Pictures and Letters

It is just a little after 5pm as I write this and already I can start to hear signs of carnaval. The main carnaval is not in Port-au-Prince this year, but it still sounds like it will be quite a party tonight.

One problem I have discovered with only coming to PaP once a year is that the children change quite a bit in that year. Last year there was a ball of energy. She was full of giggles and wanting her picture taken. As I was preparing for the day and going over the list of children I couldn't recall seeing her this year. I asked Wilkens and he said she was their and showed a picture. I finally ran into her directly today and couldn't believe how much she has changed. Not only in height, but facial structure, and maturity. 

I brought a letter for each child with me on this trip. The letters were from various people that volunteered to write to one or more of the children. I want to thank those who volunteered as it was very much appreciated.

We gathered the children in one of the classrooms to let them know that we wanted to take a picture of each child and that each child would receive a letter from someone that lives in the United States or France after we took the picture. Also, that we had stickers for each child. The older kids are still at camp, so they will get their letters later when they come back. 

The children were very excited to receive their letters as well as get their picture taken. The one flaw in my plan was that I was so busy taking pictures that I didn't have the opportunity to take pictures of the children reading their letters. And afterward I was busy translating letters, so again I was not able to take pictures.  Although one child asked me to take a picture with her letter after I translated it and show that to the author of the letter, so I do have that. I want to say a big thank you to Wilkens and Madmwazèl Paulin for their help today. I couldn't have done it with out them. 

Tonight I pray for peace in Port-au-Prince, that no violence or accedents occurs during the carnaval celebrations. I pray for the children tonight as they quickly grow to youth and young adults. That God blesses them, that he watches over them, and gives them his peace and grace. May they grow to be adults that respect and care for their neighbors and each other. Amen. 

Books, Coloring, and Parks

I enjoy walking to and from the guest house to the center. I enjoy the opportunity to say hello, and the few other words of Creole I know, to the people that live in the community around the center. There are people who run the shops along the way, people just starting their day, people walking to work, and the gentleman that has a wood workshop right across from the center who we have hired on past trips to do some work. Part of the mission of the center is to reach out to the surrounding community, and I think this is a great part of the mission. 

The children are on holiday from school this week, so when I arrived at the center this morning they were busy cleaning both the center and themselves (bath day for the boys). I quickly met some of the children and delivered promised hugs on behalf of people who have come before, but did not make it this year. In case you are wondering, they ask about you. 

There is some limited WIFI at the center now, so it is nice to broadcast live via Facebook with the children. I do this In Hope that people that have never visited are able to understand a little more about the center and those that have are sparked with a happy memory. 

I brought some books with me that were donated by some kind people in New England. These are in French which works great for the children as they learn and speak French in school. They were very enthusiastic about the books and they were quickly loaned out youn chak (one each) and shared and read in groups. It was just what they needed. 

As children peeled off the books and were looking for something else to do, I started handing out coloring pages and crayons. When we started doing coloring on trips to the center it was a mad rush and all the crayons were gone within minutes never to be seen again. The children have gotten so much better at taking one crayon at a time and sharing. So much so that after 30 minutes to an hour of coloring I was down only two crayons. Don't get me wrong, some of the boys tried to pull the wool over my eyes, but when caught they are quick to comply with the rules. 

The children continue to love looking at pictures on my phone, of themselves as well as people back in the US. Something did hit me while looking at pictures with them today. I had seen the behavior before, but for some reason it really broke my heart today. There are lots of pictures of people with food on my phone, from dinners out, celebrations, etc. When the children see the pictures of food they always pause, zoom in and sometimes make fake eating noises (yum, yum, munch, munch). These kids really don't get a lot of food. One or two meals a day mostly of corn meal mush, rice and beans. At the park they would eat the small unripe mangos that fell from tree as well as some nuts that fell from a nut tree. Essentially they were scavenging. We, as a country, are so blessed with a bounty and it hurts when you see some with little. Even at camp last night dinner for the kids was bread, butter, and a drink. 

I do want to raise one person up tonight, Maudline Paulin. She is one of the "mommas" at the center, helping to take care of 37 children ages 4 to 16 everyday, 24 hours everyday, all year. Making sure the boys are bathed, braiding the girls hair, taking them to the restroom, correcting when needed, and I imagine it never stops. She does this with kindness and real love to the children. Truly an amazing dedication and ministry of its own. 

So tonight in addition for prayers for the people of Haiti, the children of the center, I pray for Mamma Pauline. I pray that they have the food they need, and that they continue to experience love and grace in the Center Source de Lumiere and its community. Amen. 

