Haitian Adventure: Part 3

{Part one and two}

For one of our evening meals we had an authentic Haitian meal, it was amazing!

Best cajun chicken (ever), plantain (like bananas fried) and beans with rice.  I'm still trying to convince my family to have a Haitian food night.

At this point in our trip, all the hard sweaty work was finished, needless to say, we were all pretty wiped out and ready for a breather.  On our last leg of our adventure in Haiti we went to the ocean, crazy how beautiful it was, check it out!

No zoom was used when taking the above picture, the mountains were that close.  For a girl who LOVES mountains and ocean waves I was in heaven.  

This beautiful beach was just another reinforcement of God's amazing painting skills.  Many people come just to experience this view but don't look at all the poverty surrounding it.  

Yes, the landscape is amazing, but the people who live in the landscape are ever more amazing.  There lack of necessities doesn't stop them from helping their neighbor in need, they help enrich the beauty even more.

Through this trip I was able to see the Toms Movement in effect.  If you don't know, Toms is an organization that helps provide shoes for children in need.  When you buy a pair of shoes, you also are buying a pair for a child in need.  Before Haiti I was supportive of the company, but not supportive enough where I was going to dish out the money for some shoes and not fully knowing if a child (in need) would actually get them.

While in Haiti we saw many children running around with Toms on, because they now have their feet protected from all the trash and glass along the road (one day we picked up twenty -- industrial size  garbage bags -- of glass and trash along the road).  With proper shoes their feet are protected, they can attend school, help provide for their family and in the end create a brighter future for themselves as a result of proper shoes.

I've seen the difference a pair of shoes can make, and I've chosen to support as best I can, to date I've had three pair of Toms, they are (almost) the only shoes I wear!

Haiti was hard, emotionally and physically but I am a better person because of it.  I remember, about half way through the trip, wondering if I had misunderstood God.  Is this where He really wants me to be, on this mission trip?  So many thoughts of doubt and second guessing myself ran through my head during that week.  

My Haiti trip and Kenya trip had such different flavors.  With Kenya I came back on a "spiritual high",  I was ready to pack my bags and never leave Africa.  With Haiti I came back feeling numb, emotionally and spiritually,  life back home was crazy while I had been gone. To say I felt overwhelmed would be an understatement, I felt like I had been deserted, even though God was still present.

God was present and with me in both Haiti and Kenya, even though those were both totally different experiences,  I'm learning I can still be where God wants me to be without experiencing that "spiritual high."