The Most Amazing Trip That You'd Never Want To Take

I will have slideshows and videos up when I get back to the states.  The internet connection here is wayyyy to slow.  You can see a few pics I uploaded by clicking here

How do you know you’re not going on a vacation trip? When the trip guide tells you “do not leave the group, on your own, for any reason” 10 times in a row! However, you could say that this is the most amazing trip you’d never want to take. I made this trip. A trip to one of the poorest, most dangerous countries in the western hemisphere: Haiti. A place where 80% of the people live on less than $2 per day… the worst poverty you can imagine.

It was a mission I took to learn about what a charity called Food For The Poor (FFP) did in this destitute country. Sure, the name of the charity says it all, but I saw much more than food being handed out. They help rebuild lives.

Before going to the airport, Sydney, the Food For The Poor representative and tour guide, made us put on FFP t-shirts for safety. Right as I step on the plane to Haiti, a native Haitian woman in front of me turns around and in broken English says, “thank you for all you are doing for Haiti.” As I sit down, the woman sitting next to me was from Haiti too. Her name was Tammera. She hasn’t been to Haiti since she was 6, now in her mid-30’s, she was living in the U.S.

On the bus now to the FFP HQ was like playing road chicken with the opposing lanes of traffic at all times. No sense of traffic rules or safety. “Go” was the only thing you do while driving in Haiti! You thought Texas or Louisiana drivers are crazy? Take a cruise in a third-world country…

We take a maze of roads to the FFP HQ, right in the middle of the slums of Port Au Prince. Tall barbed wire walls and armed guards welcomed us at the gate. This area is one of the poorest and most dangerous in Haiti. There is a soup kitchen inside that feeds the hungry of the community on the other side. I grabbed a ladle and began. The food had a distinct odor. It didn’t smell bad, just different: noodles and entrails, lots of seasoning! People walk up with their buckets. The Haitian worker looks at me and says two. Two scoops per person, and as I served the food, the people would look and see how much I gave them. One lady started to talk to me in their native Creole French language. I didn't have a clue what she said. The worker next to me asked for her bucket and put more of the sauce in her bucket. That’s all she wanted. We all laughed. At that particular FFP location, they feed 10,000 people every day.

Outside of the soup kitchen was a 9 year old girl with her blind father. Everyday, she walked with her Daddy to get food they desperately need. We walked back with them to see where and how they lived. On the way, you can see trash everywhere, raw sewage everywhere, desperate people everywhere. We walked about a mile down to his home through unpaved streets, and cramped narrow alleys. The blind man had four children. His wife did small jobs to make money. It was a one room concrete shack. Barely enough room for a bed, let alone 6 people. These huts have no air conditioning, no running water, no bathrooms nearby… nothing! You can smell the raw sewage nearby. Actually, it was right under my foot draining though a broken PVC pipe buried in the concrete. These people wake up to this everyday. This blind man once had a very successful job with the government until an accident took his eyesight. In Haiti, there is no social security or disability pay, so he was left to the ghettos of Haiti. We made a few other stops, all with similar stories. People who want to work, can’t work, and have nothing. These people we talked to kept on, smiled when you said “hi” and were very thankful for everything they had. It was very obvious that their children were their life. For the blind man, his children was life.

It’s best sometimes not to know where you are going until after you were there. We headed to Cite Soleil. Considered the most dangerous area in the western hemisphere. It was our next stop. The poverty is unfathomable! The poorest of the poor live in Cite Soleil. The trash and raw sewage all piled up. All the waste from the top of the mountains funneled down here. Forget about clean water here, let alone a decent meal. There were so many children in the street, happy, playing, and friendly. They walked with us everywhere we went… holding our hands, trying to communicate to say hi. One little girl held my hand while we walked across the bridge made of trash and concrete that led us to the mounds of trash and homes. I wanted the girl to let go of my hand, because I didn’t want her to follow us into the rubble and the shantys in the garbage. I found out she actually lived in one of these homes next to the trash with the river of raw sewage running through it. We stopped by one family whose home was made of scrap sheet metal, and some string, that was it. It was a family of 5. The father was a fisherman. He told us that fishing was poor right now, not any good fish to be caught. He made and repaired fishing nets to make money; about 5 dollars per day. This is the only job available to him, yet he worked very hard just to get those few dollars.

On the way out, we caught a game of soccer. In this game, the players were all blind. Only by the sound of the ball scooting along the concrete could they find the ball to kick again. The game was held inside a little court. Kids from all around had climbed the wall and were making cheering noises which were throwing off the blind men who could not hear the ball. Just amazing!

After seeing the bad parts of town, FFP took us to the villages and schools that FFP maintained. What a difference! The boys and girls were singing as we arrived, they knew how to read, which most Haitians could not. Happy, smiling, eating, they looked healthy… because they were. They had hope, and now a future because of FFP. Social and technical skills are taught and some even become doctors, and engineers.

Remember, 80% of the men and women have nothing. No hope for the future. Some don’t even know what the future is, or hope. As they age, they can’t even go work small jobs, they are left to die with no dignity. FFP helps take in these elderly people with nothing, gives them shelter, food, and life back again for the time they have left in this world. We stopped by to see the elderly men and women village and they were ready with a band and started dancing as we walked in to the community center area. We danced with them as the band played. You know you are out of shape when very elderly Haitian women can out dance you! I was winded in 5 minutes… and the band kept on playing for another 10 minutes. These ladies were happy, and vibrant. They had hope and dignity back in their lives again, and you could see it in their faces.

We did some touristy things while in Haiti. We saw the Haitian “White House” where the President of Haiti lived, stopped by a market to look for souvenirs and nearly got mobbed by the vendors trying to “make a deal.” One of the guys in the group got a nice statue for 10 bucks… originally $40 when we first talked to the seller.

The people of Food For The Poor made all the great things happen for the starving people in the villages, school the boys and girls, and heal the hearts of the elderly and parents. They do it one family at a time. These poverty stricken people were not lazy. Most of them did some sort of work, but there is no economy there, and no jobs. The small jobs netted very little money; just enough to cover the rent for their one room shack. There is hurt you can see in the parents we talked to. All the parents wanted was to see is their children do better, go to school, but could not provide.

The KRMD radiothon on Tuesday will help Food For The Poor continue to give hope to families suffering from the worst kind of poverty imaginable. You can help FFP restore the quality of life that every human being deserves.  What an amazing trip!  Faces I will never forget.  See ya Tuesday.