Have you ever been to the moon? Have you ever wondered what it would be like on the moon? I actually have sat and pondered that thought. I have watched sci-fi movie after movie and placed myself in the center of the action. What would it be like?
Going to Haiti for the first time in fifteen years, for the first time after the earthquake was like going to the moon. A place where nothing exist. Time stands still and the days are long.
It started with a non-stop flight to Santo Domingo . When we arrive we are not clear if we need to meet a contact person at the airport or make our way to the Caribe Tours bus company. We take a moment to clear our minds, take breath and then I decide to exercise my Spanish to inquire about the cost of a taxi to Caribe Tours. Not convinced by the price OR the driver I return inside the airport. I see a clean cut gentleman standing in near my party with a giant green army duffle and a clear bag which contents clearly appeared to be a tent. I walked up to him confidently thinking that maybe he was a part of the group we were meeting and asked if he was a part of our group. He said no. I asked him what group he was a part of. He said none and that he was there alone. Alone and on his way to Haiti. Would you like a ride? I went to the girls and introduced them to him. We talked for a while about why we were all there. He shared that he was meeting a team in Port-au-Prince and that we were welcome to take ride with his friend to the bus stop, about an hour away. I wouldn't dare do this had it been JFK but I didn’t think twice in Santo Domingo. We shared a common bond right off the back and this made us family. His name was Marc Baptiste. Photographer. Google him. Wow.
In the car with Marc Baptiste, his old Haitian friend, and my companions, inside an old beat up Mercedes Benz. We were in the back seat drinking up the exhaust fumes that filled the car and the surrounding air outside. This was nothing compared to what we will smell in Haiti according to the older man. Marc's friend gave us a rundown of how we should "conduct" ourselves in Haiti. The debrief was something out of raiders of the lost ark. He said we should spend the week virtually fasting. That we should not eat ANYTHING in Haiti . The whole country was filled with (in French)"Microbes". Germs. He warned us to only eat and drink when it was absolutely necessary. As I type these words, I am recovering from a nasty stomach virus. Vomiting and Diarrhea. I must have surely forgotten these pearls of wisdom. Now we are flying down the road, noisy wind and motor, we are all yelling to be heard. He continues with the debrief and says that we should wear mask because the smell is so bad. This man, who was born in Haiti, had not been back in over 30 years. His hair was permed slick and wavy. He played merengue in the car and barely spoke Creole anymore. Living in Santo Domingo he was only 150 miles from his birth country. Seemed he didn't care much to remember.
We finally make it to the bus after a crazy ride through the busy morning commute of Santo Domingo. We board the bus and are on our way. I'm killing my camera with videos of the beautiful mountains and lakes, people talking. We soon cross the border and the landscape immediately changes. It’s like crossing over into an alter existence. The mountains are brown not green. The roads are eroded and unpaved. Dust swirls around the air. It was as if no oxygen was flowing through my country. Like a human body completely depleted of all nutrients,food,water with no love,no sun and no air. Deserted. Desolate. Alone. The land itself was just sad.
As we entered in our big shiny yellow bus. We begin to see the first glimpses of the city. The crushed buildings that my aunt described as being put through a grinder. In my mind I had to wonder if a dump truck hadn't just backed up and dropped these rocks or if this were really a house once upon a time?
On our way to our final destination, I would have never imagined the wonderful and amazing people I would meet while in Haiti. I saw first hand that the world was responding to the cry of my people. There was young man,Brad,a 16 year old, who traveled alone to join our group in Haiti. There was Jackie a 40 something year old woman who came alone with her 16 year old daughter. There was Daywee and Joshua a dating couple from Vancouver.They were only 18 and 20 years old. There was Tex,Andrew and Krista,mid twenties from Ohio. Bogdan a medical resident from the Netherlands and others. I was floored by their compassion for Haiti. There were Haitians who dared not make the trip but here they were sacrificing their money,vacation time, comfort and health to offer help and a loving hand. Sitting on that bus I had to pinch myself mentally and say. I am here. I made it. I am in Haiti . I AM REALLY HERE.
Showing posts with label caribe tours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caribe tours. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
For such a time as this...
