a word about these past 3-6-5

I can't believe it, but it was one year ago today that we hopped on a plane to move our lives to Haiti. How can it have already been a year? Time seems to have stopped from June until about this past April, because life as we knew it was so different. Now that it's summer again, I find myself thinking of and missing Haiti almost every day. The heat, the smell of gasoline, the busyness of city dwellers as I walk through the streets- it all awakens glimpses of memories of our every day lives there. I remember so much about each day so perfectly, it doesn't seem that 365 days have already come and gone...

find beauty in today

Happy Thursday! There are a lot of pretty things floating around the internet world today, so I will just keep it simple and leave you with some lovely inspiration to aid you as you conquer through your last day to Friday :) 

          

xo

Image Sources: // 1. Flower Power // 2. Pool Side // 3. Little Blooms // 4. Wild & Free // 5. Hair Geometrics // 6. Peachy // 7. Whale Tails // 8. Floral Arch // 7. Egg-celent // 8. Picnic on the Water // 9. Mountain Views // 10. Succulent Love //

two new adventurers

Guess where my two baby brothers are visiting this week??!.... INDIA! They left Saturday and I have been a worried and weepy big sister ever since. They have never truly been out of the country (sorry boys, family vacation to Cancun in 2007 does NOT count), and I just feel so proud of my little world explorers. They are with a group that is implementing a kids camp for the week, and you can follow their blog updates here. 

Grayson in the middle, riding the bus to the camp in Chennai

Jacob on the left, waiting in the airport with two of his teammates

Have you ever been to India? It is definitely on my list of top 5 places I want to visit asap, including Israel and the United Arab Emirates. After browsing through pictures on Pinterest, I am experiencing some serious wanderlust. For real, if you need a "daydream" break, simply search "India" on Pinterest. The beauty and energy is unbelievable. 

P.S. I've heard some hilarious stories about the Indian monkeys...

P.P.S. What a chic elephant! :)

P.P.P.S. (last one, I promise.) HA! Reminds me of Haiti...

xo

Image Source: 1. Painted Elephants // 2. Grayson and Friends // 3. Jacob and Friends //  4. Rainbow Door // 5.  Baby Elephant // 6. Looking into the Blue

a little link love for your friday

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been productive and far healthier than mine. However, I am about half way through a new exercise program I am trying, and am feeling pretty strong :) I hope you can look back on your week and find something that makes you feel strong, too! Enjoy these links I stumbled across this week- xoxoxo

I can imagine this being me, had we had kids in Haiti. Fascinating read!

Grown-Ups can have fun too :)

I started reading this book last night, and I've heard it's a tear-jerker. Wish me luck!

These would look lovely in your home this spring. 

Yum!

So dreamy.

Such cute classroom activity ideas for aspiring teachers :)

Love her. Anyone read her book yet? It's next on my list!

Have a great weekend!

Image found here //

happy friday!

We visited a home for children last week and while it was great and the people were wonderful... I was a little distracted by and smitten with the tiny baby kittens that insisted on sleeping in my lap. whoops :)

We also visited this spot again a few days ago, and ordered akra and french fries (so fancy) from the nearby restaurant. 

This week has been a little slower- not as many meetings as we had anticipated. But we are planning to take a short trip with some friends to Jacmel, and then will spend what we have left of the weekend packing and preparing for our trip to the US on Monday!

xo

He's got the whole world in His hands

Earlier this week, we had lunch at the home of some new friends/mentors/potential business partners. They live in a gorgeous, under-construction house in a more elevated area. On the way up, we stopped at this overlook where you can view all of Port-au-Prince. It was beautiful and we could have stayed all day, but were only given five minutes :) We spotted places like the landing strip that is the airport, and some larger buildings we use as landmarks when navigating the city.

Overlooking any city from up above is always mesmerizing, but there was something eerie and captivating about the quietness of gray buildings littering the green hills. It’s all just so… flat. No skyscrapers here! Plus the ocean, the mountains… if you visit us, know that this will be one of the spots we take you ;) 

furry friends

right outside the house we were staying at!

Something that quickly became normal for us, but would totally be outrageous in the U.S., is how many random animals wonder the streets of Haiti. Not only are there stray dogs every few yards, but pigs, goats, chickens, even cows, fill the trash pits that line the streets.

