Bailey always said she wanted to go to Hawaii for her senior trip, but then an opportunity came up for her to take a Humanitarian trip to Haiti with Operation Shield, and she quickly changed her mind! Operation Shield is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing, rescuing, and treating victims of child sex trafficking. This is the area Bailey would like to focus her education and career on, so it was the perfect opportunity for her! Haiti has a HUGE child trafficking problem. It's a very poor country, and that makes it a perfect target. Sex traffickers will take kids from the villages by promising their parents that they will provide the children with food and a home in return for domestic servitude. Then they bring the kids over to the Dominican Republic where they are sold to brothels to service American and European men who are there on 'sex vacations.' It's disgusting, but it's a huge problem! If the kids are provided with food (even one meal a day), the families become a lot less desperate, and this is a lot less likely to happen. That's a very condensed version of what goes on there, but in a nutshell, that's what Bailey was helping with in Haiti.
She loved every second of her time in Haiti, and is already super anxious to go back! It was a life changing experience, and one she will never forget. She said it solidified what she wants to study in college, and the direction she wants her career path to go. Here's her story...
She had to take a few precautions before she left. Shots were a big one! She was a trooper, considering she had about 5 needles poked into her. She also had to treat her clothes with Permetherin. We didn't want her to come home with the Zika virus!
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| Lots of shots! |
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| All her clothes were hung out in the garage and sprayed. Even all her little socks were hanging out there. |
Haiti
Operation Shield
May 30-June 7
May 30th:
One day after graduation and Bailey was off to change the world! We drove her and Marlee to Salt Lake to meet up with more of their group, for their red-eye flight to Fort Lauderdale. There was a screaming baby on their first flight, so they didn't get much sleep. They had a 7 hour layover in Fort Lauderdale.
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| On our way to SLC. They were beyond excited! |
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| All set to go! |
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| Bailey wasn't nervous at all about going to a third world country, but the travel and airport part had her a little stressed! We waited for them to get through security and find their gate, and then we left and they were on their own. |
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| Getting some sleep during their layover in Fort Lauderdale. |
May 31st:
They had a bit of a scary flight to Haiti! The plane fishtailed on the runway, and during the descent. The girls were at the back of the plane, so they felt it a lot! Then about 20 minutes into the flight they felt like they were free falling for about 5-8 seconds. Bad enough that Marlee grabbed Bailey's leg really hard! They cracked up about it later! Once they landed and made it through customs, they met up with the last few people in their group. There were ten of them in all. They had the best guides/translators. The girls loved them!
The first thing they did was drive to Titanyen to visit the memorial for the 2010 earthquake victims. In Jan of 2010, a 7.0 earthquake and it's aftershocks killed 300,000 people in Haiti! They had to put the dead into the back of dump trucks and pile them all into a mass grave. Matt (the leader of Operation Shield) was in Haiti a year later and said the country smelled like death. Now there is a memorial built on the site. Bailey said it was beautiful, but so sad to think about! From there, they went to the home they would be staying in for the week.
Here's some things straight from Bailey's journal:
1. The kids are adorable, the men are fairly handsome and for the most part have a lot of upper body strength, and the women are absolutely stunning! Their hair is so so pretty, and their skin is flawless. Overall, the Haitians are very beautiful people.
2. There is garbage everywhere! And I mean EVERYWHERE! There are heaps of it on the street, a lot of the time on fire.
3. There are tons of animals out and about, but especially goats. I wasn't really expecting that.
4. They are incredibly happy people! They are always smiling and waving at us!
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| All the women walked around with big loads on their heads. |
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The group at the memorial:
Marilyn, Sarah, Lexi, Mandy, Emily, Ruth, Allison, Bailey, Marlee, Kyla |
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| The memorial |
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| The memorial |
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| The place they stayed was really nice. This is Bailey and Marlee on their balcony. |
June 1st:
They went to the village, Rousseau. This is where Bailey got her first taste of how little these people have, and how much help is needed. Rousseau is where they spent a lot of their time and resources. They are building a church/school, that will also be used for one of the feeding programs. The goal during this trip was to get the roof on the church.
To get there, they ride in the back of pick ups. The village is in the mountains, and Bailey thought for sure she would bounce right out of the truck. The kids from the village would get so excited when they saw the trucks coming! They would chase the trucks up the hill to the village. At one point, one of the trucks got stuck. Bailey said all the people from the village just stopped what they were doing and came to push the truck up the hill.
