May 22, 2013- Four-A-Chaux, Vialet

            Today we woke up bright and early and headed to beautiful Vialet (more specifically, Four-A-Chaux). This would be my second time coming to this village. On our 2012 trip we came here to see the 50 homes that Performance Services had built. In addition we did a shoe distribution here with Samaritan’s Feet.

<-- 2012

            After almost 2.5 hours in the bus we spotted the Performance Services/ Four-A-Chaux (pronounced “fūa-sho”) sign. I was blown away by the welcoming committee they had pulled together to greet us. They had a small band, teenagers marching and dancing in unison, and a crowd holding a sign that read “Welcome Performance Services: Tim, Jim, and Friends!” Everyone was waving around tree branches- I felt like Jesus on Palm Sunday! They were all clean and wore the nicest clothes they owned. The school children walked hand-in-hand in neat lines wearing their new uniforms. They all went ahead and lead our bus down the long dirt road to the school. It was so muddy that after a certain point, the bus could not get through it. That turned out to be such a blessing though because we were able to get out and walk with the villagers. By the time I reached the school, I had at least 4 little kids hanging onto my arms and hands! The whole thing felt like we were in the middle of a giant parade. Everyone was incredibly gracious and welcoming- much more so than in any other village we had been to.

            We filed into the community center that another group of donors had built since we were here last. A number of different people, both from our group and from Four-Au-Chaux, spoke and a couple of the villagers sang songs. We got to hear from the school’s principle and teachers. Lesli told part of his own story and challenged the people of Four-A-Chaux to take care of what they have been given and to put their education to good use. Two young schoolgirls were fascinated with Lauren’s hair and played with it during the entire inauguration. While the ceremony was long and very hot, it was amazing to see how much this community has developed in the past year. Most of the people in our group had not seen the town before, but I could hardly tell I was in the same place.

            The last portion of the inauguration ceremony was cutting the ribbon in the school building. We got to walk around and see all the classrooms while the priest blessed them. Before I knew it, my four little friends were glued to my arms again. Within five minutes there were at least three more… Walking with seven other pairs of feet is not an easy task! Fitting through doorways was a struggle, but I would not have traded those few minutes for anything. Every second in Haiti God had been filling me with more love than I knew was even possible for one person to contain. Vialet was like a tidal wave. I was on cloud nine the entire day.

            As we finished up our tour, I heard music playing and a dance circle quickly formed. Wow, those kids can move. I have to admit that it caught me off guard a little bit at first. I think a lot of Carmel moms would have been appalled if they saw their 8-year-old daughters move their hips like that. In Haitian culture, people are definitely not shy when it comes to dancing and singing. I drifted away from the circle when my seven buddies wanted me to dance in the middle- haha yeah that would have been interesting. The beautiful thing about our day in Vialet was that we had a lot of time to interact with the people and just have fun! Luckily, we also had bubbles and face paint on hand, which made a perfect distraction.

            I unlatched all the little hands holding onto me and pulled out a bottle of bubbles. I showed them how to use it and then handed the container to the girl in the yellow romper. That turned out to be a huge hit. Their faces lit up as if they had just seen magic or something! Later on, one of the other girls pulled on my shirt and pointed at the sky with a huge smile on her face. She was mesmerized by the shiny bubbles still floating high above the trees. They soon discovered face painting and wanted to try that as well. I grabbed the white crayon and just drew simple designs on all of their cheeks- stars, hearts, smiley faces, etc. The kids were so proud of their drawings, and none of them even knew what they looked like!

            Meanwhile, some of the adults in our group went inside to paint chalkboards in the classrooms. Jim was one of those adults… now we had agreed not to pass out any candy or goodies until the end, but he could not seem to resist the urge. There were only a couple of kids in the classroom so the sneakily slid the candy into their pockets. Then he knelt down, put his finger to his lips, and whispered “shhhhh.” Yeah, like that was going to work. Within a matter of minutes there were so many kids rushing in wanting candy from “Mista Jeem” that they had to barricade the door so that they could finish painting.

