Life after Haiti

A little less than two months ago, I traveled to Haiti with Soles4Souls distributing shoes and  giving hope to the broken. Little did I know how much the trip would actually break ME! When I returned home I knew I had to do something more so I signed up to host a shoe drive at my college, being a fashion school, I knew people had lots of shoes they no longer wore. I entered into the "Flippin' Good Deeds Challenge, a collaboration with Soles4Souls and Flip Flop Wines to see who could raise the most shoes. For the past month, I saw the drop box fill up little by little, and it felt like Christmas each time I would empty that box into the trunk of my car so there was room for more shoes to be given. Virginia Marti College of Art and Design was able to raise 163 pairs of shoes!!!

Getting ready to send the shoes to Nashville.

My sister Rachel who lives in Connecticut was inspired by my shoe drive and wanted to help out! So she made a drop box location at her work, and collected 70 more pairs of shoes!!! Thank you Rachel, love you!

Rachel's sign at her shoe drive.

The shoe drive ended November 10th, with a total of 233 pairs between both locations!!


When I look back through pictures of my trip, the ones that break my heart the most are the pictures at the orphanage. There we did not distribute shoes, but just played with the children and showed them love. I can't explain the way my heart feels when I think of how those little babies clung to me and just wanted to be held. They didn't have a mom or a dad to hold them or to give them hugs and kisses with they got a little boo-boo. They live there everyday without hope, and all it takes is an organization like Soles4Souls to go down there and spread hope to the hopeless in Haiti!

I met an amazing woman of God on my trip, the team coordinator and leader of Travel4Souls, Emily Prokopik, who I know will become a lifelong friend of mine! My experience with Souls4Soles was a life changing experience and I hope to travel with them again someday!!


Blogger #019 FlippinGoodDeedsChallenge

I don't want to leave tomorrow!

This morning we went to St. Mark church and did our last shoe distribution. This was my favorite one by far. The children were so adorable and well behaved. They came in their absolute best clothing to look their best for us. We put these little headbands when giant flowers on the girls and it just made them even more precious!! I'm not sure how many total shoes we gave out today, but it was quite a few.
After that we went to the mission where there was a man and woman selling their paintings, jewelry, and wood items. Got some pretty awesome things, and I know that it helped them out by purchasing from them.

After eating lunch at the mission we came back to Club Indigo where we are staying, and spent the day on the beach. It was like a tropical paradise. I braved up enough and decided to go snorkeling. It was scarier than I thought especially the farther out we kept getting. But I was able to go deep enough to see the coral reef and some pretty little tropical fish. Definitely worth the high waves and my flipper and goggles falling off several times. haha. This evening we are going to watch a Haitian concert and then have our last Haitian dinner, before going to bed and being up and ready to head to the airport in the morning by 4:15 AM!!! I don't think I am ready to leave yet...

A Broken Heart!

Today I write with a heavy heart. We started our morning going on a bus tour around the city of Port Au Prince that was severely damaged by the earthquake last year. Passing several different tent villages on the way, it was unreal and hard to fathom they were people's homes. There was still rubble on the road, and many ruins of building still standing. The most amazing sites were the cathedral where the cross still stood and the presidential palace where the top of the building caved in but the building was still standing. I bought some paintings hand made by some men on the street right outside of the palace. After this we took a tour of the Haiti history museum. Haiti actually used to be spelled Ayti.. Fun fact!
We ate lunch at a sort of Haitian fast food restaurant where I ordered a hamburger which did NOT consist of rice! haha. Following lunch we went to an Pierre's orphanage in Port Au Prince. My heart broke! :(

Presidential Palace

Sleeping baby in the orphanage

This was not a shoe distribution but a visit just to love on all the children. They were separated by age and the baby room touched me the most. There was tons of babies just laying or sitting in their crib crying just begging to be held. One at a time, I took out a few and just held them and let them hold me. As if I thought it could not get more touching, the children started singing, "How Great is Our God" and "This is the Day That the Lord has Made. WOW!! Today was my favorite so far, but it was also a very hard day. I was fighting for more energy the whole day, and suffering from an extreme amount of bugs bites only on the left side of my body! A large welt in particular was checked out by Dr. Kerr to make sure I was not infected. Good news, just inflamed. Took some Benedryl and should sleep well tonight!

