If You See a Turkey, Scrub It

July 2nd, 2014 – 9:39 pm

Did you know I look like Nicki Minaj? Because, apparently Haitian boys think that… I don’t know whether to be offended, or…. Like, I’m a white girl. Maybe it’s because I have a big butt. But it’s not that big… Like, offensive.

This morning started off hot and groggy. We had early morning devotions in our small groups and then had breakfast, which was some weird, Haitian version of pancakes. Then a fly decided to take a swim in my syrup, and breakfast became a granola bar.

After breakfast, we were off to Source Matelas for more village time. Basically, we were ordered to go house to house in small groups and evangelize to the Haitian people on the doorstep. So, I’ve got a lot of interesting stories about this, so get some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the reading…

I honestly thought that this was going to be terrible – like, last time, it was awkward because no one in my group wanted to step up and talk, and we were in the same situation again. But today turned around so quickly. Jeremy gave us a few pointers on how to transition from asking them about their lives to asking them about their relationship with Christ, and it seemed like it was very helpful for everyone! My group was comprised of myself, Emily, Susan Dare, Rachel, Henry, AshLee, Evan and Collin.

It would take pages and pages to get through everything we experienced, so I’ll try to keep it short. We prayed for an older gentleman who turned out to be a pastor; we prayed for another woman who already knew Jesus well. We walked for a long time before we really got to the hotspot of the area. We turned a corner and there was a bunch of kids all playing and chilling in the shade. At first, I will admit, there was a little bit of awkwardness. The kids were kind of shy, and we didn’t know what to say to so many people at once. But somehow, we hung out long enough, and before we knew it, kids were laughing, smiling and hanging off of us. There was even an albino kid! He ran around the corner, and I just saw his legs at first, and I was like, “Look! It’s a white boy!” Someone whispered that he was albino and I was immediately taken by him! He was adorable. He was obviously struggling with a lot of medical problems (he had scabs on his head, was having trouble seeing and was drooling uncontrollably) but he was so unbelievably happy. He had a constant grin on his face and he just tried to keep up with the other kids. I laughed so hard when his grandmother walked around the corner and smiled hugely at us saying something loudly in creole that was followed by a lot of laughter from the children. Apparently she said, “Ah, look! We finally found someone your color!” His smile got wider and he came and held his arm up to ours.

Those little kids followed us everywhere we went from then on. We went to their grandmother’s house, because she really wanted us to pray for her, and she told us her story. She told us how she had once gotten an injury where something was wrong with her ribs, and the hospital had decided to transfer her to get surgery to another hospital. During the time between the two hospitals, she had prayed to God that she would be healed, and when she went to the next hospital, they couldn’t find anything wrong with her. She had been healed! So that was pretty cool. But forreal though, she was the most excited, energetic, sweet and happy woman I had ever met. She was amazing, and I doubt I will ever forget her.

After that, we visited a bunch of different women, and they were all very sweet and welcoming to us. We had a ton of good conversations and the little kids never left our side. It was so amazing. At one point, we were walking next to a beautiful river. And by next to, I mean up a very, insanely steep cliff, and by walking, I mean carefully tiptoeing along the edge on a foot-long sized path. It was terribly scary. The adorable little kids that we were walking with sensed our fear of the long drop down, so they would grab us from behind, one hand reaching up to our shoulder, the other holding our hand as they held us stable. Literally, they were walking along the cliff side. It was crazy impressive. And once they’d gotten one of us across, they would run back to the next person in line and hold them steady too. They are so sweet.

The hardest part of the day was a total shocker though. We walked into this one-room house behind the translator (who was also one of the Village Champions – Airlo) and I really wasn’t prepared for what I saw. An elderly man was splayed out on a thin mat on the concrete floor, completely naked. When he realized we were all coming in, he covered himself with a small rag. A rope with a loop at the end hung above him, apparently used to help get him up. The skin on his shoulders and arms seemed to be stretched over his skin, but his legs, feet and hands were swollen. He was apparently in the late stages of cancer and had been laying there without the ability to walk for over a year. It was absolutely awful and heart wrenching. We weren’t even in the room for long, and Susan was trying to ask him questions, but the translator was apparently uncomfortable, and actually rushed us to pray and we left pretty quickly. It was sad and awful, but it was definitely an eye-opener. On a lighter note, when we were praying for him, I was staring at the ground, and the little girl that was hanging on me whispered something to me. I didn’t understand what see was saying but she motioned what she was saying. Hah, she was telling me to close my eyes when we were praying! She did that to me twice! Which is really hilarious.

Alright, I know that only covers this morning, but I started this late, and everyone’s become friends, so there are many distractions… I’ll finish the afternoon in the morning… Until then!

Katie Coming to You from Haiti