Haiti day 2

It is our first day here in Haiti, and man was it a whirlwind. We started it off by learning a few common Creole phrases (which of course I forgot within 20 minutes). We then headed out on a walk around the community. The purpose of this journey was to get a feel and understanding for the community that we are being emerged in. Our sweet translators were so proud to show us around. Community is all to them. After our little adventure, we ate some and walked down the block to a road made out of softball size rocks and covered with pot holes. Our goal was to level this road. We started off with one very huge pile of rocks. We worked by shoveling, spreading, and tossing rocks for what seemed like an eternity. About half way through, a large truck drives up. He opened up the bed and pouring out came another huge load of rocks. We thought "okay, we can do this"! We put our smiling faces on and toughed it out! About half way through THAT load, guess what? Another truck pulls up and dumps off another huge load of rocks. A bit weaker, and with smiles a bit more faded, we took on this next pile. FINALLY we were finished! We had spread out all of the rocks and the road looked fabulous. We were all relieved and ready to go home, until  we got word that, yep, you guessed it, another truck was coming with another huge load of rocks... Great. By the end of the day all of us American people were exhausted and probably not the best company to be around. However, for some crazy and amazing reason, these awesome members of this community had come to help us. It seemed as if everyone wanted a part of restoring this road. This community worked together to achieve their goal. I think we can all take a lesson from these people... Especially myself. I get so caught up in doing everything myself that I forget that I cannot do it alone. We need the support and guidance from others that we would not be able to achieve by ourselves. Oh, and all thanks to God for teaching me this lesson on the first day, or else this would end up being a pretty unproductive, draining, and all together messy trip. 

-Niaya Ramirez

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