Yesterday I experienced my third trip to Dajabon. Words can't even describe this place. It is the bordertown between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. There is a river that separates the two countries. There are two bridges that connects the countries - the north bridge and the south bridge. Right before you get to the bridge there is a huge market. You can find anything from vegetables, food, chairs, diapers, jewelry, shoes, etc. On Mondays and Fridays from 9-12 the border is open for Haitians to cross into the DR and buy the supplies they need. Every time I go to this place, God shows me something different.
Well, yesterday was no different. We woke up, put on our required long pants and closed toed shoes, and went to breakfast. During breakfast I spent a good 10 minutes complaining about the fact that it was 100 degrees outside and I was wearing jeans and sneakers a combination I hate. After breakfast we loaded up the bus and set out for our hour drive to Dajabon.
We have a routine that we follow very closely to ensure everyone's safety. Once we get off the bus, we all form a single file line with leaders at the front, tail, and dispersed in between. There are sweet little Haitian shoe shiners that meet us every week. They see it as their responsibility to help us through the market. There are about five of them. My favorite one is blind in one eye and deaf. He is always checking through our whole line to make sure we don't get separated from each other. There have been several times where I've been too far behind in his eyes so he runs up and drags me back up to the rest of the group.
As we began to head in I noticed it wasn't as crowded as it has been the past few times. We walked down our normal path to the bridge. When we got to the bridge we noticed a huge traffic jam. All throughout the market you have to be aware of people carrying huge baskets on their heads, motorcycles, and huge carts full of supplies. The Haitians go back and forth between the country as many times as they can to get the merchandise they need. Alot of times you will see a single man weighing 100 lbs pushing a cart 10 times his weight and twice his height. They yell beep beep when they are coming up behind you because most of the time they can't stop the carts. When we saw the huge traffic jam on the bridge we decided to only go on one side. All of a sudden, we saw a pickup truck trying to cross at the same time. We quickly decided to evacuate before it got worse. Once we leave the bridge we go down deeper into the market. That's when things get real intense. You have all kinds of people grabbing you and pushing you. There are always pick-pocketers checking your pockets looking for anything they can find. After our first turn, we got stopped briefly to allow some wheelbarrows through. I looked down at that moment and I noticed this small weak man pushing his cart in his bare feet. Not only were his feet bare but they were bleeding. Here I spent 10 minutes complaining about the heat and that I was "forced" to wear sneakers for my safety and this man didn't have anything to cover his feet. There is no telling how many miles he had gone or how many trips he had made back and forth with supplies. My heart sank. How could I have been so selfish? Not only do I have the option of wearing sneakers, but I got to debate about which pair I wore. We continued on and within the time it took us to get to the next turn I saw 10 people without shoes. For a momentI forgot about the crowd, all the people that had forced their way inside my bubble, the intense smell of the market, and my desire to it in front of a fan for hours. I was only feeling one millionth of what these people fight for every day. I pray that God changes my heart and shows me the things that should consume my mind. As if those ten weren't enough, I counted fifteen more by the time we had left.
As we headed back toward the bus the shoe shiners noticed that an additional bus had pulled up behind ours. He got super excited because he put together that the rest of group from Jaibon (the other orphanage site) was inside. His face lit up, he waived goodbye to us, he grabbed his friends, and into the market they went.
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