            On our first trip to Haiti, I was upset that I never actually got to see the inside of the FFP houses that Performance Services had bought. So, I broke off from my little followers for a moment and toured one. The house had about as much square footage as my room at home, but it was a castle to them. The amount of pride and dignity that a house can bring to a family continually amazes me. One thing that I have learned from my involvement in Haiti is that the people there don’t need the kind of life that we expect here in the States. A nice home there looks like a small cinderblock hut to us. Our goal is not to provide them with luxuries they didn’t even know they were lacking. It is to meet their basic needs to that they can live with peace and dignity.

            Sadly, our time in Vialet had to come to an end so that we could get back to the hotel before dark. Since the trail was still too muddy for the buses, a pick-up truck shuttled us out to the main road in small groups. I made sure I was in one of the last groups because I didn’t want to leave! The music and dancing and joy continued even as we loaded into the truck. Once again, it was so difficult to say goodbye to those kids, especially the seven who had literally been attached to me for the past few hours.

            Just as I was climbing into the bed of the truck, I caught a glimpse of a familiar face. I had to do a double take- I recognized a little girl in the crowd from a photo that I took last year. The image of her from 15 months ago was engrained into my mind from seeing it so many times. She used to be a boney,  with a bloated belly, dirty skin, matted hair, and no life in her eyes. Now she was standing before me in a neatly pressed school uniform. She looked clean and healthy, her hair was in perfect braids, and her eyes sparkled as she looked up at us. Best of all, she was laughing and jumping around as she waved goodbye. I wish that I had thought to take a picture of her right then and there. With or without a picture though, I will not forget this little girl who perfectly embodies the transformation I have seen in this community as a whole. They are alive, organized, joyful, and dignified. Last year, in addition to the houses, Performance Services gave the village 30 cows as a part of FFP’s animal husbandry program. Since then, they have bred 25 calves. Not to mention digging a well, raising tilapia, and organizing a full on celebration for us. That’s when you know that your gift (Performance Services’ in this case) has had a huge impact; when it enables people to take care of themselves.

^(The girl in the green)

            On the flip side of that, there remains a level of desperation despite the hope. Some of the families in Four-A-Chaux do not actually own the land they live on, making them unable to receive a good home or other property from FFP. This heartbreaking reality was made apparent to us just before the truck took off. There was a girl named Keely who Olivia had been holding and cuddling the entire day. She was probably two or three, but still resembled a baby. At one point she tried to put the girl down, but she was so weak that she wobbled and could hardly stand on her own. Olivia couldn’t take it so she scooped her right back up. Eventually she had to put the Keely so that we could leave. While we were loading into the back of the pick-up, the child’s grandmother ran over and desperately begged Olivia to keep her. She knew that she did not have the means to provide a good life for her. Seeing the look in that woman’s eyes and having to say “no” broke Olivia’s heart. Mrs. Bedford, who was sitting there witnessing the whole thing, got very emotional several times just talking about it. I cannot even fathom how desperate a mother (or grandmother) would have to be to give her child to a stranger so that she could have a good life.

            That is the paradox of Haiti. The week we spent there was so full of hope, and beauty, and joy that I can hardly contain myself. Yet at the same time and in the same place, there is unimaginable pain and despair. It is so discouraging sometimes to know that no matter how hard I work, the effect I have will still be just a drop of water out of an entire ocean of poverty. We talked about that a lot on the way back to the hotel. We are human- there is only so much we can do. If we can change one life, the rest of the world may not care, but it will matter to that one person. In the words of Mother Theresa, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” I cannot fix all of Haiti. I cannot provide for all of Gros Mangle, or Ganthier, or Four-A-Chaux, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin in Port-Au-Prince. But if I can love one Wycliffe, one Ralph, one Nini or Gemi or Keely, one future Lesli; it matters to that one child of God.

