Here we go!!! Thank goodness the blog is reactivated for real this time.
I just booked flights to spend 19 days in Haiti over Christmas break.
A very important thing has happened in my life since I last wrote on here- since this is my travel blog I will refrain from rambling about my life too much, but to understand this post you will need to know that I got in to midwifery school at UBC, a dream come true, as I feel I am on the path of my life's calling! I'm probably flattering myself to think anyone who doesn't know that is reading this, but I digress...
Not quite two weeks ago, my beautiful classmate, Kristi, passed on a call for help, which she received through the grapevine from an organization called Olive Tree Projects. Olive Tree Projects is run by a young Canadian midwife named Sarah Wallace and operates a maternity clinic in the city of Jacmel, Haiti. The clinic staff is expecting nearly twice as many birthing women in December as they usually accommodate, and reached out to student midwives here to come and serve as an extra set of hands. The organization who had shared this opportunity with Kristi were attempting to secure funding for a volunteers flight.
I immediately said that if it was funded, I would be there. If the money didn't come through, I told myself, I couldn't go. Having just begun some very costly education in the most expensive city in Canada and booked a trip to Europe (finally!) there wasn't much wiggle room on this decision. When the e-mail came on Tuesday after my first final exam of the term that there would be no money for flights I didn't even feel disappointed, because my perspective immediately shifted from "Waiting to find out whether I would be going" to "Okay, I have to go. How am I going to make this happen?". I had prayed that I would accept and embrace whatever the outcome while I waited for the news about funding- lots of people prayed with me!- and thought that it was an "A: money comes in, I go or B: no money, I don't go" kind of scenario. But in true "Julia's life" fashion it was secret option C that God handed me (chuckling all the while, I'm sure, at my attempts at pre-planning).
Secret option C meant "No, you will not have this handed to you, but I have given you everything you need to make a way- all those prayers have been heard". With the confidence of having previously raised an intimidating sum in just over 2 weeks (for Canada World Youth), I shook off some sticky bits of pride like grains of rice and asked my family and friends to send me to Haiti this Christmas. I love how matter-of-fact my parents' reactions were when I called them and announced my intention to raise the money myself. They, in their parently wisdom, mustn't have believed me when I said I wouldn't be going without that funding!
This is when it got really amazing. I created a crowd-funding page to make it easy for people I knew from all over to donate- and they did. I am tearing up thinking about how they did. The page went live on Wednesday night and by Friday night I had received $830. By Saturday night that was up to $1125, just over a hundred dollars short of the cost of the flight! I'm so overwhelmed by the way everyone from Mum and Dad and my closest friends to new acquaintances and people I hadn't seen or heard from in years have responded, not only with donations, but with the kindest and most encouraging words. I don't know how to thank you all enough; it's like I can't even articulate my gratitude in my heart, let alone in writing.
I will write more tomorrow, featuring an elusive Chinese herb and more details of what my time in Haiti may look like. I'm telling myself it's an ink-spilling exercise to help with writing my final paper for the term...
You can find my crowd-funding campaign here if you're interested in helping out with that final $100: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/helping-hands-for-haitian-moms/x/5640014
Any donations above and beyond what I need to pay for the airfare will go to Olive Tree Projects-I've pasted the link to their website below.
http://www.olivetreeprojects.com/about/
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