Tuesday - Beach Day

Bonswa, friends and family!

Lexi here. Today is our last full day in Haiti, so we piled into the cars and drove out to spend the day at Kaliko beach. The drive was long (about two hours) and we endured some crazy Haitian traffic along the way, but when we finally got to see the beach it made the whole drive worth it. The water was clear and a beautiful teal color, and it was a huge relief to jump off the dock after a long, hot car ride. We got to swim for a while, and also had the opportunity to barter with the vendors for some souveniers. We were treated to a delicious buffet lunch, and got to enjoy a relaxing day with each other after a week of hard work.

There were some struggles today, however. It's a little humorous that I'm the one writing the post, seeing as I ended up having the worst luck out of anyone today. I got badly sunburnt sitting in the back of the truck, stepped on a sea urchin, and got cut by a soda bottle that fell and exploded on the ground at dinner (yes, in that order). Most of us are fairly sunburnt, and it took us about five hours to get back to the house after leaving the beach, thanks to even more crazy Haitian traffic. It will no doubt be a late night packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.

We ended the day by having pizza for dinner with pastor and his family and the security guard. We debriefed after that, and talked about the ways we can incorporate the lessons we learned during our time here in Haiti into life back in the states. We each picked a specific lesson we learned or gift we discovered to focus on bringing home, and wrote notes to our future selves which will be sent to us later. Overall, today was a great way to end an even better week.

While there were some struggles today and all throughout the trip, I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we wouldn't have had it any other way. Leaving tomorrow will, without a doubt, be difficult. But we are very grateful for the impact we got to make on the people of Haiti, and more grateful for the impact that they made on us. We can't wait to share our stories with you all!

Bonwit!