            We got stuck in heavy traffic on the way home, so we began reflections on the bus. God, I love Food for the Poor! We went around and shared our experiences of the day. We talked through some of the emotion and impact of each day. We prayed and discussed our future plans to do more in Haiti. Lesli was emotional as he talked about the hope and joy he saw. He thanked us for helping “his people” and emphasized how personal all of this was for him. For an hour or so that bus became our secluded oasis. I completely forgot the outside world and the fact that we were stuck in traffic on a crowded road. 

May 21, 2013- Ganthier & Manneville

            Right after breakfast we grabbed our bags and left the Wahoo Bay Hotel. The second mission team that was meeting up with us was just arriving at the airport. We were set to meet them at the FFP warehouse/ kitchen, so we toured around there for a bit. Once everyone (other than Dr. Lynne, who brought the wrong passport to the airport) had arrived, we took off toward the village of Ganthier (pronounced “Gon-tee-ā”), a new FFP development. FFP has not begun any work yet, but they have plans to.

            Currently there is an organization called Caribbean Harvest that became involved in the late 1990’s. Dr. Val has built a school in the center of the village so that the children do not have to walk through miles of rough, rocky terrain to go to the one in the nearest village. He has also put into place 3 brackish tilapia ponds so far and is in the process of building more. While Dr. Val has done a lot for Ganthier, this was by far the most extreme poverty I witnessed in Haiti. It was obvious why he called upon FFP for further assistance. Even Madam Guirre, a native Haitian, was astonished.

            The houses were nothing more than sticks woven together. For a roof there was either a ragged tarp or palm branches, often weighted down by old car tires. Most of these did not even have the mud-clay mixture that you often see as plaster the walls. Any amount of rain could flood the entire house. Some huts had raised beds, but even with one bed, most children will still be sleeping on the floor. One Ganthier mother told our translator that during the rainy season she stays up all night and watches her kids so that they will not drown in their sleep. I cannot even imagine a life where drowning in my sleep was a daily fear. My daily problems and complaints are so trivial in comparison. 

            The indicators of malnutrition are incredibly apparent here. Most of the young children have brittle orange hair, bloated bellies, and a few with long, protruding belly buttons. They run around naked or half-clothed because many parents simply cannot afford clothes for the young ones. I saw one little girl… or boy- I’m not sure which… who was standing off by herself. She was completely covered in dirt, and had sores on her skin and dried mucus from her nose. I just kept thinking that this village looks like a scene out of some sad awareness campaign about Africa, not Haiti.

            As for food, there are a handful of animals, including the tilapia, but not many. The dirt is only fertile enough to sustain a few cacti and other desert plants, so there is no opportunity to grow crops. The only drinkable water comes from Caribbean Harvest. They truck in about 3,000 gallons a week, which only comes to a mere 5 gallons per week for a large family. Because Ganthier is so far removed and the road to get there is very rough, this is not at all a sustainable solution. The village is in desperate need of desalinization units to convert their brackish water into drinkable freshwater, however those can be very pricey.

            Up the hill from the main village lies the community’s new school. It is a simple two-room structure, but is in very good condition. The children were in class when we came up. They sang us songs, performed skits, and welcomed us to their community. Dr. Val explained the work they are doing there, as well as the ongoing need. We got to see the tilapia cages, play with the kids, and take a few pictures before we left. As I was walking down the hill, three of the youngest school children wrapped their arms around me and held my hands as I headed toward the bus. They were so joyful despite the conditions they lived in every day. It was so difficult to leave after only being there a few hours. I am amazed at how little time it takes for me to become attached to a village and how such a short encounter can have a life-changing impact on me. I know that I will ever forget what I saw or felt today in Ganthier.

            Time flew by, and before I knew it, we had left Ganthier for our next stop, Manneville. This was in a more populated area, but was still very poor. The second mission team that had joined us was inaugurating homes that they built here. Dr. Lynne was rushing over from the airport as the ceremony started. When she arrived though, she was welcomed with a grand entrance with hundreds of people celebrating and applauding. It was moving to hear the stories of how one woman’s generosity had changed the lives of so many!

