Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Haiti

I'm not sure I even know where to begin telling you about my trip to Haiti. It was quite an experience and difficult to put into words. I went there with a small mission called Hope Mission International. Our group of nine were escorted by two male Haitian translators and a young Haitian woman who cooked for us, so we were a group of twelve. We arrived in Port-au-Prince Saturday only to be caught up in the mother of all traffic jams. It took us seven hours to cover ten  miles! An exhausting day, but fortunately it didn't daunt our spirits. The photo above is in Port-au-Prince at the end of the week and depicts a girl's orphanage overseen by another ministry. We stopped there to donate supplies of fabric and sewing notions because the girls are being taught to sew. But the first half of the week we drove six hours to a little village called Duchity on the western peninsula of Haiti in the province of Pestel.
 The scenery there was amazing, mountainous and beautiful. We took a road that was out of a National Geographic story, unpaved, winding, bumpy, full of potholes and switchback bends up and down mountains. We crossed a river without a bridge where only three weeks ago a bus full of passengers headed to where we were going got swept away and 19 people died! People live there by subsistance farming. Above you see a pepper plant! In Haiti they are perrenials, not annuals like here, so you can see the wooden stalk on a very sprawling plant!
 The children were beautiful too, very sweet and very needy. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and the conditions these children live in break your heart. The kids were very friendly and very curious about us. We did a vacation Bible school for them which included a daily sandwich and treats. Believe me, they would not leave without that sandwich! In the country they are so much better off than those in the city, but hunger is a constant. One little boy tried to sneak back through the line to get another sandwich, claiming he hadn't got one. His peers quickly ratted him out, because when everyone is in need, they will not let such a thing pass. It was so sad.
 Hope mission asked the evangelical pastor of Duchity and other members of the community what they would like to be done for them and they asked for a library. So a library was built! It is a very basic cement building and we spent our time making benches for meetings and bookshelves as well. Electricity is by generator and intermittant at best, but they are having computer classes at the library and we are slowly collecting books for it. We slept and ate in the library during our stay at Duchity.
 As a gardener, I was fascinated by the flora and the vegetables growing all over. It was neat to see bananas growing on the trees all around. I got to visit the garden of one of the residents of Duchity, which is where I spied the pepper plants. Yams are a staple there and they are nothing like the sweet potatoes we call yams. I saw beans growing all over too. The neat thing was that the garden I visited had raised beds very much like the ones in my own garden!
 That is me with some of the children at the library in Duchity. You can't not love those kids! Hope has a child sponsorship program and I met the sponsored children of a number of my friends. I don't sponsor a child there yet, but I'm pretty sure I will soon. There is such a waiting list of kids and they are very aware of the help the sponsored kids are getting for their education. That was perhaps the hardest part of the trip for me. Our last day in Duchity we had a party for the sponsored kids; a time to update their information, take updated pictures of them and messages for their sponsors in the States. They got a special meal of rice and beans, treats and gifts. Lots of the non-sponsored kids were crowding round the doors watching and even trying to sneak in to join in the fun and it about broke my heart.
That huge tree in the photo above is a mango tree! Having eaten Haitian mangos, freshly picked I am spoiled now. No mango here even compares! We also enjoyed the national dish which is a soup made from squash with veggies and a bit of meat in it. It was delicious! Plantains featured in many of the meals too and I have to say, I really enjoyed the food a lot. Well...except the goat that was killed especially for us one day. We'd been hearing him bleating all day and some of us even made friends with him (not me, and thank goodness, since we had no idea he was going to be supper!) I'm not that squeamish, but I've never eaten something I heard alive just hours before. And the meat was not my favorite, though I am very open minded about food.
Late in the week we returned to Port-au-Prince which was much hotter. Although our living conditions were far less primitive (we had a shower and not a bucket bath), it was uncomfortably stuffy and hot. The city is still a disaster and we were not allowed to walk around very freely because of fear of gangs that prey on visitors. We visited a number of the charities that are working hard to help there. One was the orphanage I showed above and one was an ob/gyn clinic. Just about all pregnancies in Haiti are considered high risk. The American couple that run that clinic have been there for 22 years. I really admire their willingness to serve by living in such uncomfortable conditions.
All the work of all the charity groups in Haiti seem to be like a drop in the ocean compared to all the misery in that country. Yet the Haitians are a proud and generally cheerful people. You should hear the singing! We were privileged to hear the people of Duchity singing in evening worship services and it is singing that is full of joy and life. I come home humbled by those who have dedicated their lives to helping the poor and with a new appreciation for how I have been blessed here in America. I wish everyone could make a trip like I did, especially our young people who take for granted so very much.
Well, it's been back in the garden this week for me. The weeds have grown huge since I left and the harvest is coming in. When I get me some winter squash I'm going to make some Haitian soup to remember my trip by!

6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful experience and cause1 Thanks so much for sharing!

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    1. Your welcome Robin! It really was a life-altering experience, even at my age.

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  2. What a wonderful and caring person you are! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your trip, and it certainly makes one thankful for what we have when we see those poor people that have so little. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Oh Granny, I'm a lot less caring than I should be! It's something I have to work at and that's why I signed up for such a trip. I need to be reminded myself what privilege I have had and to help in some small way others who have so little.

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing. What a wonderful trip! It really makes you think and apperciate what we have here in the US. Thanks again I really enjoyed reading this post!!

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    1. You are so welcome! I'm glad you liked the post. Haiti is so full of beauty and yet has so much need. One of our Haitian translators is coming to the US to marry his American sweetheart and I think he is in for a huge dose of culture shock when he sees how much we have here!

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