Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Haiti Day 9

When I first arrived in Haiti I was scared out of my mind. My parents and family had been telling me that even though I said I knew a little of what to expect and feel, I had no idea what it was really going to be like. They were right. I remember thinking this is another world, there were people every where and the buildings were all crumbled with trash piled in the streets. But what I remember specifically was that I did not feel safe. It took me a few days to adjust to the everyday life in Haiti without all of the perks  we have in the U.S. Believe it or not, it did not always feel the best to work in the heat with sweat running down everywhere. Yes...everywhere. But when our team made it to the orphanage it was almost as if the heat didn't phase me. Every single one of the kids became attached to a member of our group within 30m of the first time most of us saw them. I came into the orphanage thinking I would be the one who would try and serve and love on them, but I can't remember a moment where one of them was not willing to sacrifice what little they had for us. It was so unbelievably fun to meet each one of them. Even some of the teenagers at the youth group had me laughing almost the whole service. Our last night at the church all of the kids walked us to the van holding our hands and waving us goodbye, and some tried to stowaway with us. Trust me it was tempting to let them. This morning we had to wake up at 4:25am and pile in the van at 5:25. As usual, some of us got motion sickness from the gas-to-break pattern the entire ride to the airport. And as we went threw security I got stopped because apparently you can't fly with an entire can of aerosol bug spray. When we finally got on the plane I was able to look at each person on my team, confidently knowing I became closer to them. 

-Chloe 

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