(This blog post was originally posted on FHM's blog.)

As the In-Country Coordinator for FHM, I'm sure you can imagine that I get lots of questions about living and working in Haiti. Most are related to Haitian culture, language, and development projects, but some are more personal. Several of our guests have wanted to know what I do when I have a break from my guesthouse duties. So... what do I do for fun? Well, I'm so glad you asked!


Going to the beach is definitely one of my most favorite ways to relax. The guesthouse is about two miles from the shoreline. The closest nicest beach is about 45 minutes away in Grand Goave. But there are options not as far away if you just want a pretty view and don't care that the water isn't as clear. 

I often pair my beach day with one of these bad boys! For around $12 you can get lobster served with fried plantains and piklis, a spicy Haitian slaw. Lobster doesn't get any fresher than this!
For a more luxurious day of relaxation, I'll make the trip to Bassin Bleu, a waterfall near Jacmel. It takes a couple hours to get there from Leogane, but it's well worth the trip! To get to the waterfall you have to hike about 20 minutes and then use a rope to climb down a steep rocky ledge. If there's time after visiting the waterfall, I enjoy walking around Jacmel and even eating dinner there before heading back to the guesthouse.
I love to go visit my special friends at a nearby children's home. Hope For Life Children's Home is on the border of Leogane and Gressier and is home to 20+ of the sweetest kids you'll ever meet! Sometimes the guests will join me if they get done early in the afternoon. Jesula (above) is sporting one of the Heart to Heart volunteer's glasses. :)
There are a variety of activities happening at the children's home on any given day. Sometimes I'll just go sit with them doing nothing in particular. Some days we're busy making earrings that I sell at the guesthouse. Other days we'll have English lessons, game time, fun with crafts, or time playing on the Kindle Fire... which they especially love!
I love living in Leogane. It's peaceful, it's near the beach and the mountains. And it's certainly less hectic than Port au Prince. There are a couple restaurants here and I do enjoy them, but you can't get much here other than Haitian food (which thankfully I do love!). The closest grocery store is at least 45 minutes away. So sometimes I'll take a full or half day and go to Petionville, a town just south of Port au Prince. They have dozens of incredible restaurants and several huge grocery stores. You can also splurge and spend the day at Karibe Hotel where for $30 you can relax by the pool and order off the menu until that $30 is spent. 

The delicious pizza at Muncheez is just one of the many edible indulgences I enjoy in Petionville. 
If you keep your ears open, you'll learn of different events happening around the area. A friend of mine is the director of an organization that empowers young people through soccer and other activities. This summer they hosted a soccer tournament and invited other youth leagues in Haiti to play. A few of us enjoyed an afternoon watching the games and showing support for the teams.
I recently started walking my dog Atau in the sugarcane field beside the house. We've both been enjoying these outings! Even some of the guests have had fun taking her on a walk. 
  
I love to get out and spend time in the community! Occasionally I'll stop by and visit our guests when they're out working. The photo above is from when my church was here with a team. It was great tagging along with them to the beach and mountain villages where they were serving for the week.
There are many families that I've gotten close to the past 2.5 years living in Haiti. I try to visit them whenever I get a chance. Some of them I met while living in other cities in Haiti. The family above I met through a team that stayed here at the guesthouse earlier this year. 
This is my dear friend Mersina I met over two years ago. She lives by the beach about 20 minutes from the guesthouse. I always enjoy visiting her when I get the chance. The team from my church hosted a VBS day in her yard in July.
There are always so many things going on in the lives of my Haitian friends. Several of my friends have young babies so I've enjoyed getting lots of sweet baby time! This photo was taken earlier this month of my friend Ellen and her not even half day old baby. When I heard she had her baby of course I immediately had to go visit! Ellen had little Annabelle on the floor of her one room house where I was standing to take this photo.
I love spending time in the mountains of Haiti! The fresh air and incredible views are so peaceful and relaxing! I enjoy every chance I get to visit these mountain villages whether by car, motorcycle (as this day was), or on foot! 
Visiting with my buddy Isaak in the rural mountain community of Chevrine. 
And then finally, I enjoy saying "orevwa" to Haiti altogether sometimes and hopping over the border to the Dominican Republic. For $75 round-trip plus some customs fees you can take a 7-8 hour bus ride to Santo Domingo. I enjoy spending a few days there enjoying the sights and more varied food options—ok, I'll be honest... the American food options! (There are many American chain restaurants there.)

