Guest Post: Terri's Travels with Compassion

I'm continuing with sharing interviews with people who have traveled with Compassion to visit their kids! This week we're going to hear from Terri, who blogs at A Story By Me. Terri shares about her trip to Haiti and included some amazing photos! (My questions are in bold and Terri's answers are italicized.)

Where did you visit? Haiti

How long were you there? 5 Days

And what did the schedule roughly look like? We arrived in Port au Prince about 10:00 am, got on a bus and traveled through Port au Prince. Our trip leaders warned us that we would be heartbroken before we ever got out of Port au Prince, wow they sure were not kidding! People lined the streets hundreds. The traffic was like one huge traffic jam and as we sat in traffic many people stood outside the bus looking in. some of them wanting us to buy things. A lot of the rubble from the earth quake was still there and we saw people living in half of their homes (picture included). I think our journey through Port au prince was for me probably the hardest part of our journey, and some of the things I saw at times were pretty hard to take. That whole first day was spent traveling to our hotel. That evening we had dinner and planned our VBS activities, had devotional time and talked about the day.

Day 2, we visited our first Compassion project, there we played outside with the children most of the morning. We played things like jump rope and Frisbee and they also taught us a few games. After playtime we went into the church where the children honored us on stage (picture included looking out from the stage toward them) and then the children put on a show for us. It was really very humbling to see all the work the children put into their performance to make us feel special.

After the show we visited the Child Survival Program and had the opportunity to visit with the mothers and babies who were a part of the program. We saw where the moms bring their babies for checkups and to learn about things like nutrition, how to care for their babies. They also learn job skills there such as sewing. After lunch we went on a home visit. The family lived in a one room home that was about 10’ x 10’ shack. 7 people lived in that home! Though it was just a shack with a dirt floor you could tell they took pride in taking care of it and they were so excited to invite us in! Before we left they insisted on giving us a gift of cookies they make to sell in the market. I felt bad taking the cookies because I know they need them way more than I do, but at the same time I couldn’t say no because I did not want to hurt their feelings.

Day 3, we visited anther Compassion project where we had Vacation Bible School with the children and then we were off to another project this one required a fun boat ride through storm waters to reach our destination Ile a Vache island, on this island they don’t have any cars or electricity. We walked to the Compassion project on a dirt path through the trees, as we got closer we could hear the children singing through the trees and eventually we arrived at their little church hidden in the trees on a hill. They sang to us and then they challenged us in a soccer game in which we had no chance of ever winning, those kids were good! On this island a little girl in a mint green dress named picked me to sponsor her J Rose was her name but I have since found out she goes by her middle name which is Djamensli. We then spent the night on the island woke up in the morning to the most beautiful sounds of nature and peace I have ever heard, and a spectacular view! [Rose is in the green dress in the photo.]

Day 4 we road the boat back to the mainland traveled back to Port au Prince. That evening we met 3 students from the Leadership Development Program. They told us a lot about their lives and they talked about their hopes and dreams, one young man introduced himself as the future president of Haiti and I believe him!

Day 5 Was the day we got to meet our children! That was the day we met Thierry, I remember being nervous, but once we met I realized there was no reason to ever have been nervous. We spent the day just hanging out. We played soccer, swam in the ocean and listened to music. A wonderful day!

How many kids did you visit and what were their ages? 1 age 15, but sponsored another while there, she was 6.

Did you feel like the language barrier was a hindrance? Not really the interpreter did a wonderful job of keeping the conversation flowing. I loved how he told us to just look at our child when we spoke and speak normally. He kept up well and I really do not remember it being a hindrance at all.

What tips would you share for trying to connect with your child? I would say bring your child a few gifts you can do together. Thierry was a bit of a shy and quiet child boy and one of the gifts we brought was a soccer ball. This was a great ice breaker and we soon found out that he is on a soccer team at his school and he was very good at it. We were able to play soccer on the beach with him and he loved showing us and teaching us the tricks he could do with the ball. Another thing we brought was a Bible. Before our trip I had high-lighted a few verses in it that I wanted to share with him, he really seemed to enjoy reading that and he also shared a few of his favorite verses with us.

Was this your first trip? Yes

If so, would you go again? Yes!

Would you recommend going on a trip with Compassion to see your kids? I think everyone should go if they get the opportunity. We truly have no idea just how much our sponsorship means to those kids until we see it first hand. I had no idea what true poverty was until I went on this trip and it was so good to see what Compassion is doing and to know that we can make a difference one child at a time.

What was the most impactful thing you saw? There were so many that I’m not sure if I could narrow it down to just one thing I was impacted by the fact that they were so poor yet were so thankful for what little they had and how easily they shared and wanted to share what they had with others. The people I met loved God more than anything and had the strongest faith I have ever seen in my life.

What was the highlight of the trip? Oh man so much! I think Meeting Thierry was the highlight though the whole trip experience was amazing, and one of the biggest blessings I have ever received.

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If you missed the previous posts, I encourage you to read about Jill's visit to Nicaragua and Jessi's visit to Tanzania!