Gluten Free Mission Trip- Haiti Part 2

Haiti is not exactly the place you might think you could go and eat gluten free easily, but I have to say so far it has been a delightful surprise.

We arrived in Haiti on Wednesday night.  After several plane delays during our layover in Miami, we arrived around 6:30 p.m.  It was dark by the time we got on the road and that was a little crazy.  So much so a person reached into our cantor (open-air truck with some sides) and stole my husband’s phone (which was in a case clamped onto his belt) within 5 minutes of getting on the road to go to the guest house at World Wide Village.  

So that was a bummer, but it could have been worse — like his wallet or passport.  A phone can always be replaced.

The guest house with World Wide Village is in a gated community in a suburb of Port au Prince and is considered very safe. It has many room for guests.  We brought 14 people and since it is a family trip, we are able to bunk as families.

Gluten Free Food on Haiti Mission Trip 

Gluten free ham and cheesy potatoes in Haiti

So how is the gluten free mission trip going?

We eat breakfast and dinner each day at the house. Then we bring a lunch/snack kind of thing during the day.  We also bring our own water which is purified along with our own water bottles.  

And just a reminder, our team agreed to be all gluten free for the week, which is awesome.  So for breakfast we have some kind of eggs (scrambled, egg bake, boiled), bacon and fruit.  

For dinner we had an eggplant and hamburger casserole, a beef stew kind of meal with rice and peas, and Saturday night’s ham and cheesy potato casserole was the bomb! So much so, we picked the burned edges clean off the baking dish!  The cooks really don’t write down the recipes for anything…so I don’t have  that to share unfortunately.

Sunday night we are having lasagna with the gluten free noodles I brought down.  I am sure that will be excellent as well.

At a brief stop at a grocery store during a tour Sunday, I was able to buy a gluten free brownie mix as well for dessert later this week.

We have not had any issues with any cross contamination or a messed up recipe so far!  We have been so delighted!  The cooks have been trained and know not to put any flour in anything and they didn’t buy any bread for the week.  Any flour they use is from the package of gluten free flour I brought for them.

For lunches, Emma brings a Go Picnic meal as well as has some gluten free beef jerkey, fruit snacks, pistachios and a little bite of candy.  So far the gluten free machine is going strong.

Bottom line is that Haiti has a lot of whole, one ingredient foods and not as much processed foods.  So making these accommodations should be doable.

Mission Trip Tasks

Grace (left) and Emma (right) in front of the cantor after arriving in Haiti

 So besides gluten free food, you may be wonder exactly what we are doing.  Our trip is based through World Wide Village, a non-profit organization based in Minnesota. 

While we stay in a suburb of Port au Prince, most of our work is done about 30-40 miles from here in Williamson and Luli.  Because of the poor condition of the roads, it actually takes us about 90 minutes to get to our work site.  We ride in the cantor which gives you a sore butt after a while, even with cushions.

Because our trip has kids (youngest is 10 and oldest is Emma at 15) our jobs have been very kid-friendly.  The guys on our trip have helped mix and pour concrete, build soccer nets, and survey a piece of land for WWV’s new project coming up.  The ladies and kids have painted inside the new cement homes that WWV is building.  It’s good that they are out of the sun, but it gets rough because they are so stuffy. It is in the 90s every day and 70+% humidity. So there is a lot of sweating going on.

Doing nails for the girls in Williamson

We have two full days left before returning on Wednesday!  If you are gluten free and have this kind of a desire, please contact World Wide Village I am sure after this week, they can help you work out a gluten free menu.

See other posts about the mission trip:

New Gluten-Free Adventure: Mission Trip to Haiti

Gluten-Free Mission Trip in Haiti Part 1

Great Miami Airport Gluten Free Experience

Tags: celiac, gluten-free, Haiti, mission, trip, World Wide Village