Long, but Good Day

After about 17 hours of travel I arrived in Port-au-Prince. The travel started Saturday evening and ended Sunday afternoon. So, I was already pretty tired when I was dropped off at the guest house. I wasn't expecting to do more than shower, eat and sleep. Then as I was getting out of the car the Pastor said that he was going to see the kids tonight at 5 pm and would pick me up. I thought, sounds good, but rather than have him pick me I said I would walk to the center and went inside the guest house. 

As I was settling in I started smelling dinner and wasn't 100% sure they were planning on serving on Sunday evening. I asked about dinner and was told that t would be served at 5pm. I messaged the Pastor, through Wilkens, that I would be late because of dinner and went back to settling in. Which turned into a quick nap. 

At about 4:30 I got up to prepare for the evening when a friend stopped by to chat as he heard I was in town.  Caught me off guard, but good to catch up. As I was lounging around thinking I had some time, in walks Wilkens and says that the Pastor is here to pick me; apparently he missed my text and the ladies in the kitchen had prepared and were just about to start serving dinner. Quick decision: ask my friend if he wanted the meal (yes), headed to the room for a quick change and out to the car. 

The fact that the car was loaded with people, including the Pastor's wife, should have been my first clue, but even this was not too out of the ordinary. But then we headed in the wrong direction and kept going for about 45 minutes. 

Backtrack. The day before I left I learned that some of the older kids from the center were attending a camp (more on that later). So when the Pastor said he was going to visit the kids, he meant those kids, while I thought he meant the kids at the center. So while I was a bit confused and tired this turned out to be a good thing in the end. When in Haiti you have to adjust quickly to circumstances. 

Once a year, 15 or so churches get together and send some of their youth to a camp that is about 45 minutes outside of PaP. Kids come from all over Haiti, including as far away as Cap Haitian. They spend a week worshiping, playing sports, studying the Bible, holding contests, and simply learning and living in the grace of God. It was wonderful to see. Haiti always surprises me. 

Ps you can see more pictures of the camp on the Source of Light Center's Facebook page https://m.facebook.com/centresourcedelumiere/

Haiti Trip 2017

My travel to Port-au-Prince has been set and I am heading to Haiti a bit early this year; I normally go in early April, this year I will be there in early March. My trip is also a little shorter this year as I think I can accomplish what I would like in a shorter time and any money I can save by shortening my trip I can use toward the work by Haitians in Haiti for the children that live at the Source of Light Center.

Life Skills Training/Mentors

Last year my wife and I hired two life skills trainers / mentors to work with the older children at the center to help prepare them for independent living after they reach the age of majority and must, by law, leave the center. Over the past year Stephanie and Wilkins have been meeting with the children and teaching them lessons on health, food preparation, cleaning, transportation, and shopping. 

While I am in Haiti this year, I will be discussing this program with Stephanie and Wilkins to understand how things went from their perspective as well as do some planning for the next year. I still feel this is a critical component in preparing of the children of the center as I am still very much concerned about the readiness of the children for life after the center.

I would like to extend a thank you to those individuals and groups that have helped to prayerfully and financially support this effort and I would like to welcome others who would like to support this effort in the next year to contact me at sourcedelumierehaiti@gmail.com. This program costs $300 USD per month to continue and additionally funds to expand the number of training hours.

Joining Forces

I feel that there is a lot to learn from many sources when looking to support the children of the center. This year I plan to be in more contact with the Baptist General Association of Virginia  (BGAV) who are a primary sponsor of the center. One of the reasons for the timing of my trip this year is so that I overlap with representatives from BGAV who will be in PaP for board meetings and planning sessions with the Pastor.

Additionally, I would like to coordinate with other group homes in Haiti that have or plan to have life skill lessons for their children so that we can leverage lessons learned, material, and planning where appropriate. 

Keeping Up with the Children

While supporting the children with programs for their future is important, spending time with the children is just as important. It always amazes me when I visit the children that they remember my name as I am just one of many people they see throughout the year. And it is not that I am unique as they remember the names of everyone that has spent time with them. They ask about people they haven't seen for a couple of years and I have seen them have these same interactions with people from other visiting groups.

Two years ago we started capturing a photo of each child on every visit to Haiti. This was so that we could have a record of each child as they get older and allow people to familiarize themselves with the children before they visited. My intent is to continue this effort and capture a portrait of each child this year. It feels a little like picture day at school when we do this.

Supporting Haiti after the Storm

I have been asked by a few people about how they might help Haiti recover from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew. Given that I have been asked by a few people I thought it might be easier to answer via a blog post.

It is challenging to provide aid to Haiti as we have all seen in the news. A combination of poor long term planning, lack of understanding consequences, organization self preservation, and corruption have all help to exasperate problems in areas of Haiti. Even so, there are many in need in Haiti because of this storm and we need to separate providing immediate aid in the shadow of a disaster and the longer term recovery of Haiti; which must be lead and driven by Haitians with the rest of us providing the support as we are asked.

