Monday, January 08, 2007
Tenacious A
If you are still checking this site and waiting for my final update (you sure are tenacious!), I promise that I'll write one. It's going to be really upbeat because that's how I am feeling these days. God is great and He sure does love me!!!
My update will be posted as soon as I am over my trying-to-do-too-muchisitis.
Happy New Year!!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Final update being prepared
Hello friends - Be assurred that I'm prepping a final report on my Haiti trip. I want to capture all my final thoughts and apparently I have many of them! Stay tuned.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Holidaze
Hey friends - I am now back in Chicago! I had planned to make this post on Wednesday night which turned into Thursday but I got busy, and then super tired, and then the electricity went out this morning before I left Haiti. So here is my Haitian holiday post and I will make another with my final thoughts about the mission trip soon...
We didn't end up doing any "destination" travel over the 2-day holiday, but we did make it to some interesting nearby locales. On Wednesday we went out to a Haitian lunch and then to the Historic Sugar Cane Park Museum. That parque is really one of the most beautiful, clean and serene places I've seen in Haiti, a welcome respite from the chaos that is Port au Prince. We got some ice cream there and enjoyed the scenery and some conversation. Afterwards we headed along the coast of Etang (Lake) Saumâtre and up to the Dominican Republic border near Jimani. The weather was pleasant and the sunset views across the lake were magnificent!
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Yesterday morning we enjoyed coffee and conversation before taking Marty and Dave to the airport for their flights home. And yesterday evening we attended the Thursday evening prayer service in the village just outside Double Harvest that I've mentioned before named Coupon. The tools inventory guy, Carlot, gave a spirited message on creation... or so they tell me, as I haven't quite picked up Creole yet. Afterwards I got a personal tour of the home of Kedler, who attends the Double Harvest school and lives in the village. He shares the very small home with his grandparents and cousins. His mother and other siblings live in a nearby village and his father conducts his tailoring business in a small room attached to their home - it was both humbling and resourceful.
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I really can't believe I am leaving Haiti for home today. These six weeks have really flown by, but yet I feel like I've gained a bundle of rewarding memories that will last me a lifetime. My views on Haiti have come full circle, multiple times, during my stay here. While I see that many people have so little, they really have been blessed tremendously by a God who cares for them and meets many of their basic daily needs. There's a sign on my wall in my apartment here in Haiti that says "Dieu est fidele". That means "God is faithful" and I can see with my eyes that this applies more than anywhere to the people of Haiti.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Hottie patottie
Ok people, I just thought I would let you know how HOT it is here today. I was outside around 11:30A before it even reached the peak temp of the day and I thought my skin was going to melt off. Yahoo Weather says that we will have a high of 95F today but that it will feel like 111F - oohwee, that sounds about right. The electric keeps going out in our building too so sometimes there's nowhere to get relief. PTL that this wuss doesn't have to labor under the sun.
I was just talking to Creche, the head mechanic, and he has invited us over to his house. It will be fun to meet his wife and his other 2 daughters! (I met 2 of them during the eye exams. That's Creche and one of his daughters in a school uniform in the eye exam photos below.) It also turns out that he is the culprit of the Christian bluegrass music! (Must find him another CD....) He is an upbeat Christian guy who always has a smile on his face, and has FIVE brothers who work here at Double Harvest too.
Here are two nature photos I took this morning. Buzz buzz, flap flap.
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Slow weekend
We didn't make it anywhere this weekend but that was good as I was able to get some more work done. The days are just flying by now. Marty, the leader of my college church group during my years at Purdue and a faithful supporter of Double Harvest, will be coming down here today for a few days. Then Dave, from the same group who graduated around the same time as I, will be coming down tomorrow. I think they will be helping out Mark with a brick assessment project. It will be nice to spend some time with them again after all these years.
I also recently found out that Wednesday and Thursday are both national holidays, so on at least one of the days we may make an overnight trip to a nearby tourist location. Our destination has not yet been selected but I hope it is somewhere that we can get out into nature and do something athletic while taking in some culture as well. I will inform you of the location that is selected, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos I snapped at church yesterday morning.
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
OH YEAH!
The farm workers were planting this week. It was fun to watch a field go from dirt to covered with little green tufts over the period of a workday. Check out the photo of the planting that I captured near the end of the day - I love the dichotomic harmony of the greens and blues. I also like this natural cameo I spotted of the multi-purpose building. The "pool" in the middle ground is the tank used for watering the fields and not for swimming unless you have a thing for algae.
