Our Travel To Haiti Blog 2010

Complete With Photos and News From Haiti

On October 27th, 2010 we decided to travel to Haiti to help with the recovery of the January 12th earthquake of 2010. A team of eight volunteers and board members from The Julia Project landed in Vignier, Haiti with excited anticipation of visiting the project we support and aiding in the restoration there.

Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
Haiti Mission Trip 2010 Team Members
L-R, Norm Brown, Jill Carty, Sara Shebib, Maeghan Carty, Jim Carty,
Sarah Edwards, Ryan Carty, Adam Shebib

The team members were:

• Vice President, Adam Shebib
• Adam's wife, Advisory Board Member, Sara
• Treasurer at the time, Norm Brown
• Volunteer, Ryan Carty
• Volunteer, Sarah Edwards
• Advisory Board Member, Maeghan Carty
• Founder/President, Jill Carty
• Jill's husband Jim

Yes, all the Carty's are related, and this was in fact their first mission trip as a family.

Mission Trip Purpose

Our purpose was to assist with the restoration of the Haiti school building in Vignier, that was badly damaged in the earthquake. We were asked to help with wiring, plastering, and painting. While we didn't have any electrical knowledge, we did do some plastering, a lot of painting, and laying of cement floors.

School Before The Earthquake	School After The Earthquake

Our secondary purpose was to transport and distribute donations of clothing, hygiene packs, sports equipment, and school supplies to both the school and local community members.

Travel Blogs Provide A Unique Way To Stay In Touch

We knew we couldn't take everyone along with us on our travel to Haiti experience, but we could certainly keep in touch and share through our travel blog.

We expected Haiti travel to be somewhat of an adventure, considering the 'unknowns' that we were facing. It was an unforgettable adventure that changed all of the team members hearts, and gave us a renewed compassion and love for the Haitian people.

Haiti Mission Trip Highlights

We've highlighted some of the blog posts to share with you. We invite you to read along and share in the adventure.

• Hi fellow team members. What I always find exciting about going on a mission trip is the challenge of the unknown. Looking forward to experiencing this mission trip together with all of you.


• The count down has begun! This Haiti mission trip presents a wonderful opportunity for each of you as you continue to bless those around you...


• Congratulations to all of you on this new adventure as you travel to Haiti. I am so excited for all of you. In hopes of not sounding preachy, God takes you as far as He knows He has equipped you.


• Let us all know that you've arrived safely, and looking forward to hearing about your daily doings. A recap of your daily activities and the Haitian foods you eat, in particular.


• Greetings from the Miami International Airport. We arrived safely last night, had a good rest and some breakfast this morning before readying ourselves, along with the 17 suitcases of donations, for the last leg of the journey's travel to Haiti into the capital, Port au Prince.






Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
Tent City immediately outside Port au Prince airport

• After a fair bit of confusion and a long wait at the airport at Port au Prince because of the time change that wasn't communicated to us properly, Pastor Benite and another driver arrived to pick us up. We enjoyed the beautiful one and a half hour ride along the coast from the airport to our destination at Vignier. Many of our team were in the open flatbed truck behind us, enjoying the warm air, and the sights and sounds as we traveled out of the city into the countryside and through smaller villages.
  
  We did anticipate evidences of the earthquake during our travel to Haiti. This initial drive revealed rubble on the streets, floating garbage in the water systems, half fallen buildings, and tent cities in Port au Prince and on the hillsides of the outlying areas nearby. The colorful clothing and brightly painted buildings and open air markets lend a festive contrast.
  
  We've made it to our hotel and chatted with Pastor Benite about the upcoming weeks schedule, and will be ready to be picked up each morning at 7am.





Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
Digging stony soil, leveling, hand bombing small buckets of cement, finish leveling - and repeat for several more classrooms.



• Thanks for the posts from home. It's so encouraging for all of us to know you're thinking of us and holding us up in prayer.
  
  Today was another long workday of painting, digging and leveling stony soil and the seemingly endless hand bucketing of cement to pour new floors in the classrooms. We accomplished all that Pastor Benite wanted, which was great.
  
  We're all bone weary, but feeling very satisfied to have helped the Haitian school so much. These are our typical days tasks, stopping at noon for a hot lunch prepared for us at Benites on-site home, and then working through until 4pm.
  
  


• I was in touch with our friend from Canada who is posted here in Haiti with the UN. He is working on the Cholera outbreak situation and their team is closely monitoring Hurricane Thomas.
  
  He hopes to visit with us tomorrow afternoon. We are good friends with his Mom and Dad from our hometown back in Canada. We hope that Hurricane Thomas does not hit too hard. Thanks for all the prayers and we are trusting God to keep us all safe and get us home again.
  
  We're looking forward to church service tomorrow morning and the rest of the day to relax and have some free time.


• We don't have internet connections as often as we'd like, so I'm posting the best I can. Tomorrow is our last day in Haiti, so we have plans to visit families in the local community to distribute our donations. We are all looking forward to it. My UN friend has advised us to vacate the country as soon as possible because Hurricane Thomas looks like it will strike hard, and he fears for our safety. It could bring our travel to Haiti experience to a rather unpleasant end.






Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
A typical meal served to our team. Rice, vegetables, goat,
and yummy fried plantain.



The food is very good. At the hotel we enjoy traditional breakfast fair of bacon and eggs, toast, fruit and juice, and porridge. One morning they offered us spaghetti, which didn't go over too well with most of us. At other meals we have goat and chicken, rice, onions with lime, peas and beans, fried plantain, and fruit.

Amongst the poverty, we are blessed to have never gone hungry. The men on our team are working extremely hard, so it is good to see them well fed.



Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
Soccer equipment donations were received with much excitement

• Jim was not well enough to join the team today. We tucked him in into bed with some medication as we headed out. With the help of interpreters and a list of families known to Pastor Benite, we walked through several nearby settlements. We met many lovely people of all ages, families and singles, elderly and young. We handed out the hygiene packs we had made up earlier in the week at the hotel - a washcloth, bar of soap, toothbrush and paste and whatever related goodies we had. We also handed out some of the clothing donations.
  
  

  

  Photo © The Julia Project Foundation
  Team member, Ryan Carty, distributing hygiene packs to local community

  
  
  On our first day at the school compound, we visited most of the classrooms to bring greetings from Canada and to hand out all the school supplies that had been donated as well.



• We said our goodbyes and made the drive back to Port au Prince, enjoying a different route through more towns and villages this time. We flew back to Miami, before our final flight back to Canada tomorrow, officially ending our travel to Haiti.


• With Haiti and Miami far behind us, as we were traveling home from the Toronto International Airport, the question was put out to the team - would they travel to Haiti again. The resounding 'yes' was not unexpected.
  
  

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