Day 16 of Pinterest ~ Places that I love

Holy Toledo!

We’ve surprassed the halfway mark of this Pinterest Challenge  and reached Day 16 of

Today, I’m sharing a few places that are near and dear to my heart. You’ll need your Passport for one of them!

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina (The Outer Banks)

Ohhhh, this beach scene is so awesome. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are some of my favorite beaches on the East Coast. I first visited The Outer Banks as a young girl when my family would spend a week at a cousin’s beach house in Duck, about 30 minutes north of Kitty Hawk. There’s nothing better than a house of 16 really loud (and really fun) loved ones. And 3 bathrooms. And lots of sand. Ohhh I miss those days!

Fun Fact: the Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) invented the first airplane controls for fixed-wing planes; their first successful flight near Kitty Hawk occured on December 17, 1903. December 17 is also my birthday.

Georgia Aquarium ~ Atlanta, Georgia

As most of you know, I love The South. Of all the wonderful cities in the South, among my favorite is Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been to Atlanta many times for many different reasons. I visited Turner Field and met Chipper Jones, even asked him to be my date for Junior Prom. That didn’t turn out like I had dreamed. But, I still love Atlanta. I last visited in 2009 and visited the Georgia Aquarium, the world’s largest. It’s an amazing, jaw-dropping facility in the heart of downtown. More than 10 million gallons of water are inside this beautiful and modern museum. One of the most amazing exhibits, I think, includes an opportunity ~ the ONLY place in the world ~ where divers can swim with the largest fish in the world: whale sharks. Yeah, this is definitely going on my Bucket List of Life.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

It’s no surprise that Port-au-Prince, Haiti would be included in the list of my cities that I love. You can read about my first mission trip and experience in Haiti by clicking here. Since I’ve told my mother, I can share with the rest of you: I’m returning for another mission trip in 2012. I’ll be a co-leader on a team in October. I’m beyond excited and can’t wait to see my Haitian brothers and sisters!

What are some places that YOU love?

Weekly Photo Challenge ~ FACES

I’ve been cooking and slicing and dicing all kinds of goodies today but decided to take a rest and post this week’s photos for The Daily Post. I’m a big fan of this week’s theme ~ faces ~ because it gives me another opportunity to share the beautiful faces of the children I met in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I love these faces …. the represent so many emotions and experiences for me. Hope you enjoy this collection, I couldn’t choose just one to post!

If you want to participate in the Weekly Photo Challenge, check out The Daily Post every Friday for a new theme …. happy weekend, Y’all!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace, love, and beautiful faces,

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Flowers

It’s Friday and that means a new theme from The Daily Post for their Weekly Photo Challenge.

This week’s theme is FLOWERS.

It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that I am in desperate need of instruction and a one-on-one tutorial of Photoshop. Each time I open this silly photo-editing software, my spirit (none to mention my ego) loses a bit of vibrance. I am painfully aware of my lack in abilities to manipulate a photo. But, alas, I am scheduled to attend a FIVE~hour class on Photoshop this November. Just 46 days left…….not that I’m counting!

Back to the photos for the week. Some of these are from a trip with my best friend to her wedding venue (A and M Gardens in Azle, Texas) and others are from my recent trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

 

Don’t ask how I got this photo to look the way it does. Good, bad, or indifferent I was impressed with myself for a nano-second that I was able to accomplish such a feat. Now, I don’t remember what I did or how I did it. But I love orchid blooms and Kim’s engagement ring is gorgeous.

 

This one makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. How can you be sad if something is as bright yellow as this?!

 

I don’t  know what this flower is, but I like it. This photo was taken at the devastating scene and amongst the wreckage of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince. The hotel facility catered to Western (mostly U.S. and European) clients and was completely leveled in the 2010 earthquake. The team and I were able to walk around the property where a new hotel and convention facility is being rebuilt.

 

This blooming flower bush was outside the Methodist Guest House and I just noticed the leaves are shaped like hearts and the center of each bloom has a star-shaped bud.

 

This bloom, to me, represents the Haitian people. They are the most driven, passionate, and tenacious people I’ve met. An earthquake may shatter their lives and destroy their homes, but their faith will not be shaken, their hearts will not be moved, and they will find their way through the rubble to the SONlight.

