But on the other hand, there is the ugly side of Haiti, which we see once we enter the city. After landing in Cap, we begin a thirty-minute drive to Limbe, the town we will be working in. Our path to Limbe goes through the main streets of Cap, and the sight that I see is in complete contrast to the green mountains I saw flying in. People are everywhere. The streets are filled with them. Many are on bikes or motorbikes. Occasionally there is a rusty vehicle stuffed with ten or twelve other Haitians, their "taxi" service---weaving its way through the crowds, honking incessantly. There are no lanes of traffic---we drive on the left side of the road as much as the right. There are no crosswalks, stop signs, or traffic lights; people cross the streets at their leisure. It's a wonder more people don't get run over. Along the side of the streets are tiny shops where people sell bread or meat or clothes. Behind these shops are continuous rows of buildings. The buildings are made of wood and stone and are two to three stories high with collapsed ceilings, crumbling wall, and little paint. Some of the houses don't even have ceilings: they cannot afford it, and therefore their house consists of gray stone walls rising here and there, forming separate rooms without a ceiling.

That's another thing: the poverty. Because of a corrupt government, poverty is ridiculous down here. It's mainly why there are few vehicles to speak of and instead a lot of bikes. People wear old, shorn, tattered clothes. They can't afford to keep the roads in good shape so there are potholes and speed bumps all over the streets. Most people live on bread and rice three meals a day. There is no sanitation at all so the local tap water is probably riddled with disease and germs. I wouldn't know for sure, it was off-limit to the nine Americans storming down Main Street in Cap-Haitien.

We received stares from basically every person wandering the streets; they weren't necessarily glares, but because we were the only Caucasian people in the whole country, we were a bit out of place, and therefore seeing hundreds of pairs of big, brown eyes staring at me was no surprise. Most were relatively nice stares. One little boy made a goofy face at me and I mad one back; he smiled, gave me a thumbs up (the most popular friendly gesture among Haitians as far as I can tell), and I returned it. However, there were a few you could tell that didn't like us at all: they'd spit out a string of sentences in Creole, pointing their fingers and obviously chewing us out. There is a whole lot of unrest and rioting in Haiti these days. Elections are coming up for president, something they haven't had in over two years and people are going nuts over it. I heard of people being shot. Differences of opinion will do that to you in Haiti. Although I'm not so sure why they have such a vendetta against white people; maybe it's because their history books talk about how the evil white people (in this case, the French) enslaved all of the native Haitians until the French were driven out of the country. At any rate, most seemed to like us anyway--- they knew we were there to help their people. They especially liked us in Limbe, a town about as large as Cap when it comes to size, but about half as large when it comes to population.

Limbe is an awesome town because it is nearly surrounded on every side by mountains and it is not near as dirty as Cap, but instead there are a lot of trees and green shrubbery within the town at least making it worth looking at. But the poverty and the people and the way of life were no different here than in Cap. I soon met Paul and Belle,the wonderful Christian couple whose house we were staying at. Paul is a native Hatian and is a very prominent man Limbe; wisdom seems to just roll off that man's tongue. His wife, Belle, is actually from North Dakota but met Paul when she was a nurse in Haiti a long time ago. The two amaze me because they could, at the snap of their fingers, be living a quiet, cozy, easy life anywhere in the States, but they love the people of Haiti too much to leave, and have spent most of their lives in hardship and persecution while trying to help them.

All of this happened on Thursday, and the next day we begin working on what we are sent to do. The Barkman Center---the church/community center in Limbe-- is almost finished, after over five years of hard work from hundreds of workers from all kinds of different churches. We are there to add finishing touches to the place and build a water tower that will supply it and the nearby orphanage. We spent the majority of the next five days working on the place. Work is actually really enjoyable. You're not being forced to do it, you're not getting paid, but you are loving it anyway. You know you're doing it for something good, for a cause that is just. It may not be direct mission that you're performing, but the result of your work will be souls won over for Christ. This church---literally ten times the size of normal churches in Haiti---already has over five hundred members. The Christian school nearby has over five thousand kids to learn about Christ. He has already influenced much of Limbe for Christ; the Barkman Center is simply his next project. People go nuts for Jesus in that church. During the church service on, dozens of people would stand and wave their arms with their eyes closed during a song, praising God. For most of these people, amidst the poverty, God is all they have. He is the roof over their head. There is an amazing difference down here between Believers and those that practice voodoo. At one time, everyone, it seemed, practiced voodoo. But Christ now is slowly making His way across the country, thanks to people like Paul who sacrifice so much in order to further the Kingdom.

The week went by stunningly fast, and before I knew it we were flying over the Atlantic again, on our way to Florida. The week was awesome. The kids in Limbe, although they didn't know my language and I didn't know theirs, were extremely fun and special. Our "conversations" were unlike anything I had ever experienced. I met many brothers in Christ. They all made me laugh. At least three guys told me in broken English, "I will never forget you!" And then two minutes later couldn't remember my name. It was heart warming to see the influence of Jesus Christ in hard-to-reach places like Haiti. I know I didn't personally lead someone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but I pray that as a result of the work we did this week, that hundreds more could come to know Jesus as their personal Savior. After seeing what God has done in that country already, I have confidence it will happen.