Last week took us to the countryside and a mountaintop!
First, I'll take you to the country.
When we set out to go somewhere in Haiti, we never know
exactly what to expect. We take a book,
water bottle and often a snack and brace ourselves for whatever might come. A
lot of times the process is slower, hotter, more frustrating, dustier or more tiring
than we initially expect. This week, our expectations were exceeded…in a good
way!
We knew we were going to a school in the country and that
it was “far away”.
But, with our
fearless driver we knew we were up for the challenge.
We jumped in the tap-tap and took off.
We made our way through the traffic, people
going to work, little ones in their uniforms walking to school, shops being set up, market & baskets filled…all the busy
early morning activity. Soon, we were out of the hustle & bustle of the
Port-au-Prince streets and seeing more plantain farms, dirt roads &
mountain scenery.
It always amazes me
how our driver has such an extensive knowledge of where things are located in
Haiti.
We rattle off this school name or that
orphanage and he squints his eyes and thinks for a second and the next thing
you know we are weaving through all sorts of back roads, crazy steep hills in
what seems to be mostly unmarked streets where much of what we see looks the
same.
This particular trip, our trust was put to the test.
We turned off the main road and it got
bumpy…totally normal. Then we veered off to what seemed even less of a road and
kept going for what seemed like forever.
It eventually turned out that the road was completely washed away and we
were in what was basically a dried up riverbed.
There was a wall of dirt on each side with trees towering above us. I
was lucky enough to be in the front of the truck, but Tim and our translator
were being tossed and thrown around the back of the truck on a hard wooden bench.
After what seemed like forever down this
“road,” I thought surely we must be getting close.
The view in front of us was a mountain and
fields to the left and right. We saw little towns and people, but it seemed
that it was impossible that anything was going to materialize at the end of the
riverbed
road we found ourselves on.
Eventually we stopped. We looked up and there was a little path
up to a gate and we were there. We were instructed to drive around to a place
where we could cut through a man’s field and come to the school the back way
since the road was gone where we were.
We later learned that we were only 20 miles outside of
Port-au-Prince…felt like we had gone 100!
At last, we entered the schoolyard. A small miracle after
what seemed like being on a bumpy, though beautiful, ride to nowhere. We were greeted by a wonderful woman named
Maryse. She gave us a tour of the school
and shared with great pride how the school was making an impact in the
community. She seems like the mother of
the school. She knows the children,
makes sure they are doing well and coordinates their sponsor program. The school is in a rural, farming community
and the 514 children come from the surrounding area. The families struggle to provide for their
children, so being able to attend school, receive a uniform, 2 hot meals each
day, books and participate in sports and music is an incredible blessing.
We peeked into the various classrooms filled with lots of
chatter and energetic kids. Sweet smiles and shy waves greeted us as we saw the
children busily working. The classrooms are simple and without electricity, but
the entire schoolyard is beautiful and well kept.
It was encouraging to see that they work hard to ensure that
a child’s physical, educational and emotional needs are being met. They have a
social worker who was actually a student at the school who helps address family
issues and not just address a child’s behavior, but what else may be going on.
The teachers at the school are from the community which
gives them a sense of pride and investment in educating the children who are
often times their family and neighbor’s children.
As soon as they heard we were there for a tour, they quickly
brought a music class to us and they proudly played 2 Christmas songs on their
recorders. The music teacher rocked the keyboard and the kids squeaked out the
notes. They were adorable!
The school
offers music lessons after school and is hoping to have a PE or sports teacher
soon to offer more extracurricular activities for the children to engage in as
there are few opportunities in the community.
I am excited to take on the responsibility of helping to
find sponsors for 50 of the children. Of
the 514 of the children at the school, 150 more need sponsors and we decided
that we would do our best to help find 50 sponsors. They call the sponsors the
children’s Godparents. Sponsors receive photos, school reports and updates on
the child. Sponsors can send photos and letters to the child and even visit
them at the school! The children are
excited to be sponsored and the goal is for each child to have a Godparent
soon. The funds go towards the work that
the school is doing and the children were visibly benefitting and thriving
It was neat to hear about how the families are getting
involved with the school as well.
