Adventures in Travelling

Once again we have had adventures in travelling with a team from Chattangooga, Tennessee!

This was the position of the truck at one point trying to drive from HAFF to Glase Bourik (Frozen Donkey) to hold a clinic in the church there.

That was right after the truck had fallen into this hole, throwing all of us in the back over to the left! We got past this hole and several others and then finally got to a spot we couldn't go any further.

So, we loaded the medicines and Dr Jerry's dental tools onto 2 donkeys, carried what we could in our backpacks and walked an hour and a half or 2 hours to a different church where the people from Glase Bourik came to meet us to be seen. We walked another half hour or so to a different river crossing and Greg and Colin met us on the other side after having gone to pick up the truck where we left it. We were glad to get home -- tired, dirty, wet, but well. And we have quite the appreciation for what the HAFF students go through each day to come to school and what the pastors went through Saturday to come to the seminar.

Something other than Hurricane News

We've had a break from hurricanes and rain and trucks getting stuck in the mud. So what have I been doing in that time? Here's a taste.
September 30 I flew to Port-au-Prince and met Barb and Greg who were just flying in from the United States. We spent two days visiting former BTI students who are now attending University in Port. We visited some of them at home and we saw the schools they attend.


At one school we saw a very impressive Virtual Lab -- amazing for this country!

The next day we had some meetings with government officials and did some shopping for school supplies, gifts and groceries. October second, we flew back to Pignon with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and had the pleasure of flying over the HAFF campus and getting some photos. We approached from the west and circled around. This first photo was taken looking west south west and the others follow as we circled the area. The loop of white roofed school buildings with the octagonal gazebo is the school. The white roofed buildings south of the school are the houses and the visitors' dorm.

After returning from Port-au-Prince, Friday October 3, Madame Gesson, Barb and I tested about 34 women for the 2008-2009 Godly Woman class.

The following Monday we spent the afternoon grading the tests and choosing the women. We chose 14 women from about 10 communities to be in the class.

At school, classes finally started Monday October 6. There was a pretty good turn out of students for the first day.

Former BTI Student and long time BTI Teacher Maccene Limpreux shared from Scripture (Psalm 1) for devotions, BTI school Principal Phanes Charles welcomed the students and BTI school Vice Principal Gabriel Mompremier discussed the student handbook. Classes started right away.



As I mentioned the last time I posted, September 18 and 19 I spent most of both days in meetings with community representatives and representatives from World Vision. This past Thursday, October 9, I spent most of another day in a seminar led by Pastor Claude Aneas from World Vision. The seminar was about leadership and what it is to be a leader. There was some wonderful information shared.




Friday afternoon, 10 October, the BTI soccer team played a match with the MINUSTA UN soldiers from Chile stationed for 2 weeks in Pignon. The BTI team won 7 to 1. It was either their 11th or 12th win in 12 or 13 matches with MINUSTA, or something like that! The BTI team had a bit of help from a friend visiting HAFF with Dr Jerry Pennington. Jacob scored the first and third goals for the BTI team and won everyone's respect for his abilities! Here are some photos and a video of the, sometimes intense, play. The BTI team is in the lighter blue shirts, MINUSTA in the dark blue. Jacob is the only white guy with a light blue shirt!

This 15 second video (without sound) is of play just before Jacob made his second goal! Panel (number 9 with black socks) was just ready to pass to Jacob when the recording stopped!

Thursday 16 October, agents of the Haitian national campaign against Lymphatic Filariasis (a mosquito borne disease which causes Elephantitis) came to BTI.
All the students and teachers and any other of the HAFF employees (including me) who wished were given Ivermectin and Albendazole to remove any microfilaria there might be in our blood. A yearly dose for 5 years should eradicate the microfilaria from the local population, if everyone in the area gets the dose each time.

Haitian Road Crisis

The following photos are all from last October. The team from Chattenooga Tennessee that was here then can relate very well to this story. We need prayer for the state of the roads in Haiti right now. Hurricanes Gustave and Hannah have National Route 1 from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien impassable. There are at least four bridges out along the route. So, all the traffic that needs to get between the two towns is coming through the Central Plateau. Sadly, the Plateau National Route 3 is no more than a (sometimes) 2 lane dirt/mud road. This is the rainy season and the hurricanes dumped large amounts of rain here too. And the road was not intended to take the volume of big, overloaded trucks that are passing through here now. All that spells trouble. And trouble we have. Please pray. The following story will illustrate the problem.

I just spent the last Thursday and Friday in meetings with community leaders and representatives from World Vision Port-au-Prince. World Vision (WV) is doing the prior investigation preparatory to hopefully come to work in our area. The WV reps spent both Wednesday and Thursday nights in Hinche, south of us, and came to LaJeune (the next area north of Bohoc) for the meetings both days. Both days they were late due to trucks being stuck in the road between Hinche and Bohoc.


Here is the road coming up the Caiman ravine from Pignon toward LaJeune last October. You can see the water in the drainage channel on the right. Thursday afternoon there was four to six times that amount of water that was flowing in the road between LaJeune and Bohoc as I was on my way home from the meeting.

