Day 17: Checking out the Beans for the last time

Haiti is interesting. I will miss Manansse, Delmonte, and Macles, but I will say I'm glad that this is my last full day in Haiti. I enjoy the sunshine and the green in the mountains, but Haiti has a lot of struggles. Among those struggles are learning how to manage their natural resources so that they neither become dependent on them or run out. I miss my family and my friends from home and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Today we checked on all the beans again and collected data on them. I hope that the work we helped Dr. Dirt do will help the Haitians. There's a lot more emphasis on community in Haiti than in America, at least from what I can see. This is something I would like to work at and something I think is lacking in America. For the most part I'm just happy to be heading home.

Day 13: A day out in the fields/ A visit from St. Nicholas

Remember that scene from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? The one where Peter, Edmond, Susan, and Lucy were walking through Narnia and they think they here the sleigh bells of the Witch, but it was actually Saint Nicholas coming to give them gifts that they desperately needed? That was how today was -except that we didn't run away from a witch.

We went to Thomaseau to inspect the fields and give suggestions on how they can fix certain problems. The funny part came when they would ask us to repeat the presentation to those who had missed it. Every time the first presenter would go and they would ask a question totally unrelated. Actually, all of their questions revolved around instant solutions to pest control and soil improvements. Mission of Hope's Haitian staff answered a lot of the specific questions.

During the trip here I've been questioning where God wants we to go with my career, specifically if He wants me on the Pre-Med path. God sent Dr. Steve Smith like Santa to the Peter, Edmond, Susan, and Lucy. He told us a lot about his Pre-Med school experiences and his medical school experiences. Apparently it's only 6 years of academics (including undergrad) and the rest is on the job training. It was good to get a glimpse of what medical school holds for me.

Day 12: More of NOT being the monkey

Remember how when the NU group visited a village uninvited and kind of awkwardly, and then we visited Turpin and felt acceptance and less like Duane Elmer's monkey? This time we did it even better.

Today, I felt like a celebrity, in all the good ways. We went to a Thomaseau, a remote farming community in a valley. We greatly respected and they even had a few drinks and snacks waiting for us when we arrived. We were able to give more advanced presentations and they drank in the information. When I spoke, I forgot to mention my name and after my presentation they made a big deal of knowing my name and I felt honored.

They Thomaseau community valued the help and were puzzled as to why we did it for free. They even gave us a lavish meal of chicken, rice, and other vegetables they were growing. Tomorrow we get to investigate their fields and help problem solve troublesome areas in their farms. I feel that this approach was a lot more relevant and part of the Haitian culture, or at least done in a way they respect.

On a side note was totally rude to one the members of the NU team today. Devon said something I disagreed with and I feel like the way in which I voiced my thoughts was too harsh as it closed off any room for discussion. I tend to do this a lot, so I hope she knows that I respect her and care about her.

Also, we got stuck on the way back, which was a pretty fun adventure in and of itself.

Day 11: Delmonte Shapes Up

Previously on the NU Haiti trip...

Delmonte had not worked at all. He passively stood while the team and Macles (the other translator worked their butts off. However, when word reached his supervisors about his work ethic, he had but one choice: shape up or shape out...

After the some one had a conversation with Delmonte's supervisors, his behaviour drastically changed. He worked a lot harder and even broke a sweat. Clearly hard work is in Haitian culture, just Delmonte needed some gentle reminders. Delmonte is actually a very talented young man and demonstrates what Paul Colliers in The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, calls the "brain drain" or that when a country falls behind and all the talent leaves to more prosperous areas. Also, we worked on fixing up a small field and planting 4 different types of wheat seeds in it. 

Despite the focus being on work today, one of the interns still managed to annoy me. I don't know if he would normally annoy me, but it was just the right amount of me being tired, him being both arrogant and overly talkative, or that he didn't work very hard.  I later observed that what I perceived to be arrogance may have just been his nervous reaction. That is, that he may have talked arrogantly about himself and his family and everything he's ever done because he was nervous. I hope it was a nervous reaction. 

Day 10: Mobile Medical Clinic Day!

You can learn a lot about a culture by examining the people of that culture medically. That's what I did today.  I was in the triage station, so I organized about 40 patients by taking vitals (pulse, temperature, and blood pressure) and asking some basic health history questions through an interpreter.

Haitians have a very high emphasis on cleanliness, but they don't understand that to clean some one, you need clean water. This is evidenced in that all of the women that came in today had one common complaint: vaginal itching and discharge. Not only do they douche a lot, but they use dirty river water to do this which is the source of their discomfort. With some basic knowledge of about proper cleanliness this problem could be corrected.

What surprised me most was when a 16 year old girl walked in. Her right eye was swollen with bleeding in her eye with the surrounding area being heavily bruised. When I asked her how she got it, she said her father beat her. The translator didn't even flinch. when I asked him about it later, he said it was normal for a man to beat his children or wife in Haiti. Not an organized spanking or some form of discipline, but just a man losing his temper and beating his family. While some things may be right or merely different, this aspect of Haitian culture is wrong.

Day 9: What will heaven be like?

We went to church today and it was wonderful. Normally I would tune out to a service in an entirely different language, but today was different. Even though more than half of the songs were in Creole, there was a great peace and I felt like God was there. 

I let a couple of kids use my Tablet even though it had my Bible on it. It felt good to let them use it for a bit and I got to use the time to just talk to God. The pastor only seemed to reference the scriptures anyways. The Haitian Pastor is pretty animated and I couldn't tell if it was one of those "Fire and Brimstone" services or he was just excited. I'm glad I couldn't because it would have ruined the whole experience if it was a fire and brimstone service. 

Also their churches are a lot more open, literally. Most of the "walls" are metal bars placed to  in such a way that they don't give you the impression that you're in a prison, which is quite a feat for metal bar windows. 

Even though it was in a different language it was beautiful and made me think of what Heaven will be like. Since I knew the songs it wasn't to hard to follow. I figure Heaven will have people of every culture so it'll have a bit of this feeling we had today where there were Haitians and American Christians coming together to worship God.