Well I find myself here again.

I am back to trying this. I'm not sure how many times I am going to say I'll keep up with this blogging thing (especially considering the last entry was in May). So I'm just not going to promise anything this time around.

Since starting seminary at Princeton I have been toying with the idea of writing down my experiences, thoughts, etc. during my time here and as I get back in to the American way of life. After talking with a close friend I thought it would be cleansing to be able to write out what I am going through on the blog.

I have approximately one semester and 1 1/2 weeks of seminary under my belt. The first four months have flown by. Getting back into the swing of things has not been the easiest thing to do. First of all, everyone here drives so sensibly and I actually enjoy drinking milk again (it is not some strange liquid that can be stored on a shelf for years at a time at room temperature in a cardboard box called "listamilk"). Seminary itself is a beast of it's own. I thought I would be able to throw myself back in school and get to know the community much easier than is proving to be the reality. It is a strange place to be in and knowing that so many people I love are still suffering in Haiti does not make this transition any easier. However, I will say that there are a ton of wonderful students, professors, and pastors here on campus and they all seem genuinely kind, compassionate, and interested in the happiness and well being of others. It is refreshing.

I look forward to seeing what the long semester will bring. Everyone says "your first year is always the hardest." I hope I am able to deal better this second semester around and really start to take advantage of the amazing opportunities PTS offers us here. And hopefully, I can actually keep this up (that is still not a promise).

I vow to update before I leave!

Hey everyone!
       I am wrapping up my amazing visit home in Yardley, Pa! I had an awesome time and I loved all of it! I  took advantage of my super fast lightening speed internet connection and made a Youtube page! Please go and check it out! I have all my videos from Haiti, Dominican Republic, and even some fun stuff from home of my Dad and I flying at the Philadelphia Glider Council in Hilltown, Pa. Let me know what you think! Miss you all and I look forward to my next visit! Happy Memorial Day!

Check me out being all internet savvy! 

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better…It did.

      April 26^th-May2nd

I had my final nursing group come out last week to work in Fond Parisien, Haiti in Love A Child camp as well as Camp Hope.  This trip held many “unknowns” for me. This would be my first trip really “leading” it alone being that the boss, Kristin would be in Brasil. We also would be camping out on Love A Child’s property in tents because the gentleman who owned the home we slept in at Jimani passed away about a week before the group came down.

             Camping out in Haiti can be a little more difficult than sleeping in Jimani. In order to get clean water and ice for the group we had to send out staff members to cross the border in to the Dominican Republic because there is virtually no ice in Fond Parisien and no reliable water system. Our staff worked so well in providing for the groups needs and I was so thankful that Ruth and Pastor Brony knew exactly what was needed and got the job done without hesitation.

            So the week came along and I was extremely nervous about arriving to Love A Child and being set up in tents. It is rainy season here and I expected a downpour every night, but God had other plans for us. We had the most beautiful weather every day in Haiti without rain. Every night we slept on cots provided for us by Love A Child with out tent flaps open and a beautiful breeze that kept us cool. I even got too cold one night and had to put more clothes on to keep warm!

            The nurses who came down on this trip couldn’t have been more perfect. We had three nurses and an EMT (Michelle Horton!) led by Carrie Steele. They were all so amazing and easy going which makes it so much easier for me. I am so thankful for them and their amazing outlook on everything that week. They spent the week working in both camps and doing an amazing job. The care they provided to the patients was inspiration to me and lovingly received and appreciated by all the Haitians who met them.

            Every week I spend in Haiti, I learn more and more. This week was by far the best week ever because I was given the opportunity to really learn more about the Haitian culture and to relax, talk, laugh, sing, worship, pray, and play every day with my Haitian friends. With the change of sleeping arrangements to Love A Child came an opportunity to spend every possible second of free time with the Haitians and really get to know them. The group didn’t have to worry about rushing off at 4pm every day in order to make it to the border before it closes. In the mornings we were able to start earlier and we could take our time with our work and finish when we felt the work was done. One day after work, we were even able to go to the community talent show! It was so much fun and all the groups came up with little skits, songs, or jokes to present to the audience. There was two amputees that were both missing one of their legs and they had a dance contest! It was so beautiful to see them having fun, laughing, and dancing, and healing. 

