Speaking with Children

MarieYolane is the daughter of one of the Haitian nurses who worked at mission of Hope who greeted us every morning while we gathered supplies to load up to take to the mobile med clinic. She took a special liking to me once she figured out I could speak french with her.

Mobile Med Clinic

This is a school girl with her prescription and free tooth brush after seeing one of our 3 nurses or 2 doctors that had volunteered for the week.

Our day started at about 5:45 or 6:00 a.m every morning. Breakfast was at 6:15 and we tried to be on the cater and down the hill to go to the clinic at Mission of Hope to pick up supplies by 6:45. One day our interpreters were late because there was a riot and the roads were blocked. The next day our driver was late because there was a motorcycle crash which left one person dead on the side of the street, and traffic was backed up. Every day it seemed like such a risk for our Haitian staff to even get to our campus to go help others.

Sun setting on Mission of Hope main Campus

What you see here are some of the orphan's housing, a young garden, and the sunset we saw every night.

Mission of Hope South Campus

This had to be my favorite place in Haiti. I loved the colors of the housing, all painted by volunteers but it really captures the island spirit and liveliness they truly have. At this campus, over a hill, in a way detached from the other housing, was the deaf village.
The deaf are tormented in Haiti. If a deaf person was caught signing in public places, such as lines to receive food or aid after the earthquake, they would be beat up and kicked out of line. The deaf people of Haiti had to come together to survive, joining together is the only way they can possibly survive in the deep part of the slums they have been pushed into. Rape among deaf women is much more likely than in another village due to the fact that if she screams in the night no one else can hear her. Knowing that much is enough to make one's heart heavy for life. Mission of Hope is currently working with the Haitians to relocate every deaf person out of the slums and into the safe campus. Kyle, a worker at Mission of Hope who I met, learned Creole and Creole Sign language in his first 8 months of living in Haiti to become a fundamental force in helping these people. The deaf community calls him "Haitian black brother" and he is the leader of the relocating project. He thinks of ideas, but sits back and lets the Haitians carry them out the way they feel best. He brought them the idea of relocating about 20 people at a time, but it was up to the Haitian to decided who went first. They decided the families with children who aren't in school should go first so they can attend the school and those without a job can go after that since there are job opportunities at the campus. That is one of the values that I admire the most about Mission of Hope. Mission of Hope knows they're not Haitian, and they don't try to make Haitians be Americans, because "Haiti is not America" as they always say. And I find that so beautiful. Mission of Hope is truly such a pure organization.
The residents who have been relocated are some of the happiest people I have ever seen. One lady stood outside her house and called people to come and look in her house, she pulled back the curtain to her bedroom and stood there with the biggest and most proud smile on her face. She was so excited and proud and happy of her tiny house just because she could get a great night's sleep without fear and had a loving community around her. After I looked around her house, I signed "thank you" to her and she almost burst with happiness that I signed at her and quickly and excitedly signed back "You're welcome" & "I love you" with again a huge smile on her face and grunts of happiness. That was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

Learn more about future plans of the south campus here and about their current housing actions here

Haiti. March 2012.

Where do I even begin?
Well, I figured I can't explain this trip in one post, so I decided that I'm going to upload one picture at a time and explain it and go off with stories and tid bit that are sparked by the picture I post!
But first off, I just want to say thank you again to everyone who helped to contribute to help me go on my trip. I will remember my time there forever, and I am forever impacted by the trip and by your generosity. I cannot express to you enough how grateful I am and how much your support meant to me, thank you.

Here is the welcome sign to the Mission of Hope that I stayed at for a one week. (You can visit their website here). I am bragging and telling everyone about them because they are seriously the best organization I have ever seen that is helping Haiti (yes, I did just put them above Red Cross and Unicef). They are working along side the Haitian people to rebuild their country from the inside out, not just throwing temporary bandaids on the current problem and not looking forward to the future. They have a 5, 10, 15, even 20 year plan. It is so amazing. They have a school, a day care, a orphanage, church, workshop that manufactures daily meals to be distributed, a shop for women with physical handicaps to make accessories (since they can't find jobs anywhere else),a clinic, in the process of building a hospital...at one campus. They have 2 other campuses that are newer but have many other facilities such as another school and a deaf community. There are over 200 haitian people on staff and only a handful of North Americans. Their primary goal is to send all the north american workers home and have Haiti build up Haiti! It is truly amazing, I have never seen something more inspiring in my life.