January 2009 Vol. 3, Issue 1
Four days in January…
Jan travelled to Haiti for a quick trip over six days from January 15 to 20th. Greyson Pannill accompanied Jan and was valuable as another set of eyes and ears, and someone to bounce thoughts off of. Although they were ‘officially’ gone for 6 days, they were only on the ground in Les Cayes for 4 full days. However, those days were interspersed with meetings and discussions that produced very fruitful results.
Community Meeting at Nan Doti… One of the clinic sites we visited for the first time in October was Nan Doti east of Les Cayes up in the mountains. The people there were generous and friendly; the setting was beautiful with many rolling mountains, mostly growing vertiver a crop that is harvested for the roots that are used for perfume. We saw the potential for partnering with this little village and we wanted to know more about the community. Amoce (Mustard Seed Haiti) contacted Pastor Wilfrid at Nan Doti to arrange a community meeting for us. We arrived about an hour before the meeting so we could walk around the area and get a feel for it. In showing us the area, Pastor Wilfrid led us to the other side of the mountain to the house he used to rent. It belonged to a man who practices voodoo; he asked Pr. Wilfrid to move out. The pastor and his wife and 2 children now live in 2 rooms at the back of the church. Pr. Wilfrid told us there is a lot of voodoo in the area, especially to the west of his church, Bon Berger (The Good Shepherd). His church is pictured in the photo at the left.
About 250 people inhabit the area; there are 70 students in the little 3 room school whose walls are palm fronds woven into upright wooden posts. There were about 25 people at the community meeting including young adults, women, men, and elders. It was a true community meeting because it included people that were not just from the pastor’s congregation. One man had walked an hour to come to the meeting; we learned that some of the people who came to our medical clinic in October had walked 4 hours!
We asked them what problems they faced as a community; they readily responded ‘no hospital, no water, no roads or bad roads, and no electricity’. Earlier that day a woman had died because they were unable to get her to the hospital in time due to a lack of roads near her house. We learned that the community members had personally repaired the road we drove on by placing small rocks by hand one at a time in the deepest ruts so that we could get there more easily. There is no health agent in the area, but there are two women who are ‘nurses’. To get to Doti those women need to walk 1.5 hours.
The nearest electricity is over a mile and a half away. However, water is their primary need. Although they had four hurricanes in a row this past summer, they had not received any rain in four months. Nan Doti is a limestone mountain — very arid and dry. The closest water, a well with a bucket, is a 20 minute walk, but that well dried up and the closest water was now an hour and a half walk. (Amoce nicely pointed out to Jan that it was an hour and a half if you were a strong Haitian used to walking up and down mountains!)
They began to tell us about their hope to build an above-ground concrete reservoir to collect the rainwater off the roof of the church so that it would be available to the community. We walked around the area and they showed us where they wanted to place the cistern. We talked about collecting rainwater off of the tin roof on the school also. As we left Doti we were very excited about the possibility of helping them. Later that night, Jan talked to Judy Foster, who lives in Haiti and has been installing plastic cistern systems (“chateau d’eau, sounds like ‘shadado’) at rural schools that she works with. Although the chateau d’eau is meant for roof-top use, it works perfectly well when installed to collect roof run-off.
The next day, Sunday, when we went into Les Cayes we priced chateau d’eau tanks; the pricing is very close to $1 per gallon for a tank (i.e., a 600 gallon tank costs about $600 USD.) We would also need to buy PVC piping. Greyson, Amoce and I spent the last two days talking excitedly about the possibility of initiating this project in April, pending board approval, if we are able to raise sufficient funds. We see the potential for putting one at the corner of the church and another at the corner of the school.
Monday was our last day. We woke up to cloudy skies although rain hadn’t been predicted. By 10 a.m. it started showering and rained off and on during the day. At 7:30 p.m. Pastor Wilfrid texted Amoce that it had been raining ALL DAY at Nan Doti. God had answered our prayers; we were hopping up and down and cheering!
Affiliation with Cite Lumiere Centre… One of our goals for the trip was to establish a relationship with the Cite Lumiere Hospital, the hospital where we refer most of our patients who need additional care. We met with the director on Monday morning and were able to establish that relationship and set up an account there. Patients will now be able to carry a Mustard Seed Missions voucher to the hospital and receive care after we leave.
Seeing Wislaine… While we were at Cite Lumiere Amoce received a call from the General Hospital because Wislaine had arrived with her aunt to get her monthly HIV meds. There was a problem because they were 4 days late for their appointment. So, we drove over there and Amoce talked with the administrators there. Unfortunately, because she missed her appointment, she needed to return the next day and see the doctor again. Nevertheless, it was a blessing for us to be able to see her and talk to her. She’s looking better, has more energy and is smiling. Her aunt told us Wislaine does feel better! We continue to pray that the meds will work.
A Haiti Mission House… For a while we have thought about renting our own mission house in Les Cayes; the relative cost is comparable to that which we pay for guesthouse lodgings. We met another missionary group who have also been considering it and talked with them about joining together in renting a house. As I write this we are about to sign a lease to rent a house together and share the time there. We will be able to store our supplies at our own place with better security. Amoce’s family will be living there as caretakers, solving a problem for them because their landlord is taking back the land their 3 room house is on. It surely feels like God’s hand has been in all of these plans!
Next Missions Trip… We will be leading a team of three doctors back to Haiti on April 16 for five days of medical clinics including 2 days at Nan Doti and a day at Platon, the plateau at the top of the mountain where Wislaine lives.