Haiti Mission Trip | {Port-au-Prince + Pignon}

I traveled to Haiti for 8 days as a member of a short term mission team from Irving Bible Church based in Irving, Texas. Our plan was simple; impact the lives of others through kind acts of service and provide some basic necessities to the local Haitian residents. Our team of 11 members started our journey early Saturday morning. I arrived 5 hours before the rest of my team so I sat alone at the airport in Port-au-Prince and waited for them to arrive. As I waited I witnessed several other teams entering through customs and starting their journey as well. It was a neat sight to see. As my team arrived later in the day we started to gather the luggage and tools that we brought over and headed out to our transportation. We waded though the mob of locals reaching for our luggage cart and clinging to it with all their might, they didn’t understand that we had it managed and were capable of pushing it ourselves, but they were persistent and it soon became obvious that this was how many of them fed themselves though generous tips from us visiting tourists and missionaries. As we broke off into groups and packed our SUV’s we started our 80 mile trip to Camp de la Grace, located in mountains of Pignon, Haiti.

Driving through the streets of Port-au-Prince it was soon evident that the situation there was still dire. I have never seen anything like it in my life. People were still gathering pieces of whatever they could get their hands on to use or sell. We passed by a tent city where thousands of people lived in tents and under tarps spaced only inches apart. I could only imagine the living conditions on the ground.

Our SUV needed some gas and air in one of its tires so we pulled off at a local gas station. There were groups of children selling various items, like floor mats, windshield wipers, and fans. Our driver started airing up the tire using a bicycle tire pump. So we sat in the parking lot for a while. Many of the kids started to surround us asking for food and money.

After leaving the gas station we ended up pulling up to a random street corner and received some air from this guy out of his pull start air compressor. I’m still not sure how he managed to air our tire up with only the hose, no valve attachment at all. You can see others grinding and welding various pieces of metal off in the distance.

The traffic was crazy, it was either a complete stand still or driving at full bore. It seemed like an hour before we exited the chaos of the city streets and began our ascent to the mountains. At this point it started to get dark and began to rain, so we couldn’t see much. Our travel time to cover 80 miles actually took us over 7 hours. It seemed like we encountered one obstacle after another. One of the largest ones was a washed out dirt road which stopped traffic in both directions. It was raining in the higher elevations which caused a flash flood. We had no choice but to park and wait with the locals until the water receded. Approximately 2.5 hours later the water receded only inches, it didn’t look much different. A few of the cars in the front lines decided to chance it and all we could do was stand back and pray for them. Once a couple made it across, others followed. What you cannot see in the photo off to the right, is a 10 foot drop off with no guard rail. The water cascaded over the edge washed over some boulders and into the darkness of the forest.  All I could imagine was a car washing over the edge and rolling upside down. I knew that it was a matter of moments, before we loaded up and made the crossing too. Our team members in our caravan would never have attempted a river crossing like this in the States.

The water was still deep, treacherous and swift, but we had to press on. An hour later we were blocked by a large cargo truck stuck in the mud and taking up both lanes with steep hills on both sides. We had to inch by it, and I mean inch by it literally. The locals actually placed their bodies between the truck and our vehicle and pushed the side of our suv as we inched passed keeping us from scraping against the stuck truck. Caleb could not believe we made it through with out touching.

At this point it is about midnight and we were now only 30 minutes away from camp. We were getting so excited to reach our destination where we could get cleaned up, eat a snack and get some rest. As we pulled into Camp de la Grace and unloaded our luggage, we discovered another team sleeping in the bunkhouse. Hmmm… another team?? None of the groups knew that the other was going to be staying at the camp at the same time! We now have to stretch accommodations for a grand total of 25 people. The other team arrived a day ahead of us, but we managed to work out the accommodations and we made due with what we had available to us. I ended up sleeping in another building on the west side of the property with four other people from my church. We all faced the same struggle with no running water and sleeping conditions. But hey, if the locals had less than us, what are we complaining about right?!

A veteran missionary, Wayne explained to me that the large square concrete box on the right of this photo was a water collection system used several years back. Rain water would run off the roof of the building with the blue shutters and flow into reservoir. When the residents needed water they would climb the two steps and use a pail and scoop it out.

This is a view looking north west. I slept in the building on the left side on the second floor. Off in the distance is a small dirt soccer field used by the kids. Several members from the Pekin group played against the local kids and lost…big time!

This is a water collection system that supplied the camp with its water. I was told that a pump would run and fill the collection barrel when needed, but the majority came from rain. This tower was located in field a few hundred feet behind the camp.

This is the building that we did all of our work on. Behind each door is a simple concrete room that measures approximately 8x8x8 on the fist floor and only slightly larger on the second floor units. The configurations I saw only had enough room for a few beds in a “U” configuration, some had bunks. The rooms are lit with natural light streaming in from the ornate concrete windows and a single compact florescent bulb in the center of the ceiling. Keep in mind that the generator only runs a few hours during the evening in Pignon and electricity here is provided by Caleb’s diesel generator.

This is a group shot of both teams at the camp. (Irving and Pekin members) Truly an amazing group of people.

We were told the next day that the team from Pekin, Illinois had to ride in the back of this truck from Port-au-Prince to the camp. They endured heavy rain, mud, bumpy roads, exhaustion and heat. Imagine riding a bucking bronco for 7 hours straight!

We shared the camp with several other “locals” too. We were’t too fond of these guys.  One evening as I was walking to my building I almost stepped on a tarantula that was quite a bit larger than this wolf spider or brown recluse.

I love to walk around and see things that are left by others, it is fascinating to me. Look at this inscription on this door written in marker. “Jesus – you are my friend for life.” After all the Hatians have been through they cling to their faith…awesome isn’t it?

