So, how was Haiti?

I've been getting that question a lot lately and I always wish I had more time to answer it. So I'll just write a couple posts about it I guess!

Ok, the basics:

Haiti was an amazing experience. I never would have thought that in the span of four months I would go from knowing nothing about this country to ending up spending my summer there! I went for a week with an amazing team of people to work on setting up a long-term partnership between World Hope International ( http://www.worldhope.org/countries/haiti.htm ) and my church on campus, The Gathering (http://gatheringonline.org/mainpage01/thegatheringdc.html). We went and saw all the programs that WHI has there to see what they're involved in and where we might be able to provide support. What I LOVE about WHI is that each country office and programs are run in-country. World Hope-Haiti is run by Thony, who is Haitian, which is how relief and development work should be, so that's great.

WHI-Haiti has programs running in Port-au-Prince, outside of Jacmel, and in Petite Goave. The Gathering and WHI have been working for a long time on getting a partnership started up where WHI-Haiti will have a well of college students to draw from to help out as they see fit in country. At the same time, college students will have multiple opportunities to get involved in something bigger than themselves and help in a tangible way with long-term effects. The trip that went out in May was with the purpose of seeing how these two groups might fit together in order to grow together. We saw a lot; there are a lot of needs and a lot of hope, so I'm excited to see where this thing goes!