August 2012 Team Trip

  

This week, I got to experience my first AwakenHaiti team trip. As an organization, the mission of AH is to break the cycle of poverty through providing aid to orphans and the poor of Haiti and to encourage spiritual transformation by bringing together diverse cultures. 

I got to witness that first hand this week. In the few short weeks I have been here, what I have really been learning is that coming in a DOING for the Haitians what they are capable of doing themselves is toxic. My service here, and AH's, is not to make ourselves feel good, or to give hand-outs, or to 'save' the Haitians. Our purpose here is to empower the Haitians... to provide opportunities to help create things that will last. And in doing so, to bring different cultures together...not as one culture being 'better' than the other or 'saving' the other, but coming together to learn from each other.

This weeks team, in a small way, helped to break the cycle of poverty in Haiti by physically helping to build a medical center...but that was not entirely the need or the intended purpose. The more I thought about it, the more I realized, God didn't NEED them to come here to build that center. He easily could have AH staff or Haitians build it. But, He WANTED them to build it. To work alongside Haitians, to meet and play with Haitian children, to see how blessed most Americans are to be able to go to the doctors whenever....to change their perspective, to change their HEARTS, to challenge them.

There was also 2 medical clinics in Canaan this week. As most of the team helped build, AH staff and a few team members held a clinic. Haitians get a ticket at church (or just show up) to come to clinic. After they get basic measurements (height, weight, temperature, bp) Vanessa, our nurse, sees them in the exam room. There, a translator works to help Vanessa and the patient communicate. Lots of questions are asked on both ends and a diagnosis is made. Most times, Vanessa was able to prescribe medicine we had (which, I got to fill the prescriptions!!). A few times, patients were directed to go to the hospital because their symptoms were outside of what we are capable of providing (and most times it seemed like those people couldn't afford to get to the hospital...talk about feeling heartbroken and helpless).

One of the coolest things I got to experience was hearing a babies heartbeat inside the mother's belly. She was 8 months pregnant and had not had an ultra-sound yet. This was her first child. It was so neat to be able to see her face as we listened to the babies heartbeat! Strong and steady.

Seeing the (almost) finalized medical center made me excited...excited to know that within my 2 years here, I will see Haitian doctors and nurses working there, I will see individuals getting medical treatment that didn't have the means or opportunity to before, and I will be a part of something so much more than just a building...a physical reminder of people coming together, hearts being changed, and lives being transformed.