No, it was the most bizarre place I had ever experienced in my life! The 2 hour ride on the back of a produce truck to where we were staying made my hair like straw and my skin smudgy. I'd never ridden on the back of a truck up so high and so close to the palms. Looking back my 14 year old senses were on overload! There were naked babies throwing water at cars in hopes of getting a few cents, ladies riding sideways on their donkeys, chants of voodoo ceremonies off in the distance, yellow oranges that actually tasted really good, beans and rice every day that didn't taste very good, heat so hot you could cut it with a knife and an ocean so salty and warm it offered no relief. What a place, what an experience! Still wondering where I was, I think the voodoo probably gave it away, but I was in Haiti.
I'm the second one on the left, wearing that stunning dress! (FYI kids, this is back when Target was NOT the cool place to shop, ie: you could have bought all of our dresses there back then!)
But back to more serious matters, ever since the earthquake I have been reflecting a lot on my experience there and how my time there influenced my life. I've been thinking about how this is going to affect the Haitians so radically. Wondering how Haiti is going to look in 10 years.
I have so many thoughts on the topic, so many memories of Haiti...
The picture above is me getting to meet my sponsor child and give her a backpack filled with beef bullion, which is literally like bouillon to them and hygiene items for her family... oh man what an experience for a 14 year old to see her home! No floor just a few cinder blocks and some palms for a roof... It makes me so ashamed to think how I have obsessed over decorating my home and never giving a second thought to the poor of this world...
I'm not gonna go into all my memories here, you know I don't have the time....haha, but I do want to encourage you to check out the mission I was privileged to visit and see if you feel compelled to give... Here's the link, New Missions :: Home watch their video on "after the earthquake" at the bottom of the page.
My husband and I felt like this was somewhere that we wanted to give, because they have been selflessly giving to the people of Haiti faithfully for 27 years already and meeting their most basic needs with the love of Jesus. 
The work is far from over in Haiti and I know as Americans we can be tempted to watch the news for a few weeks, shed a few tears, donate a few bucks, and move on... but Haiti still needs us!
One amazing story that I cannot believe didn't make our news over here, is that the president of Haiti, called off the usual Carnival festival and issued a decree for 3 days of fasting and prayer, check it out here ...
I said I wasn't gonna go into all my memories here, but I will share one, just to lighten up what is a pretty heavy post...
On one of our outings to a local village to do a food distribution and sharing time one of the boys on the trip decided he was gonna get a souvenir to take home. So as we were leaving, from the back of the truck he bartered with one of the Haitians to get a statue for his water jug.
When we got back, we were informed that he had in fact purchased a voodoo statue. Woopsy!
Major no-no! So in the mind of a teenager in a foreign land, the most logical thing to do is have your own ceremony where you burn the voodoo statue and paint your face with toothpaste and wear a girls dress while you and your friends dance around the fire banging on their suitcases like drums. Right?!
Totally appropriate...
Sorry New Missions, that's all I can say. 
If you have nothing but time and want to learn more about what has been going on in Haiti in the church please watch this ... Mark Driscoll of my last post's fame...haha... shares about his unreal/amazing/horrible/very needful trip to Haiti to see how we as the church can be helping rebuild the church in Haiti... which remember, has been caring for and meeting the practical needs in Haiti for years, since the government has failed in that area!
If you don't have time but just want to give to churches helping churches, check out this link Here
And if you don't have anything to give, just stop for a moment and pray for the people of Haiti, pray for God's comfort and provision for them. My prayer is that we would be awoken to the fact that none of us is promised tomorrow, "today is the day of salvation" let's be people that redeem the time we have and pursue the good works God has planned for us!
LOVE TO YOU ALL!
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