On Friday,I started the day as I always do; trying to get another ounce of sleep. Lately it’s been hard to get up out of bed. I took the baby from her crib after she woke up. Instead of getting the day going I brought her back to my bed so that we could sleep together for even just a few more minutes. When she got too fidgety to keep in bed; I get up and log into my computer to see what is going on in Haiti and find out if anyone has gotten back to me about anything. While I'm checking, I'm making a lasagna. It's time I cook a decent meal. It has been a while of tuna fish sandwiches and frankly I can’t remember what for the past couple of days. I take some time to make some phone calls, to clean,to take a shower. I come back to check my emails and there it is.
Subject line: Trip to Haiti
From: My dear friend, a Haitian physician
I didn’t have to open it to know what it was about. But I did read it and the email said.
"I was just contacted about an upcoming volunteer trip to Haiti for medical relief. The first flight leaves tomorrow 1/23/2010 and the next will leave in about 1-2 weeks. Please let me know if you would be interested in going as a
Physician, nurse or translator. I need to provide your name, contact number, your role and how long you can stay ASAP. If you are interested in going please visit your physician for travel vaccines(Hep. B, Hep. A, Typhoid, Malaria, Meningitis, Tetanus, flu, H1N1). You will also need a recent passport."
It only took a second for me to hit REPLY with my Name, Phone numbers, email and a short message that said nothing more than "Passport Valid until 2015". Then I just stood there. I sent it off and stood there. It's important to me that you know that I am not reckless woman. I have been known to walk away from many a sale to give myself time to evaluate spending the money or not. Many hear the excitement and enthusiasm in my voice and I can see them getting nervous. They often don't see what takes place behind the scenes. Please understand; I DO NOTHING without weighing, not just the pro's and con's, but everything in between. Ask my husband. It can be very draining. I and my husband have been praying about this moment together since we learned about the earthquake. What we were waiting for was not the IF but the HOW. We both knew that my heart was to go. There was never any question. What we didn’t know was WHO I was going with and HOW I was going to get there. Almost as soon as I pressed send my husband had gotten up from a nap he was taking. (He works over night as a truck driver for a major wholesale warehouse.) I couldn’t speak with him right away. I just took him by the hand and sat him down. I was bursting at the seams. I sat him down and I told him that I had been contacted about a trip to Haiti and that I wanted to go. Right then and there, I had his full blessing to go. Any hesitation, a boo, and I would not have the strength or courage to go. His love and his support mean so much to me. They are a reminder of how big God is. How powerful God is. In this time of extreme uncertainty the fact that he feels comfortable with me going to help my people. I am truly blessed.
In the same day, as if that were not enough, I reached out to some friends to say why don’t we "put our heads together" and see what we can come up with. I have some resources sitting in my inbox that maybe we can turn into something. A group of influential Haitians were already getting together for a meeting and now I was invited to give my input and offer my ideas. Is this really happening? I felt like I had made it to home base. I felt that in that moment I was where I was supposed to be. Doing what I should be doing.
Last year, I partook in an exercise where I filled out a worksheet to determine what my goals were. A mission statement, if you will. At first, I thought the exercise was futile and a waste of time. I couldn’t sit still long enough to do anything with it. I finally finished with help and encouragement from many friends. The common thread we found was that my joy and strengths were bringing people together. As the heartbreaking details of Haiti continue to unfold, my thoughts go right away to the book of Esther 4:14,
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews (Haitians) will arise from another place... And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
Such a time as THIS...I couldn’t escape the idea that God was calling me to use what he has given me to make a difference. It fit and made sense.
Words cannot express what seeing the Hope for Haiti telethon on EVERY MAJOR television station meant to me tonight...If any were still in the dark about the gravity of the situation in Haiti, they are no more.
I spent the rest of the day refreshing my inbox to see what came of my REPLY. I checked and checked until I saw the email. It was the same subject and from the same person. This time, it was not an inquiry. It was statement. A statement to those in charge saying: My team will consist of Translator Katty Velez and blah blah blah after that. I don’t remember. I had to go back and read it again and again. What I do remember is that almost immediately, my whole body reacted to the news. I started to tremble and I started to shake. I would be lying if I said I werent afraid and a bit nervous. When I saw the telethon on every station, I sat and wiped streams of tears from my face. I thought, the world gets it. It was an affirmation and thumbs up to me that I wasn’t crazy or foolish or reckless.
In a week or two I WILL be on my way to Haiti. I don’t say this in a bragging way. It’s in a remarkable way. Like I won't believe it until I am there. I will most likely cry all the way there, the whole time there and all the way back and I will more than likely want to go back there once I return. My focus alongside translating is to encourage those I come in contact with and offer a reminder TO HOPE.
