11 PM - Christal Earle’s Blog

The developing world faces many challenges, but one of the greatest is the lack of access to health care. This summer, we hope to be a part of the solution. From August 15th-25th, we are returning to Dominican Republic with 50 Western-Fanshawe Collaborative BScN students and the Fanshawe College Practical Nursing students. In addition to some regular projects, we will be hosting medical and dental clinics in villages and communities, free of charge. Each day is an adventure, and each day is filled with incredible memories as a result. The trip, affectionately called “Danica’s Dream,” is named after a little girl who inspired the building of a clinic that we continue to support and partner with. However, we have an urgent need! We need another physician to accompany our medical supplies, to help with clinics, and to share their expertise and knowledge with those who need it most. Do you know anyone who can help us? Are you a medical professional who may know a doctor that would be willing to invest some of their time this August to be a part of the Hero Holiday experience? Would you be willing to approach your family physician or any doctors that you know, on our behalf? If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact our Hero Holiday department as soon as possible: nettie@heroholiday.com or call 1-866-432-4464 and ask to speak to the Hero Holiday department. Together, we can bring love, hope, and change!

Fours years ago, Vaden and I were driving down a road that seemed to go nowhere: it was washed out in places, had almost no traffic except for the odd motorbike or donkey, and it had houses lined along the side of it, full of people who shyly waved at us as we rumbled along. Somewhere along that place we found a man with a  dream, and his name was Garcia…

Garcia is a musician, a husband and father, a pastor, and a man with a vision bigger than what was in front of him. He had a community back on that road that we  found ourselves on that day, and he traveled  every day of the week from his own village, Maranatha, to serve that community and help it move forward in whatever way he could.  He came to help out because he loved them and believed in them. They had a local area where they had a church, held community meetings, and one day hoped to have a school. It was  a small area, about 20 feet by 30 feet, and it was covered by four posts and a tarpaulin. All around the area, many feet out, was a trench that had been dug at one time, but was now covered in by weeds, grass and life. Five years earlier, Garcia had inspired some men in the community to dream of what a school could like in that place, and so together, they dug the trench, in hopes that someday they might see a school for their children.

In that area, we, like Garcia, saw what could be, but not yet was: a school that could change the future of the hundred plus children in that community. This is what faith and dreams are made of  and what Absolute wanted to be a part of, so the following summer, our Hero Holiday teams began to work with Garcia and the people in Arroyo Seco to accomplish this dream. It is a labor of love that has filled our lives with laughter, warm memories, huge community parties, and tearful good-byes. And in some way, it has changed us all.

This past summer, we put the finishing touches on the school. As we drove away, I looked over my shoulder and saw a bunch of children waving good bye, with Garcia and his family in the middle of the crowd, smiling and shouting out blessings…It felt good to be a part of something so incredible. Over the time that we worked in their community, over 700 Canadian teenagers and adults who joined us on Hero Holiday had witnessed the fulfillment of a dream, and it inspired us all.

Yesterday, however, I got an email with an update of what has happened in Maranatha, the community where Garcia lives. This past Friday, while many of us got together with friends and had Halloween parties, Garcia, his family, and the thousands of people that live in Maranatha, his own village, fought for their lives and homes as they faced a flash flood. Many of their homes were covered under two to five feet of water and sewage, and many of them lost every last earthly possession that they had. Garcia and his family lost most of their possessions, but managed to salvage some valuable items such as beds and food. However, the local grocery store, where many of them were only able to buy their supplies on credit, was swept away and food is scarce.  Like so many of the world’s poor, they are now forced to rebuild their lives and start over…at the beginning.

Why is life so blatantly unjust? Why do the poor always keep losing, and the rich get drunk on the excess of the world? How is it that our governments can find trillions of dollars to bail out multi-national companies in a financial crunch and still manage to employ hundreds of thousands of people at salaries that keep growing, and yet many of the world silently slips away and struggles moment by moment to exist? What is my part in all of this? How do I live my life in light of what I know to be true both here and there?

I don’t have all the answers, I just have a conviction that I can’t give up: I can’t stop doing what I know I am called to do, and I MUST NOT quit just because things seem difficult where I am at.

So, Garcia, when I see you again, I will tell you this in person, but until then, I will put it in black and white: you are a great inspiration and friend, and your struggle is my struggle, and we are linked by a common faith and purpose that is deeper than culture, skin color and economics. I will continue to pray for you and will do what I can to help ease the burden. You and your family have done so much for a community, their children, and their future, and now it is time for a community of people to do something for you.

If you would like to help us get some money to Garcia and his family, please email me and I will let you know what you can do.

Hey Everyone!

We love what we do: we get to travel, see the country, create change and bring hope. We also love to be able to pass on cool info that we think students might benefit from…this is one of those moments:

Ashoka’s Youth Venture, recently launched in Canada, is proud to announce their first global competition to recognize and support young changemakers worldwide.

If you know young people with IDEAS or existing PROJECTS for change, please encourage them to enter the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneurship Competition by October 15, 2008.

The various prizes include seed funding to implement their ideas, a free trip to attend the next Youth Venture Summit in the U.S., and special opportunities involving MTV and Nike for environment and sports-related projects.

