Dorm Porch Expansion

This is Bos Elicien talking with Greg Van Schoyck. Bos Elicien was the HAFF carpenter when I first came 20 years ago. He has built a lot of furniture, doors, roofs and other things for HAFF over the years. Now he has taught himself masonry as well. So he is now a full service general contractor for the area. He can build a house from foundation to roof complete except for any electrical or plumbing needed. He is the man with the crew that is in the process of making the HAFF dorm porch much larger.

For years the cooks have struggled to serve meals to visiting teams in the cramped quarters of the current porch. And they have had to work around team members chatting or sorting or studying or working on the porch tables. The kitchen has been equally cramped and the ladies have had to say many many excuse me's as they work to prepare a meal.

With the expansion, the ladies will have room to work and the team will have room to sit and relax as well as to eat. Greg and Bos Elicien did a lot of planning to make the expansion a reality.  

They talked about measurements for the foundation and how closely they wanted to tie the steel reinforcing rod to strengthen the foundation, floor and posts. That gave Greg the numbers he needed to know how much steel to buy in Pignon. 

This shows the current extent of the dorm porch and the dorm kitchen (in the background with the open door). The darker areas on the ground outside the porch is where the foundation is yet to be dug. The porch and kitchen will look tha same as they do now, just twice the width. As I type this, the local masons are finishing up the foundation and getting ready to pour the new pillars. Greg is in Pignon getting sand from the river for the foundation, the floor, making blocks for the walls and for mortar to put the blocks together and then for plaster to cover it up! We (the American HAFF staff and the Haitian dorm cooks) are very excited about this expansion. I'll show it to you when it is all done. And I will probably put a series of photos of the process on the HAFF Details blog for those who are interested. 

HAFF Details

If you like details. If you always want to know and to see more about things. There is now a blog for you about HAFF. Not everyone likes all the nitty gritty details about things. Some people can't get enough. If you are one of the latter type of people, click on the link to the right, or the one in this article or go to www.haffdetails.blogspot.com. The blog HAFF Details will give you more photos and more text and more explaination and more details about the events at HAFF. I may not post to HAFF Details as often as I do to Connie in Haiti, but I'll let you know when I do. If you check there now, there are more details about the remote clinic that the Chattanooga Tennessee team did in La Boc in October.

And by the way, this photo is a detail of an ocra pod being dried on the stem so the seeds can be gathered and saved to plant another year. Isn't it pretty -- details can be good!!! 

Sunday 11 February -- Eye Clinic

Two Sundays ago began a busy week and a bit for HAFF. That Sunday a team from Iowa, led by Dr John Sutphin, came from the Pignon hospital for a time of worship and fellowship with the missionaries in the Bohoc area. After a delicious pot luck lunch at Kristie and Jean Jean Mompremier's home, the whole gang adjourned to HAFF's eye glass clinic. (Bohoc potlucks are always wonderful!)

There, with Barb Van Schoyck, Barb Howard, Kristie Mompremier (left) and me translating, the team screened over 40 people for glaucoma, cataracts, eye injuries and need for glasses. Here Kristie helps Mme Zambert use the eye chart!

Read on to see the results of the eye clinic and the other activities of this very active week and a half at HAFF! 

Many people were fitted with glasses -- both prescription and reading glasses. And a few were refered to Pignon to have operations for cataracts. The team truely brought the blessings of sight to Bohoc on Sunday. 

Last Tuesday -- School Devotions

Last Tuesday it was my honor to present devotions in school right after flag raising. The theme for the week was the courage of the Christian. I was asked to share from Acts 4:23-31. That is the passage right after Peter and John are forbidden by the Jewish Sanhedrin to speak in the name of Jesus.

When they were released, they returned to the other disciples and reported to them what had happened. Those disciples lifted up their voices together in prayer and asked the Lord for boldness to speak His word (vs 29)!

We are getting close to Mardi Gras time. Mardi Gras is not all fun and games and partying here, though it might look like that to some. Mardi Gras is a time when the people who practice voodoo dance in the streets celebrating the fact that Jesus was killed. They celebrate it as a victory of Satan over Jesus.

I encouraged the students to pray for boldness to counter that lie this coming week during Mardi Gras. Another part of Acts 4 (vss 27 & 28) states quite clearly that when Herod, Pilate and the Romans and the Jewish leaders crucified Christ, they were just doing what God had purposed from the beginning to do. Jesus said (John 10:17 & 18) that he give his life up of his own accord. I encouraged the students that when they saw the Mardi Gras bands celebrating Satan's victory in Christ's death they should remind people that Christ's death was a victory of Christ over sin and death, not of Satan over Jesus. Pray for the students and for all of us at HAFF that we might be given this boldness to speak the good news! 

Last week and currently -- Tree Removal

What? Tree removal at HAFF? Don't we promote PLANTING trees, not cutting them down? Yes indeed, HAFF wants to see trees planted, but from time to time must cut them down as well.

A group coming in March will be expanding the dorm porch (seen in the background). Things are a bit tight on the porch now. Teams eat there and sort medicines and other items there and socialize and relax there. There isn't much room for all that on the porch now.

