Haiti Trip - Day 2 (part 3) Port Au Prince

We left the airport to head to Hope Mission.  Since it was safe for us to go shopping in Port Au Prince, our bus driver drove us through the city so we could see it.

The next three picture are taken from as our bus drives through the capitol.  Just a small view of the damage done by the earth quake

The houses are built on hills & one on top of the other.  The houses on the hills reminded me of living in California & the house built on the hills there, except California had more spaces between their houses.



Or course we had to go see the presidential palace.  We were able to stop & get out to get a closer look up to the fence

I have an awesome zoom lens.

 This is me in front of the palace.  This was a close as we could get.

Haitian Military/Police.  They were at the palace watching people go by.  I took this picture from the bus.

These next two pictures were taken while we were at the palace.  The buildings are across the street from the palace.  I couldn't believe someone would sleep on top of a roof of a building with the chance of aftershocks or another earthquake.  Also how sturdy is that building after the earthquake?

This is one the people living in these tents.  What nationality? Who knows.



My Trip to Haiti - Day 2 (Part 2)

10 March, 2010

Our little group was on our way to Haiti.  I couldn't believe I was going to a third world country on a mission trip.  Something I wanted to do, but never had a chance until now.  Some of my friends couldn't believe I was going since a major earthquake had hit Haiti just two months prior & the country was still trying to recover.

Flying into the Port Au Prince

 Port Au Price, very crowded city

Customs - a huge tin hanger.  This is our luggage being piled up.  Bob & Sharon had hired some Haitians to grab our luggage & put it in a pile.  All of our luggage had a bright orange or pink yarn hair ribbon tied to it, so the Haitians would know which luggage to grab.  Of course Bob & some of the other guys on the team were helping them.

 Some of my team members coming through customs.  Just a little wooden, three wall partition, hand the person there your passport & other paper work, get stamped & walk through.  It went very fast.

 As we exited the airport the first thing we saw was this wall/fence.  It was pack on the outside of Haitians wanting to work, looking to carry your luggage or anything else they could do to earn money.

 This is a Haitian taxi or Tat Tat.  The bed of the pickup was packed with people & we even saw some with people riding on top and/or hanging on the outside.  I thought driving in L.A. was crazy, this was insane.  So glad I was not driving (I love to drive).

Vendors outside the airport

Outside the airport a food vendor, carrying his items on his head.

As we left the airport, the first thing we saw was the tent cities. These belong to the military United States & the United Nations

These belong to the people.  You can see more military tents in the background.  These were set up by the government & other organizations.

Then as they ran out of the regular tents, we started to see man made tent cities.  Tents made of what ever the people could find to make a tent.

My Trip to Haiti - Day 1 & Day 2 (part 1) Fort Lauderdale

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I went on my mission trip to Haiti.  This blog is about that trip.  It was an awesome experience.  I was suppose to go back Feb 2011, but God had some other plans.  If the Lord wills, my next mission trip to Haiti will be Feb or March 2012.  I can't wait.

The group I went with is Hope Mission Outreach founded by Bob & Sharon Johnson.  Bob & Sharon go to my church & own Miracle Hills Ranch here in Bethany, Missouri.  They started Mission of Hope Haiti, a Christian compound locate 12 miles north of Port Au Prince.  Their son Brad & his wife Vanessa run Mission of Hope.  They have an orphanage, school, small hospital (was a medical clinic before the earthquake.  If you would like more information go to  http://www.mohhaiti.org/  Bob & Sharon take teams of people to Haiti three times a year, once in the summer, once in the fall around October & once in the winter either Feb. or March.  I have known about this mission for some time, but never felt led to go.  Then Dec 2009, Sharon approached me at church asking me to go on the Feb. mission trip & be the team photographer.  I prayed about it and God opened all the doors for me to go, time off from my job (at the time I was teaching in a small christian school) & support.  Of course the earthquake of 12 Jan 2010 happened, but our team was still planning to go to Haiti.  Because of the earthquake, we could not get into Haiti until March. 

