Oct. 25th, 2012: Haiti day 3

Haiti Day 3

Reflecting on yesterday's water day, I don't understand why, with the billions of dollars pledged to Haiti, a field sits empty next to the Commercial Well. We drive past it to get to slums where masses await fresh water.

Is it too complicated to buy the land, equip it with some plumbing and basic necessities and fill the new space with people?

After my first blog yesterday, I didn't think there was anything in me for this today, but here goes:

Chasing Bacon

I started the day getting winded; it's quite a workout to escort a bounding dog halfway around the block. Bacon escaped as we walked to church early this morning. And he's an expert at avoiding recapture. He marked territory hurriedly as we chased and tried to corral him.

Church was unforgettable. The hoarsely shouted Creole sounds of what I thought was a political dictator turned out to be the pastor shouting praises under a large navy blue tent. Exultation was a leading candidate for word of the day. Shouts of joy turned to a chorus of hymns before the pastor began his sermon. Exultations. Hallelujah was one of very few words I could pick up, but it was easy to understand how much the people love Jesus. One woman was so moved she had to dance, and she danced with Jim.

Hospital for Sick and Dying Children

It's surreal from the moment you arrive as you remove shoes to enter the hospital barefoot and douse your hands with bleach and water. It must be comforting for the parents arriving, and bleaching their hands, simultaneously to know that volunteers care to visit too--for days they cannot attend themselves.

After being able to let go of the first "Hey you!" who bounded into my arms, I fed the girl in bed#2 who didn't have the strength to hold up her own head. I noticed Charlene sat on the floor to help with the balancing act, and I did the same. Incredibly she ate the whole bowl of food and I was grateful for my experience of keeping baby food off four chubby cheeks years ago. The weak whimpers tug at your heart as you try to move to another needy child. I feel badly for not being able to comfort with a lullaby, but I can manage a hum now and then without breaking down.

A few of us moved to the very-sick ward and tried to decide who to hold or help. In the end I picked up a girl whose only sign of life were her beautiful eyes. That's what threw me off--I couldn't believe there was so little strength in that body since there was such beauty in those eyes. But I'll never forget how no life flowed from her tiny, thin arm. The grasp reflex in her hand was completely absent, no matter how much I stroked her palm. As I put her down before we left the ward I prayed: please, please let some of my love replace the energy she'll lose with whimpering as I leave her. Please?

Such a dichotomy; so draining and so fulfilling at the same time. And I think that's what tears you up inside...there's so much moving within you. You could ask: Is the Net zero (or love, as they say in tennis)? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

When we returned to the regular ward, the bell indicated visiting parents had to leave, So I calmed one of the abandoned boys. He was so tired. As I put him down it calmed him simply dry the tear that welled up in his eye.

Incredibly lunch was being prepared. Hadn't breakfast just finished? I was instructed to feed crib#9 as the nurse gave me yellow bib, spoon and aluminum bowl of rice, gravy and chicken. She is beautiful. And it was as if the chicken, which she clearly favored with her eyes as I fed her, awakened something within her. My father talks of "personality plus" to describe rare gems and this girl has it. When she finished her bowl i enjoyed taking extra care cleaning her with a wet-wipe packet.

Taking nurse instruction again, I hurried to feed the boy in the neighboring crib before we had to leave. And as I bibbed him, Miss PP reached over and latched on to my forearm, with a gorgeous smile. A smile that I'll never forget. Just as I'll never forget that near-lifeless whimper. But the net is much more than love.

Gertrude's Home for Special Needs Children

Special Needs is a good way to describe the way I feel about these children: I think they're special too. This is a great example of "Net-More-Than-Love" concept for me. And how appropriate that one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen in Haiti will house these people! Looks like they'll have ample space. That is so exciting!
Jim

Day 3 Video Click Here

Oct. 24th, 2012: Michelle's word of the day

 Haiti has a way of grabbing "Hold" of your Heart!
Our morning began at a "Sunrise" Worship service under overcast skies & drizzle but it did not dampen the Spirits of the Faith -filled Haitian people who so openly welcomed us and grabbed Hold of our hands as they sang songs of praise.
After a hearty Haiti breakfast we spent the morning at a Childrens home for sick & dying. Cribs and toddler rooms were filled with children whose eyes and arms reached out saying "Hold" me!
We came back to our guest house for some needed time of decompression before we set out for our afternoon. 2 of our team members went to help at a wound clinic and the other 9 of us headed for one of the few orphanages that takes in disabled children. Again we were greeted with smiling children who longed to be held and played with as they would take "Hold" of your hand and lead you to the swings, the special hand peddled tricycles or to the end of the jumprope.
Holding was the easy part of the day....Letting go was Heartwrenching!

Michelle

Oct. 24th, 2012: Bel

The word in Creole for beautiful is bel.

As a hurricane / tropical storm tears through the Caribbean, as poverty rages on in Haiti, why am I writing about beauty? What is beautiful about watching parents bring their children to a home to be treated for malnutrition and preventable diseases, or spending your afternoon with disabled children receiving few of the interventions and adaptations that could make their lives easier?

Here are the beautiful things I saw today:

-Haitians worshipping with great joy and enthusiasm at sunrise.
-Our team consoling crying babies, changing diapers and loving sick babies (yes, the men changed diapers too!)
-The Haitian parents who love their children so much that they leave them in the care of others because they do not have the means to care for them on their own.
-The loving care these babies received as they are nursed back to health.
-Beautiful Haitians everywhere I turned (how do they stay so well groomed coming out of tents and shacks?)
-Smiles and laughter from the disabled children who allowed us to play with them in the afternoon.
-The signs of faith everywhere I turn in Haiti. "Thank you Jesus!" signs on trucks and buildings, unabashed praise and joy from the Haitians.
-Hearts of team members breaking for the same things that break the heart of Jesus.
-The pride, determination and hope I see in the eyes of the Haitians.

