In my last post I talked about our travels to Haiti, the church we visited, the devastation we saw, and our accommodations. Today I want to share about the rest of our trip!

For starters, the purpose of our trip was to not only see Haiti for ourselves and the work that HCO is doing, but also to do construction work and help in the medical clinic. HCO owns land in Peredo that houses a school (which is also used as a church), a medical clinic, and what will soon be the country’s first Christian camp. The camp will function much like Christian camps here in the U.S. do, with youth groups coming together for summer camp, men’s and women’s groups gathering for retreats, and church leaders congregating for training and fellowship.

Here’s a look at the progress of the dorms…

When the dorms are finished they will have showers and indoor plumbing. They will not only be used by campers, but will also be where teams from the U.S. will stay when they come to work at the camp until a team house is eventually built. Right now the house that teams are staying in is located 90 min. away in Jacmel, so being able to stay on site will be awesome! They are hoping to have the dorms completed next month.

Our team did a lot of plumbing and electrical work while we were there. Work is done differently there than it is here, so we learned what to do from the Haitians and went with the flow. It was hard to get used to working in such extreme heat, so we all had to make sure to take plenty of water breaks throughout the day.

Next to the dorms they are in the process of building the nurse’s house. The nurse will be able to stay at the camp and will have a full kitchen to fix meals for the teams that come to stay.

We had a lot of help from Haitians during our time there. What’s great about this ongoing building project is that it allows them to employ several men to do construction work every day. These guys were such hard workers and very STRONG! I am pretty sure several of them could out-work an ox. ;-)

One of the guys working in the picture below (he is inside the building) is the son of a man who used to be a witch doctor. This guy’s brother was given a pair of shoes by RoRo (one of the lead missionaries), which were brought down by a team that had come from the states. When the boy’s father (the witch doctor) found out about the shoes he approached RoRo and said, “It’s too late for me, but I want you to teach my son about Jesus.” The father ended up becoming a Christian in addition to the two sons and has since passed away. Every time I tell this story it gives me chills…

There were a ton of kids that would hang out around us every day wanting to help. They would move rocks, shovel dirt, and carry wheelbarrows with the rest of us, many of them working in their bare feet.

A few people attempted to play soccer with some of the kids. I, however, chose not to embarrass myself. ;-)All of the kids LOVED having their picture taken and being able to see it on the back of the camera!

What cracked me up is how they would ask for  picture and then get into a very serious pose…

I would usually make a face or say something to try and make them laugh. :-)

In addition to all of the kids hanging around, there would also be a ton of animals at the camp every day. There would be dogs and chickens wandering around, along with goats, cows, and donkeys that were tied up to graze.

Half of our group worked in the medical clinic for most of the week. The clinic is not quite finished, but has already been opened up for use because of the great need in the community. Right after the earthquake the camp was put on hold for a while so that work could be done on the clinic.

We had people painting the inside of the clinic, doing electrical work, handing out medicine in the pharmacy, and taking people’s blood pressure while they waited to see the doctor. I got to play nurse and by the end of the week the inside of my ears were so sore from the stethoscope after seeing hundreds of patients!

We had the opportunity to see so many adorable babies that came to the clinic for check-ups. Shelly and I just couldn’t pass up the chance to hold one!

Ginny, the nurse with HCO, dressed a lot of wounds throughout the week. She is seriously beyond amazing! She lives in Haiti by herself (soon she’ll have a daughter once the adoption is final) and works so hard at the clinic. She also makes house calls, especially to check on new moms and their babies. She has started some awesome programs to teach things like nutrition and how to better care for children. She loves it when groups like ours come to help because they need the extra people to be able to run the clinic. It’s especially helpful when skilled medical professionals are able to come and see more patients and do minor surgeries.

Every day when we would arrive at the clinic there were would be a large group of people waiting to get in. And oh, the stories I could tell of what we saw! One little boy came into the clinic because his brother had cut his hand (very deeply) with a machete. His hand was wrapped with a bandage and packed with grass and dirt. Grass and dirt!

Another woman came in with a large wound on her leg. She had seen a witch doctor who had told her to pour hot oil on it, which she did! She not only had this horrible wound to begin with, but then it was burnt as well. It was terrible. She had been given some antibiotics to take to help it heal, but apparently misunderstood what to do with them. Rather than taking them like a pill, she had been crushing them up and putting them inside her bandage!

We saw one little girl who had a good size cut on her leg and had put toothpaste on it because her mom told her to. I guess she thought it was close enough to antibiotic cream.