            My favorite time was after the workday and after the staff meetings for the camp. Michelle, Ruth, Carrie, and I would go to the shower stalls and take showers at night always looking up at the stars while we washed all the dirt off from that day (amazing suggestion on the part of Michelle). After showers, on our way back to our tents we would almost always stop by and sit with a group of ladies who would meet outside the large medical tent and sing worship songs.

On our last night there, they all got up out of bed and came out to worship with us. They taught us two songs in Creole and we sang Amazing Grace together. It is times like these than I remember why I am so thankful to be here during this time. I am so thankful that I can witness the great faith, hope, and trust in God the Haitian victims have. I remember to be thankful for everything, the little things, the things I don’t even consider when I am thanking God for all that he has done. These brothers and sisters were worshipping, raising their hands if they had them singing “M’ap leve men” which means I will raise my hand to recognize God for all that He has done. There is such great awareness given to you when you see an amputee raising their one good hand and thanking God for that hand, while you wouldn’t even had thought of thanking God for your hands, your legs, your arms, your feet, your fingers, your toes.

Carrie gave me a book while in Haiti called “He Chose the Nails” by Max Lucado. I began reading it today and I wanted to ask you to do what Max asks in the study guide portion of this book:

Set aside at least fifteen minutes to thank God for all of His gifts to you.  Before you begin, make a list of the gifts for which you are especially grateful.  Conclude your prayer time with a special focus on God’s gift of salvation.  Try hard not to bring up any requests during this holy time, but instead pour out your heart in thanksgiving to God for all his rich gifts to you.

I really encourage you to do this today. I woke up this morning and made a list of what I was thankful for. It sounds so simple, but for me it wasn’t that simple to remember not to bring up requests and only thank God. Personally, I always feel that I am too needy and ask to much of God during my prayer time and need to work on my thanksgiving and praises to God for all He has done for me. So this was a really good time for me to forget about me, to forget about asking God for things and just let it all out, to thank Him for all that He is, all that He has done, and all that He continues to do for me.

I am thankful for:

Family.

Friends. The opportunity to be here.

Acceptance to seminary. Amazing people I have met in Haiti.

Ruth’s friendship. Good health. Ladies who take care of me here. Education.

Family who supports me in my decisions. Postive outlooks.

Being placed where I was when I was born.

Feeling called to do ministry.

Carrie. Doug. Gloria.

Ohmi.

Progress and updates! (Could this title be any more bland?)

          So here I am again, one month since my last post! So many things have happened since I have entered my last entry. Over the last month, we have had American, Brazilian, Haitian, and Dominican volunteers out working in Fond Parisien, Haiti. With each new group of volunteers we are able to offer more and more help in Camp Hope (ARC) and Love a Child. With the last few groups we have had nurses working in both camps helping with a variety of needs from wound care to skin rashes and even to emergency care to the community around the camps as well. Love a Child is now one of the largest field hospitals in Haiti and continues to need help. This Monday, Carrie Steele will be leading out another very small group of nurses to help out on the border which is very needed. I was told today that they currently have no nurses at the camp and they are very excited to have her team.
        In Camp Hope so much has been happening! The rainy season has brought many different issues up to the surface, the largest of them has been the mud problem that the residents face. Deforestation has left Haiti a pretty dry and dusty place, and being that Camp Hope is in a valley, when it rains, it pours, and there is a serious mud and run off problem. With the help of some of the donations given to FFP, we purchased a few truck loads of stone and spread them through the camp in hopes that it would cut down on the mud and dust situation. On our last day, after spreading the stones for a week, we were so excited to arrive and find out that it had rained the night before and that the stone spreading had worked! There was barely any mud around the tents and all I saw were clean mud-less shoes!