Once they got there, they met in what the village currently uses as their church/shelter. It's not even a building! Bailey said it was basically a one room frame, with leaves weaved together and set up against the frame as walls. And, it's the best 'building' they have in their village! They sang some songs, and all the women and children in the village learned their names. They called Bailey, 'Bellee' and she loved it! Then they got to pass out donations. They handed out shoes, clothes, newborn kits, food, etc. They had color books and crayons and showed the kids how to color. The kids loved to hold their hands and play with their hair. The kids loved them and were starved for attention, so that's where a lot of their focus was.
After the village, they drove back down the mountain and helped at a feeding program. They fed 165 hungry kids. For a lot of them it's the only meal they get durning the day. They love music, and Bailey got to play the guitar and sing for them before they ate. After the meal, they basically had a big dance party!
After that, they got changed and went to the beach to cool off. They stopped by the House of Hope Orphanage and brought some of the kids to the beach with them. They ended each night with a devotional.
When the girls were trying to shower that night, they had an episode with a giant cockroach in their room. Hahaha, it's all just part of the experience!
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| Dezzi is one of the guides/translators. They love all the guides. Bailey said they are incredible people who are just trying to better the country. |
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| Bailey and Lexi |
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| Such a beautiful country. |
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| The hill leading to the village. |
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| The villagers pushing the truck up the hill. |
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| This is a 'house' in the village. |
The kids chasing the truck up the hill.
Singing!
Learning names! So cute!
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| Matt, Baz, and Paul |
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| Meeting all the people in the village. |
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| So sweet! |
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| Bailey just loved all these little Haitian faces! |
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| They handed out these water bags. |
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| Coloring! |
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| This is the church/school they are building in Rousseau. The trip's goal is to get the roof on it. |
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| Operation Shield helpers! |
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| The feeding program |
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| Serving 165 kids! |
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| This little guy was so tired, he fell asleep before he even ate his food. |
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| Playing guitar and singing with the kids. |
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| The kids loved their phones! They liked to pose for pictures and then look at them. Even the adult women liked it. I bet they don't have mirrors, so they probably don't see themselves very often. |
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| I love this picture of Marlee. |
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| These little girls loved Bailey. Another little one came up to Bailey for attention, and these two pushed her away! |
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| Emily, Bailey, and Lexi |
June 2nd:
They got up and headed back to Rousseau today. Bailey said this was one of the most memorable days of her life. They worked on the church in the morning. They were putting the metal sheets up on the roof. Bailey slid the edge of a sheet of metal across her hand and got what she calls the 'world's worst paper cut.' They got half the roof done before they left for the day!
At one point, Bailey and Lexi went to play with the kids. Bailey got to hold a little 9 day old Haitian baby for about an hour. She loved every second of it! They brought all the donations in suitcases, and when the baby's mom saw that one of the suitcases was empty, she asked if she could have it. She needed it as a bed for the baby! Bailey said it was so heartbreaking! They don't even really have anywhere to set the babies down. After about 45 minutes of Bailey holding the baby, the baby's mom came out of her little house with a chair. She brought the chair over to the shade, and Bailey thought she was going to sit down. Instead she grabbed Bailey's arm and pulled her over to the chair to sit down. She wanted to make sure Bailey was comfortable. Bailey said the Haitian people are very generous with everything they have. Bailey had a really great day in the village, but when it was time to give the baby back, she started to have a panic attack. She handed the baby back, turned around and started crying. The babies really got to her on this trip. She had to pull herself together pretty quick though, because they were still with all the kids. The kids took their hands again and walked them back to the truck.
From there, they went to an orphanage with 23 kids. The kids ranged from age 6 to 21. She said it was a very well run orphanage, and the kids were really taken care of. They took a tour, and Bailey doesn't want to say it was a nice place, because by American standards it's not, but as far as Haiti goes, it was nice and clean, and well run. When they got there, the kids came out and hugged them all one by one. They handed out a lot of donations to the kids. After everything was handed out, the boys went to play soccer, so Bailey and some of the other ladies painted the little girl's nails. They also met Marc-Antoine. He's 17 and lives at the orphanage. He came up to the girls and gave them some of his art work. He's really quite talented. The girls gave him $5 a piece and told him to use it to buy more art supplies. Bailey loved him, and she loves her Haitian art work! The kids LOVED watching videos on the girl's phones. They especially loved Lexi's rodeo videos. One little boy watched a video that Bailey had on her phone from back in 8th grade. There is a part in it where Mark dances. The kid watched it 5 times in a row and would crack up every time he saw Mark dance! He would try to copy Mark's shimmy shimmy shake shake!
