Haiti Happenings

I just had a pastor in my home and he repeated what I have heard so many times, “There is no shortage of food.  The market is full of food.  There is no money to buy the food.  That is the problem.”  Today I have seen the articles on mud cakes and know that it grips the compassionate heart of people.   A good copy of a mud cake article can be found here.  The photo Rory Carroll uses in his article is below:

Sunday morning a Convoy of Hope team was at the church we were attending.  At the end of the service, they did a surprise distribution for the people.  We stood outside and watched the people exit with huge smiles.  One lady slumped to the ground, raised her hands and thanked God for His provision.  Truly He is the Provider.  He just chooses to use earthly instruments to get the job done.  Is that humbling or what?

These three young characters attend one of the schools LACC is assisting close to downtown Port-au-Prince. There is a bit of ‘mischieviousness’ on their faces as they pose. They enjoy seeing the instant digital results of a photo as they yell, “Montre ‘m (Show me.)”. We also hear a lot of “Pran foto mwen (Take my photo.).” Kids…you gotta love ‘em.

While driving down a narrow dirt trail/road waaaaaay out in the province, we came across these two older gentlemen who were more than happy to chat with the ‘blanc’ (foreigner). Haitians of this age are a joy to ‘experience.’ They have many years of experience and lots of wisdom to share.

We were actually shocked to hear the gentleman on the right speak in perfect English. He had lived in New York for many years, but his Haitian roots pulled him back home.

This little guy was photographed after a seemingly long, frustrating lesson in making p’s, or d’s, or a’s, or maybe it’s just lollipops. He wears his chalk nicely and is such a cutie.

Thanks to Latin America ChildCare, Wilson has the opportunity to practice his letters, learn to read, and have his life transformed by the Gospel during their weekly chapels.

The neighborhood soccer tournament just started this afternoon and we are getting a play-by-play description via a p.a. system. About a week ago we received a nice letter from the ‘league’ leaders expressing their desire to hold the tournament again this summer as an activity for the youth…but an economic crisis was hitting them hard. Yesterday they came back by for our ‘participation.’ If you could see their soccer field, you wouldn’t be impressed, but it is a place that gets lots of use. It is good to support something wholesome that is formed and led by the Haitian youth.

If you can read the boy’s shirt in the photo below, it says ‘Softball girl’, though he would never have put it on had he known what it said in English. Reading T-shirts in Haiti can be an interesting pass-time…and could be really embarrassing for the wearer if they knew what it said. Trust me…the kid in the photo is TOTALLY into soccer and has no clue what softball is.

Continuing along the same lines as yesterday’s post, the photo to the left is a fairly common homemade toy we see young boys playing with in the streets. It is made from a plastic drink bottle, and the five wheels are tops of drink bottles. They cut a place out in the top, making it a ‘convertible,’ attach a string and pull it around the neighborhood. Since Dorothy ‘collects’ toys, she generally asks if the toy is for sale and how much. The young boy leaves with a big smile and Dorothy goes home with yet another toy…both happy as can be!

Just to show the creativity of the Haitian people, while visiting one of our schools, we observed some young boys outside hammering something with a rock. Upon closer examination, we found they were flattening bottle caps and making a small table and chairs…simply by the way they were folding the bottle caps. Below are two photos…one with the caps being flattened and one with the young boys showing their wares. You know who bought them! We wouldn’t trade them for anything. The Haitian people can take what is given up as trash and discarded and make something beautiful and useful out of it. Isn’t that what God does with our lives?

The blog yesterday showed taking a photo looking down towards Bainet.  Today, the pastor from our church in Bainet surprised us with a visit and brought us some large, delicious citron (key lime).  They are fresh and full of juice….great squeezed in a tall glass of ice tea!  In the past, this pastor has blessed us with coffee, almonds, a live chicken and a pineapple.  He always apologizes that he can’t bring larger, better gifts, but we are humbled and thrilled with any gift we receive in Haiti.  We know the sacrifice that it requires.

One of my favorite ‘Kodak moments’ has been setting on the mountain just going down into the village of Bainet. In this photo, the photographer’s image is captured in the side mirror as she takes a photo of the mountains and Bainet in the distance. Our church and school property back up to the ocean as you enter the town. It is always a delight to sit in the yard under the large trees and drink a cup of the delicious coffee.

At about 5:30 this morning I heard yelling as a woman and young man ran up our street, then stopped and returned from the direction they had come. There were other people walking as if everything was in order so I didn’t think anything more of it. Within the hour the report arrived that a girl had killed a guy…then perhaps it was a woman who killed her husband…there is still a lot of confusion on what happened but it was two gates down from our office (3 from our house). The body was finally picked up at noon so that brought another large crowd to gawk, talk and wander around. In Haiti, the full details don’t come easy because everyone has their spin on the situation and every time a story is repeated, it grows even larger.

One of our neighbors heads for the States today for vacation and our other neighbor next door (D.R. missionaries) should be returning today from their trip. We are anxiously awaiting their return.