The people that I have directly worked with in Haiti were largely spared the brunt of the storm as they are in Port-au-Prince and the storm tracked over the south - west of Haiti. That is not to say that they weren't affected as they still had to deal with rain, flooding, and strong winds. Additionally, many have friends and family that live and work in the areas that we most affected. What I mean is that when evaluating where to help with aid I believe that there are places in more need after this storm than those with which I directly work.

There are two groups that I have worked with in the past, trust, and feel comfortable donating towards hurricane relief: United Christians International in Haiti and the Be Like Brit foundation.

United Christians International in Haiti (link)
This mission is lead by Pastor JeanJean and Kristie Mompreimer in Caiman, Haiti. The area in Caiman in which they work was once mostly a place of Vudu. Since the Mompreimers have moved in, Vudu has largely been eliminated and they have built both an elementary and middle school as well as an excellent university. The area in which they are located is far enough from Port-au-Prince that they were largely unaffected by both the earthquake in 2010 and the strong winds of this storm.

After the earthquake in 2010 the people in Caiman loaded trucks of supplies and headed to Port-au-Prince to provide help. Additionally, they brought people back to Caiman to help them be safe, warm, and fed. They are planning a similar effort after this storm. Below is an excerpt from an email sent by Kristie. These are people I trust and they plan to work with people they trust.

We had a nice Wed. night service last night. We talked as a congregation about what we can do for the people without homes and provisions in the south. As I'm sure you have heard, people need to cautious about how to proceed. There is potential government red tape and there are organizations that would use relief money and aid unethically.


Our church decided to collect food and clothing to send to some pastors that we know personally to give to the needy in their congregations. We also want to try to raise the money to put roofs on houses and churches in the south. We will be sending Eliberne, UCI board member and mason, with a crew to oversee the work. We believe that in this way we'll be certain that the money will get to the people that need it.

If you would like to help the Caiman church with this goal, you can go to the UCI website, ucihaiti.org and give a donation through our Clover online giving. There will be a drop designation for Hurricane relief.

Be Like Brit (link)
This organization is was started by the parents of a college student that was on a mission trip to Haiti when the earthquake hit in 2010. Their daughter, Britney, was killed in the earthquake. Shortly before the earthquake Britney sent the following text to her mother.

They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself.

Britney's father, who works in construction, over saw the construction of the orphanage they now run in Haiti and it was built as a safe haven for the children that they raise as if they were their own. A gentleman named Jonathon LaMare, who has experience working in Rwanda after the genocide, was hired as the director of the orphanage and he as done a wonderful job.

As you can see from the map links from their web site, the BLB orphanage is outside Port-au-Prince and close to the track of the hurricane. During the storm Jonathan posted updates on their Facebook stream and they continue to do so as they help with rebuilding their surrounding neighborhoods. It is also noteworthy that during the storm the BLB home took in 100+ people to help shelter them.

Trust
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Both UCI Haiti and Be Like Brit are organizations and people I have worked with and trust. They both care about and ahare life with the people of Haiti. There is longer term need in Haiti and I would be happy to talk to people about that; but for immediate need after this storm I trust these people with my donations of time, marterial and money.

Bondye la avèk ou ak tout pèp la an Ayiti
(God be with you and the People of Haiti)

To Cäiman and Back Again

Easy English Club

Back At Home Base

I find myself back in Port-au-Prince tonight after spending a few days with the Mompreimiers at the United Chirstians International site that houses the schools and university. While there I was able to use some of the skills for which I was trained as I worked on their computer lab and university networ (along with some remote help from some of the guys at Westgate Chruch who helped initially set up the network). Too long a story for e blog and likely not of interest if you are not into this sort of thing. But a big thank you for the Momprimers for their hospitality. It is truly a wonder what God has done through them in Cäiman.

And to think that I saw it on the road to Cäiman

On the road to Cäiman I tried to keep my eyes open to the sites of Haiti as it wakes up and prepares for the day. Below are a list of those things in no certain order. 

• Very young children carrying 5 gallon buckets to fetch water
• Some fetch water from public spigots
• Some fetch water from hand pumps
• Some were filling the buckets from a stagnant green pool under the overpass
• Beautiful lake formed by the hydro-electric dam
• People fishing in home made canoes 
• Kids untangling a fishnet bye the lake
• Fish traps in the water
• People walking cows, goats, pigs, and chickens
• People riding donkeys and it's not out of the ordinary
• Crowded market as people sell cows, goats, pigs, and chickens
• Children in uniforms making their was to school
• Long walks
• Some that looked like kindergartens walking alone to school beside a busy highway
• Many children not in uniform, not going to school
• Concrete homes give way to hand cut wood homes as you leave to the more rural areas
• Some wood homes painted in beautiful, bright colors 
• Some wood homes painted with vodou symbols
• University out of place in their rural area, but much needed and full of activity
• UCI is a beckon of light in Cäiman

Bible Story with the Children

I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the children today because I wanted to visit the Easy English Club, but it was a nice time while it lasted. When the chairs were delivered last week along with them was a box of children's bibles in Creole. Wilkins and I borrowed two this morning so I had the children read to me in Creole from the Bible. We read the parable of the prodigal son. I knew the basic story, so that made it easier to follow. 