They ended the day with a sunset at the beach.
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| They left one truck at the bottom of the hill, so they had about 13 people crammed into one pick up! When they got to the place where they got stuck the day before, there were tons of Haitian people from the village waiting for them to help them get the truck up. Here's a part from Bailey's journal, "We ended up getting out of the truck before we got to the top of the mountain. It had rained the night before, so the path was kind of muddy and slippery. The kids came and grabbed our hands and would guide us on the safest path through the mud. I slipped a little bit once, and they both grabbed my arms and stopped to make sure I was okay. They kept touching my face, and moving my hair out of my eyes, and wiping my sweat off. They are just so sweet!" That's why it didn't take her long to fall in love with all the people there. |
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| This is the current church, and it acts as the only real shelter they have from hurricanes. This is why the new church is so needed. |
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| Working on the roof of the new church. |
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| This will be the only hurricane proof building the village has. |
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| One of the men working on the church made this podium for it! So cool! |
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| So cute! |
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| They loved making videos on Bailey's phone, and then watching them. |
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| They all loved this little guy! They said he was always so happy. Just goes to show that having a lot of 'things' isn't what brings happiness. |
June 3rd:
Today was Sunday, so they went to a nondenominational church. Bailey thought it was amazing. It was in Creole French, so they didn't understand a lot of it, but Bailey said there was definitely a spirit there. They use a lot of music, and Bailey loved that. They had a live band with a keyboard, drums, and other island instruments. So fun! They all had to stand up and introduce themselves. There was a visiting pastor and Dezzi translated at the pulpit for them. When they were leaving, she said everyone would either shake their hands, or pat their shoulders on the way out.
After church, they went to a museum. On the way there, they dropped off a wheelchair to a man who had both of his legs amputated at the knee. After the museum, they spent some time at the beach, and then just relaxed the rest of the day.
Church-Bailey mostly kept her phone in her lap when she filmed, because she didn't want to be rude.
More from church.
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| The museum |
June 4th:
Today they visited the 'boys in the mountains.' Both of the parents died, so the boys live up in the mountains with their grandma. She has a really hard time providing for them. The boys got infections in their feet and almost had to have them amputated. Matt and Dezzi helped them out in a previous visit, they had a procedure done that saved their feet, and now they are doing much better. They gave them hats, shoes, clothes, and vitameal. Bailey helped the grandma learn how to make the vitameal. The girls gave the little boys and their cousins lots of candy, fruit snacks, and trail mix. Something that Bailey loved about the boys, is that when the girls would give them candy, the boys would share some back with them. So cute! While they were up there, they tried coconut milk straight from the coconut.
When they came off the mountain, they went to help at Dezzi's feeding program. It costs about $600 a month to feed all the kids one meal a day. They handed out of lot of clothes and shoes to the 21 kids.
When they were done at the feeding program, a few of them went to the beach. Bailey said the beach was interesting. First of all, there was a jelly fish in the water right by them. Next, a few little Haitian boys stripped naked and went swimming. They kept coming over and trying to talk to the girls in English and splashing them to get their attention. The girls got a lot of attention in Haiti because they look different. After the beach, they ended the day with a great devotional.
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| Bailey thinks Dezzi is soooo cute, so she was excited to ride by him in the back of the truck. |
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| Handing out donations to the boys in the mountains. |
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| They all got new shoes. |
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| So cute! |
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| The 4 boys and their grandma with all their new stuff. |
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| This is the cutest little girl. She was super shy, and they could never get her to smile. They gave her a bunch of treats, and she would organize them in piles on her dress. Fruit snacks on the right, trail mix in the middle, smarties on the left. |
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| Coconut milk! |
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| She didn't love it! |
Trying coconut milk.