 

I almost forgot about this sunflower. I snapped this shot last month in Kentucky at my parent’s neighbor’s house. They have a great backyard complete with a fire pit, garden, and play area for their two daughters. On the edge of their deck, they’ve planted several sunflowers and the blooms are incredible!

 

 

Blue says hi.

I say enjoy your Friday.

Don’t forget to enter my Celebration Giveaway ~ it ends this Sunday at midnight. There’s a ton of great prizes, including a Target gift card, Scentsy gift collection, a cookbook by The Pioneer Woman, and custom made textiles from an Etsy shop. ENTER NOW!!!!!

 

Love,

 

 

 

 

 

I Heart Faces ~ The “Eyes” of Haiti

This week’s I Heart Faces photo challenge is Beautiful Eyes. My recent mission trip to Haiti provided many opportunities to capture beautiful shots of a beautiful country with beautiful people. Besides a Haitian’s smile, their eyes are striking features.

I know it’s against the rules to post more than one photo ~ and I know I’m out of the running to be selected as a weekly winner ~ but that’s something I can easily live without.

Besides, I can’t choose just one.

 

I can’t choose one set of eyes.

 

I can’t choose one child over another.

 

If it were up to me, I would have put all these precious children in my pocket to keep forever!

 

To see more “beautiful eyes,” visit I Heart Faces or click the icon below.

 

 

If you have not done so already, visit my Celebration Giveaway for a chance to win a myriad of great prizes including Haitian artwork, Target giftcard, books, mongrammed textiles, and Scentsy products. You must include your name and email address in the comment line. Contest ends Sunday, August 21. Good luck!

 

 

It was my honor and privilege

I am definitely a little sad that I’m leaving PAP, Haiti tomorrow morning. While I’m looking forward to an air-conditioned environment and sleeping in my own bed, I am certainly going to miss my Haitian brothers and sisters. It was an honor, and a privilege, to work beside and among them the past eight days.

My team and I have worked many hours in exhausting heat and humidity, but the progress is visible and there is a sense of accomplishment among us. The trench we began digging last week is now a cinder-block foundation perimeter ready for the next team (who arrives tomorrow!) to continue back-filling the low spots.

Our interpreters, Rodney and Joseph, will forever hold a spot in my heart. They both cared for all of us throughout the week and provided excellent service. Rodney was my personal bodyguard this week, he never let me stray out of his sight and I am eternally grateful for his hospitality, sacrificial love, and graciousness. I will miss him dearly, but I know we will see each other again.

The Haitian men we worked beside hold a very special place in all of our hearts. In fact, Michael planted the seed of gift-giving when he presented his shoes to Mucho, one of the Haitian workers. It didn’t take long for this act to become contagious.

Several of us departed the work site wearing sandals or no shoes at all. Again, it was an honor and a privilege to give my shoes to this man. With Rodney’s translation, he graciously thanked me for my gift and even made a funny comment,

I’ll wear your pink shoes because you strong woman who use pick axe!!!!

Right on, my friend, right on!

He’s right, though, wearing pink DOES make you stronger. Earlier this week, I carried a 90-lb bag of cement mix on my shoulders. (tsk tsk) That sucker was HEAVY!!!!!

After lunch today, the team and I served one another the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Even stinky work clothes and tiny styrofoam cups can be transformed into a holy, sacred moment. Afterwards, we joined our hands and offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the Haitian workers we’ve met and the students who will learn at this school once construction is complete.

I’ve said it before about the Haitians, but the same is true about my fellow teammates: it was an honor to work beside each of you.

I’m going to miss this place. I already miss my Haitian friends. But I have promised them, and myself, that I will return. There are many opportunities available in Haiti, and some of them I want to share with friends and family about the possibility of them coming to Haiti with metoo. It is an experience that words cannot describe.

Rev. Lara said it best when she returned from her first trip to Haiti last October,

…..it was the most exhausting trip physically, emotionally, and spiritually ~ but I’m going back!

To my Haitian brothers and sisters, I will return to your beautiful country. I will be back. We will see each other again.

 For additional posts and pictures from my mission trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti this week, please visit the team’s blog by clicking HERE.

