Past few days in Haiti

Me, Grant and Pierre up on top of the church

Things have been a whirlwind over the last couple days, but I'll do my best to try to capture everything that has happened. Grant and Pierre Garcon and his crew (about 10-12 people including mostly family/tv crews) got here from Port au Prince on Wednesday morning. They were pretty tired so the first day was pretty low key for a bit after they got here. I loved just spending time with them, the group was filled with fun and interesting people that we really got to know well over the few days they were here.

Me and RJ went to go meet them at the airport on Wednesday morning in the truck and we turned right back around and got in a different truck to come back.....only to find out that that truck was staying at the airport to pick up a different group! So we hopped on some motorcycle taxi's (right down my alley..) and took off for the mission and quickly passed their huge truck on the terrible haitian roads. We stopped at a random grocery type store on the way back to get something to drink and we found about 8 Dr. Peppers! It was a great surprise and Grant said he had never seen DP's there before so we were pretty happy (ok mostly me...). We took a nice tour of the mission that afternoon and you could tell that they were really there for the right reasons and not at all for publicity.

Yup

Thursday was a real busy day. It started with me and Grant heading off to the soccer field to start spreading word about the sports camp we were going to be doing that afternoon. We met and watched the professional soccer team practice for a bit and then just rode around town for a bit which I loved. We then went back and grabbed Pierre and a few people from his crew to go meet the team before they were done practicing. Pierre was all about driving the Gator and it was fun (and a little scary at times..) riding through the streets of Haiti in the back. After we met the team (again) we took the Gator and the other vehicle down to the beach where the market is. It was crazy and packed, but they said it was nothing compared to Wednesdays when it is Market Day and there are people EVERYWHERE. We also visited a local bakery where it looked like something out of the 17th century..very interesting. We then went back to the mission and grabbed everything/everyone and went out to the field!

Riding around town in the Gator

The kids were so excited and Pierre had a ton of energy and passion to help the kids. We played soccer, tug of war and threw the football around. It was incredible to see how unbelievable of an athlete Pierre was, just in everything he did it was very evident that he was an NFL receiver. Later in the day, we visited the kids at the school and they handed out tons of colts pictures, pennants and school supplies. Very cool to watch him interact with the kids, one of the things I didn't realize before the trip was that he is completely fluent in Creole. His mother really only speaks Creole so in the house that is what they speak. He has done so much for Haiti and especially for Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, and what probably meant the most to me about him coming was that this trip was planned BEFORE the earthquake. Some people will pessimistically think that he is just doing it for attention or to promote himself but there has never been a doubt in my mind the entire week that he is here for the right reasons.

Pierre and Enol speaking to the professional soccer team

Even through all of the circus events from the past couple days, it has been great to spend time with Grant. We have had some really good conversations and it has been good to be here this week so that he can just get away from all of the craziness and stress from this week and just relax a little bit. We dropped the group off at the airport on friday morning and went to another site on the beach. We had a great relaxing day, but also had our fair share of crazy adventures trying to walk back from the beach to the ministry site! Let's just say a combination of waking up at 4am, no water, no breakfast, and walking back for over an hour in the hot 3pm Haitian sun was not a very well thought out plan...It is something I am glad to have survived but wouldn't wish it on anyone!

It is hard to capture all the amazing things that happened this week. There were too many conversations, little things and blessings to really put into a simple blog entry. I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and know that God is working in big ways in Haiti. It is hard to see so many people with such little hope/opportunity, but I had to keep telling myself that God is in control of each individual life in Haiti...even if we can't understand that right now. Thank you for all the encouragement and prayer, I need it!

(These are pictures from Grant, I'll try to upload mine on facebook when I am back in the DR)