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Tonight's prayer service was in a village named Dumay, a couple unpaved miles away from Double Harvest. It has rained hard the last couple nights so the roads were super muddy and rutted out. Between two pickup trucks, we carted almost 50 people to and from the service. I am not kidding. In our truck alone we crammed 6 people into the cab and Becky counted 18 in the back, just like a real tap-tap! The service was at a church member's home nestled in a banana forest (at least that's what it looked like.) It was very tropical and kind of made me want to crash through a wall and say "OH YEAH!" like the Kool-aid man. Something about being surrounded by trees makes me exuberant.
A woman named Diane from Kansas has been here for the last couple days getting the surgery and recovery rooms prepared at the medical clinic for the next surgical team. She attended the prayer service with us and I heard Becky whisper to her that visitors were required to stand up and sing a creole worship song in front of everyone. After a few Haitians had done this, Diane looked like she was starting to get worried. (Me too a little, even though I wasn't really a "visitor" anymore.) As it turns out, they don't usually make foreigners participate and we were off the hook! It seemed like everyone had a great time and enjoyed themselves. I also learned that roosters and chickens can fly really high. During the middle of the service a whole bunch of them decided to fly up and perch themselves about 20 feet atop some banana trees. That's just crazy business.
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I'm not a summer person, but oohwee, I am going to miss this warm weather and sunshine when I return to Chicago next week. I do enjoy a nice, crisp fall day but I fear I've already missed that fleeting season while I've been away.
Ok, this is not really related to what I'm doing down here but one of the DVDs I brought along for the Spaldings was Akeelah and the Bee. It is a really heartwarming, upbeat movie and referenced an awesome quote that I'd like to share with you. It was written by Marianne Williamson. Go girl!
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." |
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Random tidbits
I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left here! I am encouraged by my recent progress but please pray that I am able to complete the work that I started - specifically, that I will be able to get the information from the necessary parties and that they will have time to assist in these ventures. An unexpected side-effect of the constant exposure to French with the documents I'm referencing and half of the worship songs at church is that I'm slowly picking up French and its pronunciations. It shares many of its language roots with Spanish, with which I am familiar.
I've decided to find an eye surgeon to come to Double Harvest. I've emailed all of my friends in the medical industry (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospital chaplains) in hopes that they will know an eye surgeon (also known as an opthamologist, thanks Trina) willing to take a few days out of their schedule to perform desperately-needed surgeries for those we have seen at the Double Harvest clinic. If you know anyone who would be interested, please let me know!
Some of the Van Wingerdens were down at Double Harvest last week putting in a new concrete wash basin around the water tower they had previously constructed in the "squatters village" just outside of the Double Harvest grounds. The village is named Coupon and could use your prayers for provision! The Van Wingerdens are a huge family of successful businesspersons from North Carolina who started Double Harvest Haiti in 1981. They are the main financial supporters of the mission and many of them spend a significant amount of regular time down here. The Van Wingerdens also have Double Harvest mission projects in Kenya, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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I spent some more time last week with the head agronomists at Double Harvest - Pierre & Phillipe. As I've mentioned before, they are interesting characters. Pierre mentioned that the previous weekend he had traveled far north in the country to participate in a volunteer environmental assessment. I asked him where he picked up his (unusual for Haiti) spirit of volunteerism. He said that after many years in the scouts as a child, the spirit of helping others had always stuck with him. I also asked if he had lived in Haiti his whole life - he said that he had lived here all but for a few years where he attended the historically significant Tuskegee University in Alabama.
As some of you know, where I am living and doing most of my work at Double Harvest is in a "multi-purpose" building consisting of the hardware and tools storage, miscellaneous farm equipment storage, the "cold room" for harvested vegetables, a few apartments for short-termers, and (previously, thanks to me) offices. Anyway, the guy who is in charge of tools inventory is a really jovial guy named Carlot. He attends L'Eglise Baptiste de Coupon (Baptist Church of Coupon, on the grounds of the Double Harvest mission), tallies the church offering every week, and leads the morning devotions at the medical clinic. But I think I need to slip him a new music CD because he has been playing the same instrumental Christian bluegrass CD over and over all day long since I have been here. Quite surprisingly this has not yet developed the "ice cream truck effect", likely due to it's upbeat rhythm, but I feel it coming. I can only imagine how long this CD has been in rotation.