            Overall, today was incredible. I was worried at first because all of the towns we were visiting- I had no connection to! I have discovered over the past few days though, that I learn something new at every single place. I continue to fall in love with the people of Haiti. And so the reality that I can only help so many of them becomes more and more difficult to accept. 

May 20, 2013- Gros Mangle

            Bernard has a really nice fishing boat that is only a few minutes’ drive from the hotel. We had to take one that was big enough to hold 15 of us! We were also bringing with us an entire suitcase full of radios, batteries, candy, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. The ride to Gros Mangle should have taken an hour, but was only about 45 minutes with Bernard behind the wheel. The ocean was a beautiful glassy blue and the mountains set a stunning backdrop. One thing that struck me though was the amount of garbage floating everywhere. In the States, there would be activists all over that with “green” initiatives and such. Here, no one is really concerned about it… they have a few other priorities. There is no trash service in most areas, so if you need to throw something away it either goes on the ground or into the ocean.

            The girls got to ride on the front of the boat while Dad, Jim, and Ben sat up top. At one point, dozens of dolphins began jumping around our boat, swimming in the wake or along the front. Even the Haitians who were helping out on the boat were ecstatic!

            As Gros Mangle came into view, three of our FFP fishing boats came speeding out to greet us and escort us to shore. There were school children, villagers, and a priest ready to greet us as we got off the boats. They led us to a small makeshift shelter where the inauguration ceremony was to be held. The local Catholic priest gave thanks to us and to Bernard for all we had done for them. He also addressed the urgent needs the village still has. As it turns out, Gros Mangle has no clean water, or even fresh water to drink. They collect what they can from the rain, but it is not nearly enough. On top of that, the sanitation conditions are horrible. The only sanitation units they have are the two stalls that we built on the backside of their gear shed. In a town with hundreds of families, that is nowhere near sufficient. They essentially have to go in the woods. This exposed waste puts them at a high risk for Cholera- a disease that is easily treated if you have access to a hospital, but can be deadly if you do not.        

            The mayor of the town told us that there was a huge Cholera outbreak soon after our fishing boats were delivered to the island. The mainland (where the nearest hospital is located) is 50 miles away, and none of the old boats are really equipped to travel that distance across the ocean. He said that the fishermen who were given FFP boats went around the entire island picking up anyone who was ill and shuttling them to the hospital in the mainland. The four boats had to make multiple trips, but they were able to save 130 lives! Once again, I am just astounded by the grace of God. It continues to amaze me how He can take our relatively small contribution and use it for a plan that is 1,000 times better than anything I could have imagined. Our mission was to provide food, jobs, and hope with these fishing boats. We never dreamed that the boats would save so many lives in this unforeseen way!

            After hearing that story, I think just about anything could have happened and the day still would have a success. Once the priest blessed the boats and everyone said a few words, they showed us around the village a bit. There was a boy named Wycliffe who had clung to my side when we first got off the boats. He stuck with me as we went on our tour. He was probably eleven or twelve years old, but he was the sweetest boy ever! I am literally in love with this kid! I even gave him my colorful floral sunglasses and he wore them with pride… what a stud! Anyway, the first place we toured was the new gear shed. As expected, it was filled with fishing supplies, lifejackets, coolers, and freezers. On the backside are two stalls- one is a shower and the other a toilet- and a large cistern for collecting rain water. A solar panel nearby powers the freezers and a streetlight.

            While we were in the gear shed, we figured that that was the best place to distribute all of the items we had brought. We dumped the contents of our suitcase into an empty cooler. All of the hygiene items were left there for the mayor to distribute, but we handed out the radios ourselves. The extra batteries were divided into groups of 15 and put in baggies. Seeing as we couldn’t give a radio to everyone, each of us was told to grab one child and bring him or her in. I chose Wycliffe, of course. He was thrilled to have that new radio to bring home! The rest, I believe were given to the captains of our FFP boats. Overall this may not have been the best way to handle it, because naturally everyone was begging us for radios, even when we had run out of them. In hindsight, we probably should have left everything with the mayor to distribute after we were gone.

