That was the first time we got to meet Thony (pronounced like 'Tony') and see all the great stuff that WHI was doing in the country. One of my favorite things about WHI is that they only hire staff members who are native to the countries in which they work. This is a great method for multiple reasons, which I may get into another time.
Anyway...Thony really walked us through the shock of being in Haiti for the first time as he showed us the WHI efforts in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, and Petit Goave. We were able to:
• Meet kids in the child sponsorship programs in Port-au-Prince
• help referee a high school track meet (also Port-au-Prince)
• participate in an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop in Jacmel
• put on children’s day-camp activities & help build houses in Petit Goave
Yeah, in 10 days! All of it was amazing work and each place was so different from the next. But the people in Petit Goave were the ones that really stole our hearts.
In our first debrief meeting in Petit Goave the entire team felt like this was the place that The Gathering (MBC's college ministry) was supposed to be. After spending 2 more days in the neighborhood of Percin we were sure of it. You know how it's sometimes difficult to put into words why you know something is the right fit...you just know?
Well that’s how this was for us. Each place we visited had some of the elements we were looking for; things that would provide a good fit for college students’ abilities to engage in and serve the communities. There was potential for students to get involved in any of the community development programs that we had seen that week. But we could actually visualize them building relationships in Percin. And the feeling was unanimous in our team of seven, so that’s how we settled there. Sarah & I returned later that summer for a few weeks…which is Part 4, for later.