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I must admit that I'm a little bummed that I'm not able to do regular touristy actitivies like walking the streets and being a real consumer of culture here. When I travel I'm used to taking it all in, seeing all the sites, and really exploring the culture. Unfortunately, much of the decent "touristy" stuff in PAP is in an area of downtown that is not safe for foreigners. For example, the US Consulate and Embassy here both have strict curfews for their employees. Oh well! At least I am definitely taking in some of the rural culture. Becky mentioned that we may visit an old fort this weekend, so I am hopeful!
Likewise, I wish I could determine where the Haitian National Cyclocross Team practices. How fun would that be to meet up with them and watch them practice?! They don't have snow, but they certainly have mud and the terrain is perfect, even on the city streets! Haiti is totally built for cyclocross! And many Haitians bike everywhere - it's probably like 100X more likely (or more) that a Haitian has a bicycle than a car. Which brings up the question - why no bike lanes? There are barely even "shoulders" on most roads. I mark it up to poor urban planning (or lack thereof).
Sidenote: As some people reading this might not be aware, I have participated in cyclocross racing for the last several years in the midwest. It's fun sport, keeps you active during the "off-season", and is great for spectating.
Electricity in Haiti is really sporadic. Where public electricity is available for consumers, it may or may not be available that day based on the whim of power company. In rural Haiti, there is no electricity period. But that doesn't stop people from purchasing cell phones! The problem many face is where to charge them up. There are charging stations at some gas stations around town where people can plug in and wait for them to charge. In rural Haiti, people will charge at ANY (and I do mean ANY) outlet they can find. In many outlets on the premises of Double Harvest you can find a slew of cell phones being charged up during the work day. And on the weekends people bring their phones to church to plug them in - even in the outlets 7 feet off the ground! Sometimes they'll come to church just so they can pick up their cell phone that they left there earlier in the day, or the day before. The optometrists mused that DH should start a campaign where they have multiple power strips at the entrance of the church and use the slogan - "Come to church to give your spiritual life AND your cell phone a charge!" I like it.
In culture news, a cool turn of events for me this weekend was determining that I wouldn't have to wait until I returned home to view the Project Runway finales that my sister had recorded for me. This is one of my favorite TV shows and I left for Haiti just before the finale. Instead I realized that the finales were probably available on iTunes, and they were! Sweet!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Festive flora
I am continuously in awe of the beautiful flora here in Haiti. It seems as if every day I discover an amazing new flower, bush or plant that I have never seen before. I think Jesus had a land like Haiti in mind when he said:
Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? ... And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you - you of little faith? - Matthew 6:25,28-30 |
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Saturday, October 21, 2006
Goin' on a lion hunt
(sing along if you know the tune) Goin' on a lion hunt. Gonna catch a big one. I'm not scared! Look at all these flowers. It's a nice day!
Except it wasn't a lion - it was a puppy! Then a bull! Then a rat! No kidding, last night I hunted all three! I was just sitting here writing my mom an email and something catches my eye outside. It was a puppy, running haphazardly through the fields! What?? Once it reached the tall pineapple plants it looked confused. I was confused too - what do you do with a lost puppy in Haiti? So I called the Spaldings. In the meantime, the puppy ran off and was nowhere to be seen from my window. Had I imagined it?
I go outside to look for it. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it if I caught it - maybe give it some food? Once reaching the field, the puppy remains nowhere to be seen. So I look some more. Nothing. A puppy couldn't just disappear, could it? Or had I hallucinated the puppy and it was actually a rat? I decide not to give up and continue searching the fields some more when all of a sudden, what do I see but THE PUPPY! After applauding the fact that I'm not going crazy I call to the puppy, which seems to be some kind of beagle mix. What does it do? It turns and runs as far and as fast away from me as it's little puppy legs could muster. Of course, this is not the normal reaction of puppies in the states so I just kind of stood there dumbfounded. Sadly, most dogs in Haiti are unwanted, uncared for and abused. Most of them don't have owners, don't get shots, and are mangy mutts.
Anyway, I decide to hunt after it as I needed an adventure. I eventually caught up to it but then it ran away again - boy that puppy could run fast! It looked healthy for the most part although it had a distended stomach. I chased it past a field of tall, thin crops (not sure what they were) which happened to include a grazing cow. The puppy ended up running through a field where it would be impossible for me to locate it so I decided to leave its life in God's hands and move on.