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and attended a church service at the local church in Pignon. It was simple, concrete floors, walls, no windows, a tin roof and no fans. It was decorated with colorful flowers and had a sound system and live music. It was a great service and awesome to see how they held service in Creole. Their music was beautiful and they sang some of the same hymns that we do in our church only in a different language. Pastor Mark, from Pekin led the message this day and Caleb was his interpretor.

After service we went back to camp ate lunch and started our planning sessions for what we are to work on for the remainder of the week. The team from Pekin, Illinois was strong in their trade skills, men’s men; they had skills that were light years beyond our team. It was made up of electricians, carpenters, plumbers, you name it. The cool thing was that we all meshed together broke off into groups and worked along side them. We all got along and worked well together. If it had not been for them being at the camp at the same time, we would never have accomplished close to what we did.

I worked with Thomas, and Reid the first day to prep a second story bathroom. We removed some broken plumbing that was sealed in the floor and relocated some holes for some toilets. We had to bust two holes through 8 inch thick concrete flooring to run our waste pipe for toilet flanges. All we had to work with was a 1/2 hammer drill, a framing hammer, a square chisel, and 4 inch grinder. And not to mention, that the nearest major supply shop was back in Port-au-Prince. The rest of the week was spent building walls, and plumbing.

Each day at Camp de la Grace was pretty amazing. Each of us worked extremely hard from 7:30am until 5pm. Carrying concrete blocks, buckets of concrete up ladders, building doors, hanging wood for ceilings, running conduit and electrical lines. You knew God had his hands on each one of us there, because we were a little sore, but we didn’t experience anything like you would if you went to the gym for a couple of hours. You know what I’m talking about…where you can’t walk or even raise your arms the next day. We’ve all been there. We didn’t have any injuries, and we built great relationships, not just with each other, but with the local kids from Pignon. I met a couple of great guys, Jacqulin and Donald. Jacqulin lost his arm in a sugar cane shucking accident at a local mill, and Donald is a extremely bright kid that just wanted to learn how to build things from the Americans. You can see some of the work we did in these photos.

The guys building and hanging doors wrote scripture on the doorframes. A testament to (Deuteronomy 6:9). It reads “…If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love,  I am nothing” 1 Cor 13:2

One evening we had a beautiful sunset, the sky was orange and yellow. Everything in sight looked like you were looking through orange glasses. It was strange but very cool. I took this time to teach Sarah how to use her camera and create some great images.

One day we walked down to the river where people wash their clothes, utensils, and even bathe. It is not too easy to get photos of the locals. I was told by Donald that they have a fear that their photos will be used for bad things, so most turn their backs or shy away from the camera. I was shouted at on a few occasions too. I wish they knew that my intentions were only to share their way of life and inform others of their situation.

As the week wrapped up we spent some personal time with our new friends. I took this image of Dustin praying with a local that he grew close to. This is such an awesome moment.

Reid spent time with Cindy and displayed tremendous kindness to her. Her little brother is the little guy with clubbed feet. We watched as he had difficulty negotiating up and down steps and dragged his body around on the dirt and gravel.

The day we left we made a quick stop at a school which was built and run by Pastor Caleb. We had a quick tour and passed candy out to the children in their class rooms. It is a little hard to tell from these images, but there is no electricity in these classrooms. The children read, write, and sit in dimly lit rooms. Natural light entering through stone windows provide the only light for each classroom.

Our trek back to Port-au-Prince took us 7 hours again. We rode a small charter bus which transports locals between towns. We had a few join us from the school to Port-au-Prince. If we weren’t already packed in the bus we sure were then =) It was a LONG ride back to the city. The road was rough, bumpy, dusty and hot. As we entered Port-au-Prince we hit some major traffic. We experienced the same chaos as before only this time we were able to get a good view and soak it in.

We reached our destination: Le Plaza Hôtel located in downtown Port-au-Prince, not far from the National Palace, an area which was very much affected by the earthquake of January 12th. You would never imagine the accommodations we had in the midst of the chaos. This oasis had a chlorinated swimming pool, restaurant bar, breakfast buffet, WiFi, satellite television, air conditioning, running hot and cold water, toilets and a comfortable bed. It was hard to truly enjoy it knowing what was just outside our walls. We regrouped, thanked God for our safe arrival and settled in. I used wifi to upload some Facebook posts, we ordered Dominoes Pizza… and yes it did taste the same as the states =) Drank some ice cold sodas and watched a bit of college football. It was definitely a surreal feeling.

Departure Day: We woke up packed our things, ate breakfast and had an hour to spare before we drove to the airport. A couple of other guys and I decided to walk outside the front doors of our hotel and down the street to take some photos and experience life on the ground shoulder to shoulder with the residents. It was a mixture of emotions, knowing that we stand out so much, I’m carrying my camera in my hand, and extra lenses packed in my cargo pant pockets, wandering aimlessly and shooting what I could. I had the desire to keep going and pushing my comfort level the further we got from the safety of the hotel. It is tough to say that you feel uneasy and unsafe among others, especially among people that have been broken and beaten down like the Haitians. I learned on this trip that we live on earth of citizens in different countries, but our true citizenship is in Heaven where we are all the same. (Philippians 3:20) The Haitians are friendly and harmless. They are just trying to survive and make it.

Viewing these images you are only getting to see through the confines of my lens. To truly understand it, you have to listen to the sounds, smell the air and feel the heat. We were leaving in 24 hours and these people have to endure this each day of their lives. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Remember them next time you reach for your faucet handle or door knob and begin your daily routine.