The Road to Haiti

Tomorrow I will be headed to Cap Haitien, Haiti with my two roommates Cara and Ashley, our friend Rachel, and Rachel's boyfriend Gideon. I would love to explain to you all the details myself, but since I am short on time and found out yesterday I am for sure going, I will let you read Cara's blog to found out what we are going to do. We would love your prayers for safe travels, and that the Lord will provide ways that we can be useful when we get there, instead of an added burden of more people. Love you all, and I will update you when I get back.

http://carajanewelch.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/next-plan-of-action-haiti/

Haiti

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end... I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him." Ecclesiastes 3: 11, 14

As you all know, it started Tuesday. I was sitting in my living room typing an email when the futon I was sitting on started swaying side to side. I have never been in an earthquake so I had no idea what was going on until I looked up at Cara, who immediately said in her tranquilo Cara voice, "Um, I think it's an earthquake." (Not going to lie, I at first thought it was an animal under my futon, and then I thought maybe I am dizzy...don't make fun. An animal being in my living room is possible seeing that we have geese, chickens, dogs, and cows among other animals as neighbors.) It was either Saved by the Bell or Fresh Prince when there was an earthquake, and they were told to stand under the door frames. Leave it to me to follow a sitcom I was obsessed with when I was little...in other words, I was immediately under the door frame along with Ashley who followed my role. Haha oh man, no one should ever follow my lead. Anyways, when it ended, we were all laughing and had an adrenaline rush, until, not even ten minutes later Cara saw the real news about the epicenter being in Haiti. After some time, we started to see the damage done and lives ended by the earthquake. I would be lying if I said this week has been fine since I am not directly in Haiti (by the way, if you did not already know, we are attached), but it has been very difficult. We know families who have family members living over there and do not know if they are okay. Secondly, since I am so close to Haiti, I feel the need to rush out of my door and go help. Now I obviously know that is not smart and is an emotional decision, but it has been something we all have felt. Our team along with other friends spent Wednesday praying for the people of Haiti. Schools were closed around the country, and our hearts were anxious so we knew we needed to stop and pray.."Be still and know that I am God" is what I have to keep telling myself. As of now, we have a few people taking supplies to the border today, but Makarios as a whole is trying to figure out the best way we can help and be smart about staying safe and prepared. I ask that you pray for patience for us because I know anxiety can get the best of me when I feel the need to just go do something without waiting on the Lord's timing. My heart has been very heavy this week for the Haitian people. I picture in my head the children who are now orphans and homeless, and my heart hurts. I sit not knowing where to even begin in praying but know ultimately God is in control. I know some of you reading this may have been affected by the earthquake, either knowing someone over there helping, someone who died, and so on, and I am sorry for the stress or sadness you may be feeling. Know that I am praying for you and continually for the people of Haiti and those helping over there as I also have friends who are helping. Love you all and am thankful I can even sit here and write this to you.

Si Dios quiere, I will keep you posted whenever we decide how/when we are going to go over and help. I, along with my team, will need your prayers for safety and wisdom. Also, you can go to the Makarios website and donate money for supplies. We have already sent a team of Dominicans we know from here, and today several from my team were chosen to deliver supplies to the border. http://makariosinternational.org/

Ecclesiastes 3: A Time for Everything

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven...⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance."

As I sit here writing this I think of the blog from my birthday, the blog where I found Weeson at the soccer game, and when I found out he lived with a voodoo witch doctor, when he had impetigo, and when I cried and prayed for the Lord to guide my steps because I knew He was calling me to do something, but I did not even know where to begin...and during my first week back from Christmas break, I finished my last step (well at least for now!).

