Thursday, May 14, 2015

Day 4 - Titanyen - Grace Village Tour & Elderly Visits 5-14-15 Bell/Alamco Healing Haiti


What an amazing day!!  Today went to Grace Village which is in Titanyen, a 45 minute drive away from the guest house in Port Au Prince.  It is a school, orphanage, medical clinic, fish farm, garden, bakery, homes and so much more all built by Healing Haiti for orphans and the local community. It was so wonderful; we’ll do our best to put it into words...  We were driving in the noisy, bumpy tap-tap driving up a mountain when we all saw it, gorgeous purple everywhere (Healing Haiti’s color it seems).  We were given a tour of the entire compound starting at the bakery to the school then the tilapia farm (yes, that’s right, they have a fish farm; harvested every 3 months) to the houses and finally the medical clinic.  Our wonderful team managed to get 5 whole suitcases stuffed to the brims of donations including multivitamins, hand sanitizer, lotion, and various other things they require at Grace Village on a regular basis.  This is the first stop of the trip that I felt was truly a step in the right direction for Haiti.  The clinic was so touched and thanked us profusely for all of the donations; they will make a huge difference! 

After the village, we went to visit various elders in the community of Titanyen, one of which was only 45 (yes, that is considered an elder as the average lifespan in Haiti is 53).  We were truly God’s hands and feet today…  We started with a very elderly man who was blind and when we entered his shanti he was actually lying on the floor under his bed because that is the coolest place.  We washed and moisturized his feet, sang him songs and asked him questions.  The next visit was to a 74 year old woman she came out of her shanti to meet us.  I (Tina) washed her feet; they were very rough and dirty as most can’t afford shoes in Haiti and go barefoot.   As I washed her feet she smiled and enjoyed it very much.  I then had the pleasure of painting her toe nails pink (this was the hardest part for me (Kate), these women are just girls too; they like to look pretty too, just can’t afford it). It was a great feeling to do something so simple yet so satisfying.  The most amazing part was all of these people need so much help and then we ask them “is there anything you’d like to ask of us?” and all they want is us to pray for someone else, usually their families; so beautiful...    I (Kate) was fortunate enough to wash and moisturize a man with leprosy and he was so happy with all of us taking the time to see him and his pet goats (aka his children).  Singing with a guitar and keyboard was absolutely amazing, as well, and such a tear jerker with the children and elders joining in!

We ended the night with our word of the day. Mine (Tina) was “strength” as I saw the strength of Healing Haiti building this compound with all of its features and necessities for the children. I also felt that these elders had amazing strength to be where they are at in their lives especially after living through the earthquake in 2010 where over 230,000 Haitians perished.  They all also had amazing strength in God.   My (Kate) word of the day is “beauty” and  I can’t get over the unbelievable beauty everywhere here; the gorgeous Grace Village and the beautiful smiles from all who see us.  I truly believe today was the first day since we’ve been here that we got the honor of seeing kids being kids; the most beautiful site in the world.  Thank you for continuing to read our posts and please continue to pray for our team and these beautiful people that we are so blessed to meet. <3

By Kate & Tina
PS  Photos of today will be posted tomorrow...

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