Haiti

Since I really didn't know much about Haiti, actually nothing before we started this adventure I thought I would share what I have learned. First of all Haiti is really close to us. It is located below Florida, across from Jamaica, and shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic(the place all the good baseball players come from). The Haitians are originally from Africa brought over to be slaves. Haiti is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This was evident in what we saw driving through the villages and city. 50% of all Haitian households live in extreme poverty using 1.00(US) per day. How much do we live on a day, not 1.00. About 4 in every 10 adults cannot read or write. I saw this on the plane when the flight attendent was helping all the Haitians fill out their immigration cards. I did see alot of children going to schools all around Haiti, so it looks like they are trying to solve this, that is encouraging. More than 80% that live in Haiti don't have clean drinking water. What a basic need, one we take for granite. Dirty water means contaminated water that leads to sickness. 1 in 20 Haitians have AIDS. There is 1 doctor to 10,000 Haitians, and many have to walk miles to get there. So I guess the clean water is even more important. Out of 8 million people in Haiti, 1 million of them are orphaned or abandoned. Okay I'm not trying to make you feel bad, just to realized how blessed we are here. What a privilage to live in the United States. I just want to give you a glimps of what is going on outside our little worlds. There are so many ways we can help. One way is adoption, but it doesn't have to be that. There are many organiztions to support with prayer and financially. The organiztion we work with is Chances4children.org. They not only adopt children, they help provide schools, clean water and jobs for local women and men as well as well as much more. There are many more. Maybe God has placed another country on your heart, just be sensitive to what He is telling you and respond. If anything I felt a piece of God's heart just by taking the trip and seeing Him at work. Haiti is such a beautiful place and the Haitians are beautiful people. I loved the palm trees, the brightness(unlike our gloomy weather), and the mountains. But the living situations are anything but beautiful. So, in conclusion Haiti was an eye opening experience and has changed my view on life forever. And now that Haiti is a part of our family history we will continue to learn and reach out however God calls us.