           We also have been hard at work building a school for the children in the camp as well as in the surrounding community! This has been a very exciting project for us to be involved with. Difficult at times, but exciting. The school is going to have 12 rooms and will accommodate approximately 350 students. This is the first time I have been involved in a project right from the beginning and have been given the opportunity to see the progress. The first week on the school was definitely an interesting one! We dug the foundation which turned out to be the scariest part of the whole ordeal yet because we kept digging in to what looked like the homes of small tarantulas. After I saw the first 3  spiders, my mind tricked itself in to believing that I had spiders on me all day long. I even ran away at one point slapping at my clothes because what I thought was a spider was really a fly.
          We pushed through the spider nests however and moved on to tying rebar and pouring the footings and the foundation for the school a few weeks ago. This week involved all cement mixing and bucket lines (Woodside's favorite!) and the group that helped were pretty tough. It isn't the easiest thing to do! The cement piles were the biggest piles I have ever seen mixed on a work site here! It took about 3 days us Americans to actually understand the "technique" of mixing (every single person will show you the "right" way to mix cement), but once we got the hang out of we made some amazing progress.

            With the last group members we finally are able to see some really impressive work. The walls have begun to go up and even though FFP groups are not currently there working, the work does continue with Pastor Brony and his four main workers along with a whole team of volunteers from Camp Hope residents.  A little frustration in the fact that ARC keeps telling us they are going to pay the workers from the camp, and then they go back on their agreement. So, if you feel like donating to help the work continue on the school so the children can start school this year please do at Foundationforpeace.org and mention that it should be directed for the school laborers!

Miss you all very much and again I apologize for my delay! I can't wait to update again after this next group to tell you all about what adventures we had! Did I mention that we are sleeping in tents in Love A Child this time?? Pray for us!

Just a little somethin' somethin'....

While I was checking my gmail this morning a newsfeed caught my eye. I saw the words "tent city". Before these words would have meant nothing to me, but now, after working in tent cities for almost 2 months since the earthquake means something completely different now. I read this article from New York Times and I wanted to share it with you all because it reminds me so much of the communities that I am working in (both ARC and Love a Child) in Fond Parisien, Haiti. I hope this sheds a little bit of light on to the situation we are dealing with...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/world/americas/22haiti.html

Where is Christine Mannarino when you need her?

This week is almost over and I am wrapping up my first nursing group mission trip. Yesterday, I helped run my first medical clinic with my co-worker Julian. What a day. I learned so much yesterday about what I would do next time and what I definitely would not do. I have worked with medical clinics before with the Woodside mission trips, but it was a completely different experience being on the side of clinic “planner”. Let’s just say, don’t even attempt to start a clinic before you have the crowd control situation completely in check. With that said, the nurses I worked with did an amazing job and were able to help almost 130 families consisting of anywhere between 5-7 family members each from 9am to just a little after 3pm. I would consider that successful. The whole way home I kept wishing that Christine Mannarino were still with me in country so she could give me another adjustment! Oh how I wish she were! Christine…where are you? Come back! Please.

Speaking of Christine Mannarino….

Can I just give a interweb applause to Woodside! Woodside has had such a strong presence in Haiti since the earthquake. I cannot explain how awesome it is for me to be able to meet and work with so many members of my church family in Haiti. It gives me strength and new energy every time another member comes down. I’m so proud to call Woodside my home. I am so happy to know that I am a part of a church family that really demonstrates what it means to live as a community and to work as a family. This past trip was absolutely amazing. We had some of the most fun group members ever! Everyone was down for anything that the trip might have brought. (Which, if you have ever been to the Dominican Republic, you know that there are many surprises on these trips.) We all had so much fun together at work, on the buses, on the side of highways fixing tires (Bob!!), and definitely during random outbursts of worship. I never wanted them to leave! And based on all the trouble I had getting this group of the bus in Haiti to go home, I’m thinking they didn’t want to leave either. The committee in charge of the site we worked in didn’t want us to leave as well! Everyone felt how amazing this group was and everyone could feel the Holy Spirit just flowing throughout this entire trip.

