Week 1

Hello everyone! I made it safe and sound, as evidenced by this post, sorry this took so long! I hope to blog more than once a week, but if I don't, please don't freak out! This week(ish) has been busy! So I guess I'll start at day 1.

Thursday I landed in Ft. Lauderdale and was welcomed by my fellow interns! They are all wonderful if you were wondering. We had training for a few days, and it definitely got me ready for the trip.
Sunday we flew into Haiti and made it to the compound around 11a.m..... I think.... I was a little tired from waking up at 3am to be in the airport in Miami on time.
Monday we hiked to the waterfall it's a beautiful walk!
Tuesday we went to the orphanage in Silines-Mayette, it's about a 3 hour drive via tap-tap, but the drive in the country is beautiful. Along the way we stopped in Beauchamp, where I just found out I'll be staying with a group for several days this week! It was very cool to be able to see all the other campuses we have.
Wednesday we went to Tortuga................................... I find it hard to talk about it without getting nauseous. For those of you who haven't been to Tortuga I will describe it. The boats aren't at a dock so you get on a Haitian's shoulders and they carry you out to the boat and you jump on. The boats are small sail boats and it takes about an hour to get to Tortuga... as you toss and turn... and get splashed with water (if you aren't sitting on the right side). Most of the kids were in school so we just played some soccer and smaller games like duck, duck goose and red light, green light. The kids there are so wonderful!
Thursday Melonnie took us to the prison and the brothel in Port-de-Paix. It was awesome to see her in action and to see how passionate she was about those people! Her joy and passion overflowed into all of the interns, well at least to me! We stopped at House of Hope along the way back, which is a place where severely malnourished children go and they eventually nurse them back to health.
Friday we went to Anseafoleur, which is supposedly the voodoo capital of the northwest. We drove out there which is about an hour or so of a drive. (I didn't have a watch so I had no concept of time, but thanks to another intern I now have a watch, thanks Ashley!!) When we got there we stopped by the school to check it out, but the kids are still in school now so we didn't get to spend any time with them. We hiked up the mountain to the monument, which was orginally built as a cross, but now is the site where people go to practice voodoo. I would love to share the story of it when I get home, but I don't want to tell you guys everything! So we hiked the mountain and then we went to the temple and we prayed..... in the name of JESUS!!!! We had lunch at a restaurant, which was delicious, and then we went to the beach. It was gorgeous! And we also had an egg fight. We had a bajillion eggs that we bought and we had an egg fight. We turned off all the lights on campus and turned the music on so you couldn't hear. Each person could only carry 2 eggs and you had to smash them on someone.. no throwing, so you had to actually catch the person. It was awesome, disgusting, and totally fun all in one!
Saturday we went to La Baie. We had lunch and we took a boat to the beach (I know it sounds like we did a lot of relaxing... but it is very tough, lol) So we checked out the campus and went to the beach.
Sunday was wonderful! I absolutely love church! That is seriously the closest thing to Heaven on Earth. The people are so passionate about their worship their joy is just overflowing and unbelievable! Their music is so beautiful! Church lasts for hours and no one even cares or starts tapping their watch after an hour....... :D I love Haiti time too, because everyone is late and nobody ever starts on time. Sundays are literally just a day of rest. We all just chilled all day. So that leads me to where I am now.... sitting here typing this.

I just wanted to update everyone on what we were doing for the last week. Groups start coming in on Tuesday so my updating will be sporatic and when I get the chance! Please be praying for my team that we will be the face of Jesus to all of these people coming in and out and especially to the Haitians that God will use us and shine through us and be a light to these people! Please also be praying for teams that are coming in and for safety for those travelers. Thanks to everyone who read this thing entirely. If you want to contact me you can shoot me an email @ hmahle18@hotmail.com or you can contact me through facebook. Thank you to everyone who was and who is continuing to pray for the team and myself! We all greatly appreciate it. Thanks again and I love you all!