One year ago today...Haiti changes everything

It seems like forever ago.  Really, almost like it never happened.  One year ago, on New Years Day, I left my family at the airport(I was sobbing I might add) and hopped a plane for Haiti.  It was the most ridiculous of circumstances, the kind you don't ever plan for--which can end up the best kind!  I copied and a pasted a paragraph from the post on 12/29 when I found out for sure I'd be going.

You guys will NOT believe this. Literally, God dropped a 1/3 priced short term mission trip in my lap. Basically, we've been praying and starting a little savings for a mission trip. We just figured I'd be going back to Nicarauga since I loved it there. But, some friends of ours lead teams to Haiti several times a year. This morning I found out that someone on their team backed out and I got a spot with a free flight!!!!!!! So, in about 3 hours, we made the decision to jump in. I fly out this Friday night. CRAZY I know, but you all know I'm a bit wild anyway.

You know, I'd seen poverty before.  I'd been on mission trips to Mexico and Nicarauga(nicarauga is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere).  I'd been to Seoul and Jamaica(got offered drugs there too!).  Poverty, orphans, missions and such--my kind of deal.  BUT, Haiti changes everything. 

 I'm not sure how to describe it.  Haiti is a caucophony of experiences:  beautiful land, stripped bare land, beautiful colors, demolished concrete and rebar, the awful congestion in PortauPrince and total chaos, people who are boisterous and loud and dramatic with enormous smiles and laughter, people who love Jesus and know how to live for Him sooooooo much better than most people here in the States, poverty like none I'd seen, orphans everywhere(we were at an orphanage supported by Americans and certainly one of the nicest and it was bare concrete with 62 children overseen by 2 nannies), horrible lack of medical care, no infrastructure, hardly any access to clean water.   Half of the people are literate, 86 children out of 1000 die before reaching age 5(sorry, I'd messed that statistic up earlier), almost half of ALL people drink contaminated water.

I loved the trip.  I was terrified, thrilled, exhausted, pumped up, encouraged, devastated and heartbroken all at the same time. 

It isn't FAIR!

3 days after I landed, the earthquake hit.  I stood dumbfounded in front of the TV and cried a flood of tears.  My new friends, who risked their lives for our safety in an out of control mob, the very kind and smart friends who have NOTHING and NO WAY of helping themselves, were suffering terribly.  While I sat in my spacious and warm house with a plethera of food and clean water--they suffered.  A country only a few hours from Miami in this shape.  It shouldn't be.  I'm much more bold now and I'll tell you why I think so many Americans don't want to be confronted with the suffering and don't want to get involved:   because they are black and their culture is very different from us.  There, I said it, I think most of us are racist!!!!

If it were a neat and orderely country full of white people, I bet your bottom dollar that people would flood to help Haiti all the time.

Honestly, I didn't do anything at all for the people I touched while there.  O sure, we played and loved on orphans, we distributed little shoeboxes full of trinkets, we passed out medicines and rice, we cleaned and bandaged wounds, we read the story of Jesus and told the children Jesus had a plan for their lives.  But, really, did it make a lasting difference?  I am not arrogant enough to think it did.  The orphans have American groups coming and going.  They have learned how to act adorable and beg for candy--and see the women fall in love with that one special child who makes a connection--for 5 days and then is gone.  The medical needs were FAR more complex than the penicillin and de-worm meds I had to to give. 

What it did for me? 

Changed

Eyes opened

Heart broken

Bold

Angry at injustice

Determined

Grateful

Just a few words to describe me now.  A fantastic sermon by Andy Stanley when he was a guest speaker at Passion City Church a few months ago(please go get it on iTunes--it was incredible) had one of the best lines to sum it up.  He said "awareness brings about discontentment."  This works both ways.  You can be shopping in the mall and become aware of all the new styles and then become discontent.  Or, you can be in a 3rd world country and see a little boy with Down Syndrome who has zero access to medical care or education and will likely die early or end up institutionalized and  you become discontent to go about your life like you've never seen those sufferings.

That's what has happened to us.

I'm starting school Feb 28th because of Haiti.  I felt so ill-equipped as a nurse in the clinics and wanted to be able to do more.  I have to finish my BSN, which will take 13 months.  Then I'll start the masters program to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.  I have no excuses not to do this and it would be a huge shame if I turned it down.  My hospital pays for our advanced education.  I'm reading a book right now, "Half The Sky" and it documents the horrible crimes committed against women.  The biggest way to help these women is give them an education so they don't get victimized(honor killings, genital cuttings, sex slavery, child marriages).  Here I am, offered a free one, and I don't want to do it because it will be a lot of work! 

If you have time, please go to the Labels tab on the uppper right of the blog and read about the Haiti trip.