worth a thousand words.


After almost 2 hours of riding we reached the Colline Academy. There was one small bulding left standing, which I later found out had housed a bedroom and bath. Our classrooms were set up on the foundation of one of the buildings which consisted of a tarp ceiling and boards to divide the 4 classrooms.


The children ranged from ages 3 to 14 years old, some spoke a little English but mostly Creole French. The kids were invited from the neighborhood for summer school. As usual the first day they were a little wild and by the next day we had a system and they were willing to work with us. Franzie and I had the older kids which was alright with me , the younger kids would just steal your heart.

I was intrigued by one student whose name was Ezekiel. He carried a little notebook with him all the time. I soon found out the note book contained English words he had learned or wanted to learn. He asked me one day to help him with a list of English words he had written and next to them they were written in French. I asked where did he learn English and he had replied "The Missionaries". I gave him a journal to write in and encouraged him to continue. Franzie and I taught the children simple English words and phrases and we had a ball doing crafts to set up for the last day party. Ali one of our Volunteers had raised $2000.00 to throw the children a party for the last day.

I must say they taught me alot, they did so much with having so little, having lost family members and everything they had, but they were alive, proud and so full of life.
I am on a mission to help these children of Haiti to do whatever I can to help them get the education they deserve.

Our last night Chris hinted that he may have a group travel in December to deliver toys to the kids at Christmas time, if it is in the plans I hope I can be there , if not they will have my support and I pray also the support of my friends and family.