So next time you're in Haiti, maybe we can enjoy some of these adventures together! I certainly try to make the most of living in the Caribbean and spending time with all of the special people I've met throughout my time here!
There's a lot I haven't blogged about recently. July was a super busy month in Haiti and then I spent most of August at home with family and friends. Needless to say, I haven't had much time in front of the computer to upload photos and write out stories. But I'm going to try to catch up, even if these posts are weeks (or months) after things actually happened!

 So returning to July... a team of 10 from my church, First Baptist Church of Friendsville, TN, came down for a week. I was so excited about their interest in sending a team to Haiti because although my church has always been involved in missions, this is the first time that they've sent anyone to partner (in person) with a ministry I'm involved in. When they began seriously planning a trip, I was excited and then immediately nervous. I don't blog a lot about my thoughts on short-term missions... but in a nutshell, I see both the pros and cons of this kind of ministry. And in Haiti, I've unfortunately seen a lot of cons. That said, I still wanted to put together a trip for my church that would hopefully be beneficial for all sides. I know that a trip like this is important for each member of the team. Who knows how God wants to transform and mold their hearts during and after spending a week in a country like Haiti, but as important as that is, I don't want to overlook the fact that a trip should also be very fruitful on the Haiti side. Haiti doesn't need more teams to come in, do a little work, and then leave only with the thoughts of how blessed they are back home. What does that actually do to help Haiti or to further the Kingdom? But all that to say, I was committed to organizing a trip where the primary focus would be for the team to learn about Haiti, learn about missions, and learn while on mission in a country like Haiti what might be some of the most effective ways to do missions in a country like Haiti.

 So that was the goal, and I think that the team can all join me in saying that God helped us accomplish just that. And throughout the week the team had the opportunity to work side by side with and learn from our Haitian brothers and sisters of all ages, whether painting at the children's home, leading activities with kids in two different villages, and also making time for some fun activities! I was so proud of the team for being willing to go with the flow and just letting God teach and use them during their week here. It's common for us to want to come to a country like Haiti and be so focused on "doing" that we don't take the time to really observe, listen, and prayerfully consider how we can partner with Haitian ministries, communities, families, and individuals. I'm thankful that the team from my church was as excited about learning about Haiti and about doing missions in Haiti as they were about diving into ministry opportunities here. 

 Here are a handful of photos from their trip. Thank you all for loving on Haiti, and especially the kids, during your week here! I don't think any of them wanted to leave and hopefully many will have the opportunity to come back!
Our transportation for the week. Each day the team crammed into a "taptap". These small trucks with bench seating are a common method of public transportation in Haiti. As full as this one looks, if it hadn't been one rented for our private use, they would have easily squeezed at least six more people in here!!
Playing "Chat Chat Chen" (Cat, Cat, Dog) with the kids at the children's home and the surrounding community.

Craft time during the VBS at Hope For Life Children's Home

Hiking down the steep trail to the VBS in the rural mountain village

What a great turnout! We had some car trouble on our way to the mountain village. By the time we got there a few dozen kids were all dressed up and patiently waiting for us!
Game time at the mountain VBS!
Painting the classrooms at the children's home was a great way for our team to work side by side with the kids at the children's home. Everyone loved it and the end result looked so great!!

