Day 3 June 14, 2011



 


The beach we left for Tortuga from, as you can see it is
very trashed, which is sad because it is truly beautiful!





Me being carried on a Haitians shoulders to the small boat :)

Day 3 in Haiti- Today was another traveling

day, but not by plane or bus, by boat. Today we went to an island of Haiti anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbean would be familiar with; Tortuga. When we get to the beach we are departing from (which is only like a 5 minute walk from the mission) it is covered in trash, but the water is beautiful. We were carried on the shoulders of Haitian men to a small boat and then rowed to a large sailboat. All I can say is that those Haitians probably hated us because we squirmed and screamed the whole time we were on their shoulders. The sailboat ride was about an hour there and when we got as close to the shore as we could because the water was very shallow they were going to put us back in the small boat and row us to shore. 

TCTC swimming to the shore!

 

Half of the TCTC group got in the first boat headed to shore, and the rest of us had a great idea; let’s swim in the Caribbean all the way to the shore (which looked a lot closer than it actually was). Anyways one of the security guards jumped in with us and lead us to shore and as soon as we got close enough to the shore the children ran towards us and latched on to us as we were still in the water. They were fighting over who was going to hold onto us, we each probably had seven or eight kids holding on to us. It is truly amazing how all of the people of Haiti are so loving especially the children, I don’t know about other American children but I would have never latched on to someone’s hand I didn’t know when I was five or six.



Inside the VBS tent, LOTS OF KIDS!



Making Bracelets :)



We held a VBS in a tent like shelter thing where we made bracelets and they sang many songs in Creole (one we could kind of understand it was Father Abraham only in Creole). As we took a break at lunch time and moved all the children outside and closed off the tent, most of us could not force ourselves to choke down the peanut butter sandwiches as the children were outside the tent crying out just for a bite of food.  It was probably the saddest point of the trip so far. Our hearts broke as they called out the names they knew and begged for a piece of stale bread with peanut butter as who knows when the last time they ate was. After everyone was done eating, since we didn’t eat much we had food to give away and we gave as much as we could away and to see the joy on their faces when we gave them such a small piece of bread with peanut butter on it was heartbreaking.

  

The beautiful Caribbean water from the sailboat!



When we finished lunch we did a sports camp and we went outside to a field on the island and while some played sports, I and some other girls from TCTC painted nails and let the little girls do our hair. It was funny because they all wanted us to paint their fingernails more than once and then we cringed when they stuck their still wet fingernails in our hair. We let them keep the fingernail polish, and yet again we saw the joy on their faces as they realized they now had something of their own. When it was time to leave the children did not want to let go of us and they walked out as far as they could in the water with us.

 

Arriving back on shore in St. Louis Du Nord



We all swam back to the boat, and while it was a long swim, it was worth it, the water is beautiful and it gave us lots of time to review everything we had experienced that day. Tortuga was an amazing island with lots of amazing people, and again we saw the hurt and pain of Haiti through the faces of the people we met. It was more than heartbreaking to leave all of the people there on that island knowing they don’t have anything to eat or drink and we will be going back to the mission with plenty of food, water, and a mattress to sleep on.