I pray to God and I thank JESUS Christ if I get to go. Please pray for the details leading up to and during this trip. Pray for us to be successful in saving some and for the safe return of me and my team.
Subject line: Trip to Haiti
From: My dear friend, a Haitian physician
I didn’t have to open it to know what it was about. But I did read it and the email said.
"I was just contacted about an upcoming volunteer trip to Haiti for medical relief. The first flight leaves tomorrow 1/23/2010 and the next will leave in about 1-2 weeks. Please let me know if you would be interested in going as a
Physician, nurse or translator. I need to provide your name, contact number, your role and how long you can stay ASAP. If you are interested in going please visit your physician for travel vaccines(Hep. B, Hep. A, Typhoid, Malaria, Meningitis, Tetanus, flu, H1N1). You will also need a recent passport."
It only took a second for me to hit REPLY with my Name, Phone numbers, email and a short message that said nothing more than "Passport Valid until 2015". Then I just stood there. I sent it off and stood there. It's important to me that you know that I am not reckless woman. I have been known to walk away from many a sale to give myself time to evaluate spending the money or not. Many hear the excitement and enthusiasm in my voice and I can see them getting nervous. They often don't see what takes place behind the scenes. Please understand; I DO NOTHING without weighing, not just the pro's and con's, but everything in between. Ask my husband. It can be very draining. I and my husband have been praying about this moment together since we learned about the earthquake. What we were waiting for was not the IF but the HOW. We both knew that my heart was to go. There was never any question. What we didn’t know was WHO I was going with and HOW I was going to get there. Almost as soon as I pressed send my husband had gotten up from a nap he was taking. (He works over night as a truck driver for a major wholesale warehouse.) I couldn’t speak with him right away. I just took him by the hand and sat him down. I was bursting at the seams. I sat him down and I told him that I had been contacted about a trip to Haiti and that I wanted to go. Right then and there, I had his full blessing to go. Any hesitation, a boo, and I would not have the strength or courage to go. His love and his support mean so much to me. They are a reminder of how big God is. How powerful God is. In this time of extreme uncertainty the fact that he feels comfortable with me going to help my people. I am truly blessed.
In the same day, as if that were not enough, I reached out to some friends to say why don’t we "put our heads together" and see what we can come up with. I have some resources sitting in my inbox that maybe we can turn into something. A group of influential Haitians were already getting together for a meeting and now I was invited to give my input and offer my ideas. Is this really happening? I felt like I had made it to home base. I felt that in that moment I was where I was supposed to be. Doing what I should be doing.
Last year, I partook in an exercise where I filled out a worksheet to determine what my goals were. A mission statement, if you will. At first, I thought the exercise was futile and a waste of time. I couldn’t sit still long enough to do anything with it. I finally finished with help and encouragement from many friends. The common thread we found was that my joy and strengths were bringing people together. As the heartbreaking details of Haiti continue to unfold, my thoughts go right away to the book of Esther 4:14,
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews (Haitians) will arise from another place... And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
Such a time as THIS...I couldn’t escape the idea that God was calling me to use what he has given me to make a difference. It fit and made sense.
Words cannot express what seeing the Hope for Haiti telethon on EVERY MAJOR television station meant to me tonight...If any were still in the dark about the gravity of the situation in Haiti, they are no more.
I spent the rest of the day refreshing my inbox to see what came of my REPLY. I checked and checked until I saw the email. It was the same subject and from the same person. This time, it was not an inquiry. It was statement. A statement to those in charge saying: My team will consist of Translator Katty Velez and blah blah blah after that. I don’t remember. I had to go back and read it again and again. What I do remember is that almost immediately, my whole body reacted to the news. I started to tremble and I started to shake. I would be lying if I said I werent afraid and a bit nervous. When I saw the telethon on every station, I sat and wiped streams of tears from my face. I thought, the world gets it. It was an affirmation and thumbs up to me that I wasn’t crazy or foolish or reckless.
In a week or two I WILL be on my way to Haiti. I don’t say this in a bragging way. It’s in a remarkable way. Like I won't believe it until I am there. I will most likely cry all the way there, the whole time there and all the way back and I will more than likely want to go back there once I return. My focus alongside translating is to encourage those I come in contact with and offer a reminder TO HOPE.
I pray to God and I thank JESUS Christ if I get to go. Please pray for the details leading up to and during this trip. Pray for us to be successful in saving some and for the safe return of me and my team.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)