This the first time the walls of the school have been painted since the school was built in 2010. What a beautiful and bright space it is now for the children! It's amazing the difference paint can make!
Lauren and Cortney loving on some of the kids at the children's home.
VBS time at an oceanside village
I chose the beach village for the VBS because of the relationship I have with Mersina and her family. They were thrilled to host the VBS in their yard and invited a few dozen kids to attend.
Some of the kiddos from the beach VBS
On Sunday after church we took the kids from the children's home to a nearby beach. We all had a wonderful time. Especially the kids!!
Olrich and Dodos loved their time in their own personal floats! So adorable!
A successful day of fun in the sun!
Saying goodbye to the kids at the children's home was definitely the most difficult part of the week.
Fun excursion to the Bassin Bleu waterfall!
A great way to end a fabulous week!
[I originally posted this on FHM's blog.] As I was sitting at the computer today, I pondered what I could share... what topics might be most interesting... what lessons Haiti has taught me... what cultural tidbits I find most unique... 

Thinking about these things I kept picturing Haiti in my mind. I opened up some of my photos and started browsing through them. Perhaps one would provide inspiration for my post today. I started opening photo after photo. What a story each one tells! Haiti is indeed a place that can never be described. People try. Teams of people flood into this country every day. I can't tell you how many times I've made the trip from the airport to Leogane with new visitors in the car. I've heard every comment imaginable. Since I started driving in Haiti, I don't have the opportunity to observe every detail as much as I used to. But I still try to pay attention to this Haitian world around me. And when I'm not driving, my eyes are glued out the window, taking it all in. Thinking about Haiti. The lives represented by every face and action. And especially, praying for Haiti and her needs and challenges.

When you come to Haiti I encourage you to see her with new eyes. Try to put out of your mind your own preconceived ideas of the whys and hows and just see her as she is today. Pray that the best and wisest efforts will be made to help her stand on her own. And look for the stories within what you are seeing. Despite the hardship that exists, Haiti is beautiful and so unique. I'm reminded of that every time I open one of my albums and I wanted to share some of those portraits with you today.


  






Driving home from church today I noticed a man and his horse. Well, I noticed the horse first. A blackish brown, beautiful mare with a mostly shiny coat. She was happily grazing on the side of the road by the fence in front of a church. All this I noticed. But what was even more significant was what I didn't see. I didn't see a sharp silhouette of bones covered by a too thin layer of skin. This horse could proudly stand next to any healthy horse back in Tennessee and you wouldn't know the difference. Quite a contrast to the majority of horses in Haiti, especially those in the community where I attend church.

 I slowed down beside the man and rolled down the window. "Ou gen yon bèl chwal!" ("You have a beautiful horse!")

 "Wi," he agreed.

 "Lòt chwal yo nan kominote sa a yo se twò mèg. Yo pa manje byen. Men chwal ou bèl anpil. Se sèl ou menm k'ap fè bon travay pou chwal ou." (The other horses in the community are too skinny. They don't eat well. But your horse is very beautiful. It is only you whom I see taking good care of your horse.")

 He smiled a shiny white grin and agreed again.

 I drove off, thinking about this man and his horse the whole way home.

 Why is it that this man has such a beautiful and healthy horse? I can't remember the last time I've seen a horse in Haiti as beautiful as his, or if I ever have at all. It is obvious that this man, perhaps not a day older than 20 years old, has it in his head that having a healthy horse is a good thing. His smile confirms that. And my guess is that he takes intentional steps to keep his horse healthy. His actions this morning prove that. He had intentionally paused on the side of the road, patiently waiting for his horse to graze in that lush area. Has someone taught this man how to care for his horse? Could he list the advantages of a having a healthy horse? Does he understand the dietary needs of a horse? I suppose with all these questions I should have stopped longer to speak with him! My point is, this man (based on the result I'm seeing—a beautiful, healthy horse) is exhibiting behaviors that I find different (and frankly, better) than the behaviors of many others in his community. And these positive behaviors in caring for his horse are offering him advantages that others do not have. I have no doubt his horse could work harder and longer than any other horse in that community. There's no question he could ride his horse wherever he wanted to go for whatever need he had. What a great benefit for this man. And what a better life for this horse compared to the other horses who stay tied to a short rope all day with barely any grass surrounding them and rarely any water to drink.

