Haiti Initiative 2016 happened in November.  As I embarked on this journey to Haiti all that went through my mind was this resounding question, “What will I do for this one orphanage?”   I had nine days to accomplish a task.  Many of those days I knew I would not be spent at the orphanage.  I was resolved to just take it easy and accept whatever would come my way.  Realistically, there was no way of predicting what came at me. 

Once I arrived at Pastor Fred’s house, he dropped me off and said he needed to leave to a meeting at church.  There were two Brazilian guys lounging around on the porch just taking it easy, so I placed my belongings in my room and decided to hang out and meet them.  While we sat there on the porch and talked I began to realize that these two are not your average middle class spoiled Brazilian guys.  Neither were they the type to perform charity work just to feel good about themselves.  My thoughts at the end of that evening, "Well, this is going to be an interesting trip!"  Here is the story of my adventure with Bruno and Tatoo, an unexpected, unplanned and unpredictable encounter that could only happen on a trip such as this.

That first evening at Pastor Fred’s house, I sat on the porch with Bruno and Tatoo.   Two laid back guys, typical Brazilian, shorts, flip flops and no shirt.  Bruno the more quiet, introspective and Tatoo a more talkative “zen” hippie artist type.  The initial conversations were pretty deep, small talk was brief, “Wow cool dreadlocks!  Where are you from?”  Mostly we spoke of our passions, mission there in Haiti, spirituality and art.   After a while, Tatoo went inside to prepare to do some artwork for an orphanage.  Bruno and I remained on the porch for a while enjoying the Haitian breeze on a warm late afternoon .

Bruno, 33 years old is from the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba.  He is a photographer and building a name for himself.  Going against all the regular traditions and expectations of his family he set off to invest his time in honing his skills in photography.  He completely discarded any “real job” in pursuit of his passion. 

Tatoo,  44 years old is from São Paulo.  He considers himself a graffiti artist, yet rarely did he talk about it.  I would just call him an artist.   Also a very “out of the box” thinker, Tatoo lives his life sharing his gift of art.  His mission to Haiti was to help educate using art.  Tatoo has been working with a program he developed “Arte Ataque Oficina” which translates to “Art Atack Workshop” since 2008 of which its theme is shared knowledge. 

Another added bonus was that during my time helping them out, I began developing my 1-2 minute informative videos in English and Portuguese.   Social media reaction was great and many said they felt as if they were part of the trip!

During one of our coffee sessions I threw out the idea of recording an interview.  After a few attempts to find a quiet location, we were successful.  That interview itself was a highlight.  It was a fun and unexpected way to document a little of our trip to Haiti.   

I asked Bruno what his most memorable moment was.  He explained that his first trip in 2015 with the group, he was designated as the photographer.  There was an innumerous amount of photographs taken.  He practically took a photo of everyone the team worked with and every child of the orphanages.  This year, 2016, he had a chance to deliver the photos to their rightful owners.  That last day at the orphanage he sat on the back of the truck, held up a picture and the children would call out the name of who was on there.  The child would run up through the crowd and get his/her picture!  To him it was a work that came full circle at that moment.  It is interesting to point out that mission workers always go and take pictures.  Almost never do the children get to have with them a picture of that memory or a picture of us. 

Tatoo was asked the same question in our interview.  He recounted that on the last day at one of the orphanages, something peculiar happened during the T shirt painting workshop.   That day, this particular program he specifically targeted the teenagers/adolescents.  He said that once the child gets older the cuteness is lost and with that children become more isolated and unwanted.  So, the workshop was taking place on the second floor of the building.  All of a sudden, chatter from below turned into a few yells which then became chanting “Tatoo! Tatoo!” The younger children remembered Tatoo from the previous year and wanted to participate.  As it was getting late and the workshop was only for the older kids, Tatoo couldn’t accommodate the younger ones.  Suddenly they invaded the area of the workshop and began stencil painting t shirts.  What stuck out for Tatoo was that the children didn’t make a mess or destroy anything, they did the work correctly and way more organized than expected.  “They knew exactly what to do…” also as he reflected, “I still don’t understand the significance of that event”. 

I went to Haiti with a specific purpose in mind, a specific project to establish.  Meeting Bruno and Tatoo was unplanned.  Becoming a partner was unexpected.  Spending that time building friendships and sharing experiences was completely unpredictable.  Taking part in the Art Attack Workshop project was the highlight of my 2016 trip to Haiti.

For a complete playlist of the videos click here for my youtube channel!