Every time a group leaves from these trips we pray that God would use them as his witnesses when they return home. I know that without a doubt, this group is at home, witnessing as I type this. They are most likely sharing all the amazing stories they have about sights they saw, songs they sang, and most definitely about the relationships they formed all of the people in American Refugee Committee. People like Jude, Eben, Junior, Robinson, and Olsen who they will never forget. I encourage everyone at home to sit down, ask our amazing Woodside missionaries about there time and their experiences. Take time and approach them with open hearts and minds. Prepare to listen to some changed people. Prepare to be encouraged to go as well. I love when Woodside comes down because I get to meet people who I had never thought I would have gotten to know at home. It is wild how it takes a trip to a developing country to make bonds, but I am so happy we did.

Hilarious stories, amazing adjustments, beautiful smiles, flat tires (about 3), joyful worship, warm hearts, dance parties with guards, sewing tents, digging holes, building latrines, printing pictures, electrocutions, singing guards, new friendships, one amazing family centered in Christ. I miss you Woodside March trip!!!

Mosquito Food

Well everyone, I have made it past my one month here in the Dominican Republic and I am still alive to tell about it! My mom will be so relieved! After spending some time here I have taken the liberty to assign myself an official title: Mosquito food. It seems to me that I am basically the only person who is constantly attacked by the enormous mosquito population that lives in our office, kitchen, sofa, and under our dinning table. As you can probably guess, I have not welcome this title with open arms. Other than becoming a blood bank, I have experienced and learned so much in my short amount of time here.

I finished my spanish immersion classes today after four weeks of studying. I really enjoyed going to class everyday. I recognize that I have learned so much in just four weeks, but I find myself frustrated often because I am constantly reminded of how much I have yet to learn. A lady from one of the groups last week related this experience to having a relationship with God. She said that learning another language was like learning more about your relationship with God because the more you learn and the deeper you go, the more you realize that you still know nothing. I thought that was a good way to put it.

Ever since the earthquake, we have been very busy working on logistics and schedules for all the extra groups that we are taking to the border to work in the relief efforts. My favorite part of this month has been being able to meet so many wonderful people who donate their time to come and serve along side of us. With every group, I meet yet another awesome mentor and friend, and I always end up learning something new. Last week, I learned how to crust chicken with corn flakes! Who would have known. Now that I have completed school, I look forward to working with all these groups and going back to the border. It has been very difficult to stay behind at the house in Santo Domingo and work from here while I finish classes. Everyone wants to be out in the field actually working face to face with all the victims. My short time on the border resulted in making many close relationships with some amazing Haitians whom I have been so anxious to meet again. I heard word from my friend Luke who has been running hospital relations in Jimani that Olson, (the boy from my last entry whose mother was in the hospital) and his mother had received treatment and where now living in a refugee camp that has been set up on the Haitian side of the border. We are told that this refugee camp is for family members to stay who have family in the hospitals as well as a place for recovering stable patients. The organization who is running it has plans to remain open for at least 2 to 3 years for all of those displaced by this horrible event.

As I am typing now, we have had one group out to the border and we have one group working there now. Our groups are split in to different work sites based on what they are capable of doing. Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff work in the hospital while non-medical people have been helping out with patient transport and in the post-operative camps on the Haitian side of the border. In these other two sites, our groups have been working hard to build latrines and showers for these camps. Prior to these building projects, the camp where patients are sent to recover after surgeries held about 300 people and only one shower. Our first group has built five more showers and this second group was planned to build more.

I will be leaving on Saturday afternoon for Jimani and Haiti with the leaders group. I am really looking forward to this trip and I can't wait to be working with the Haitians again. I encourage everyone who is interested and feels called to help to sign up and go. Whether you are a doctor, a nurse, or have no medical background at all you are still going to be used and still going to be ministered to. I hear from many that they don't feel that like can be a help if they do not know medicine, but that could not be further from the truth. One of the most important jobs in this effort is interacting with people. Letting these victims know that they are loved and cared for. Sitting with patients, holding their hands, coloring pictures with orphans and children mean just as much as attending to the physical aspect of this relief. The acute emergency stage has ended, and now people here are beginning to start to understand how to cope with this tragedy. It is a strong spiritual experience no matter where you are coming from. If you are interested go to foundationforpeace.org and sign up. Don't worry about the details, if you are really being called by God to go, then he will prepare the way. Keep your hearts, mind, and body open to the Holy Spirit moving and working through you. Be a vessel.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." -Ephesians 2:10