Haiti 2013: Part 2

While I was in Haiti, I was reading through the gospels. On a daily basis the themes of the days readings were "the children are important" and "the last shall be first" and "humble yourself."

What happened each day cannot be summed up in any better ways.

Monday we returned to the school for another day of teaching, scrubbing, and painting. As soon as we arrived there was a man carrying a small child, Jaye sighed and said that he was here expecting money to buy a prothesis for his son. We all piled out of the van and our two Physical Therapists and one doctor began to take a look at him. His name is Winley, he is three years old, and had his leg amputated after the 2010 earthquake. Upon investigation it was found that he was strong and healthy, and his stump was clean and healed well. His leg was also amputated below the knee cap. Colin and Rhona swiftly got to work making a crutch for him out of a stick. They spent the better part of the day measuring, hacking, measuring, stick finding, and hacking. Until finally they finished a beautiful masterpiece that was adorned with blue and purple duct tape.

First Steps

Being myself, I wandered into the medical clinic and I visited with the patients who were waiting to see the doctor. As soon as I walked in they caught my eye. This little brown baby boy with huge eyes and a curly mess of hair grinning at me from ear to ear in his grandmother's arms. Immediately the grandmother handed him over to me, while I held him and asked questions to the grandmother. I found out he was three months old, and his mother died unexpectedly a month earlier. The grandmother was raising him. I laid him down on a table and checked him out briefly. He was strong, clear eyes, attentive. I told the grandmother that he was strong. She was thrilled.

Then I heard crying from the lab room. A girl was getting blood drawn, screaming. It's amazing how quickly a blanc can quiet a child. I took her hand and told her that it was okay, and to look at me and not at her arm. She stared into my eyes, squeezed my hand, and eventually calmed down. When she was finished I took her out into the yard, gave her a balloon, and blew her some bubbles. Bubbles fix all problems.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind. Blonde brought me a cake, some children from the school sang me "Happy Birthday" in Creole, and Rhona and Dr. Ricardo fished two sea urchin spines out of my foot.




That evening I spent time with KiKi and Esther. I showed them pictures of snow. You would have thought that my phone was magical by the way it kept KiKi still. They were amazed at all the white that they had maybe heard about from a book or in a movie.

Tuesday we were back at the school. Painting and scrubbing and holding babies and playing clapping games and taking pictures and showing them off right away.

In the classrooms Gae had the students decorate quilt squares to make a school quilt. They had so much fun decorating and being creative. I helped out with the First and Second grade while they worked which was a blast because KiKi and Esther were both there that day.

After we got back we went to the beach again. I did not swim this time, I was a bit traumatized from the first beach experience. But it was awesome lounging on the beach.

"Jesus said 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'" Matthew 19:14

Haiti 2013: Part 1

Since I was unable to post while I was in Haiti, I have decided to do a series of blog updates to recap what happened.

I'll start with packing.

Through donations, I was able to contribute...

58 boxes of crayons
6 boxes of markers
8 toy cars
72 balloons
44 notebooks
19 folders
8 packs of lined paper
3 boxes of chalk
564 pencils
4 bottles of glue
60 pens
1 pack of colored pencils
9 packs of erasers
3 rules
7 boxes of band-aids
1 pack of high lighters
2 pairs of scissors
8 pencil sharpeners
4 packages of gauze
3 bottles of antacids
6 bottles of pain relievers
2 bottles of children's vitamins
21 boxes of hair clips
silly bands
and other various school supplies

I was completely over whelmed with the amount of supplies that I was able to purchase and were donated to me.

We packed all of these and many many other supplies into 24 suitcases. Which looks like this when you are piled into a 12 passenger van...

We got to the airport much later than we had wanted to which almost resulted in us missing our first flight. By God's grace we made it by 2 minutes of the gate closing. Totally crazy!!

We got into Haiti and made it through customs with only a few questions and a couple of bags looked through. We waited an hour and a half in the airport for our ride, they had gotten a flat tire on their way to pick us up.

Then on our way back we got another flat tire and had to pull over at a gas station to change it.

Port au Prince was not much different than Cap Haitien except for the fact that it is much much bigger.

And the fact that there are still flattened buildings from the earthquake in 2010. And the tent cities which looked something like this:

It was so surreal actually seeing the tent cities and the displaced people. But to me it represented the resilience of the Haitian people to never give up. Even though they no longer lived in a concrete home, their lives continued.

It took about an hour and a half to get from the airport to Pastor Desarmes home where we were staying. The ride was a typical ride through Haiti: a street that would usually be designated as two lanes was four lanes. The biggest exception: PAVED ROADS! I thought I was in heaven.

The following day was our first day at the school working. The school and church had been completely destroyed in the earthquake, so the school consisted of a long building that contained five classrooms and an office with a removable wall that was taken out for church, and 5 storage containers donated by Digicel. 