Easy English Club

The Easy English Club meets at the church and does some worship, some Bible study, and its members help each other learn English. I got involved in this club years ago and am an official member, so it gives me great joy to visit the club why I can. Today's journey to the club and back was particularly joyful as the Pastor finally conceited to let me use the tap-taps to get from the guest house to the church and back, as long as Wilkins was with me. If you are not familiar with what a tap-tap is I urge you to search for them on the Internet and look at some of the pictures.  In short they are an ad-hoc public transportation system that most Haitians use to get around town. They are crowded, confusing, and cheap. But thanks to Wilkins' know how we made it there and back easily. 

Being back at the English club was great fun as the members are very insightful and bring up lots of interesting points.  Tonight the subject of discussion was the parable of the good sumaritan. Wilkins started by reading the parable in English and then posing questions. All discussion is in English so as the group digs into a subject they also practice their English. It really is a great club. 

Tonight a pray of thanks for a safe journey back to Port-au-Prince and for the safe ride on the tap-taps. A prayer of thanks also for the Mompreimiers and for all the wonderful work being done in God's name through them. A prayer of thanks and continued blessings on the Easy English Club as they form a Christian community of caring and learning. 

Bread, wine, a rough road, and a communities outrage

Last Sunday was communion at the church in Port-au-Prince. It was nice, as I don't believe I have ever had communion in Haiti before. It is true that having communion does make you feel a part of a broader Christian community. I think I felt that more being in Haiti.

After the service I ran into and old friend, as you might have seen on Facebook. I met Junior early on in my travels to Haiti when he was working as a translator and was an officer in the Easy English Club (EEC); of which I am proud to be a member. The EEC meets twice a week as they study English as well as the bible. A couple of us were participating in a meeting and we were doing role playing as a mechanism to learn English. I played the father of a teen girl, a young women played the part of the girl, and Junior played the part af a young man attempting to convince me to allow my daughter to go out with him. I can't honestly say I remember the outcome correctly, but my recollection is he didn't succeed. As I have daughters that role playing was easy.  We had a chance to catch and joke around a bit it was great to see him again. PG, another of the translators that works with Junior was able to come, but it seems he is doing well too. I expect unto come back one year and be introduced to their wive, once they break down, find a girls friend, and convince her father they are worthy; which of course they are. 

Monday had and early start as I was to travel from Port-au-Prince to Cäiman, which is about a three to four hour drive. Frandzy, his girl friend, and Wilkins drove me from PaP to Hinche, which is the paved part of the drive, thanks guys, and a friend of the Pastor that leads the church in Cäiman drove me the rest of the way, i.e., the unpaved part of they way. I was on this road about two years ago and it was bad, but apparently the company that was contracted to pave the road failed to complete the job and their contract was terminated and the road has been uncared for at least a year. So not the road is just about unpassable. Deep crevasses, collapsed bridges, and pot holes big enough to hide a small army. Let's just say by the end of the drive I was quite happy to see the mission compound and a certain part of my body was a bit sore. 

The mission at Cäiman is a wonderful site. It houses a primary / high school as well as a university where they teach aggreculture, finance, and nursing.  It is quite an accomplishment given that at one point this place was extremely unsafe and a center for the vodou culture in Haiti. It is always nice to visit here and it looks like some of my abilities might be put to work to help straighten out a few of the computer / networking needed. A big thank you to Pastor JeanJean and Kristie for allowing me to stop by. 

And while this place has been dangerous in the past it is not always peaceful in the present. Apparently someone has been threatening some of the local households with violence if they don't pay money. It has happened twice and tonight the town decided to push back a little. Cäiman doesn't have its own police force and while the community is justifiably upset, these situations can spin out of control. Pastor JeanJean was working to calm and correct the situation. I was thinking the best thing I could do was keep a low profile and stay out of the way. There is a bit of a gang and drug problem in the area, where people are coming from City de Sol (one of the worst slums in PaP) and enticing some youth here into the gang life. Just as you work to remove one evil from a place (vodou) another comes at its heals. The church here has an active and vibrant youth program, but evil is dangerous and can easily take from any community. 

Tonight I pray for Cäiman. That piece will come to the community and that the evil of drugs and gangs will succumb to th power of God in this place.  Amen.