Good Bye to Haiti!

By Chris J.

Since my last blog life has been very eventful. Yesterday, I opened up at least 80 bags of rice for our rice distribution...(sorry Steve)Afterwards we walked to the beach where I swam in the salty sea and ate an entire lobster for $10. So good but so different than any I'd had before served with a lime/pepper mixture that was spicy. I did miss my garlic butter but it was a treat nonetheless. I also found out what happens if you drink 2 ragamans swimming in the sea during a "cloudy" day. DUMMY. Apparently it's still hot even when it's cloudy and I've been bathing in spray-on aloe Vera ever since.

Today was church followed by church. Nearly three hours this morning and another few hours in the afternoon. Things you don't see in Medicine Hat? A two year old boy wearing a two piece suit complete with shiny black shoes.....all for Easter Sunday. What a passion and fire these people have. Seeing where they live and how they live somehow doesn't compute with their level of joy and contentment. Oh what we can learn. In the afternoon we piled 18 people into a van for a trip up the mountain for "kids church", a gathering of children (150 or so) that gather even after their parents have decided to stop attending. Listening to the Haitians praise and sing is an awe inspiring experience and again leaves me with sweaty eyes....

I will sign off now. Tomorrow will be a busy day and well be home before we know it. I'm trying to enjoy it to the bitter end but my burning shoulders and constant sense that I'm missing out on whats happening back home are making the countdown inevitable. My lone deep thought that I leave with is that the irony of a trip like this is that we all leave to experience another culture, way of life etc... But I return with a real sense that the people that I've really connected with are the other team members that you see every week or more. Of course I will never forget the Haitians I've met but it has been soooo cool to meet 12 life long friends from Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Alberta, BC etc.....

Thanks for the good times team. Thanks for the laughs,tears and the memories. I hope you all are truly and wonderfully blessed by what we've shared, endured and experienced.

Chris

Chris