On Saturday, we spent time scrubbing the walls in the medical clinic so they could be repainted, and started scrubbing walls in the classrooms to be painted later. We also unpacked and organized the medical supplies into the pharmacy. The pharmacy here was much, much smaller than Bethesda, which made me sad because of the lack prescription medications that they had available to give out. 

Reprieve came when children from the neighborhood realized that we were there and came over to play! We blew bubbles with them and danced and sang and let them hug us and took pictures with them. It was so fun to take a break just to laugh. 

Back at the house we got to play with KiKi and Esther, a boy and a girl who were the children of two different women who cooked for us. They are both 8 years old and have such spunky personalities. KiKi can only be described as high energy, short attention span. Esther is quiet and reserved. They loved to play with bubbles and balloons with us and they were the source of much laughter in the evenings.

Sunday, we split into two groups to attend three different church services. Rick, Doug, and I went to Thomazeau with Blonde, Marceles, and Tertu. We got special seats on stage, which, if I'm honest is not my favorite at all. But the people were thrilled to have us attending their service and waited to begin until we arrived. The service was very enjoyable and of course in true Haitian style, we had to introduce ourselves. Blonde made me introduce myself in Kreyol which made the entire congregation laugh. 

Thomazeau was on the other side of Port au Prince which meant that we got to drive through the city to get there. I really enjoyed getting to see the city, we even drove past the White House which was pretty impressive, but also didn't seem to fit in with all of the poverty around it.

After church, most of us loaded up to go to the beach, which was more like a drop off into ocean water, But it was the ocean none the less. 

"How can I help?"

Over the past few weeks I have gotten many variations of this question. At first the response was to help support me financially towards paying for my trip. God was incredibly faithful and filled that need in a two week span.

Next was to donate to purchase supplies. But now, at this point, our packing party is Tuesday and I have already filled one large suitcase with supplies to take because of donations.

Now with 4 days until I leave, the main way that you can help is to pray.

There are 15 of us going, a few who have never been to Haiti before, and a few of us who have.

Please pray for our flights:
We will be driving down to Pittsburgh Thursday evening and staying the night.
The next morning we will be flying out at 6:00 AM to JFK in New York City. We will leave JFK around 9:00 AM on our flight into Port au Prince. We will arrive in PAP in the afternoon, and then drive to Gressier. I am estimating that we will be at the mission between 3 and 4 PM Friday.

When we return, we will fly out of PAP at 2:00 PM and arrive at JFK at 6:00 PM on Friday March 1st.
We will then fly from JFK at 8:00 PM and arrive back in Pittsburgh at 10:00 PM.
We will drive back to Erie and arrive at Church of the Cross at around 1:00 AM Saturday March 2nd. I will be back in my house, in my bed, God willing, by 2:30 AM.

Please pray for our travels within Haiti. While I was never afraid of in country travels when I was there last year (with the exception of my first drive to the beach where to look of the edge of a mountain from a dirt road), driving can be frightful. When roads are poorly (or not) paved, it means pot holes. I don't even complain about Erie pot holes anymore because I drove through some in Cap that would probably get their own zip code if they were in the states. When these pot holes filled with water, had they been in Africa, they would cause territory disputes between wild life. HUGE. Just a couple of months ago there was a team who was in a very tragic bus accident. I won't go into specifics, but it brought to reality the potential danger that is present on the roads.

Please pray for our health. In Haiti there is the ever present risk of Travelers Diarrhea which is caused by the different bacterias that are present in the environment that our delicate American stomachs are not used to. One can contract TD by eating something cooked with water that has not been purified or eating fruits or vegetables that have not been properly cleaned in safe water. There is also the risk of Malaria, which is transmitted through mosquito bites. There are other possible diseases as well, but they are contracted through doing things like drinking unclean water, mostly. Also there is the possibility of catching any number of illnesses through the flights and airports. I prefer just not to think about these things.

For the Mercyhurst students and Professors, we have finals Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So, obviously, there is any number of stressors there in general, let alone planning to leave the country for the entirety of your school break (classes for the Spring Term start March 4th).

I have been completely overwhelmed by God's provision for this trip. The brief amount of time that I was funded within and the amount of donations of supplies and money I received blew me away. So far God has definitely done things that I would not have believed even if He had told me three months ago. Thank you all so much for your support!

"Let the wild rumpus begin!"

It is with much joy and thankfulness that I announce that I am fully funded for my upcoming trip to Haiti.

I am completely speechless that it happened in such a short span of time.

However, if you were planning on sending support and haven't gotten to it yet, there is still need.

All extra support from my trip will be spent towards purchasing school supplies for the mission.

You may also donate supplies for us to pack to take down.

Items to be collected:

Pencils
Crayons
Markers
Chalk
Lined Paper
Lined Spiral Bound Notebooks
Band-aids
Gauze Bandages
Adhesive Tape
Iodine Ointment
Vitamins (Children, Pre-Natal, Adult)
Tylenol
Advil
Aspirin
Anti-Diharreals
Antacids
Hair Clips
Small toys (cars, cards, small balls)

We also have a great need for old suitcases.

