Guest Blogger: Megan Doebler

Hello, my name is Megan, and I have just finished spending 2 weeks on the Plateau at Lemuel.  This was my first trip overseas and I learned soooo much from this experience.

I stayed at the home of a family in the community. The door to the right and the window with the pink shutters open to my room. There is no electricity or running water.

This is the view from the porch outside of my room.

Some of the things I did while I was on the Plateau were: help wash laundry by hand; ride a mule to get water for the people I was staying with; wake up at dawn to take goats and sheep out to “pasture;” experience a totally different culture than what I was used to; meet people that are truly following the Lord wherever He leads them; go to a large market where they sold all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and to a meat market where we saw a man skinning a feshly killed goat.

I would go with Lismane to take the goats and sheep out for the day.

I learned to appreciate the little things about home: having plenty of napkins, warm showers…ahhh; bugless beds, water as available as air, electicity, long-distance communication, washing machines, gas stations, flushing toilets, smooth roads, and apples. :~)

a footpath through the countryside

Things I learned to appreciate about Haiti: people you don’t even know will smile and say “Bonjour!” or “Good Morning!” People go out of their way to accommodate you.  For example, one morning I tried to ask Ciline--the lovely lady I was staying with--if the goats were already out in pasture by gestures and making a goat noise. She took that to mean that I wanted to see the goats who were already out in pasture, and promptly woke up her brother on his day off to take me out into the bush to show me goats :~) They have creativity in working with what they have, and are hard, very hard workers!! Not just 8 to 5, but from when they wake up to when they go to bed, making what seems like “over the top” sacrifices so that others can be more comfortable. They really value family… and that extends beyond siblings and parents to your second cousins and great grandparents—they look out for each other.

Mme Tiferne kindly let Carsyn ride on her donkey when we went with her to get water for her home from the water hole. 

These experiences and observations helped me to realize that the world is so much bigger than just my little bubble, and God cares about each and every one of these many people’s lives. I learned to depend on God as my rock even more on this trip, because I was not able to contact my family very much. And I had no idea what I was going to be doing the next day a lot of the time, which was quite overwhelming for me. I am super grateful that I was able to come and experience life on the Plateau, meet some amazing people, and grow in my relationship with my Savior.