The majority of my thoughts while walking through the streets are consumed with trash pick-up program ideas and dog rescue visions. Not that that’s at all my interest :) but it’s definitely a smaller project than solving world hunger…

photos taken our first week in Haiti while walking some back roads near where we were living

taking the scenic route

During the drive to Hinche last week, we were amazed by the beautiful countryside. The most mesmerizing of it all, though, was Haiti's longest river, the Artibonite River (and also the source of the November 2010 Cholera outbreak, unfortunately). We also stopped at the Peligre Dam, a hydroelectric dam completed in 1956, which generates and sends electricity throughout most of the country. Click below to see a few more pictures!

campus ministry retreat

driving into the city

Earlier last week, we had the opportunity to travel to Hinche and spend time with our church’s campus ministry at their annual retreat. The drive there was about 2 and a half hours and absolutely beautiful, as was the local countryside scenery- I’ll have a few posts in the next few days with pictures.

our sleeping quarters

The retreat lasts about 5 or 6 days, but we only stayed one night- and it was a looong night. Without getting into details, the heat and the mosquitos left us with literally, absolutely NO sleep. Our once hesitant-attitudes towards a 5am prayer time quickly shifted to eager anticipation as we counted down the hours through the night to 4:30am so we could finally get up and begin our day.  Andrew and I have found a lot to laugh about from these last couple days…

locals playing futbol on the retreat property

We were asked to speak/teach on Tuesday morning, in which we focused on finding your identity in Christ and shared some of our experiences from leading campus ministry the past couple of years. Afterwards we had a short Q&A, where we got to learn more about their ministry and provide some insight based off of our time in Athens. It was good for our hearts to be with such generous and god-centered young people, and also to learn of needs and find ways we can begin to serve the church here.  The time made us nostalgic for our own beloved campus ministry in Athens (we so wish the two could meet!), but we are looking forward to developing these relationships and being able to watch this ministry of about 40 learn and grow this coming school year.

us with the campus ministry students that attended the retreat

xo

becoming secret agents

We have a friend from church who works for the UN and recently was relocated to Port-au-Prince after being near Cap-Haitian for the last two years. Yesterday, he took us on a tour of the base and we got to see their camp and living quarters, some of the offices, and eat lunch in a cafeteria with many UN officers from countries like Uruguay, Argentina, Canada, France, Bolivia, and even the good ol' USA.

We had to wear these name tags for security, which made me feel like someone important on a secret mission.

This officer drove us around in a big UN Police vehicle. We didn't take any pictures of the base for security reasons, but we had to sneak this one of our driver because he was dressed so fancy ;)

I felt like Jessica Chastain in the movie, "Zero Dark Thirty," walking around the dry, dusty landscape with my sunglasses and security tags. 

Through all of Andrew's political and historical research the last several years, we find there are many mixed and intense opinions about the presence of the UN in Haiti. It was exciting to be on the "other" side for a few hours. So maybe we weren't really "secret agents," but now we have a fuller picture of a world that is so mysterious some.

saturday morning in the mountains

Yesterday morning we drove with some friends from church to Kenscoff, a town in the mountains of Port-au-Prince...

old faces in new places

Yesterday we got to spend some time with our friend, Brenna. She and I were roommates my junior year of college, back in 2009, and we also took our first trip to Haiti together in 2010. She is currently a student at The New School in New York, and is visiting Haiti for the next two weeks to gather research for her thesis in order to graduate next May. Her and her friend are staying at Pacot Breeze, a nice hotel located in Pacot, with a gorgeous view of downtown Port-au-Prince and of the ocean (pictured above). It was nice to spend some time with someone with whom we share a little history, as every relationship here is so new and unexplored.

Andrew just texted me, informing me that he is eating food from a street vendor in Pacot, hanging and talking with Haitians-- so don't worry, we are building our Hatiain relationships, too ;)

A few photos from our 4th...

 The last few days we have been spending our mornings reading on the front porch, where there is a nice breeze...

The gate that leads to the street from Mimi's house. We spent the whole day navigating tap-taps all on our own!

We found this little hotel restaurant while we were waiting to meet up with a friend, and had some egg sandwiches and a coke (all for about 5 bucks!). Yes, that's Edward Scissorhands on tv ;) and in english!

We helped this woman and son by paying for their tap-tap fare (only 10 gourds a person, which is about 25 cents), and then she helped us by leading us to the building we were looking for. We have interacted with so many people that are genuinely concerned and want to help us find our way around! P.S. That is a tap-tap on the right. I will describe those in more detail soon!

We also spent time at an American friend's house, where they had about 30 other Americans over to hang out and eat burgers. Pretty much everybody there was in some job having to do with development, so Andrew loved every minute of meeting people and exchanging phone numbers :) 

Now we continue our search for an apartment close to these new friends!