Heart for Haiti

     So yesterday my adventure started out at 3:45 AM when I left for the airport. I left Cleveland at 6 AM and was in Miami by about 9:15. It was a huge airport but I had a little bit of time to kill before I met up with my team at 12:30 at our gate. After stopping to grab two corndogs (yes two) and an orange soda since I haven't had any pop the last 40 days, it was time to meet my team I would be traveling with. Everyone was wearing their matching Soles4Souls shirts so they were easy to find! We boarded our plane thinking the trip would be about an hour and 55 minutes. Little did we know, once we started to head for Haiti, that we would be back in Miami an hour later. Here's the story. I suddenly woke up on the plane to my team members telling me that the plane is having mechanical problems with the wing and that they are circling around in the air to try and see if they fix themselves. Ummm seriously?!? But it only got worse. The pilot came across the intercom telling us that they decided after an hour into our flight over the ocean that we would be returning to Miami so they could fix the problem and that most likely the flaps on the wing would not work so we would come in at a rapid speed and the breaks could burn out. Then he told us not to worry, firetrucks and safety would be waiting on the ground for us. Yes, because knowing firetrucks were there is our plane could not stop made me feel better when I'm thousands of feet in the air!! haha We actually landed pretty smoothly and they had lunch vouchers ready for us as we waited for our new plane.

    A few hours later we arrived in Haiti. Stepping outside of the building was much more humid and muggy and hot that I thought it would be at 8 o clock at night. After going through customs and be overwhelmed with men wanting to help us "carry" our bags, we were kindly greeted outside with police in helmets and holding riffles. ( Kind of scary). We boarded an old school bus and began our two hour ride to our hotel. The bus driver felt the need to drive about 75-80 miles an hour on roads filled with monstrous pot holes and did not think it was necessary to slow down for turns. We went airborne at one point...IN A SCHOOL BUS!!! lol. Once we got to our hotel we had a Haitian dinner and got ready for bed. Our hotel is fabulous. Right along the beach and the rooms have air conditioning!!! Being up since 3 AM, and after a long day of travel, I slept like a baby!

     Today we started our morning at 7 AM, anyone who knows my sleeping habits knows that that was almost a miracle for me to be up and ready before 7. We had a Haitian breakfast and then made our way to the first distribution. It was in the fishing village and one of the poorest parts of the city we are in right now. It was just infants and toddlers this morning, and most of the infants were asleep in their mothers arms as we put their new shoes on. We were able to distribute over 70 pairs in that distribution. We spent the middle part of the day at the mission watching kids sing and dance for us, we painted girls nails, and this is also where we were served lunch. Lots of beans and rice around here ( You would appreciate that Dad). One of our team members made tu tu's and another group at the mission had brought dance shoes. Neither knowing this, that was definitely the Lord at work. It was then time for our second distribution. This one was with older children and teenagers. This one we started by getting to wash each child's feet and then place shoes on them! My favorite was when a girl was trying to teach me how to say things in French and Creole. At this distribution we were able to give away 150 or so pairs.After heading back to the hotel we had some free time to rest and shower. Ironically though, none of the water was working in anyone's hotel room! haha. So the amazing pool was the next resort. Were served another Haitian dinner with tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, and you guessed it, more rice! Today was a very successful but very tiring day so I am off to bed! More to come tomorrow night!!

   Pictures are up on Facebook! 

3 more days!!

In three more days my fasting will be up ( Can't wait to drink a whole 2 liter of Orange Soda!!) haha, and I will be on my way to Port Au Prince, Haiti with Soles4Souls!! My heart is so ready for this trip it is unbelievable! After signing up for this trip I had to put complete faith in God that he could make this possible for me to go. Once I did this, each piece started to fall into place. There was a big scare when I realized about 40 days before I was to leave, that my passport had actually expired last year!! After almost having a panic attack, I sent for a new one and had it expedited and received it in only SEVEN DAYS!!! It was definitely an answer to prayer. I'd have to say the worst part about traveling out of the country is for sure the shots and immunizations :( But I survived and am healthy and so ready to go!

Time to pack!!!

Guess the cat wants to go to Haiti too!

Some toys to take to the kids at the orphanage.

The start of deciding what to wear!

I will try to blog as much as I can once in Haiti for those who would like to follow my trip!!

Changing the World: One Pair at a Time!

Since making the decision to raise funds and go on a shoe distribution to Haiti this month with Soles4Souls,my heart has been very dear to what the non-profit organization out of Nashville does.  I heard about the "Flippin' Goods Deeds Challenge" blogger challenge with Flipflop Wine in collaboration with Soles4Souls, and I had to participate! This includes hosting a shoe drive and then each week giving a total of how many shoes were collected on your blog and see who can get the most in this amount of time!