Please feel free to contact me for any details about donating items.

Mustard Seeds

I am currently taking a class at church on Spiritual Gifts. I figured that sarcasm is only just starting to be recognized as one so I should probably learn what mine really is.

Based on the test mine is Faith.

I am still struggling with this revelation.

In my mind, my faith is small. Like when God told me to go to Haiti for 6 weeks. And I thought "uh yeah... right."

And when God is telling me to go to Port au Prince with a church that I don't know anyone at for a week.

And when I am a junior in college and it's a month before the trip and my car bites the dust and I don't have much money raised.

I am looking up at God going.. really??

Then God reminds me not to put Him in a box. He reminds me that He gives me grace when my mind takes over my thoughts and I begin to think rationally about things.

Because... let's be honest... not sending out letters asking for support and posting a couple times about it. And then getting desperate and being completely honest about it all... I wasn't REALLY trusting God by doing all of that. I was thinking "okay, say something to make people understand that you need money to go. like this is not a drill. we are talking you are committed and you owe this money no matter what and and and"

But then God tells me to be quiet. He tells me not to worry because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He gives me grace. He gives me emails from people who have committed money. He surrounds me with people who pray for me continually for the needs that I have. He gives me what I don't deserve. Especially because I think rationally and do too much math.


God leaves me today with a total of $175 that I have left to raise. $175 until I am fully completely totally funded.

So maybe I need to start relying on my spiritual gift of faith some more.. because if we are told to have the faith of a mustard seed (Matt 17:20), then I guess I should have the faith of peppercorn.

Money: the Break Down.

As a Christian, I whole heartedly believe that the money that I have is not mine. It was "loaned" to me by God for me to be able to live and follow His callings.

Because of this, I believe that when I give money to someone or an organization I like to be informed about how that money is going to be used. (This applies to donations to people, charitable organizations, and companies that promise to use money charitably: TOMS, Warby Parker, BeadforLife, etc)

So, with that belief in mind, I have decided to carefully explain how all the money that has been donated to me, and will be donated to me, will be used.

The total cost of the trip is $1,150. The payment dates are 50% by January 29th and 50% by February 19th.
This amount is broken down into the following components...

Airfare: $625
Room, board, and transportation in Haiti: $210, or $30 per day
Overnight lodging in Pittsburgh: $40
Traveler's Insurance: $25
Miscellaneous costs: $250

In addition to these travel costs, I will also need to pay for my Chloroquin prescription and a round of Cipro to take in case of Haitian Happiness (my favorite!). I am ESTIMATING these to cost between $50 and $100.

Additionally I wish to take down $100 worth of school supplies.

So far a total of $550 has been raised towards my trip.

This money has been set aside as follows:

$100 Deposit
$250 towards Airfare
$100 towards prescriptions
$100 towards school supplies.

This still leaves me about $800 left to be raised. 

This number does cause me anxiety at times, but as I was driving to the gym this morning and talking with God about my anxiety He reminded me of the time when Joshua was told to walk around Jericho and Joshua had no clue how things were going to turn out. Or when Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat or drink or wear because God takes care of the sparrows and we are worth more than many sparrows.

If you would like to contribute to my trip, please use the ChipIn box to left (or click the link) to donate securely through your credit card or PayPal account. Or you can send a check to

Church of the Cross
5901 Millfair Road
Erie, PA 16415

If you decide to send a check, you must include my name on the Memo line (Katie Jobczynski) and a note that indicates that it is for my Haiti trip. By sending a check you will receive a tax deductible for giving to a Non-Profit Organization.

I am going to end this with of my recently favorite verses from Habakkuk. This verse is taken from the context of the prophet Habakkuk crying out to the Lord for deliverance from the miseries of injustice all around in the land of Israel, the Lord replies to Habakkuk's cries...

"Look at the nations and watch --
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe
even if you were told."
 -- Habakkuk 1:5

Lost, Found, and Generalities.

So today I sent in my final confirmation that I will be going to Haiti.

But with me nothing is that easy.

In order to send in my final confirmation, I had to send in my name as it appears on my passport and birthday. I'm brilliant and was 100% positive that under name it would say "Katie Lynn Jobczynski" and under birthday "February 25, 1992" but being myself I wanted to make absolutely sure of that. So I went to obtain my passport from the proper spot and it... wasn't... there. At first I laughed about it. Mostly because of the ridiculousness of getting my Passport in 2011.. when I lost my social security card. But then I started to panic.

I went through the appropriate 7 Stages of Grief. With far less expletives than our giraffe friend above did.

And prayed the whole time for God to open my eyes as to where my Passport was. So while I was going through the third storage container under my bed, I stumbled across my old camera bag. This reminded me of how I put my Passport in my new camera bag.

And wouldn't you know. There was my Passport.

So, it's all official. Port au Prince, here I come.