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La la la, I'm walking back and decide to take a photo of the peaceful grazing cow. "I wonder how close to it I can get?", I muse. There are livestock tied up randomly all over the place here and they seem pretty content doing their own thing. I snap my first (and only) photo at about 30 yards when I stop and ask myself, "Are those horns?" Yes, indeed it was a bull and it was now looking directly at me! It's gaze was fixed so I didn't move. After about 15 long seconds it started chewing again. I moved to slowly walk away when it fixed it gaze back on me. To be sure that I saw it, it made one of those "humphf" noises out of its nose. You know, the kind they make before they get traction with their foot and charge something. Oh nuts. How do I get out of this situation alive? Andrew told me just yesterday that Marty was chased by a bull on one of his trips down here. Is this one of those animals you should show that you see it and wait for it to turn around, is it safe to run or will I be chased, or should I put my head down and slowly back away? I chose the put-my-head-down-and-slowly-walk-in-another-direction method. It worked but I gotta tell you that I was more than a little worried about my well-being.
I decide to tell the Spaldings about the bull eating their crops so Andrew and I go inform the guards. The guard that went eventually returned in one piece so at least we know the bull didn't get him. In the meantime, I tell Andrew where I had seen some rats hiding when I was puppy hunting. (Literally "ratting-out"!) We had a good time coaxing the rats out of their lair and Tasha (the Spalding's dog) nearly caught a couple! We ended up chasing one into my building which is not quite outstanding in my book but c'est la vie! What an adventure!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Day off at the beach
Our day off spent at the Wahoo Bay beach just North of Port au Prince was a great time! We went snorkeling, swimming and did some sunbathing too. There were sand crabs all over the beach and we even saw a giant barracuda! A relaxing day in the sun for sure.
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On the way back into PAP last night, there were Haitian police everywhere putting up road-blocks in preparation for President Préval doing a drive-through, likely for the national holiday. There were tons of people out so we were thinking he couldn't have been too far behind us. We considered waiting to watch him go by but thought that it might not be a good idea safety-wise and/or that we might get caught in traffic later. We did end up hitting a goat that darted into the road - that was scary but the goat apparently got up and walked away.
All things considered, I am enjoying my time here. I don't feel like I've made the type of progress one would hope for, although in Haiti you have to be flexible, they keep telling me. So I helped out the optometrists last week and other stuff. I just can't get over Haiti, though. The need here seems insurmountable. Praise the Lord that we were born into priviledge and pray for the transformation and revival of Haiti.
Please also pray for my brother-in-law's family as his grandpa passed away last night. Many people will be traveling to attend his funeral.
Monday, October 16, 2006
I can see just fine!
On Thursday nights there is a prayer service at the home of a church member in one of the nearby villages. I caught a photo of part of the crowd during prayer. The guy in the turquoise shirt on the right gave the sermon during service.
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I helped the optometry guys with eye exams again on Friday. They had a white coat for me to wear this time so I could look official. Friday was a little frustrating as many of the people for whom they had prepared glasses in advance did not come to pick them up, but before leaving on Saturday morning they were able to deliver about half. Also, many of the patients on the second day could not read and did not understand some of the concepts for the eye charts, even the charts specifically prepared for those who are illiterate. This one spry 80-year-old woman we saw was hilarious! She kept hopping out of the exam chair and walking to the eye chart saying belligerently (in Creole) "I can see the letters just fine! Your chair is just too far away!"
One of the guards from Double Harvest brought in his adorable little granddaughter to get her eyes checked. It was immediately clear (for those of us who have working eyes) that this girl was very likely blind as her eyes were a very light blue, almost white. Russ determined that she had advanced cataracts in both eyes and there was nothing we were able to do for her - she would need surgery for any level of correction. Additionally, she was very small for her age (4) likely due to malnutrition and was not developmentally mature likely due to the state of her eyes. Please pray that God will provide a surgeon to give Wonchia the surgery she needs to correct her eyesight before it is too late.
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This week I also made good progress on the Double Harvest Employee Handbook - it includes some history of Double Harvest, rules, regulations, the code of conduct, plus new anti-drug and anti-harassment policies! Not that DH had a problem with those things in the past, but no employer is immune to those type of issues so better to have them written out now versus later.
Friday night was the Spalding's anniversary and they went out to dinner in the city while we (Mark and I plus the optometry guys from Tampa) made their kids and us dinner, and had a sleepover at the clinic! We had a fun time watching Jim make dinner from field veggies again then then Mark rushing to get a cake made for dessert before power down - we had no problem eating it afterwards!
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And get this - I got word from some of my cyclocross buddies that a team from Haiti hit a Noreaster UCI race last weekend. Wha?? My internet research hasn't been able to dig up much more information than a few brief mentions plus results and that some Haitian women showed up for Worlds last year. I knew I should have brought my cross rig out here!
