How Haiti Has Changed Me

A missionary once told me, “You aren’t going to change Haiti, in fact; Haiti will change you.” He was so right because Haiti has changed me. Each day of our stay in Haiti, I’ve changed in some way. Once I get back to the states and process all that I’ve seen, I plan to write a longer post about our stay in Haiti. Right now, I am witnessing hunger, poverty, homelessness, godlessness, which leaves me paralyzed for words. At best, I can look over the last few days and chronicle how Haiti has changed me.

Haiti needs the Rescuer not to be rescued.

I will always distinguish between a want and a need. I’ve seen the real need here, and I am aware of my over abundance.

I will suggest that more friends plan their next family vacation to a third world country, just once, rather than to Disney.

Visit a Third World orphanage. I can barely find the words to convey the helplessness I feel after spending a week at an orphanage. The girls will steal your heart without trying…and you won’t want to take your heart back because you know how desperately they need it. So, I am thinking about leaving a piece of it here.

After several sessions of crying for them back at my hotel room, I realized the need to equip them with the important aspects for survival: the Gospel and basic life skills. Those are two life altering things I can actually offer them.

I promise not to get back home to the states and get too comfortable in my American lifestyle that I forget those beautiful ebony eyes and charcoal hands.

It was good to be the minority.

Electricity, running water, drinking water, employment, indoor plumbing, and food are gifts, trust me.

Missionaries deserve every one of those boxes of goodies sent to them from the states.

I’ve learned that my children are color blind; they see skin as the color of water — clear.

In Haiti, never eat in front of someone, unless you are willing to share your food.

Saying goodbye to fifty five orphan girls (one little girl in particular who began to call me “mama”) is heart wrenching because every little girl wants and needs a mama.

After visiting a second, very rural orphanage, and observing the living conditions of these children and then learning that the orphanage is a step up from their original plight makes me determined to return to these children. If I can’t do anything else, the children and I can hold hands and for those brief moments of hand holding the world might seem a little better for them.