Mabel's Labels

Mabels Label's is a company based in Hamilton, ON that makes Labels for Kids and tonnes of other things that need to be organized. I also Work for them! Mabel's has been a huge supporter in my trip to Haiti and have provided me with many donations to help make this trip happen. They now have an event going on to help raise donations for me to bring to Haiti. As you buy stationary kits (which are great for writing letters and notes) Mabel's will match purchased kits with one for me to bring to Haiti. All the kits will most likely be going to some schools and orphanages I am volunteering at in the first weeks of my trip. These will be a great help for writing supplies for kids in school and also great fun for lots of kids in the orphanages I visit. So Check out Mabel's Labels they have lots of great products that will survive the toughest punishment.

Change of Plans

Since the earthquake occurred in Haiti I have had some slight change of plans. The Earthquake caused great casualties over 100 000 people lost their lives, 300 000 injured and over a million people were left homeless. Buildings collapsed, including the guest house I was going to be staying at. Before the Earthquake my plan was to help in some orphanages and schools, and maybe do some food distribution. Since then I am now trying to get involved in some clean up and reconstruction efforts and also still volunteer in some orphanages and schools. There is a great organization doing clean up and reconstruction with I may be helping out (no final plans are confirmed yet) called Hands on Disaster Response.
They have a project in Leogane where the Earthquake epicenter was. 90% of the buildings in Leogane were damaged HODR is working clearing the rubble and building transitional shelters for people to live in. Hopefully I will be helping them for the last part of my trip. They are completely volunteer run and have a few spots available for dates to help them in Haiti!

Also I have found a new guest house. The Wall's Guest House run by an organization based in Waterloo, ON called Foundation for International Development Assistance. The organization provides agricultural support for farmer's in Haiti.

Help Haiti Shirts

If you are looking for an easy way to help Haiti, go to THIS WEBSITE and purchase a shirt. Proceeds go to Haiti relief.

http://helpendlocalpoverty.bigcartel.com/

and

http://helphaitishirt.com/


Haitian Creations is another great way to help. Heartline Ministries is selling these fair trade bags to support the women they work with.

Marathon for Haiti

Haiti is a country of nearly 9 million people, 80% of which live beneath the poverty line. This means that 80% of the population lives on less that $2 a day. Poor living conditions, natural disasters, and the depletion of forests and fertile soil all lead to this extreme amount of poverty. With extreme poverty comes sickness, disease, malnutrition and severe injury. When I hear this I wonder what can I do? How could I possibly help?

I can travel there, I can experience it for myself, I can physically help the poor and the malnourished and the sick people by giving them my aid. This is my goal, to travel to Haiti and to actually make a difference in the lives of people in need. To live where they live, see what they see and HELP them.

I can't do this on my own, so I am running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon to try and fund raise the cost of me going there and helping to make a difference in their lives.

Every step of those 42km, or 26 miles will be for the children dying of starvation, the kids faced with severe burns, and crippling injuries, and the children that have no one to care for them. But I can not do it without your help.

I did it!

Well the marathon was on Sunday! I finished, woo hoo! My goal was to finish under 4 hours and I finished 4 hours and 19 seconds! That's close enough for me. It was really fun for my first marathon an I definitely think I will do another one.... some day. I could barely walk after, but my legs stopped hurting yesterday! Anyways thanks to everyone who sponsored me! Here are some pictures from the marathon:

Before the Race

During the Race!

After the Race!

Marathon is Soon!

The Toronto Waterfront Marathon is on Sunday! Wow that is very close! There seems to be one question everyone asks you when you are about to run a marathon: are you ready? I think I'm ready, I feel good about it but this being my first marathon who knows what could happen. I haven't run much more than a half marathon but I think I can do it. It is going to hurt, and I know I will want to quit sometime during the race but I know that that will never happen. I'm shooting for under four hours, I did half a marathon in about 1:50 so I think I should be able to get just under four, but who knows! Thanks to everyone that sponsored me for the race I raised a lot of money and I am getting closer and closer to fund raising the whole trip!

I REALLY WANT TO THANK Nikki's parents (Cathy and Jim) who are paying for my whole flight!! Once I figure out when I need to leave and return (I'm working on it!). The flight is a huge expense, and I am VERY grateful that they decided to help me out!

My Trip to Ethiopia

In February this year I went on a humanitarian trip for two weeks to Ethiopia with my friend Nikki. Ethiopia was an incredible country with an amazing culture and very friendly people. We worked with the group Blessing the Children in Debre Zeyit.While in Ethiopia we helped to teach English classes, attend home visits with our social workers, and helped to build a school which is now ready to start classes!

We also took a two day trip to visit Nikki's World Vision sponsor child Tsehay. We stayed in Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia for one night and then got a 3 hour ride in the back of a truck to Tsehay's village. The drive there was amazing, we got to see a lot of the country side outside of the big city in Addis. It was amazing. When we got to the world vision office near Tsehay's office we met some of the poeple that worked there and we got a presentation on the developments they were making in the village. The World Vision staff were SO nice and happy to talk to us about the project. From there we got in the truck again and drove for about 45 minutes through some pretty rough "roads".When we got to the village we were swarmed with excited kids and made our way to Tsehay's house. When we got there we sat around her house and talked to her family with the help of the World Vision translators. She showed us all the gifts Nikki had ever sent her, most fo which were hanging on her wall. Then her mom came out of a little tent made of blankets they had made in the corner with her baby she just had a week ago. The baby was so small and cute and Nikki gave her the blanket we had brought for the family to wrap around the baby. After talking to them and meeting there family we brought Tsehay and her brother and grandfather back to the office for lunch. Her brother ate so much food I thoguht he would explode and they were evry happy. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs and packed back into the truck for the 3 hour drive back to Addis. That day was so much fun and it was amazing to see the actual developments that World Vision was making in the villages there and not just reading about them. From addis we headed back to our guest house in Debre Zeyit.

Tsehay's Grandfather with some sheep Nikki bought the family. He told us you bought us 2 and now we have 6!

Nikki and Tsehay

The next week and a half we helped to teach english classes to the kids. The kids were probably my favourite part of the trip. They were always so happy and excited to see us and often invited us over to their houses for Coffee. I got to help teach the kids how to write letters to their sponsors, which pretty entertaining. Some of them were really good and come up with some good ideas to tell there sponsors like what animals were in their towns and asking great questions to learn more about their sponsors lives. We also helped to build a school, which was fun we even got some help from one of our social workers! In the guest house I got to stay in a bedroom with my two roommates Misgana and Sesay and Melaku. They were three halarious boys staying at the guest house they were best friends and I got to know them pretty well. We had lots of fun on our front porch at night singing songs and having water fights.

The trip was incredible and I will never forget it. It has insipred me to want to do more, and helped me to realize there are more important things than trying to live the "American Dream". It helped me realize that this is what I want to do with my life I don't want to sit around in Canada going to work everyday and coming home to do nothing. I'm no longer trapped in our Canadian bubble, I have realized the injustices that are going on outside of our bubble all over the world. The lack of healthcare, mistreatment of children, and lack of education to help children defeat the challenges they are faced is incredible and something needs to be done about it. I wish everyone would just go one time and see the real world and what is going on outside of their lives so they can realize that there really are people out there that need help that are trapped in poverty and that they CAN do somehting about it. We have privileges that few people in our world have and we can use those to help people escape poverty.

Eshetu one of the social workers teaching letter writing.

Nikki and Tsehay

Building the school

Out on the front porch