Beautiful. Bel.

Peace,
Joyce

Oct. 24th, 2012: Day 2, words of the day

Unforgettable, Sadness, Overwhelming, Heartbreaking, Promise, Tattoo, Truck, Beautiful, Grope, Eyes...just words running through our minds according dinner conversation on our second day in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

After breakfast eleven of us piled in the Tap-Tap and left our Guest House for Terre Promise, a Reiser Relief sponsored school. The children, proudly dressed in school uniforms, bubbled with excitement for learning. Dressed just as proudly in our new R-R blue t-shirts, we navigated through the swarming kids--up rickety, unlit staircases, and past hardworking breakfast-makers huddled in the dark corner. After visiting with teachers and Elder Moreland, the administrator/principal, it was time to go to work...
So Tap-Tap bounced us through the city to the Commercial Well, where we filled the Truck from Minnesota (Reiser Relief water truck #3)--for the first time! Three things would strike me hard at City Soleil this afternoon.

-First: the very large boar that swam across the stream (whose waters were seen fluorescent green and dank while flying over yesterday) as our guide described how we had just passed where dead bodies were buried and where the masses either chose to pay a quarter for port-a-potties or defacated in the open.

-Second: how Loretta surprised me between water-run number two and three...somehow I assumed the distances wouldn't make it possible for the green-barretted girl to find me again. But with a grateful smile she insisted I note the bandaid-covered knee Joyce had provided at the end of the previous water station.

-Third: how Haitian eyes haunted me all day long. This afternoon after learning a 'word of the day' would be required--it was immediately apparent to me. And after dwelling on it a while, my own eyes were a part of it too. I had mentioned to Mike that it was too overwhelming for me to fully open my eyes to what we were actually experiencing; better to focus upon the task than try to absorb the reality of this place. Haitian eyes draw you in. Completely.

Honestly. Windows to the soul, yes, and this window is very very clear. They have experienced hardship and are still filled with promise and have a quiet strength about them. I believe it is their faith. Faith stronger in a people than I have ever witnessed. It is funny...as a salesman who has learned to read eyes over the years--but here I am not selling anything and I earned an experience unlike anything like these eyes. Here people will lock eyes with me more than any other place I have been. There is no shame with which to break eye-contact, rather there is yearning to be understood.

My new favorite Amy Grant song lyrics and its music repeated religiously and quieted me all day:
We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are, the honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallellujah
Better than a church bell ringin
Better than a choir singin out, singin out!

On FaceTime my wife asked me tonight, "Did anything really stick out to you today?"

And, from this morning, the three elder schoolboys with whom I spent the end of our school visit came to mind. After struggling with the language barrier for several minutes, one of them asked "What of Jesus?" and my immediate reaction was a chest pump with clenched fist, as I quietly but emphatically responded "He's my savior!" and my reaction was met with their joy.
Jim

Oct. 23rd, 2012: Father Reiser

He wasn't rich or famous. His life was to serve others. He never got recognition for all the things he did for others. He was my pastor, my mentor and my friend.

I am so proud to have a team of his relatives and friends down in Haiti this week to show them where he walked, what he started here, the things he saw and how it moved him to want to serve the poorest of the poor.

Today was very special because we went into City Soleil, the poorest slum in the western hemisphere to deliver free, clean, water to the people who live there. We were able to deliver this water from the second water truck Reiser Relief has sent down here. For those of you who don't know, Father Reiser sent the first water truck down about 6 years ago. He started the water delivery to this area. The water is delivered 6 days a week, 3-4 stops a day.

The journey will continue this week of discovering more about Father Reiser's vision for helping in Haiti and what we can do to carry on his legacy. Please keep us in your prayers and continue to follow us through this blog as things unfold for this special team.
God Bless Haiti
Shelley

Day 2 Video-Click Here

Oct. 23rd, 2012: Team Culligan

Today began with an array of items from warm french toast to scrabbled eggs to fresh squeezed juice prepared by the wonderful house staff here at our 'base camp' so to speak. We set out to our first stop...visiting the primary school Terre Promise. The school is full of happy and bubbly Haitian children and youth smartly dressed in immaculate uniforms. After the water truck got it's fill we set out to the first water stop of the day.

Oct. 23rd, 2012: Word of the Day

If I were to choose a collective "word of the day" for our group of 11 (9 first time experiencers) I would have to say Heart.There is Not a person whose Heart wasn't Opened, Broken and Changed by what we saw and felt.


At Terre Promise school we saw Hopeful Hearts of children who showed such gratitude for the privilege of education and hope for a better future.

We made 3 water truck stops into the poorest slums of City Soleil each filled with such contrast of Joyful & Grateful Hearts amidst the Unimaginable conditions. As I looked at the expressions on the faces of my team members, experiecing Haiti for the first time, I could recall my first visit in which the emotion was really just indescribable. It was almost as though your eyes & heart are opened in a way that lets you see & feel like never before. It is truly something that can't be explained and must be experienced.

The words from a song come to mind...." Father Break My Heart for What Breaks Yours".... today we truly had the opportunity to be the Hands & Feet of Christ!

Michelle
10/23/12