Why Lord why????


So we were in the Dominican Republic in the month of July, because we were invited by a friend who is a seminarian and the Director of the youth in the Dominican Republic to do a small mission the Haitian people who live there, especially for the ones working at the sugarcane plantations called Bateyes where the living conditions are not good. The timing for this mission was very convenient for us as we need to leave Haiti every three months in order to get a new visa. So it was perfect, we would simply have to pay for our travel to the Dominican Republic and back. The rest, that is accommodation and food would be taken care of by our friend. We were all ready to go and a day before we left my team leader got an email from our friend saying that his aunt  passed away and that he would be flying to Puerto Rico and that whatever was planned had to be scrapped, Praise God! So basically what that means is that we were leaving for a country where we have no place to stay, and are searching for accommodations on a missionary budget.


My buddy Thomas is a smart guy because he had been researching the Couch Surfing website a few days before and found one of our friends, Billy, from our first trip to the Dominican Republic. After a little contact, Billy agreed to house us during our trip! We were really happy to meet Billy again, but what surprised us even further was the fact that he started dating a girl (Katie) who we met when we were in the Dominican Republic the last time. Actually, a fun fact is that we introduced them to each other. That's another story for another day. We had a good time over at his place and they took good care of us. 

Playing Dominoes with them my friends in the DR. (Notice the living conditions)


After a couple of days, it was time to move out of Billy's house as he was having some other guests over, and we were back to square one of searching for a place to stay. This left us with no other choice than to check into the hostel that we stayed in during our last trip there. Oh and while we were in Santo Domingo all we did was roam around in the streets looking for Haitians to just speak to. Thomas and I would each take turns on approaching someone who looks Haitian by saying "Como ou ye" and if we got a response in creole then we would just continue talking, but if we got a blank/ angry look, we just ran. I tell you it was quite an adventure, but most of the time we would really have some good conversations with the Haitians there.

 In that time when we were at the hostel, we looked up at the Couchsurfing website again and we came across another awesome guy named Victor and his buddy Osiris.  They agreed to house us for almost a week and it we great. Although Osiris was at work most of the time, he was very generous with his time. Victor was the funny one, he would drop us off at the main town area and head off to run a few errands. Through these guys, we met up with another friend (Kasia) of theirs who lived in Haiti for more than a year, She too shared the same love for Haitians that we did. The best part was we were able to finally relate with someone who understands the work that we do. The best part about the trip was when we spoke to Haitians in Creole. their expressions became one of pure joy  (it's a look that says, why are you able to speak my language?) and it was totally priceless.

 So during our whole trip, Thomas and I kept asking ourselves, Why did God send us here, what was his purpose?  So while we were Couchsurfing, we came across another individual who was Haitian (Luckenson) who offered us a place to stay, who happens to be a Med student in the Dominican Republic. The day we were supposed to stay over at his place, he asked us to meet us at a university campus. When we met him, he was with a bunch of other Haitian med students, nurses, and engineers planning a short medical mission trip to one of the Bateyes, to serve both Haitian and Dominicans. He asked us if we were interested in helping out with the medical mission, we were like... Oh yeahh!!! So the next two days were amazing, being surrounded by hoards of Haitian the sad part was hearing their stories and the hard lives they live there. Although it puts food on the table, a lot of hardship is followed by it. 

To help you understand, the life for Haitians in the Dominican Republic is usually one of suffering. They venture to the Dominican Republic for a better life and money to send to their families, but live in very impoverished homes. Also, there is a lot of discrimination that Haitians endure in the Dominican Republic.



Future Docs doing their jobs (That's Luckenson)

Thomas shadowing a Haitian Doc

I urge you guys to pray for all my Haitian brothers and sisters here in the DR who are suffering this kind of hardship.


"The righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Psalm 34:17-19

Meme time