Our team consisted of 30 team members from 10 different states.  We met at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale on 9 March.

This is Bob & Sharon Johnson, our fearless leaders.  This was our debrief meeting at the hotel.  Next morning we would b heading to Haiti.

Day 2 - hanging out at the airport in For Lauderdale, getting to know each other.  Some of the team members had been to Haiti with the Johnsons before, some of us hadn't

365 pictures 13 - 19 Feb 2011

This has been an interesting, challenging & stressful week, but I know God is in complete control.  He has a plan & will take care of us.

13 Feb

Good morning, God.  Thank you for the beautiful painting to start my day out.  Sunrise out my back picture window

14 Feb

Valentine's Day.  On Thursday while in Des Moines, I went to Cost Co with my friend.  I found these three cheese heart shape ravioli.  I bought them in case my husband wanted to eat at home on Valentine's Day.  Sunday he took me out to lunch, so I made the ravioli for supper/dinner on Monday.  Of course add sauce, green beans & garlic crescent rolls (not pictured for to take a picture with them) & our meal was complete.

15 Feb

Miss Kate - Tuesday started a new project for me - tutoring.  Kate's family attends my church.  She & her brother Anderson are home school.  Kate is in my Sparks group & Anderson is in my 3rd/4th grade Sunday school class.  They have a little brother Parker who is 1.  Starting this week, I get to spend time at Kate's house 3 days a week, right now helping her get her school work done, while her mom teaches Anderson & keeps Parker entertained.  It has been a blessing to help my friend & get to do Mom things again, since my boys are gone to college.

16 Feb

This is what I did all morning & afternoon.  I'm the Sparks director for our Awana club at church.  We have 40 sparks that come every Wed. night.  Since I have been gone for two months, I needed to bring home the record books to record them in my computer & make sure they were up to date.

17 Feb

Thursday evening my husband & I went to Kansas City to see our oldest son at college.  While I waited for my husband & son to come out of the guys dorm, the sun was started to set.  The clouds over the dorm was so beautiful, I had to take a picture.

18 Feb

We brought home my son's KC Chiefs bean bag chair from college.  The cats were not to sure of it, but by Friday night Stripes was warming up to it.  This is also her way of letting us know the house is a little to warm for her taste, sleeping belly up.

19 Feb

This is the book I read for 1 hour & 20 min. waiting to get an MRI done on my left knee.  Awesome man & book.  Can't wait to finish it but on with the story.  Last week I went tromping in the snow at the farm & fell twice, but didn't feel like I hurt anything.  Monday I had a little popping in my left knee, but I have bad knees, surgery on both, so didn't think much of it.  Thursday brought pain & popping, so I thought maybe it might be out of place a little.  Went to the chiropractor, took x-rays, should everything looked good, a little fluid under the knee cap, so we started therapy on Thursday & Friday.  Friday night my left knee swelled to the size of a grapefruit, got really hot & red, so a trip to the ER.  More x-rays, more fluid under the knee, so an MRI was order for Saturday at 1:15pm.  Now you have to understand; our town of Gilman does not have a hospital, so we got to Bethany 20 min. down the road.  Bethany has a nice hospital/first aid station.  On the weekends the ER is manned by doctors from Kansas City, a special group that helps out rural hospitals.  The MRI machine is a portable one inside a semi-truck.  It would be in town again Saturday & Monday.  Well after waiting 1hour & 20 min (getting in some great reading time), I find out the ER doc (who I really didn't like in the first place) didn't know what he was doing when it came to insurance & didn't get pre-approval for my MRI, so I couldn't get it done on Saturday would have to wait until they could call the office on Monday & then come in on Tuesday when the machine is back in town (if they have an opening) to get my MRI.  So, I'm back on the couch, doing nothing but sitting which means more reading & sewing time.