Welcome to my blog. If this is your first time visiting, please sign up to follow, and I'll do my best to keep you informed of what I'm doing, what the Haitian people need and other ways you can help. If you are following this because you donated to the cause, then I need to say "thank you". But while I go for myself, I know that there are many of you who wish you could go yourselves. It's just not in the cards for you at this time. Trust me, I've been there. The time will come. You will be able to help. Maybe not in a poor country, maybe just your neighbor, a colleague, coworker, or a friend, down on their luck.
A bit about me, related to this particular trip at least: Last year, my father came back from Haiti, full of stories about the people there, what they did for them, etc. They went with a group associated with his particular denomination of Christianity called CONVERGE PacWest. I had always wanted to go and serve the lovely people of Haiti since I was in the Coast Guard, back in the early 90's. At that time, we repatriated a lot of Haitians, and through an interpreter, got to know a few before returning them to Port au Prince. I always felt horrible about doing that to a people that have no life in their own home country. I saw myself in their shoes, if they had any, doing the same thing.
My parents must have raised me right, because I still get a thrill from serving someone. I honestly can't point to a single event or even recall a single story pointing back to this trait. I do have memories of my grandfather serving people around him. In fact, it was my grandfather who correctly "prophesied" mine and my brother's professions at a very young age. My brother is a LAPD officer and I am in the health care field, working as a ER, Pediatric, and infusion nurse.
In December of 2009, my father called me up and said there was an opening for a trip to Haiti. I told him to sign me up and I would worry about the how's later. I didn't even have a passport. I started asking for donations and quickly donations started coming in. I used face to face, social media, and e-mails. So far, the response has been overwhelming! And this before the current devastating earthquake that added insult to injury.
We were to go and build a boys home in Maissade, Haiti. Maissade is a smaller village of about 43,000 residents. Most families live on around $200 per year. I spend more than that on coffee, and I don't drink much coffee. Two parent homes are not very common, but what is common is children living on the streets. A pastor there runs not only a church, but a girls home, a boys home, a feeding center and a school that teaches 300-400 students. Why a school? Because there is no such thing as public education in Haiti. Another cold, hard fact is that there were 380,000 orphaned children in Haiti. Before the earthquake.
We aren't sure what CONVERGE has planned for us since Maissade was unaffected by the quake and in light of all the devastation now apparent, but Lord knows, I am ready to go at the drop of a hat.
My wife would love to go with me but I told her that it would have to be after this trip, so I could report on conditions and we could go next time together. The kids would have to wait until they were older. We want to travel as a family. That can wait. This is more serious.
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