I got back to the DR and went with Robin to visit Chichigua last Tuesday. While we were sitting there, we found out that Magi, Weeson's mom, had moved back to Chigs, so we went and sat in her house. I straight up asked her when she was going to bring Weeson and Marleini back to live with her, with the help of Robin translating, and said I wanted them to come back to school. She told me that once she had money for transportation, she would go get them. Of course I thought this would never happened so we told her we would come get her sometime during the week and go get them. I did not get excited at the thought because I know how flaky Magi can be and knew it was something I had to see to believe. It has been raining here constantly except for two days, which made it impossible for me to take Magi, so I continued to pray for peace and patience and to just wait for the Lord's timing. Friday rolled around, and an hour before school ended, I realized it had not rained all morning, and the Holy Spirit moved within me to say alright Kendall, it is time. I went to Chichigua with the Chigs' kids and Johan to grab Magi. We came back with her to Montellano, and Ashley drove us four to Caraballo to grab Weeson and Marleini. After many goodbye's and my last time to look at the voodoo shack with all its weird paintings, Magi, Weeson, Marleini, and I sat in the back seat together. For the first time in a long time, I felt a peace within me for my lil baby Weeson. Magi was smiling, the kids were laughing, and they were going home to be with their mama. Ashley put on a cd, and at one point, I was singing to Mariah Carey. I look over, and all three of them were smiling at me and started laughing (I always say that when I sing in front of people, it is a compliment, because that is when I feel most comfortable). We got to Chigs, dropped them off, and immediately kids were running up yelling their names and were so happy to see them. I gave Magi some clothes for the kids and a few apples...and well, there you go! "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance."
Yesterday was Weeson and Marleini's first day back at school, and it was so great to see them in their lil uniforms back with their friends. Marleini was just as sassy as before, and Weeson hoped right back in to being as cute as possible...ok cheesy I know, but he really is sooo precious!

Side notes:
1) I went to the beach on Saturday, and while I was laying out, a monkey crawled on my chair and on my leg. say what...ok ok I won't pretend like it is that cool here that monkeys are all around. It was one of those tourist things where they let you take a pic with an animal, and the guy came behind me and placed the monkey on my leg.
2 ) I was sitting on my futon, when it started shaking back and forth. My first reaction was "there is an animal under it." I know, I am so weird. Then I looked over at Cara, and she goes, "Um, I think it's an earthquake." I looked at other objects around and noticed them moving also. My first earthquake! Crazy. As you have probably already read, it was a 7 or more in Haiti, so please pray for the Haitian men, women, and children who were probably affected by the earthquake.

A Typical Dominican Wedding

...and I can say typical because my Dominican friend said so :).

1) The wedding "started" at 4. Let me restate that. The wedding was suppose to start at 4, but the bride was not there till about 6:30 so it did not start till 6:45.
2) There was a fog machine for when the bride walked down the aisle...along with a strobe light.
3) People stood in the way around the church to take pictures with their digital cameras. For example, when they kissed at the end, about ten people were on stage to take a picture. And because some of them did not get the picture in time for the kiss, they redid the kiss about four times.
4) People got up and left halfway through the ceremony to go to the reception...say what.
5) Every person that walked down the aisle got announced individually.
6) The couple walked down the aisle to the Star Wars theme.
7) Prom dresses were plentiful.