God bless you!

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• I held Haiti today (mrshutchison.wordpress.com)

I held Haiti today

The motto for our mission team this week as been this:

Hold Haiti In Our Hearts

Today, I held Haiti in my arms.

Her name is Floriol. She is six months old.

She stole my heart from the moment I stepped into the cinder-block structure that houses the intensive care unit and nursery. There were about 15 toddler beds and 10 metal cribs lined along the walls and in the center of the room. Floriol was in the second row of cribs sitting up and sucking her two fingers. As I scanned the room, I saw the pain in each child’s eyes and then I saw the tubes in their arms and knew the prognosis is not good.

Floriol’s eyes met mine and I will never be the same.

I asked one of the volunteers (also a missionary) if I could approach her crib and she said that I could hold her as well. Sweeter words have never been said.

I couldn’t get to her fast enough. I had to wiggle my way through a maze of toddler beds and around a Haitian mother breastfeeding her newborn before I finally reached this precious Child of God. The most amazing thing happened when I stood at the side of her crib: she looked up at me and immediately lifted her arms as if to say,

Please, please hold me. Please love me. Please comfort me. Please tell me you love me and care for me. Even if you cannot take away my pain or improve my condition, comfort me in this moment.

Tomorrow is our last day at the project site and our last full day in Haiti. I’m ready to go home and see my Husband and talk with my family and friends about this experience, but it is already breaking my heart thinking about saying goodbye to my Haitian friends.

It was difficult leaving Grace Hospital, but I know this is not the last time my passport will be stamped in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In fact, there is an agriculture program that UMCOR is starting with rural farmers and it includes crop production, livestock, and land and forest preservation. It is a program that I’m very interested in serving. After today’s visit to Grace Hospital, don’t be surprised if I am a nursery volunteer in the future for the sole purpose of rocking and nurturing these tiny children of God.

There are so many opportunities for mission work in Port-au-Prince, find your place and you will be blessed.

Love,

Nicole

 

Stark Contrasts

Yesterday was emotional.

Today was heartbreaking, embarrassing, and soul-crushing. However, I realize more and more just how blessed beyond measure I really am.  

This morning we went to a beautiful and passionate worship service at the Methodist Church of Thor. Pastor Jacob and his congregation greeted us like royalty and treated us like honored guests. When it came time to serve Communion, we were the first to receive the Sacrament. I saw faces of children, youth, and adults filled with love, hope, and gratitude.

They didn’t just shake my hand, they kissed my cheeks. They welcomed me not only into their church, but into their hearts as well.

The road to the church was fierce with the realization that as bad as the conditions ARE, they were much worse when other teammates were here last October. The reality of the situation is this….Haiti is dirty, unsanitary, and smells really bad.

Take a look for yourself, these pictures were taken on our way to church:

 

 

 

 

The part, I think, that upsets me so about these pictures is that no one can fully understand or comprehend the VASTNESS of this reality unless you see it for yourself. The tent cities go on forever, it’s like they never end. The streets are overcrowded and filled with garbage and raw sewage. The waterways are filled with trash, yet you see children and adults bathing in them. Street vendors are selling produce and goods for their survival, these people live one day at a time. Today is all they have.

All of these thoughts were running through my mind when we arrived at our destination for lunch this afternoon. Located high atop a mountain above Port-au-Prince is Hotel Ibolele, pronounced E-boo-ley-ley. It’s a resort-style hotel and restaurant that caters specifically to Western and European clients. It’s obvious the stark contrasts between the locations I visited today.

 

My soul was crushed when I walked through the veranda and onto the courtyard and saw the view.

But then a teammate reminded me that I needed today for a physical and psychological break from the reality we have been living for nine days. Today’s lunch served as a powerful reminder of just how good my life really is….not that I ever doubted this before, but this trip has sure put everything into a new perspective.

After lunch we drove higher up on the mountain, about 3,500 feet above sea level, to an overlook point. Yes, it was beautiful. Yes, it was painful.

