It has been almost two weeks since I returned from my trip to Ouanaminthe, Haiti with Mission 29.2 and quite honestly, I am still struggling to encapsulate all of my emotions about the trip. Y’all, it was literally life changing, and I am positive that I cannot come close to describing the experience with the written word. However, I’m going to try!
As a heads up, this entire week will be dedicated to Haiti posts so if that doesn’t float your boat, I apologize. I’ll be back with a whole bunch of other stuff next week.
The trip began a day early for Angel and I since we had to fly out of Denver on Tuesday night, sleep in Newark, and then catch a flight down to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on Wednesday. Aside from some airport chaos (because really, would you expect anything less from me?!), we were able to meet up with Shannon without any issues. We met up with the rest of the group in Puerto Plata, headed to our hotel, and managed to get in a good night’s sleep before making the drive to the Haiti/DR border on Thursday.
If you’ve never experienced a border crossing in a third world country, I highly suggest doing it at least once in your life! This one was relatively mellow as our friendly local contacts helped handle the process for us, but it was still a lot of fun to watch from the window of our bus.
We eventually arrived at Institution Univers, the school in Ouanaminthe that would be housing us for the next few days. And y’all, Univers was absolutely nothing like I was expecting– it was far better!
Loved the international flags in the cafeteria
Beautiful mural on the side of Univers
Univers is the product of Hugues Bastien, one of the most innovative and determined men that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Hugues is a visionary, and his story is absolutely inspiring. In fact, I’ll share it with you, but I think we’ll save it for another day. This incredible man’s story definitely deserves a post of its own.
Regardless, Hugues has helped construct a beautiful school and our sleeping accommodations were far nicer than I had expected. We took a few moments to unpack our luggage and rig up mosquito nets on our beds (because I probably don’t need to add Malaria to my list if ailments these days!) before heading out for a quick tour of Ouanaminthe and the race course on Saturday.
Mosquito nets to keep the malaria at bay!
Y’all, I was almost giddy with excitement when I took my initial peek of the Ouanaminthe Marathon course! Naturally, I wasn’t running anymore because of all my spinal issues, but was still beyond thrilled to see the route. The course was rugged and raw, but more than that, it was so typically Haitian. The road changed from pavement to broken pavement to dirt and rocks and back again. It veered through the center of Ouanaminthe and then branched back out into the countryside, weaving around small houses and barefoot children playing in the grass. I immediately knew that the racers were going to have a beautiful run on Saturday!
While out exploring, we visited Hugues’s home, along with his newly installed chicken farm (more on that later). We then headed back to town where Hugues took us to the Ouanaminthe clinic. I saw Angel’s face light up as we walked inside and I knew that she was already envisioning her future trips to Ouanaminthe where she could put her nursing degrees to use in that exact building.
Chicken farm!
As with most medical institutions in third world countries, the Ouanaminthe clinic was definitely eye opening. Multiple patients were resting in rooms and privacy was a completely foreign concept. However, this clinic is a huge step for Ouanaminthe and it even includes optometry and surgical areas. We met a volunteer doctor and nurse anesthetist from Tennessee and a group of us spent some time speaking with them. She comes down for one week every single month to volunteer her time and knowledge. In fact, she is even in the process of developing her own non-profit with her husband called iSurg. She told us that she had found her calling in life and for the first time on this trip, I began to understand how this could happen. It was only our first day in Ouanaminthe, and I was already beginning to feel the pull from these struggling yet incredibly happy people.
Sunrise over Univers
Of course, I have lots more to share, but this is long enough as it is. To be continued tomorrow!
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Have you ever done a voluntourism trip?