The
mothers come every other week and make a type of bread that is served to the
children.
Also, they planted a huge
garden and the children’s lunches now have eggplant, tomatoes and spinach.
It was interesting to learn about the community where they
live. Maryse shared that girls often
will go to school until age 12 and then after that schooling seen as being only
“for boys” and the girls will stop going to school at that point and often start
having babies at very young ages, even as young as 12. Many women have 6 or 7 children and struggle
to provide, but children are seen as a sign of prosperity. Most families are single mothers raising many
children.
I was particularly struck by the complexity of addressing
the needs of a community when we visited the clinic on the school grounds.
They realized that the children at school
were often sick and without proper medical care, so they opened the clinic to
address these needs as well as offer services to the community.
As we walked through the clinic, we came to
the area where 300-400 children are seen each month due to malnutrition. They
receive a supply of therapeutic food which is a fortified peanut butter paste
that is used to help the children gain weight.
They are monitored and plans are put in place to help sustain the
child’s weight once they are out of the “danger zone” of being severely
underweight.
Their was a young boy there
who we learned had brought his little sister to her appointment because their
mother was at home and had just had a baby.
It’s difficult to know that the next baby will probably be at the
malnutrition clinic as well if the family was struggling to provide for the
other children.
It reminded me of the
complexity of the needs and challenges people face and that there is no simple,
easy answer.
The clinic has the equipment, but not staff to run an eye
clinic and is hoping for optometrists to come and volunteer their time for 1-2
weeks and offer vision screenings, but they have not been able to do that yet.
They also hope to provide dental care, but again this is a
matter of resources, staff and funding to be able to make this happen.
A physical therapist was on there working for a few months,
but had to return home due to a family situation, so they are now seeking to
fill his position as well.
It was interesting to meet a man who works with the clinic
whose job is to go into the community and build relationships and educate
people about the services the clinic offers. There is fear, distrust and uncertainty of
bringing someone to a clinic for medical care.
This man’s main job, along with 11 other men doing the same work, is to
encourage people to bring their sick children, family members and friends to
the clinic for care.
The normal practice
is to seek out a voodoo priest or witch doctor for healing. At first, the
clinic only had 12 patients and now they have over 500!
The next stop our journey was to the orphanage, also run by
the same school.
It’s located just a short
drive from the school.
They want the
children to feel like they are going home too and not just living at a boarding
school.
The children came to their care
due to other orphanages being shut down due to poor conditions.
The goal is to find the families of these
children.
Families often send their
child to an orphanage because they are provided a bed and meals, often more
than the family can provide.
However in
these cases, the children were put in horrific conditions and the better life
they were offered was not true.
40 of
the 60 children have been reunited with their families.
The orphanage was very clean and well taken
care of. There is a man who is like an Uncle who lives in a house nearby and
takes care of the grounds and a woman who the children call grandmother.
Because this particular orphanage has open
beds, they were told that they need to be prepared to take in
more children and heard that they could
expect 75 children coming soon. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be
brought to an orphanage and the questions and fear the children must have.
Also, for the staff to help the children
adjust and for the current children living there to be overwhelmed by so many
new children coming into “their home”.
While its easy to become overwhelmed even just all of the
children we saw on the streets, not in school, on the way to this particular
place, it was encouraging to see the work that this school is doing and the
difference it is making for 514 children!
And now we set out to find sponsors for 50 of these precious
little ones…God is teaching me to focus on the people, situations, needs and opportunities that he puts in my path and being faithful to do my best with the resources He's given me. Otherwise, I look out into a sea of endless needs and am paralyzed by my inadequate resources and ability to help everyone and fix every problem. But, He provides exactly what is needed for the work He sets before me. I have seen it happen and I know its true. So now, for these 50 little ones, I trust in His plan for each of them and with strength & wisdom from Him, I'll do my best to help 50.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future. -Jeremiah 29:11
And this was just the trip to the countryside! You're going to want to come back to hear about the mountaintop!
We continued on through rolling, winding mountain “roads”
and saw abandoned structures, a random lodge, a soccer field of all things and
we continued on. 
