A post about Haiti

I am leaving on a mission trip to Haiti in 4 days. I have so much to say about this that I don't really know where to start. I am going to attempt to keep up the blog from there, but since the Internet is spotty, we shall see. Here are my preliminary thoughts:

When Justin went to Haiti last year, it was life-changing for both of us. He went with a larger group than I am going with (his group had 10 people, I am going with 6). They encountered some political issues there, as there were riots relating to an election, so they got stuck down there for a couple extra days. They were scary days. It was complicated to get them home, but they did get here. We learned a lot about the political climate, how difficult it is for those who live down there, but the most important thing we learned was the kind of Hope that Espwa brings to the people of Haiti, and Southern Haiti in particular.

Pwoje Espwa is a village, established to house and educate orphans (some whose parents are deceased and others are economic orphans-i dont have time to go into that right now) in Southern Haiti, near Les Cayes. There are currently 650 children who live, eat and learn there. This is the largest orphanage in the Western hemisphere and is in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Besides taking care of these kids, Espwa provides lots of jobs-they employ many Haitians, and have trade schools (which are being more developed). It is truly a place of Espwa, which means Hope in Haitian Creole (their language).

They also provide some assistance to the nearby prison, which is a humanitarian nightmare all of its own. Besides all of that, they also have a clinic on site that provides healthcare to people from the neighboring areas, as well as the kids. There is a new clinic being built, that is going to be state-of-the art for Haiti, and is something I am very excited about! I really get pumped about improving delivery of healthcare to impoverished people, it is so important to encouraging improvements in all areas of society. It is hard to build a society with people whose chief concern is their health. This actually translates to the grand ole US of A, but I'll save that soap box for another day...you're welcome.

I am very excited to meet my friends in Haiti, face to face, and hope you will join me on the journey by your prayers. It will be a challenging trip, but one I know I am called to go on.

I think we will be trying to update our Haiti blog during the trip, although I am not sure who is delegated to do that, so I'm not sure. At the very least you could peruse the blog entries from the previous trips.

Haiti.schweitzerumc.org

If you want to know more about Pwoje Espwa, find out at:

Freethekids.org

Peace out.