I’m really looking forward to returning to the worksite tomorrow. To be honest, I’m tired of sight-seeing and personifying the obvious role of American Tourist. Yes, I’m the photographer for the team and I’m the crazy lady hanging out of the tap-tap’s window in order to snap these photos you’ve been seeing here and on the team blog. But, as difficult as digging a trench and hauling five-gallon buckets of dirt, gravel, sand, and cement mix to a second-story is…..I’d rather be doing WORK than eating a salad and shrimp cocktail at a neatly dressed table with linen napkins and fine china at a resort high atop the pain and devastation of Port-au-Prince. C’mon, let’s be honest with each other: there are 1.7 million people living in PAP right now and approximately 800,000 are still displaced and living in tents.

I need to be on the project site.

I want to be on the project site.

 

Day 3 of Haiti

This photo doesn’t mean anything to you. Afterall, it’s only a fence.

Actually, it’s a green metal fence shielding the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

But this photo represents my precious ~ intense ~ moment of indescribable emotion in the three short days I’ve been in Haiti. 

I rested the lens of my camera on the iron fence to get a better shot of the palace. As I did this, a hand gently rested on my shoulder and a voice quietly whispered in my ear.

“I’m here with you.”

You see, the hand that rested on my shoulder and the voice that whispered in my ear belonged to Rodney, one of our interpreters and employee of the Methodist Guest House. While I was never afraid or fearful while standing in the square next to the Palace, it was the most sincere, comforting, and genuine moment of human connection with a divine touch.

I will NEVER be the same.

Today was indescribable.

 There are no words to describe the emotion, the devastation, and the HOPE that’s in Haiti.

I am blessed beyond measure.

Obviously, the Presidential Palace was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.

Presidential Palace

Presidential Palace

Sore does not even describe what I’m feeling right now

I am utterly exhausted. I never thought (in a middle years!) I would be rolling ~ literally ~ out of bed onto the floor and attempt the Downward Dog yoga position. My back was stiff as a board and I was willing do anything ~ anything! ~ to loosen myself up. It wasn’t pretty, and no I don’t have a picture!

Moving on…….

We spent all day yesterday digging a trench, Transcontinental Railroad-style, and finally “met in the middle” late in the afternoon. After a few minutes struggling with a shovel, I quickly learned that being IN the trench on my hands and knees and scooping up rocks and debris into a five-gallon bucket was much easier. I would pay for this later. As soon as we returned to the guest house last night, I realized that I’m NOT Limber Lucy. My back is sooooooo sore from crawling around and lifting heavy buckets above my head.

I will survive, I will work again today.  

Yesterday morning we began digging and chipping and scooping and shoveling and moving dirt, gravel, and debris.

Eight hours later ~ success! ~ the trench was clear.

This morning we will travel to the work site to finish cleaning the trench and then return to the guest house for lunch, showers, and in the afternoon we are visiting the Haitian National Historical Museum.

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• Good Morning (from Haiti) (mrshutchison.wordpress.com)

Good Morning (from Haiti)

Good morning, Friends ~

I’m glad to announce that I am writing this from the United Methodist Church of Haiti’s guest house in Port-au-Prince. We arrived yesterday evening to smiling faces and warm embraces from the guest house managers and Haitians employees. There is another mission team staying here from Missouri also.

The weather is (wait for it) pleasant. Tropical Storm Emily is still headed in this direction and models expect her to hit Hispaniola tomorrow morning. There is an extremely nice breeze and right now it’s cloudy and overcast. The storm is not expected to hit our area directly, but we are anticipate heavy rains and strong winds. Fortunately, we are located on the other side of the mountains, so the storm will lose most of its strength when it passes that region before hitting us. No worries, I am actually looking forward to seeing the rain ~ just wish I could send some home to Texas!

In the next half-hour, my team and I will enjoy a lovely breakfast prepared by the Haitian staff and then load into the tap-tap (cargo van) and head to our project site. My camera is fully charged, with a new (and empty) memory card, and ready to go. I took some photos yesterday on the plane as we were flying over The Caribbean, as well as our “adventure” in the airport and on the road to the guest house. You can read all about that, and see the photos, by visiting our team’s blog HERE. Please be sure to “subscribe” to the team’s blog and comment, each night we will meet together for devotion time and I’ll be sharing email messages and blog comments. If you have anything you’d like to share, please send me a message directly or leave a comment on our blog.

Let the fun begin,

Nicole

 

 

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