On the plane ride back from my November 2009 trip to Haiti, I made plans to spend Christmas in Haiti.
With the help of many friends and family, I raised money for Christmas present to bring to Haiti. I pack 4 suitcases completely filled with gifts.
The suit cases were filed with shoes, boots, sneakers, sandals, soccer balls, hacky sacks, Christmas stocking, cloth shoulder bags, purses, work gloves, plastic cups, balloons, balloon pump, mini crayon, coloring books, mini notebook, loose crayons, flashlight keychain, candy necklaces, domino sets, small plush animals, rubber duckies, paper watches, children watches, men's watches, toy rings, christmas bracelets, string bracelets, visor caps, led flashlights, cabby hat, sun glasses, belts, jeans, tee shirts, nail polish, hair clips, hair bands, tooth paste, dental floss, tooth brushes, candy cases, bracelets, necklaces, ear rings, rings, silverware set, glow sticks, and the list goes one.
I also bought down cash to buy drinks, rice, goats and chickens so we could throw a Christmas feast. I also had cash to give financial gifts - to give to orphans, widows, and to sponsor kids in school. And my partner brought a frozen turkey - he packed it in his luggage (I know him too well ... I wasn't surprised...)

Because it was around Christmas when we were flying, the US government had a strict policy allowing only two bags per person - I had 4. By God's grace and provision, after waiting out in 20 degree weather for a half hour to check in our bags directly out side at JFK, our attended check in all our bags and gave us a HUGE break - mind you, 3 out of the 4 bags I have were over 75lbs [the rule was they had to be under 50lbs.] It would have been awful to have to leave a bag or two behind in the states, because all of them were filled with presents! But God's made it clear to us that HE was with us on this trip, even before we went into the airport.

When we finally got down to the village, put our bags in our rooms. My partner's wife had a surprise waiting for me in the house - she had a bed set hand made for me - it was elegant and beautifully crafted - I will always have a place to sleep when I visit the village! That gift just added to the warm reception I received. From the time we arrived at the house to take in our luggage 'til the time we went back outside, a crowd of people had formed to greet us and make us feel at home - indeed this was home.

Haitians celebrate Christmas on the December 24th, but it is not like in America - all of stores were open. We exchanged our money and went out shopping - cases and cases of soda and water, a bunch of chicken, rice, and a bunch over other supplies for the party we had planned for that night.
Once we got back to the village - we unloaded the groceries - there were about 14 women who had the task of preparing all of the food. Wild! Oh, and by the way, we bought two live goats for the party - they were cute but they tasted so good.

Though Christmas is different in America - the Haitians have that holiday down - they put the merry in Merry Christmas. There was a special three hour special church service was held that ended around midnight, then everyone came to the party that we threw - tons of people, music, dominoes, cards. It was wild. Papa Noel (Santa Clause) [me, with my beard and tropical Santa outfit] even made an appearance. The people had a lot of fun with Papa Noel - especially the kids. We started to eat our first course of the dinner at 2:30 in the morning! After everyone had eaten - we passed out gifts. There were so many gifts - everyone that was at that party got something. So many gifts - thinking about it conjures up all of the stress I was feeling from having so much to give and so many people to give it to. Trying to set up a system of distributing the gifts was a headache - but so worth it. I don't even know how to describe it, except we gave away a ton of gifts. And... the sun came up and the party was still going. Finally, around 6:00am we were finished - and boy were we tired. And I was hungry - I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. I didn't want to eat at the party because I didnt want to take any food away from our guests. But thankfully, the women had stashed some food away for us - so I ate a half a plate of rice and went straight to bed.

On the 25th, when I finally woke up around 1:30pm, I started organizing all of the left over gift I had. I knew that I would be a challenge to hand out the gifts I had remaining. When I went outside - I had my young army waiting for me. We had some fun with recording a video - I taught them "Merry Christmas" and posted it on Twitter for everyone following me back in the US.
On the night of the 25th, we planned to pass out the 35+ shoes we brought. Since there were way more than 35 people around, we came up with a plan: measure everyone's feet and record their name and foot size - that way we can give the right shoes to the right people - and we'll have a record of their foot size of the next time we want to give away shoes in the village. After we got all of the data and assigned who was going to get which shoes, we passed the shoes out. WOW - if you could see the joy in their faces when they received a pair of shoes! The pictures I got are great, but hardly do it justice! A pair of shoes - this is something that they cherished! They were so thankful for it. Getting shoes was a big deal. Most people had hand-me-down shoes at best - most were always barefoot - especially the kids.

December 26th, bright and early me and my posse were hangin out on the porch - just chilling. There was a small enough group that I had it in my mind to give each of the kids a gift - a soccer uniform. This was go cool. Seeing these kids dressed up proper soccer jerseys and shorts - color coordinated teams. So then I said lets go play soccer! So we walked down to the church to play soccer on the soccer court. But to do that, I had to bring out a soccer ball (soccer balls are equivalent to gold in the village). I was in enough trouble with the people who didn't get a jersey. Watching the kids play soccer was awesome - but soccer isn't a sport for the out of shape - so I had a wonderful alternative - Hacky Sack! While the soccer people were doing their thing, me and the young lads went around the corner and I taught them hacky sacks. So I was showing off my cool tricks - the kids enjoyed it. We all had a lot of fun!
When I decided to go back to the house, I had about 50 kids as my entourage - each of them crowding around me, trying to hold my hand. My youth army. And they were an army - they helped do some around the house work - these little soldiers could work - it was the first time that saw how that group operated. There was a main boss and two under bosses, and all of the other kids listened to them. So I adopted those terms. I called them boss or piti (little) boss, and they called me gwo (big) boss. That made dealing with the kids a lot easier. Everything went through the ranks and I could even delegate things to the boss or piti bosses. In return for the army's services, I gave the boss a soccer ball for the whole group.
Coincidentally, the girls were inclined to braid my beard hair (my bear was long!). It's a good thing that the girls played with my beard during the day, because that night - on the 26th of December, my young Haitians shaved my beard and head. THAT was an event. There were a lot of spectators.

We were originally going to leave the village to go back to Port-au-Prince on the 27th, but there were some things that delayed us, so we stayed an extra day in the Village - which I was happy to do. I still had a bunch of gifts to give away. I had like 8 soccer balls to get rid of, and I had special gifts that I wanted to give away to some of the women friends that I have a crossed the street. God planned it out perfectly, because He gave me just enough time to do it all.
The 27th was pretty chill - I didn't have to worry about packing because I didn't have anything left, just empty suit cases. I just spent as much time as I could with my people. Went to the church to say my good byes to the pastor and his wife, and my best Haitian friend, Oslen. I did a lot of reflecting on that day about my trip and replayed all of the events and all of the cherished moments that occurred. I have written so much about my Christmas trip here, yet there are so many things that come to mind - special things - things that I don't need to share with other - the special memories that you keep with you and lock them up tight. I love my people, and from my favorite spot to sit in the village, I thought about all of these things.

Dark and early at 4:15am on Sunday the 28th, we set off for Port-au-Prince. My friends Fredrick and Sobner came along for the ride. We got to where were going around 8:15am. 8:30, Vanya had coffee and breakfast ready for us. I love that woman! She is always so good to us! I pulled a Krouse at breakfast - I made a sandwich, wrapped it in a napkin, and put it in my pocket for later. Haha. We set off for the airport around 11:00am, and it was so hard, as always to come back.