Last year I had the opportunity to learn about one approach to social change called positive deviance. According to the website www.positivedeviance.org, positive deviance can be defined as follows:
Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
In other words, you have a community of people who all are facing similar situations and challenges. Their socioeconomic status, among other things, is very similar. In Haiti for example, you have an impoverished community with impoverished families. And yet, within that community you notice that there are some families who seem to be doing a little better than the others.

 Let's imagine that you meet two Haitian families living side by side in a village. Both households are led by a single mother, each with three kids. You notice the children of one mother seem to look healthy enough. Yes, they could likely benefit from eating more food, but overall they seem to have a decent level of energy, their eyes look bright, their skin looks healthy, and they are an average weight for their age. The children of the other mother have an orange tinge to their hair, they seem lethargic, their skin is more flaky, their bellies are bulging, and their arms look quite skinny compared to other children their age.

 You sit down with the two mothers individually. You ask the first mother what she feeds her children. She gives you a varied list of food including vegetables, rice with a meat sauce, natural fruit juice, and more. You ask about the water her family drinks. She replies that they only drink treated water. You ask what else she does to maintain the health of her children. She tells you that she keeps the house clean, her children bathe regularly, and they always wash their hands before eating. You tell the mother that her children seem to be very healthy and that she's obviously doing a great job taking care of her kids. The mother beams with pride and appreciates your compliments and the fact that you notice the care she gives her children. 

 You sit down with the second mother and ask the same questions. She feeds mostly feeds her children white rice. Sometimes she will buy cheese puffs for them from the nearby vendor. She remarks that they really like the sugary juice drink you can buy from the same place. They drink the untreated well water they fetch from down the road. You peek inside the house and see that it is a bit of a mess, the children are especially dirty, the youngest is playing in the dirt without any pants on. The mother tells you that her kids cause too much trouble for her.

 Obviously things are not always this black and white and there can be other factors at play to cause one family to struggle more than another, but the main point is that the first mother is an example of positive deviance. Living in similar conditions, her behaviors stand out against those around her and are producing better results. For whatever reasons, she has realized that providing her children with balanced meals, treated water, and a hygienic house will give them a better chance at maintaining a healthy life. The second mother is spending the same money on food as the first mother, but instead of buying vegetables to add to the rice and fresh fruit to make juice, she is wasting it on nutrient-void snack food and sugar-loaded drinks. Perhaps she doesn't realize the impact that a clean house and good hygiene practices can have on her family's health.

 The purpose of the positive deviance approach is to then work with individuals like the first mother, using them as an example for their community, often to the degree that they become teachers to other families around them. The organization I worked with last year used this approach for their nutrition programs. They found mothers within each village whose positive behaviors led to them having healthier children than the rest and they further trained these women to be community nutrition workers serving and teaching their own village how to raise up healthier families. 

 This is the kind of work we need to do in Haiti. 

Why did I stop to talk to that man about his horse? Because I noticed that he is doing something different than those around him and I wanted to praise and encourage him for that. Obviously I know very little about this man, but in general, finding individuals like him, walking alongside to encourage them to continue their positive efforts, and then training them to help bring about more positive efforts in their entire community is a worthwhile endeavor! Could this man share with other horse owners how to have healthier horses? Of course. He obviously knows many of the steps to take to maintain a healthy horse. Maybe he'd be interested in learning even more about horses. Maybe he'd be interested in teaching others these same principles. Maybe after some time, with this kind of work, we could start to see healthier horses in that community. And it can start with one man.