Since I go to a fashion school, I thought what better place to do a shoe drive! We all have tons of shoes in our closet we never wear! The shoe drive will start October 10th (The first day of Fall Quarter), and will go until November 10th. The drop box will be right in Virginia Marti College of Art and Design where I go to school in Lakewood, OH. However, this shoe drive is not limited to just students and faculty at the college, spread the word to everyone you know!

Since the shipping cost is not covered, they recommend having $1 donated with every pair of shoes donated, or just getting a sponsor for the shoe drive to cover the cost. They accept any kind of shoe from baby shoes to adult shoes. Please help in winning this challenge of raising the most pairs of shoes to Soles4Souls so they can distribute shoes to the thousands of children in the world who may have never owned their very own pair of shoes. This not only will give the opportunity to go to school now, but will keep them from many diseases spread through open wounds on feet. You can change a child's life. One Pair at a Time!

When the shoe drive starts, it will be #019 for the blogger ID number.

The Countdown Begins...

While online, I came across the website clothes4souls and was completely drawn to the whole concept of the Soles4Souls organization. With my strong passion for helping others and giving back, and after looking through the pictures and reading blogs about the destination trips that people take to distribute the shoe and clothes collected by the organization to third world countries, I knew I wanted to be a part of it! That is why I have decided to be a part of the distribution trip on September 26th-30th, 2011 to Haiti.
On this trip I will be washing feet, sizing for shoes, then placing brand new shoes on children and adults that may have never had their very own pair of shoes before! I am very excited about this opportunity that I believe God placed on my heart to be a part of.

51 more days until my new exciting adventure!!

http://www.soles4souls.org/

Texas

Texas in late summer/early fall was one of the hottest locations I have ever visited as if every time you stepped outside you were opening an oven door with your face in front of it, and I've been to Africa!!!

The stage used in Miss Congeniality!

At the Alamo

The River Walk

Mariachi Band

Our tour boat....how ironic! :)

Cacti

Matamoras, Mexico

When people think of Mexico they usually think of a fancy resort or a honeymoon spot, it most definitely is so much more. Mexico is a bittersweet memory for me! This trip was with my high school youth group. We actually took a charter bus....LONG DRIVE! The first 3 days I was there I actually had to stay in bed because I had become very very ill. Being far away from my mom and in a hot foreign country, this was not ideal for me! But once I started to feel better I did one of the most meaningful things I am proud to say I did. We went to a children's Cerebral Palsy rehab center and for hours would rub out their muscles, in hopes that when they grew up, they had a better chance of walking! I was so meaningful to me. We also took part in starting a foundation for a new church through AIM ministries. Being a girl I didn't feel like I could do much, but I took my turn in the hot sun shoveling away.
http://www.adventures.org/

The foundation for the church.

Me trying to help out! haha

A church we did a bible school for the children.

The long bus ride!

Our base where we stayed.

A little friend I made.

 This video is just a small look at what children have to live like in Mexico.

China & Hong Kong

My first overseas traveling abroad experience was to China and Hong Kong. I was only 15 years old at the time. After hearing about this trip where missionaries go over to China and bring the bible in because the Chinese could not get access to it really inspired me and I wanted so badly to go and take part in that. Being under 16 I had to take a parent with me so I talked my dad into going with me.
Not only did we have a suitcase filled with bibles when we entered into the country, but as we were there, we took trips across the border into Shenzen several times each day carrying bookbags, briefcases, or rolling luggage across the line to a hotel where they would package up the bibles and ship them out to different Chinese churches. Since I was so young I was able to get away with it pretty easily. One specific trip back I got stopped by authorities when they looked in my passport and they started getting questioned me on why I had been back and forth so many times in one day. At first I panicked inside, but the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, " Well there is better shopping over the border and I couldn't carry it all back in one trip". They believed me!! Such a fashionista!!

In downtown Hong Kong.

The Blue Mall. It was five stories high!

The small train beds we were on for 30 hours from China to Hong Kong.

Sitting on top of The Great Wall!

Along with the intent of the trip, we got to travel around and site see. Hong Kong was similar to New York City with the big couture name stores. The language barrier was definitely a problem sometimes, but other than that, it was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had in my life. AND I can say I got to climb the Great Wall of China!

http://www.go4thinjesus.name/pdf/June%202011%20Mission%20Flyer.pdf