(Me, Sister Vivian, Frankie, and Katie.)
Hello everyone! Well now that you
know my background in Haiti
I will fill you in what these past few weeks have been like. My journey to Haiti first started out in New York City for about three weeks. I left
for New York
on August 7th. It was an
early morning for my family and I that day. I barely slept at all because my
nerves were getting the best of me. I knew I would be starting a new adventure
in my life and really leaving everything else behind for a year. You may all
think that this was an easy choice for me to go back to Haiti for a
year after reading my first blog, but in reality deep down it was one of the
hardest choices I have made in long time. As I said I knew I wanted to go back
for a year when I first started in 2012, but back in 2012 my life was
different. I was living the dream and not really having a care in the world. It
all changed second semester of my senior year when I meant the man of my
dreams. I never would have guessed someone would walk in to my life and just
sweep me off my feet, but I am beyond blessed to call him my mine. Some people
most likely call him and I crazy because our relationship isn’t what people
call “Normal .”
My boyfriend and I have only been together for a few months, but the months we
spent together were the best months of my life. His name is Jesse and he is in
the United States Air Force. When Jesse and I meant I knew there was the chance
of him being deployed and he knew I wanted to go back to Haiti . Now,
with knowing all of this some of you may say “Why start a relationship now?” or
“You know it will fail!”, well let me tell you something if you truly deep down
inside of your heart love someone more then anything in this world then you
will be able to endure the pain of not seeing someone everyday, the loneliness,
the struggle of just wanting to be in that persons arms, and so much more You
will be able to overcome all of this because you know the moment that when you
see each other again will be absolutely breathtaking and the world will just
stop right in its tracks. Jesse was deployed during the month of May and I
obviously haven’t been able to psychically be with him, but in his heart I am
with him everyday. Hopefully he will be returning back to the states in a few
months and I will be going home to spend some time with him. I honestly can’t
wait to run and jump right in too his arms. So now all of you can see it wasn’t
an easy decision for me to just jump on the plane and fly right back to here,
but I was able to because my hero supports me each and everyday no matter how
hard it is. I am beyond on blessed and lucky to call him mine. I love you
Jesse. Sorry if you think this is corny or a little sappy love story, but I
believe it was important for you to understand that this wasn’t just some big
easy decision I made over night.
Well now that you know all of this I will get
on to what I did in New York
for those three weeks. When I arrived in New
York I got to meet the other two volunteers. Their
names are Katie and Francesca. We all come from different parts of the US to take part
in this journey. I know for me I was super nervous about meeting the two of
them because I mean hello if they don’t like you what are you going to do?
You’re spending a year with them! After we had all been introduced to each
other and the sisters we begin to learn about what our days would look like.
Everyday for the next three we would be taking Creole classes. Creole is the
language spoken in Haiti
and is considered a dialect of French. Our teacher was a sister who spent about
16 years in Haiti .
Her name is Sister Vivian. The house had three sisters that lived there all the
time and they are the sweetest women you will ever meet. They opened up their
home and did so much for us. I honestly can’t thank them enough for everything
they did. The daily routine at the house was waking up and going to class for
two hours in the morning and then having a break for a few hours. After our
break we would have class again. Then finally when class was over we could go
for a run or do whatever we wanted. During the weekends we got to go in to the
city and explore. We saw some pretty amazing things. We visited the September
11th memorial, the Bronx zoo, Time
Square, and went shopping. The last weekend before we took off my parents and my
middle brother came to visit me! It was honestly so much fun to see them and
spend time with them. We got to go out to dinner and walk around downtown,
which was such an adventure. Then the time finally came were I had to say
goodbye to my bro and parents. It was super emotional saying goodbye to my
brother because this is the first time we have been separated in four years. Although, I did hold back the tears because I
know I’m going to see him again. It was also very hard to say goodbye to my mom
and dad, but I know they will come over and visit me. (Well at least I hope so.)
The three
weeks really went by so fast. It was pretty awesome though because I got to
meet some of the most amazing sisters and share in moments with them that I
will never forget. Another bonus was that I got a great foundation in Creole. I
truly can’t thank Sister Vivian enough for teaching us the language because
without her I would be lost. It was also very hard to say goodbye to her
because she taught us so much more then just language. She let us in to her
life and told us amazing stories about what she had experienced in Haiti . I am so
happy to have meant her and I honestly wish all of you could too because she
will gave you an amazing outlook on life.
WELL….. The time
finally came August 27th. We woke up at around 5:30 and headed to
the airport for an 8:35 flight. We got through security and everything went
well. We then headed to our gate and waited to board to begin our next journey
in Ayiti!
A new post will be up soon so you can hear about what my
first week was like!!! I hope you all enjoy!
These pictures show what you see when you first arrive in Haiti. Just a little sneak pick of Ayiti!
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