So yeah. It's been a looonnng time (in blogging time). But I'm back! :) Last month my parents and I took a trip to Haiti. We were there for almost 2 weeks and we stayed with some long-time missionary friends who run a clinic in Northwest Haiti. I can't really even describe the plethora of feelings during the trip. There was some culture shock...and despair...and wonder...and awe of God. I wrote most of the following on the plane coming back from Haiti.
How can I even put it into words? Should I mention the constant noises at dusk? Should I describe the insistent knocks and phone calls for petty demands? What about the scores of children sitting by the side of the road - waving. And begging. Should I describe that? How about the worse-than-dry-creek-bed roads? The illiteracy? The shacks piled so close to each other that you can barely differentiate one from the other? The broken down huts? The hypocrisy? The wailing? The total acceptance of "spiritual" things, without any absolute knowledge of a relationship with the One True God? How can I describe this place called Haiti?
When I caught my first glimpses of Port Au Prince, the poverty of the country immediately struck me. The housing was a dilapidated mess. Did people actually live in this city? The rain barraged the window pane of the airplane, blurring my limited view. After unloading we were corralled into a maze of tunnels and security workers directing us into the customs line. Everything seemed different. The Creole wording on the signs, the immense clamour of voices, the collision of bodies while claiming our luggage.
After we climbed into the van our taxi driver brought, we closed the door and started our long trek to a Mennonite Mission where we were to stay the night. I'm not even sure how to describe Port Au Prince during "rush hour". There were very few driving rules being followed, yet - much to my amazement - we did not witness a single crash. Everyone seemed to know when the four lane road should suddenly become three lanes one way and one lane the other. And nobody seemed to care that the hundreds of motorcyclists just cruised their way in between lanes of traffic and went into just about whichever lane they could squeeze into. An hour and a half (5 miles) later, we found ourselves gazing at a hefty blue gate as it swung open, seemingly effortlessly. The land beyond the gate was entirely altered from the previous world through which we had passed. The green grass and palm trees waved to us with welcoming features. We drove up to the house. The first thing I noticed was the doors. It had actual functioning, locking, wood doors - something that I hadn't observed much at all during our drive. We opened the door and immediately felt blessed to stay in so nice a place when compared to the rest of the hectic city.
Anyway, that's as far as I've gotten in writing about our trip. I kept a journal while I was there, but it was more of a descriptive action-by-action type journal. . . At 5:00 we started a dinner of pizza type journal. lol ;)
I'll try to post more often now that my life is seeming to settle into somewhat of a routine! :)