So, the porch will be doubling in size in March -- it will come straight out from where the front is now. The kitchen will be expanded at the same time to give the dorm cooks more room and to include a store room. But to do all that, some trees had to go. Once the porch and kitchen are expanded, we will likely plant some more trees with a view to shade and beauty. How on earth do you remove a tree in Haiti? You call the tree removal man and you let him do his thing. Here is what it looks like, thanks to Greg for taking the photos! 

First a man climbs up the tree and ties a rope onto the tree. This rope, with 3 men hanging on to it, will keep the tree from falling on the dorm roof and will guide it to fall where it needs to go. 

Then the tree gets chopped.... 

and chopped.... 

And the tree comes down to be chopped up for fire wood for the school kitchen. 

Saturday -- Servant Leadership Class

On Saturday the Young Leaders for God class went to Grande Latanier and did their second service project of the year. They painted a church. The students painted the walls a dark beige and the doors and trim a dark brown. This is a huge blessing to the people of the church as they now have a freshly painted church (they love bright paint) at no cost to them. And the students are blessed as well with the rewards of service to others. 

The doors were painted a dark, glossy brown. And at times the job was quite a team effort as you can see the girls holding the chair so their class mate can reach the top of the door! Servant leadership at work!!! 

Tuesday -- Today -- Godly Woman Class

The Godly Woman class met today. After devotions by Barb Van Schoyck (about Deborah), the ladies learned to make lasagna. Mme Destorel (far right) taught them how to make the dish -- including how to make cottage cheese from powdered milk! The ladies ate their lasagna for lunch and they loved it! 

This afternoon, Se Bernadette Lormeus (center) came to teach the ladies applique. Se Bernadette is a Godly Woman class graduate from several years ago. She and another class graduate coordinate a Godly Woman class in their own area of Grande Latanier. This is their second year for the class. Se Bernadette is also a veterinary agent for her area. 

Agriculture Training

The Central Plateau of Haiti is largely rural and most of the people, no matter what other job they may have, all also farm. But, with the changing climate and the steady deforestation and erosion and growing population, the family gardens just don't produce like they used to and the production doesn't go as far. In response, HAFF started the Agricultural Training Program. The program is coordinated by Millius Hilaire, shown left teaching the Bon Fanm class the basics of grafting. The program and Millius help farmers in the area learn techniques and information to make their small farms more productive. Millius works with a number of different farmer groups in communities around HAFF. 

The program promotes soil conservation and renewal and teaches such techniques as fruit tree grafting and animal husbandry. Fr Millius is a certified Veterinary Agent as well as HAFF's Aricultural Extention agent. 

Fr Millius (far right) worked with Tim Motis of ECHO (far left) in last October's field days. Some of the farmer groups that Fr Millius works with were the people who came to give their opinion of the new varieties ECHO was testing at HAFF 2. We are expecting there will be more and more collaboration between Fr Millius and ECHO in the future. 

Pastor and Church Leader Training

HAFF actively seeks to spread the gospel of Christ, strengthen Christians and build up the Church in the Central Plateau. One of the ways HAFF does this is to conduct training seminars for pastors and church leaders when North American pastors visit HAFF. With such a low availability of Theological training in Haiti, this program meets a profound need in the local churches. Here, I am translating for Pastor Eric Mullinax in an October seminar. Pastor Eric led the Chattanooga team that visited HAFF in October. 

The Seminars are attended by church leaders and Sunday school teachers from about 30 different churches in the communities surrounding HAFF. Sometimes the visiting pastor works with a small group other times there can be as many as 125 people coming to learn more about feeding God's people. 

Medical Clinic

Living in an area of much physical need requires a compassionate response from HAFF. So, in the late 1980's, HAFF opened a small medical clinic. It was originally started to serve the needs of the school students, but soon many people in the surrounding community came to depend on the fine quality, low cost medical help. The clinic functioned in many make-shift buildings until November of 2004 when Builders Without Borders came and gave the community the gift of a beautiful new clinic building and the cabinets and furniture to fill it. The people have often said how blessed they are by such a generous gift.  

The clinic is very ably run by Madame Telius Berson (left) and Mme Emmanuel St Louis (right). Mme Telius does the consulting and diagnosing and Mme Emmanuel runs the pharmacy and dispenses medicines. They make a great team and take great care of the people in the Bohoc/LaJeune area and beyond. 

Madame Telius and Madame Emmanuel take care of all kinds of people from many surrounding areas Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thursday Madame Telius does check ups for pregnant women and new born babies. Any case that is more serious than the ladies can deal with, they refer to either the doctor at the dispensary in LaJeune (a mile north of HAFF) or to the hospital in Pignon. Monday, Bohoc market day, is the busiest day -- people from quite far away may stop in on their way home from market if they are not feeling well. 

Visiting teams also help in the clinic when there are medically inclined people on the team, like nurse Diana cleaning a wound on a local school girl while pastor's wife, Boo Mullnax distracts the patient.