            The same was true with the loads of candy we brought- breaking it out in front of a crowd of children was probably not the greatest idea. Lets just say that Lainey was completely swarmed! All the while, the rest of us stood back laughing and taking pictures. She is used to handling a lot of kids, coming from a family of 11, but this may have been a tad bit overwhelming. However, the amazing thing was that after pushing and shoving to get their Smarties, they all went out and shared with other kids, keeping only one or two little pieces for themselves. I was struck by how similar and different they were from American kids like me. We too would have swarmed and fought for the best candies, but I don’t remember ever willingly sharing the majority of it with others.

            Next, the kids led us down the dirt road to see their school building. Although I didn’t get to see much of it, I was very impressed and it was obvious that the kids were incredibly proud to be attending school.  There was a little girl who crawled into Lainey’s lap in one of the classrooms that was probably the sickest child we saw there. She was skinny with filmy, glazed-looking eyes. She didn’t talk or laugh or really have much energy at all. I noticed some other signs of malnutrition among the children there, although not as obvious as in other villages. Common indicators include bloated bellies, protruding belly buttons, orange-ish hair, open sores, thin arms and legs, and filmy or yellowed eyes. It is heartbreaking to play with these sweet kids and see noticeable signs of malnutrition. I cannot imagine the excruciating pain they have to go through on a daily basis.

            The mayor showed us a well near the school that we had seen children drinking from. The first thing I noticed was that the water was very dirty and there was trash in at the bottom of the well. But even worse was the fact that the water was brackish, or salty. Although they had tried to dig away from the ocean, they were unable to find fresh water. I could not believe that this was what those tiny bodies were consuming every day. Water is the most basic necessity for survival, and theirs is not only dirty but salty too! Jim and I both knew right away that we had stumbled upon “Casting Hope, Phase II.” We had to get these people drinkable water.

            Eventually, the time came to say goodbye and hop back on our boat. It was so difficult to part and I wished we could have stayed longer! But we took a few last photos with the fishing boats, said our sad goodbyes, and headed off. On the boat ride home, Bernard took us to see one of his FADs. It stands for “Fish Attracting Device" and is an important part of the fishing village project. The device is an original invention of Bernard's, which he has built and stationed in FFP fishing villages all over Haiti. I won’t get into how it is made, but essentially it creates vegetation, which attracts small sea creatures, which attract small fish, which attract bigger and bigger fish. The FAD itself floats near the surface, but is anchored to a 50-gallon drum that is sunk to the bottom of the ocean. It circulates in a ½ mile to a mile radius. The fishermen in our village have a GPS that can locate it and tell them where the best fish will be. As we passed by it, I spotted a Mahi-Mahi and Bernard saw a shark. The men on the boat made the unanimous decision to drop a line and troll for a bit. They wanted to “make sure this FAD was functioning correctly.” Seeing as Jim and my dad are huge fishing fanatics, I highly doubt that was their motivation. Before we knew it, there was a fish on the line. Jim was strapped into the fighting chair in a matter of seconds and reeled in his 15-pound (or 1,000-pound if you ask him) Mahi-Mahi. He could not have been more proud of that fish! Once the excitement of the fish died down, we crawled back up on the front of the boat and sped toward shore at a gentle 55 mph.

^The FAD

            It was really difficult to fall asleep tonight. I had so much racing through my head. I was so full of joy and excitement from seeing all that our donations had done for the people of Gros Mangle! But at the same time, I was too disturbed to sleep. My mind kept going back to my little buddy, Wycliffe. I wanted so badly to protect him and give him a good life, but there was so much I did not even know about him. I wondered if he would fall asleep tonight with hunger pains. I wondered if his parents were abusive, or if they were even alive. It kills me to imagine that this precious boy has to put his life at risk every day just to go to the bathroom or drink water. It breaks my heart to think that he might go days without a good meal or a loving kiss on the forehead. I feel like a mother constantly worrying about him like this! But I can’t help it; I fell in love with a village and with a sweet little boy today.