For more info, check out changemakers.net

Finally, they had arrived…all 107 of them. We had waited all day to get to this point, and in typical style, they were 2 hours later than we had agreed upon! But, we reasoned with ourselves, the point was that they were here now!
It was the last day of our time with them, and the day before Good Friday. Our Hero Holiday team had spent the past hour hiding 1200 Easter eggs and about 150 marshmallow candies on a one acre piece of land that we were staying on. They hid them for the kids that were coming to say good-bye to us after spending 10 amazing days together. These children had impacted our lives in such an incredible and unique way that it was very difficult for us to quantify what it meant to each of us. They had taught us so much about courage, resilience, and hope- and they had taught us that you can trust again after incredible pain and tragedy. These children and their leaders had become some of our personal heroes.

When they came running down the steps to meet us on the cleared area, we were anxious as we saw the sun quickly fading and worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to finish our plans. As they sat in front of me and the translator, they were completely unaware of what I was going to tell them. For them, it was enough to be able to see us again and be together. The thought of what I was going to get to tell them even got me excited! I began to tell them about the tradition for Canadian children about hunting for hidden Easter eggs. I explained to them that this weekend, all over the world, millions of children would be doing this, and because we loved them so much, we wanted them to have the chance to do it first.
I explained to them where to look and showed them what the candy looked like, and as we handed out the little bags to collect the candies in, some of them started to quiver with excitement and anticipation! A couple of the little girls were holding and squeezing each other’s hands as they tried to contain their excitement. We counted together out loud to three, and then I yelled “Go!”.
It was mayhem! They squealed and laughed and shouted as they jumped over bushes, rolled on the grass, and dove under plants to find the candies they had been promised were there. I actually started to cry as I thought about how beautiful it was to hear them laugh and play like this, and how privileged we were to be able to do this for them.
As I was drinking in the scene of chaos and ecstatic joy, I was brought back to a little dose of bizarre reality: one of the staff at the hotel where we were doing this with the children, in an effort to try to give us some mood music and background cheering thought he would start up the giant, rusty sound system and blare the music at the maximum volume. A nice gesture…until I realized it was the Black Eyed Peas…singing ‘My Humps’!

I am currently in northern Thailand, working with an incredible Hero Holiday group that is an awesome crew of people eager to make a difference in the world in which they find themselves. Along the way, however, we are finding ourselves in the company of unsung heroes that have impacted us beyond words.

In the beginning of one or our Hero Holiday promo videos, we have a quote that says, “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom”. This quote has been ringing in my ears as we continue to meet people who are risking much to do whatever they can. We are working with volunteers and staff who willingly give up all for the sake of a child’s life, and for the sake of their safety. It is humbling and beautiful to be a part of, and it is the reality of the double edged sword that action requires when you want to make a difference.

In our North American culture, we are often lulled to sleep as we are over-stimulated with drama and sensationalism. We create our own romantic view of what the world must be like and we have a hard time grasping that our form of justice is not the justice that the rest of the world is measured by. We claim to believe that every child has the right to safety, freedom, and to be heard, yet our world often leaves the majority of our children living in fear, abandonment, exploitation and silence…is this what justice is? The children that we are working with have faced all forms of exploitation, poverty and abandonment, and yet the thing that is captivating all of us is their incredible capacity to love beyond that. The simple act of holding a small hand in trust can make all the difference in the world. The simple beauty of a smile and loving touch can change everything. My goodness, we have even learned that ice cream can change the world! Yet, despite all of these simple things, the problems that they face are beyond complex - they are astronomically overwhelming! Exploitation and slavery is so deep and multi-tentacled that it is hard to figure out where one problems stops and another one starts. Poverty would seem like it is so straightforward, but it is an insatiable beast that is continually devouring innocent lives around the world, and without us recognizing how late the hour is, it will never be stopped. In the world in which we are working right now, life is unstable on every front: the good guys often turn out to the bad guys, the police take a vow to serve and protect, and then follow through with that vow by owning the brothels and trafficking agencies that exploit the women and children, and most of the population is unaware of what is happening in front of their eyes.

Yet, in the midst of this, we work among a company of heroes: bright lights in the darkness that fight at this monster day after day, week after week, month after month. Every life saved makes it worth it. Every hope restored is precious. Every life that is given reprieve from the pain and continual oppression is valuable. It is hard work, and to make any headways at all, it will require the international community to actually care enough to be a part of the solution, rather than feeding the problem. But I believe it can be dealt with at every level and these people here have helped to solidify that belief.

These next 10 days we are working with over 100 children: we are doing English camps, helping to build some structures at the children’s homes, and even going camping with 100+ kids (yikes!). These two weeks are only really like a ‘wrinkle in time’ but these precious few days can change lives beyond what we see in front of us. So, today as I was lying awake at 5:00 AM and staring at the ceiling (jet lag sucks!) I was thinking about what a privilege it is to be alive, to be safe, and to be loved. And in the midst of all those thoughts, I felt the undeniable, unmistakable conviction that we were created to make a difference, and this is only the beginning of the possibilities!