Travelers Digest

its always on when your traveling that you meet the most interesting people. I love the airport for this reason. its good to get out of your comfort zone and see what is going on in the rest of the world. who else are you sharing the planet with. when you sit in the back of a plane and look straight down to the front you realize how amazing the world is. there are hundred of people on the plane. 150 different lives all set in motion. going to different place, different struggles, victories. and new adventures. 

When travel to haiti i am most likely traveling with a team of volunteers. We are always clothed in blue shirts that say HOPE Worldwide. we have a mission. when we arrive at the airport we see other groups of volunteers, also on a mission, on their way to haiti. when we board the plane we see that the we have a common purpose and destination but we are divided. on the front right we have the green team representing food for the poor. on the mid left we have the yellow team representing, helping hands. in the rear we have the red team an group of asians calling themselves Jezu Reme ou (Jesus loves you) there are also white, light blue, dark green and grey teams as well. no one ever speaks to us and says hello, where are you heading or what it your mission. common purpose, same destination but very clearly and visibly divided. I always feel like I am imposing when I ask one of these groups where they are serving or what are they doing in Haiti. I like to gather information while I am traveling. you never know who you may meet and who you can partner up with .I don't  get the impression that the feeling is mutual. Why if our goal is to help the same people, in the same country are we so guarded about our plans of how to help. Every shirt has a different objective and with those objectives come different strategies,efforts but ultimately accountability and recognition. Haiti has become a place to mount a “Look what I did” flag. The nation has  the most Non-government-organizations  (NGO’s) than any other country in the world. With no government in place to assure the people that their fundamental rights will be protected NGO’s have stepped in to assure this but doesn’t this make the people more vulnerable more dependent?

In Gressier, where we do our volunteer work, we see the results of years and years of dependency gone awry. How are we any better or worse than the next organization? Are we also perpetuating the dependencies that other groups before us have nurtured? This is a question we ask ourselves and try to correct on each subsequent trip. How can we assist our friends in Haiti with THEIR objectives? How can we be a support to them and not them to us? How can we help small business owners and fisherman to be successful in the work they do? This year we rolled the dice on something different and perhaps controversial to some. We notice a pattern in how the women of the community picked through the in-kind donations as if they were shopping for someone other than themselves. We later learned that many of them were merchants selling the best of what they received at the marketplaces in Haiti. This year instead of organizing a chaotic and potentially dangerous clothing distribution out in the open lot of the beach we decided to sell a set amount of clothing to the women in our core group with 100% of the proceeds going to support the orphanage. The women who took advantage of this arrangement were so pleased. They told us that what we did was a good thing. In the past as she continued to explain, they were ridiculed by the other women in the village. They were accused of letting the americans dressed them. This made them look and feel quite foolish. By giving them the opportunity to purchase the items fair and square they maintained a sense of dignity and were able to go to town and make a profit. We look forward to returning and continuing and extending the program.

Trip to the Moon

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.

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.

I am Haitian

I left and went straight to the mall with my gift card burning a hole through my pocket. I knew exactly what I was going to buy...My first pair of skinny jeans at age 37! Better 'get in while you fit in, right'?? I also went to a lil kiddie birthday party and went back for seconds on a wonderful meal. I ate, I drank, I laughed. Nightfall...I went home with my husband and my children. I put on thier pajamas and put them to sleep in thier warm, clean beds. I took a shower and spent some time with my husband before we went to bed. Just before turning out the lights, I decided to check my emails. It was at this moment, I learned about the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti. This was the second time in my life where I was hit with that moment. The moment where I realize that nothing I did that day made a dam difference at all.
The first time I had that realization was the day my mother died. That day I went to class, hung out with friends and stayed out late....By the time I got home her soul had already been demanded from her and she had already breathed her last breath. It is in the aftermath of tragedy like an earthquake of unmatched proportions or the untimely death of someone you love to pieces that you ask yourself...What the hell am I doing? My Haitian mother...who 14 years ago cried at site of Haiti after having been estranged from it for several years. What would she do if she were alive today? While my Haitian brothers and sisters were losing thier lives, not knowing what hit them...I was in a dressing room in Macy's trying on jeans. While my people were getting cut down at the knees by yet anther devastation...I was throwing away food because i was full.
So as I sit at my desk and my co-workers pass me by. I feel the need to let them know....Hey...I'm Haitian. Hey...I'm really hurting right now...Hey...I still have family that I am hoping is ALIVE today. Do you care? Oh, what's that?...we have a conference call? You need me to follow up on this issue?
I remember a day, while still in college that I called my mother and she asked if I had eaten...I told her that I had arrived at the dining hall too late and had missed dinner. I didn't have money to buy anything and I would probably have cereal. She said...How can I eat if I know you have not eaten?... I feel that way today. I woke up healthy, unharmed, warm and fed while these ppl, our brothers, are suffering. They are injured. They will be sick. They will die. Today nothing else matters.