I felt so bad for all of the people we saw with all of their hurts and ailments. Some of them just don’t know any better; for many others there is just not the help there that they need (especially if they have a serious condition). It’s very sad.

In addition to seeing a doctor, people could also go and see an eye doctor or dentist. They aren’t quite like what we have here, but the work that they are doing is very helpful for the people there.

A team of dentists from the States helped to train some of the Haitians working in the clinic on how to pull teeth and fill cavities, for example. They are hoping to eventually have a dental hygienist working there, but will need some more equipment before that can happen.

One of my favorite people that I met in Haiti– Destiny, is the eye doctor in the clinic. He uses a machine that can tell him what glasses someone needs if they are having vision trouble. He is seriously one of the kindest human beings I have ever met and always had a smile on his face!

After seeing the doctor, patients would go to the pharmacy to pick up their medications. Unfortunately, the strongest type of pain meds that they have there are Tylenol and Advil. I felt so awful for one man who came in who had ulcers on his feet and was obviously in a lot of pain. In the U.S. he would be given something much stronger, but they just don’t have access to that there.

One day while were were working a vehicle from the U.N. showed up. We were a little nervous as to what they were wanting, but they ended up just wanting to check the place out. They were all very nice and I just had to take a picture of them in their cool uniforms! The guy in the back with the beard is totally legit. ;-)

Each day while we worked at the camp and in the medical clinic school would be in session. We would see the school children running around in their cute little uniforms and they would come up to us and say, “What is your name?” over and over.

The school initially started out as just a pre-school and each year they have added another grade. If I remember correctly they are up to 3rd grade right now.

One of the best parts of the whole entire trip for me was getting to hand out shoes to the school children. A couple of days before we left for Haiti James suggested that I take some of the extra money that we raised for the trip and purchase some shoes. Because it is incredibly difficult and costly to send supplies to Haiti (not to mention you don’t know how long something will get held up in customs and how much money they will want you to pay under the table to get it through), the easiest way to get supplies into the country is to personally bring it in.

Each person in our group packed one large personal bag (we left most of our clothes in Haiti) and one large bag just for supplies. In the weeks leading up to the trip we collected medicine, toiletries, clothes, food, and tools to bring with us. Being the bargain shopper that I am, I was able to purchase over 100 pairs of shoes to take with us! I literally bought every pair of shoes on sale from Payless, and because I was buying so many the nice manager gave us an additional discount. :-)

It was SO much fun to watch the kids’ faces light up when they got their new shoes! They were all so excited.

Another team that had come down before us had brought these adorable pillow case dresses. We also passed those out at the same time as the shoes. How cute are these two?!?

One of the biggest adventures for us was going to the bathroom at the school/camp. ;-) There were only a few of us that were brave enough to give it a try. You can see why…

This is the little hut where all of the food for the school children is prepared every day.

The drive to and from the camp was an adventure. We would all pile in the back of a flatbed truck for the 90 min. drive each way…

Most of the roads in Haiti are horrible, so there were a lot of bruised backs and rear ends by the end of the week. The better option when riding was to stand, so we all took turns getting to do that.

The ride would always pass by rather quickly for me as there were so many things to see. I would ride holding on with one hand with the camera in the other trying to snap things as we went!

I never realized just how beautiful the country is before this trip…

While we drove through markets every day, one day we decided to walk from the camp to the market in Peredo…

One thing I discovered on the trip is how much I love Creole food! Everything we ate was soooo delicious. While we ate at the house most nights, a couple of the nights we ate out. One of those places was a hotel that overlooks the ocean. We were quite surprised to find such a nice hotel in the middle of so much poverty.

On one of our last evenings in Haiti we had the opportunity to go to the beach for dinner. The beach was beautiful and we got to eat under a cute little hut…

Several of our Haitian friends came with us to the beach. On the right is the doctor that saw patients at the clinic. I told him to pretend to be a model. :-)

After dinner we went out on the beach to watch the sunset…

I felt honored to be on this trip with such a great group of people! I can’t wait for the opportunity to go back…

There are so many future plans for the camp compound as the funds and supplies become available. A chapel, new school, basketball court, and swimming pool are some of the projects planned for the coming years. I am so excited to see what God will do through this place!

Hope you enjoyed my re-cap! Don’t you want to go on a missions trip to Haiti now? ;-)

To see more pictures from our trip, check out the slideshow below (may take a few moments to load):

Slideshow music: Never Failing by James Davis, Healer by Kari Jobe, God of This City by Chris Tomlin, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Chris Rice.

Contact Jenna |  Visit the Website |  “Like” on Facebook |  Follow on Twitter |  Subscribe to the Blog