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| When they were getting ready to go back down the mountain, they saw a group of kids in a little shack. They waved them over and gave them candy. |
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| I love this picture! Two great girls doing the best they can to make the world a better place, and bring a little bit of happiness to others. |
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| Handing out donations at Dezzi's feeding program. |
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| Cute little guy! |
June 5th:
Today was a really hard day for Bailey. They went to Guesno's Orphanage in Port-au-Prince (The capital of Haiti). There are currently around 120 kids in the orphanage, and not nearly enough people working there to give them the love and attention they need. They started out taking a tour of the house, which is basically a mansion. The third room was the baby room, and that's where the tour ended for the girls! They spent the rest of their time before lunch with the babies. Bailey instantly fell in love with a little guy who was sitting all alone. She changed his dirty clothes into something that was donated, changed his diaper that was way too full, and then just loved on him the rest of the time. He finally fell asleep in her lap. Shortly after that, Matt told them it was time to leave for lunch. The girl's didn't want to leave. They just wanted to stay with the babies. Luckily Bailey's little guy had fallen asleep, because when the other girl's put the babies down, the babies just starting crying, which got the girls crying. Bailey said the minute she set her little baby down, her heart just broke. It was a sad situation all the way around.
They went back to the orphanage after lunch because the older kids were back from school. Here is a passage from Bailey's journal,
"The kids were so excited to see us there! I instantly had two kids on my legs the second I walked in. Two little boys just wouldn't let go of me! I sat down and they both sat on my lap. I would tickle them and make faces, and they just loved it!" Although the day was emotionally hard, Bailey said the lesson she learned from it is that God has a very specific plan for each of us.
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| Bailey said the streets were just lined with garbage! |
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| The conditions the people live in are really sad. |
Bailey loved how the people walked around with stuff on their heads.
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| Guesno's Orphanage |
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| Bailey meeting 'her baby.' |
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| Changing his clothes. |
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| She loved this little guy. She called me that night bawling and begging me to adopt him. |
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| Look at those cute little teeth! |
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| Sound asleep in her lap. |
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| Lexi with a cute little girl. |
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| After lunch they played with the older kids. There were so many, and they were so starved for attention. Bailey had three boys hanging on her the whole time. |
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| If you wanted to hold one, that meant you held two or three! |
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| Yep, the little boy is flipping the bird! Hahaha, I guess that's a universal language! |
June 6th:
This was their last day in Haiti. Bailey said this day was even harder then the day before at Guesno's Orphanage. They gathered up the rest of the donations and headed to Rousseau one last time. They checked on the church. The roof got finished, and the next step will be pouring the concrete floor. This building will be a huge blessing to the whole village! They handed out the rest of the donations, and said good bye to all the people in the village. There is a little Haitian girl named Lovely that has a severe back deformity. One of the volunteers is married to a spine doctor, so they sent pictures to him. He is going to do some checking to see if anything can be done to help her. Before they went to the airport, they took Lovely to the hospital for some x-rays of her back. Hopefully something can be done for her!
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| One last crazy truck ride to Rousseau! |
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| The church! |
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| Operation Shield volunteers! The little boy had to be in the picture, because he wouldn't let go of Bailey's hands. |
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| I love this picture. The Operation Shield volunteers with lots of people from the village in front of the church. |
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| The church with a roof! |
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| All these sweet little faces were hard for the volunteers to say good bye to. |
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| How stinking cute is this!?! |
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| Bailey got to hold this sweet baby for awhile while they handed out donations. This is when things got really sad. The mom tried to give Bailey the baby. They wanted Bailey to keep her! They knew Bailey could provide a better life for her in the United States. Bailey had to firmly tell them no and give the baby back. She walked out of the church and started bawling! It just goes to show the desperation the people face, if they are wiling to give up a child to a total stranger they think can provide a better life for it. This is exactly what makes it so easy for the traffickers to come in and get the children. They use the promise of a better life to get the children from their parents. So heartbreaking! It took a huge toll on Bailey's emotions to see if first hand! |
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| This is Lovely with her messed up back. |
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| Lovely and Kyla were buddies! She got to ride in the truck down the mountain to get x-rays at the hospital. Bailey said Lovely was beyond excited to ride in the truck, and it was adorable. I hope they can find a way to help her! |
Bailey had an amazing, life changing experience that she wouldn't trade for the world. She is already planning a return trip! She loves the Haitian people and hopes there is a brighter future for the country in the coming years.
-Ether 12:4
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