Tomorrow is a Haitian national holiday (anniversary of Jean-Jacques Dessalines' death) so the Spaldings, Mark and I are heading to the coast tonight to spend tomorrow on the beach!! I hear that the beach is gorgeous and mostly deserted. Needless to say, I am excited!
Friday, October 13, 2006
Eye see you!
A couple nights this week I slept in the apartments above the medical clinic here at Double Harvest. These apartments were recently built and are typically used to accomodate large teams of short-term workers like college groups, surgical teams and the board of directors. This is also where the optometry team is staying so we have eaten together a few times as well. Last night Jim and I picked veggies from the Double Harvest fields for a stir fry dinner - eggplant, swiss chard, carrots and garlic. Yum!
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Since the power was still out in my building on Thursday morning, I volunteered to help the optometrists see their first round of patients. Two of the older students from the school, Kedlar & Loubert, assisted all day in translating. They are very polite Christian guys and were a huge help. In a little over 4 hours we ended up seeing 44 patients, provided 15 pairs of reading glasses, took eyeglass prescriptions for 4 people, and distributed completed prescriptions to patients from their July visit here - all free of charge courtesy of Russ's organization, Living in Faith, in conjunction with Double Harvest. Unfortunately, there were a handful of people whose eyes were in such a poor state of degeneration that we were unable to help them with glasses as they would require surgery.
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The guys from Living in Faith also make frequent trips to Cuba for similar distribution of glasses and other necessities. They have some amazing stories of how God has enabled them to help people who previously thought they were without hope. Please pray for God to continue opening doors in Cuba and Haiti for the Living in Faith organization.
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Ummm... oops!
We were finally back online with electricity and internet on Wednesday afternoon following 2 days of outage but I didn't post an entry fast enough before the power and internet went out again! I don't know how long I'll have internet this time so here is the long-awaited update from Sunday's events.
On Sunday Mark and I headed into PAP to attend Renald's church, Port au Prince Fellowship. Although it was an English-speaking church led by American missionaries - the pastor was from Boston and the acoustic guitarist in their worship band was Jimmy Buffetesque - most of the congregation was Haitian. Renald played drums. Afterwards we went to the big grocery store and this time I didn't have to worry about calculating my purchases since I used my credit card. (Solved that problem!)
The exciting part about our trip into PAP was discovering that we had a near flat on our rear-wheel drive van and then getting stuck while trying to make it up a steeply-graded unpaved hill. The roads in PAP can go from paved to unpaved at any moment without warning. And "paved" should not be confused with "smooth" - there are massive potholes everywhere! You need a keen eye and quick wrist to keep your vehicle out of danger - and that's after avoiding all of the people walking, biking or selling their wares up and down the streets, not to mention all the other equally crazy drivers. Haiti sure keeps you on your toes!
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After returning back to Double Harvest, I noticed that the water pump in my kitchen wasn't working. I decided to just leave the faucet turned on so I would know when I was able to get water again. "Don't forget to turn the faucet off if you leave", I told myself. Shortly thereafter the Spaldings invited me over to have lunch at their house. Following a lesuirely meal with dessert and conversation, I finally met one of the optometry guys (Jon), but not how I would have wanted. He informed us that one of the apartments in the multi-purpose building was leaking down onto the first floor. Immediately I knew what had happened - I forgot to turn the water faucet off.
I ran over as fast as I could to find that both sides of my sink had been plugged with the stoppers and there was about an inch of water on my kitchen floor. Yikes! Mark, Andrew and I did as quick of a mop job as we could while the rest of the crew assessed the damages to the administrative offices below my apartment. Luckily the only casualities have been the accountant's power inverter, which produced a nice electronic burning smell, and some of the floor tiles in my apartment. But due to the water issues, the Spaldings used this as an impetus to complete the move of the admin offices into another building on Double Harvest grounds that had previously started last week. Everyone who was around, and a few who hadn't been prior, pitched in to get everything out of the two offices and moved over to the other building. With so many hands available, we were able to complete the move in only a few hours whereas Arthur mused that they probably would have drug out the move over a few weeks hadn't this situation occurred. We were even able to get ready and have our evening church service as planned.
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Thank the Lord that the optometry guys (Jon, Jim & Russ) from Florida were downstairs checking their email in the admin offices when the flood occurred, otherwise who knows what could have happened! Not a single person has said anything that would make me feel like a numbskull for doing something like this and we are all just kind of treating it like a blessing in disguise.