Never a Dull Moment in this Country

Monday Nov. 23: Ashley and I decided to take Luis Fernando (her fav) out to Caraballo, grab Marleini and Weeson, and have a picnic out on the field. Of course this seemed like the perfect idea, and it was going to go smoothly, taking fun pictures and laughing with our favorite children. We pick up Luis from public school at 5 and hop on a moto, and since there were four of us, Luis had to sit in front of the driver. This 5-10 minute moto ride was one of the more dangerous ones I have been on in this country. I was on the back, and when the driver went over a bump, I definitely got some air and almost fell off the side. I am only giving you this example to help you better understand why what happened next happened. We get to Caraballo, take Luis off the front, and pay the moto driver, and as we are walking away, the moto guy says something to us, and we just kind of ignore him. He keeps saying it over and over again so we look over and realize he was saying, "El hizo caca" (He made/did poop...but I think you all know what caca is in Spanish) because there is "caca" on the driver's shirt and on the back of Luis' pants and shirt...ew ew ew. At this point I could not maintain because I was laughing so hard so I turned and walked away and of course let Ashley handle it all. Apparently, the moto ride scared the .... out of Luis :). So much for the picnic! We had a mini one after Ashley's long adventure of taking Luis to the nearby public school where she had the lovely resources of a bucket of water and notebook paper to clean him off.
Wednesday Nov. 25: After Bible study, Ashley and I left the Makarios house around nine at night to walk to the main road to grab a public car to Montellano. These are not easy to come by at night, and sometimes it can be a bit confusing which public car is for where. We stood by the main road for awhile while full cars passed when finally one that sped past, stopped and reversed to get us. We gladly got in, and the driver started driving for awhile when all of a sudden he turned down a sugar cane road. Sometimes if you pay the driver a lil more money he will take you a bit down the road you need to go on so I thought maybe he was doing this for someone, but he just kept going. Finally Ashley spoke up and asked him where he was going, and he said to Munoz, which was down the sugar cane road we were driving on. We tell him we are going to Montellano so he stops the car and starts getting feisty with us about not paying attention to which cab it was. The old man next to me tells him to drive us back to the main road, but the driver says no we should have paid attention and kept getting mad at us. We get out of the car to walk back down the dark sugar cane road, and the driver gets out of the car and yells at us telling us we need to pay the full amount even though we did not go the whole way. We try and argue with him, but at this point, we are both scared and just want to get back; therefore, Ashley slams the money on his car, and we fast walk it to the main road. In any situation where you are scared, we naturally start praying, praying for a car, someone we can trust. After about ten minutes, a private taxi pulls up and asks us if we are going to Montellano. He says he knows us from church, and he will take us for free (of course we paid him). Gracias a Dios :).
Friday Nov. 27: My mom came in town the day before for Thanksgiving, and on Friday we wanted to take Weeson and Marleini to the beach. We go to pick them up in Caraballo with Robin and her mom, and when we get there, the lady taking care of them is getting high with another lady. The husband is sitting in his voodoo shack possibly drunk, throwing rum around the room, while others in the village are bringing stuff to him to get approved. Thank you Lord for Robin, her knowledge of Spanish, her patience, and well I could go on. The man is telling us no they cannot go because their mom said no (at this point I am thinking where is the mom? I thought she left them?), while another man who is claiming to be their dad says they can go...for the record the mom had told me their dad died so I assume he is newly married to their mom, but not really positive about that. In the end, they get to go even though they are scared of what Ramoncito may do. We decide to take our moms to Chichigua before going to the beach, and guess who is chillin in Chichigua...their mom! what the. Their mom was there with their sister Mileni. To make a long story short, their mom now lives in Pancho Mateo, which is about 5 minutes from me, is looking for a mattress, and once she gets it, they can live with her...so she says.
Saturday Nov. 28: Wilson (my friend, not lil Weeson) asked me to play in a basketball game WestJet Airlines vs American Airlines. I said okay not really thinking much about it...we played in the professional arena in Puerto Plata, with a bunch of really bigggg boys, and I wore Wilson's jersey. All that to say, I felt a tad out of place, and, well, like a boy. It was a lot of fun though! Mary if you read this, I wanted you to be there so bad laughing at me because it was such a typical thing for me to do...you will laugh especially after you see the picture(s) of me and what I was wearing. When I got home, I went into Ashley's room, and there was an infestation of ants...


Like I have said before, C'est la vie!

Bailar con Weeson y Marleini

Michael Jackson. Apparently everyone and their dog in this country know who he is (who doesn't), love him, play his music, and want to be just like him. We have noticed this a lot particularly with our students. They will randomly start dancing like him at school, and it is hilarious, but kinda scary how good some of them are at it. Anyways, we had been wanting to see the new movie about him, but of course like every other movie, I knew I would probably have to wait till I got home...unless in true Dominican style, a restaurant down the street decided to get a bootleg version of it and let anyone for 50 pesos come see it. Ashley, yo, Cara, y Wilson went last Wednesday night, and it was pretty awesome...not the movie, the set up. The filming was awful, and the sound system was pathetic as well, but hey, it gave us something fun to do, and I will always remember sitting in a random place called La Factoria in the small town of Montellano watching the Michael Jackson movie. On Friday, I was helping Ashley with her class in the morning, and for morning meeting we decided what the heck, let's show them the MJ music videos Ashley downloaded on her computer and let them dance like him...awesome. It is probably a good thing I am not a teacher because I think I would have a play day everyday. "Alright kids today we are going to learn about numbers. Wait, did you say that is boring? I completely agree. Recess for four hours then dance party? Fine by me!"

