Completely different from Port au Prince

is the village life of Haiti

its slower, takes its time

lets you breathe it in

and, at the same time, takes your breath away.

this was a church and school, its now a complete lost and will have to be torn down.

this is where they meet now for church, this is set up on the site where a 3 story orphanage once stood.  It collapsed in the earthquake and they have since cleared it, using the crumbled concrete to create a road into the village so now you can drive in rather than walk from the main road.

If you travel about 2 hours outside of Port au Prince

and stop along side the road at a seemingly random spot

get out and cross the road to find a path

(a rocky path that makes you wonder how they walk over it barefoot)

and you walk for about a half mile

you come across several little one room houses

and you meet this man

who looks to be older than he probably really is

who has a cleft palette but whose smile will brighten the darkest day

and his love for life?

well, its contagious.

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and he makes baskets

beautiful handmade perfectly imperfect baskets

productivity isn’t high and selling is limited to those that may wander down his path

but, wow, those baskets are made with love

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a group of us prayed for him after buying a basket

his only basket

pretty sure if he had more we would have cleaned him out

because its so much more than a basket.

(this is him while we prayed for him…one of my fave shots of the trip)

I’ve been thinking alot about this.

about why we have things and think we need things

and how some people take it all for granted

while others say “thank you God for my blessings”

and think that that gives them the privilege or ok to overindulge,

you know, because they said thanks

but what if

what if we all lived differently

and started clearing out our crap

and living simply so that others can simply live?

**

Have you ever tried going barefoot?

even for a day?

do you ever put on your shoes and get down on your knees and thank God for them.

or do you complain that you need a new pair,

or that you can’t find ones to match your outfit?

**

change that today.

thank God that you have shoes.

get down on your knees and be extremely, over abundantly thankful

that you have shoes.

and think of these beautiful people

who now have shoes because someone

chose to live simply

so that others can simply live.

In Haiti we stayed at a girls orphanage. With some of the cutest little girls you ever did see. They were so much fun getting to know and to play with. Head on over to my facebook page to see pictures of them all in a little mini photo shoot we did with them all:)

I have tons of photos of them just being goofy and fun. and the posing they would do! But I love this picture for some reason. Maybe because it brings me back to being there with them. Every night they would sit down at their table for dinner and before they started you would here throughout the orphanage the prayer they said together. Something about 20+ little girls bowing their heads over a meal that, compared to other kids in the area, they are blessed to have makes you love life just a little more.

I wrote this quote in the front of my journal for Haiti:

your reward for feeling the fear and doing it anyway is the unmistakable joy of living your life instead of renting it.  That is worth leaping for. -Lara  Casey

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I’ve heard that this is the Haiti funk.

the first couple days when you get back and you are trying to get back into the swing of things but nothing really seems that important compared to starving kids

and you can’t understand why the girl working at the post office is being rude to everyone

and you just want to shake her and scream

“at least you have a job, and a home that isn’t a tent, and food to eat today”

and you savor every second with your family because you realize that is so much more important than any other junk you would normally stress about.

and my prayer is

that I don’t loose that Haiti funk.

because it kinda feels like freedom to me.

**

This Saturday I’m attending a Making Things Happen Intensive.

And it’s perfectly times with my heart being completely open to what God wants.

it’s scary, exhilarating, and unknown.

but I’m done with renting life.

and ready to leap.