Haiti Mission Trip 2010

*warning...long post ahead:)*
In the van on our way to Chicago Airport.

Arriving at Chicago Airport....lots of luggage!

We had to stay overnight in Ft. Lauderdale on Friday night before our flight to Haiti on Saturday. We stayed at this very very MODERN hotel. Here is our room.

Arrived at Haiti and we are trying to collect all our bags before going out to find Uncle Jan.

My sweet cousin Alisha(known as lish to me:)). Love you girl and so thankful we got to be together for a week.

We had a 4+ hour drive from Port au Prince where we landed(this is the earthquake area) to Les Cayes where we were staying for the week. Here are just a few of MANY pictures we took of the earthquake devestation.

This was a 3 or 4 story building...completely colapsed...it was so sad to see all this. Tears flowed from my face as I thought of all they are going thru.

On our drive we stopped at a few places...one being a tent city. This tent city imparticular had 12,000 families living in it. All these are homeless haitians who lost homes in the earthquake. This is one of many tent cities that have been started up since the earthquake.

This is the presidential palace in Port au Prince....also hit by earthquake.

More devestation....it was basically building after building of rubble.

Here is one of the major quakes in the earth....my uncle Jan got out to show us the depth of this split....he was NOT touching the bottom of this split. It was sure eye opening to see how the earth literally splits open.

A view on our way to Les Cayes...notice to the right...fallen rocks from the mountain due to earthquake.

Here is our team that went to Haiti. Including Lish:)

This was Nick and I's room at the Guest House in Les Cayes.

This is where we sat many times and also had a few morning devotions here.

One morning us girls did some mending on the orphanage kids clothing. The kids loved to play with our hair as we mended.

A few of us went with Aunt Val to the hardware store to pick out paint for one of the projects we were going to be doing that week.

Here I am painting...I was doing the trim work:)

Nick, Ryan K. and Christoph(jan and val's haitian help) put together this swing set. The orphan kids absolutely LOVED it!!

U. Jan out having a little fun on his bike. We had to have a little time of play in the day too:)

Sunday Morning 2 hour church....it was hot, it was a bit long...but let me tell you what. These Haitian people are on fire for the lord!! Their singing beats any song service Ive ever witnessed. They have such joy and enthusiasm for the lord. Put me to shame!!

This is at the orphanage...we had made some brownies and had punch for the kids...then they sang for us. It was really neat.

We also made 7 dozen snickerdoodles to take to the hosptial and give to the patients there.

We loaded this truck 3+ times with boxes and boxes of medical supplies. Then we unloaded them at the hospital and made one very large pile. Here is Annaliese H. and I hitching a ride.

One of the evening meals we had at the guest house and Jan, Val and kids joined us.

One of the meals we had. Fish (with eyes still there:)), rice, cabbage slaw and some other breaded thing:). It was for the most part always good food!!

One day we helped with cementing. The Haitians mix the cement by hand so we didn't get to mix any, but we sure did get to supply them with dlo(water) and cement bags. Here we are down at the creek filling up the two blue barrels in the truck with water. We made this trip three different times.

Mel and I pouring out the cement bags for the haitians.

Here is the finished product of the cement that was poured. Made it so nice!! (it was just large stones before the cement)

The last day we went to Rainbow beach...but first stopped for dinner. Here we had lobster and fries.

Here is Rainbow beach. Such a secluded, beautiful beach. The water was so clean and blue and so warm. Unfortunently we weren't there for long...got stormed out!!!

On the airplane ride home...the necklace is from the orphan kids...they made each of us girls one to take home. I was exhausted and ready for SLEEP by the end of the week. So thankful my parents and Nick's sister Kelli and family watched our kids so we could go to Haiti. It was such a blessing for nick and I and we are so glad we went.