Friday, February 28, 2014

Off to the Dominican Republic

We have had a substantial break between teams so we were able to go explore!  We took a bus trip to Santo Domingo in the Dominican.  We left from Port au Prince for the eight hour trip.  The scenery was quite amazing and varied.  We have heard that the terrain changes right at the border and it is very true.  The Dominican side is greener than the east side of Haiti. It is also a country of greater wealth. That was noticeable all around.  One day, perhaps Haiti will again be known as the 'Pearl of the Caribbean' in respect to its beauty and wealth. What an adventure entering another country in which we did not know the language.  Interestingly, when trying to communicate in Spanish, our heads defaulted to Creole!  That was surprising.
It was a good time to relax and unwind - it is good to back home though! 
Here are a few pictures of the contrasts that we saw........

Mining sand for concrete with shovels on the Haiti border

 
A village in the same area that makes and sells charcoal
from the trees in the mountains
 
 
Views from our hotel window

Friday, February 14, 2014

Welcome to Two New Teams

It is always exciting to see the constituency of Haiti ARISE expanding......

Meet Bethel Team from Three Hills, AB.  Three members of this team came last year for the first time and went home and started to recruit and plan for this year's return.  That is just awesome!


Meet Impact Kingston Team from Kingston, ON.  This is a completely new team - and they are excited to be here and are having a great time.  The two teams are becoming fast friends!

Horizon Medical Team

We are pleased to have a new medical team with us this week.  This is Horizon Medical from Red Deer, AB.  Also joining them is Jessica (far left) from Edmonton.  Jessica spent 10 months with Haiti ARISE a few years ago.