Visiting Haiti

Recently I was fortunate enough to go on a trip with 11 others to Pwoje Espwa, a children's refuge near Les Cayes, Haiti. We spent six days there, which was a great learning experience for me. We helped paint a couple of homes that young boys were staying in, had a mini track and field meet, played soccer, and brought down over 1000 pound of useful supplies to help the village.

We arrived in Port au Prince and rode in a large van, where I got to really see the hustle and bustle of the city. The road was rather chaotic, with street vendors knocking on the car window while trying to sell muffins and drinks. The rules of the road were new to me: honk if you are passing, honk if people are walking too close, and honk for a long time if you don't think someone sees you. There were many motorcycles weaving in between cars as well, so it was really an action-packed ride. This was so exciting that I actually threw up after a couple of hours (fortunately I was able to give warning and hop out of the van to take care of business). We arrived at Pwoje Espwa a few hours later, where we unpacked some of our things and took a breather.

Over the next few days, we had lots of interaction with the kids who live in the village, and a few that live in the surrounding community that hang out in the area. So many of them were really happy and I had a lot of fun playing with them. We played baseball, soccer, and ran some races with some of the kids (in total something like 600 kids live on the premises). There are older boys (and a few girls) living there too, and it was interesting to hear some of their interests. Many of them were interested in music and dance, and it was very entertaining seeing them perform. Some of the kids (ok they are around 20 years old, so I should probably say young men) have a group that performed for us. They have a youtube video (see below)which they had help from a local studio to produce. I think its really good, so check it out!

Of course, not everything we saw was so positive. While it is believed that the country has made some progress since the devastating earthquake in 2010, there is still a lot of work to be done. Sanitation is nothing like you would expect in the US. Many roads are in really poor shape, and of course, housing for many is quite minimal.

I did see first hand, though, that there are a lot of kids with hope and desire to make positive impacts in Haiti. They have goals to become doctors, businesspeople, wood-workers, welders, and many other great things. It was really the best part of being down there.

We left Les Cayes on one of the days to go to a beach community about an hour away called Port Salut. This town has a beautiful beach, not so different from other places in the caribbean. While it wasn't too busy, it did show me that Haiti does have some potential to attract more tourists.

Visiting Haiti was a great experience for me and everyone who went on the trip. If you or anyone you know is thinking about doing a mission trip to Haiti, I definitely reccommend it. Pwoje Espwa was a great place to stay and I think they are really doing excellent work.