On Saturday, all my roomies were in Santiago, and I decided to stay home. I woke up and decided I think I will play basketball today, I think I will visit Weeson and his sister Marleini, I think I will pick them up, take them to Pancho with me to play basketball and eat lunch with them...and that is exactly what I did. I picked them both up from Caraballo and let them play on the basketball court while I was playing Sili. Several times I watched Weeson because it was such a joy to see him running around smiling and laughing with me or with other kids instead of being stuck in that scary, dirty place he calls home. After basketball I decided to take them to my apartment to eat lunch. I pulled out Shrek 2 that you can also play in Spanish and let them watch while I made them quesadillas and sliced up avocado (Kati if you are reading this email, I know you are laughing at me for making quesadillas). I watched the movie with them, and at one point when Shrek toots from drinking a magic potion, I looked over at Weeson, and he dropped his head back and started laughing so hard. It was the cutest thing! So we finished the movie, and it was almost time for me to take them back home. They both asked me for some water, and as I got up, I thought to myself, they need to laugh and be kids a lil bit more before they go back to acting like grown ups..."You can have water if you dance." They both looked at me like I was crazy. I turned on Kirk Franklin of course :) and told them I was serious. As I was pouring them some water, I look back and see Weeson dancing like the little crazy kid I know he is in front of the mirror. Ha! Marleini was also laughing and dancing to. We had the most fun dance partay together, and then it was time to go. I rode with them to Pancho to meet their cousin, and as he drove off with them, Marleni turned around and blew me a kiss...I love those two so much. I felt like a mom all day, and it was not so bad, but maybe because it was worth it for them. Tomorrow Ashley and I are grabbing Luis and going out to Caraballo to have a picnic with him, Weeson, and Marleini...with our cameras of course!

Update on Weeson :)

C'est la vie!
Last Thursday I went with Cara and Johan to find the casa de Weeson. Robin asked around and found out he lives with a man named Ramoncito in Caraballo. We pulled up to the Haitian side of Caraballo and walked up to this weird looking shack with creepy pictures of saints painted on the outside, and inside, Ramoncito was sitting with some other men chatting. He showed us which house was his, and there I found my lil love and his sister. Cara talked to the lady of the house, and this is what she said: they do not go to school, they do not have clothes, and their mom lives in the city of Santiago. Heartbroken. I go inside to sit with Weeson and notice that his face has sores on it that look awful. I want to cry for him, also noticing that he is famished and his ribs are extremely noticeable. Furthermore, I found out that the man he is living with is a voodoo witch doctor, which explains the weird paintings. We decide to leave, and all I want to do is bring him home with me to get him all straightened out but know I need to put my emotions aside. Of course that does not work so right when I get home, I talk to my roommates about everything and start crying. I felt beyond overwhelmed, but knew the Lord was telling me to be still and just pray. I prayed for guidance and realized that the Lord was going to help me with step by step instructions. The first step: medicine for Weeson's impetigo. I went Friday morning to school and once again felt overwhelmed. You have that desire for God just to fix everything all at once, meanwhile He tells you to be patient and have faith. I sat down with Robin and Ashley, and they prayed for me, encouraged me, and helped me put the medicine together. Ashley offered to go with me to Caraballo after school to give Weeson the medicine, and Johan said he would take us and talk to the lady of the house. (On a side note, there's nothing like good friends who love Jesus. Ones that will pray for you like prayer warrior Robin, one's that offer up there time, health, and ears to listen like Ashley and Johan, and Cara who offered up her time to help me find Weeson.) We went after school, put medicine on his face, gave him some clean water, and showed the lady what to do. Now Dominicans and Haitians in the villages here, because some of them are poor, will sometimes sell things that you give them, like shoes, clothes, medicine, etc. All I could do all weekend was pray and hope that she did not sell the medicine I gave her, and that she was actually giving Weeson the medicine. At the same time, I continually prayed for us that we would not get impetigo since it is a highly contagious bacterial infection. From the pictures, you can see that his face was against me while he was sitting on my lap. Honestly, I should have it, no doubt, yet the Lord has blessed me once again, and I am impetigo free, along with Ashley, who treated Weeson, and Johan.
Tuesday: Johan, Ashley, and I went out to Caraballo to give the second round of medicine. (I did not give the lady the full set just in case she would sell it.) Gracias a Dios, she had been putting the medicine on, and his face was clearing up! Relief set in, and we were beyond thankful for answered prayers.
Thursday (today): He has some scars that are trying to heal, but the infection looks like it is gone. He was laughing, hugging us, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Precious boy, gosh I love him soooo much. When I updated my mom about him, she was worried about me holding him because I could get impetigo, and all I could say is there's a love that goes beyond anything, no matter what the circumstance. I would do anything for lil Weeson and his sweet heart. I gave him my apple today, and he just about devoured the whole thing after sharing a part with his sister and two other girls. That is when I decided he needs a hamburger :)! Saturday Ashley and I will be in Puerto Plata, and if we have time by the end of the day, we are going to grab Burger King and have a picnic with Weeson, his sister, and Ashley's precious boy Luis Fernando. I will let you know if that happens, and of course, we will take more pictures than we are suppose to :).