 As you look around this nation, the needs can seem overwhelming. But change really can start with one family. Incredible resources and intelligent people already exist within these communities. We have to open our eyes to see those who stand out against the rest—those who are thriving despite their challenges and struggles. And then we have to be willing to take the time to sit with them. Listen to them. Learn from them. And then work with them to find sustainable solutions from within their own community for their own community. We have to stop coming in and doing for Haiti what she could actually do for herself given the chance. Haiti needs to be encouraged. Haiti needs to be empowered. But more than anything Haiti needs more Haitians who are encouraged and empowered to encourage and empower Haitians. So here's to my own commitment to do just that and stand with other organizations who are dedicated to this kind of transformational work in Haiti.
I'm sure many of you have noticed my extended hiatus from blogging. My sincerest apologies! The guesthouse was hoppin' at the end of July! Among the many visitors, my home church from Tennessee sent a team of ten for a week. They really wanted the opportunity to learn about Haiti, so we spent a lot of time in great conversation about the history of Haiti, the current infrastructure, aid efforts throughout the country, and what transformational development looks like here. They helped out at a nearby children's home... playing games, doing crafts, teaching and learning new songs, and painting the school rooms. They also had two Vacation Bible school days, one up in a mountain village and one not far from Leogane in a seaside village.





Also at the end of July I said farewell to the four Duke students. After two months of intense research and toughing it out under the Haitian sun, their time came to an end. Two are heading to Spain this fall for a semester abroad. The other two are back to hitting the books in North Carolina. We were so thankful to have them here, not only for the invaluable research they gathered about hypertension and the HPV vaccine, but also because they added a fun and unique dynamic to guesthouse life. They were always excited to meet new guests and swap stories about Haiti and learn what others were doing here.




But aside from the busyness of July, the main reason for my giant gap in blogging is that I went back to Tennessee for the month of August. It had been planned all year for me to use a big chunk of my time off in August, so I took the opportunity to spend all of it with my family and friends back home. It was a fabulous but very full month! When I got back to Haiti September 1st it took me a few days to recover! Anyone who's lived away from home for an extended period of time knows what it's like to try to pack everything and everybody into that time. And I did just that! My mom can attest to my famous words every time I'm in the middle of one of these hectic times... "I'll sleep on the plane!"

In just a short month away, I can't say that I missed Haiti. I knew I was coming right back, so it was important to me just to enjoy my time at home and try to clear my head and heart of everything else. But apparently I did miss a few adventures here while I was gone! We had an unexpected visitor stay at the guesthouse for five nights. The General of the Sri Lankan army! All of my friends here got to meet him, were invited to elaborate dinners (eaten on china—at the guesthouse!) and an exciting end of the week celebration to honor hundreds of soldiers for their service in keeping peace in Haiti for the past ten years.

See for yourself...! (I'm hoping there's still a leftover dinner invitation out there for me sometime!)




When I'm in Haiti people often ask me what I miss most from back home. My mind (and stomach) often first go to things like cheese, cheesecake, and the like... but when I really reflect on it, there's a peacefulness to home that I really miss when I'm away. Well, especially when I'm away living in a country like Haiti. In Haiti, you never really feel alone. I'm not talking about feelings of loneliness, I'm talking about the fact that I'm constantly surrounded by people. I live at a guesthouse, at least one of our staff is here 24/7, and of course we have many other visitors. When I'm out in town, there are hundreds of people around. I'm the kind of person who would love to just fade into the background as I go about my daily routine. Here, that's not really possible. Even though I have a great tan (thanks, Haiti!), I still stand out. Driving around is like being in the middle of a demolition derby that obviously keeps you on your toes! I can escape to the mountains but before long I've often got five adorable children (and maybe some adults) sitting around me or observing me from a not too inconspicuous distance. Daily errands have an emphasis on the word "day", as in takes ALL day! Even at the beach you're often approached by people trying to sell you something or practice their English with you. And none of this is a knock against Haiti, it's just that peace and peacefulness here look a lot different. Nonetheless, it's good be back. I enjoyed the happy reunions with the staff. We've already had several sweet guests these past two weeks and I'm looking forward to meeting many more!!

All that to say, HI! I'm back! And stayed tuned as I get back to my weekly blogging routine! :)

Some of the peacefulness I enjoyed at home...





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About Me

About Me
In 2005 God asked me to surrender my life to His plans and purpose. Everything changed. From Mexico to New Orleans to Namibia to Haiti it's been one incredible adventure with the Lord after another. This blog is a piece of that journey.

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