Yesterday (Friday) morning, before I went to the second meeting, I gave HAFF's driver Elizert the funds to go to Hinche to buy milk for the children in the milk program and to buy various types of vehicle fluids and bits and pieces that he needs to keep the vehicles going. He called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that he was in Colladere sitting in the truck unable to continue since there were 2 trucks stuck in the road. And he said that even if they could get those trucks out, there was a big container truck overturned at the bottom of the hill leading south out of Grand Latanier.



This photo taken last October in Cayahond shows an area not too far from where the container truck was over turned. Elizert said that if he could get past Colladere and get to Mer Soley (between Colladere and Cayahond), he could leave the truck with World Vision and find a way home, even if he had to walk part way.
In this photo, taken at the same time as the previous one, you can see that even last year, with less rain and mud, there was a truck stuck in Cayahond which made it necessary for the team from Chattenooga to leave the HAFF truck and walk the rest of the way to church. Walking in that kind of mud and still managing to get to church clean is a real challenge!
This final photo shows the Chattenooga team coming back through the mud from church to the truck. Thankfully, Elizert drove into HAFF just before 2 pm today. They had been able to move one of the trucks in Colladere and so folks were able to get around the other one. And they had been able to wiggle the container enough for small trucks to get by. And yet another large truck was so stuck that they ended up having to build a by-pass path around it so vehicles could get by!

Elizert said that 2 more days of rain, and the road to Hinche will be impassable. According to Accu-Weather, we have a week of rain forecast starting tomorrow.

But these aren't the only trouble spots. I wrote last week that the back road from Cap to Pignon through Ranquite was fine and that the only boggy spot was in Bahoncy. Well, that spot on Thursday made Kristie and Jean Jean Mompremier have to take a long detour for them to get home from Cap.

People have heard that there is a company that plans to come and ameliorate the road to keep it open. It needs to be done. And it needs to be done quickly.

And getting back to the men from World Vision. They had to spend last night in their truck on the other side of the same blockade as Elizert. I think a report will be getting to people in Port-au-Prince that something needs to be done. And that episode should reinforce for them one of the obstacles to development in the area. There are no reliable roads for getting goods and services into the area.

It isn't even easy for those traveling on foot. I was told that yesterday in the market, a woman selling chayote squash had had to cross 2 rivers on foot with her load to get to market. The rivers were so swollen that she had to pay 200 gourdes at one river and 150 gourdes at the other for someone who knew the river to carry her and her squash across. That just increases prices in the market even more than they are already. Please pray.

Uneventful Return to Bohoc

It is a lovely sunny day in Bohoc as I write this post. I have been back in Bohoc for not quite a week. I was delayed one day flying out of Fort Pierce with MFI and then spent one night in Cap Haitien with friends. But Saturday, 6 September I was able to get back home. Here is the email I sent as soon as I had internet access on Monday.

"I am writing this 6 September, Saturday afternoon at 4:30. I am home. In Bohoc. It is raining. My cat and Greg and Barb's dogs are in the house with me. My things are all here and in the house (done before the rain came). I have power at my house, but no power at the dorm, so there is no internet right now.

I had a good night in Cap Haitien. I finally got hold of our driver Elizert's brother Dieuvon last evening (Friday) and he said he would tell Elizert where I was and how much cargo I had. I finally got hold of Elizert this morning. He said he could come for me Sunday afternoon. I said, "fine". Then, chuckling, he said he was already down the mountain and headed for Cap! He arrived at Don and Karen's about 9:30. We packed the truck, went in to town where I cashed a small check and we were out of town, past the airport and on our way home by 10:26 when I called my cook, Mme Niclaude to let her know we were on our way.

We had a good trip home. Amazingly, the road through Grand Riviere du Nord, Bahon, Ranquite and Pignon was fine. There was one river between Grand Riviere and Bahon that was somewhat high and rushing pretty quickly. But we had no trouble crossing. The rest of the way all was well -- the road dry (actually dusty in many places) and not too beat up except for a few spots (the normal ones) just before the turn off for Pignon. We didn't even need 4 wheel drive and we were home by 2:05!

Elizert left me at the front gate. Our farm manager's brother-in-law (a former student) was in a truck stuck in the river near St Raphael -- and there were clouds building up near the source of the river. Elizert took the big military transport truck to go pull them out of the river.

I drove the Toyota on down to the house and unloaded it. Mme Niclaude had left me rice and beans and greens for lunch, which I was more than ready for when I had the truck unloaded. I sat and cooled off and read for a while and then got the computer set up to send everyone an email. Then I discovered there was no internet.

So, I am home. All is well here. If you have seen any reports about the flooding in Hinche, take heart. The flooding was bad, but all those we know and love are well and didn't get flooded. And no one was lost in the flooding. I guess later someone was in the river for some reason and was swept away, but that was not during the flooding. If you have heard that the bridge at Hinche is out, Elizert said it is not. And although the flooding in Gonaives is worse this year than 4 years ago, fewer people lost their lives since they were smart enough to get out of town and go to St Marc before the flood rose too high.

The rain has stopped (it is 4:45) and it is just dripping now. I can hear the men's choir practicing at the church."
We have had some rain since that evening, but nothing more than normal rainy season rains. Our road inside HAFF is a bit mucky, but not more so than normal for this time of year. Here are 2 photos of the road inside HAFF. The one on the left was taken in February and the one on the right today. They aren't the same angle, but you can see the mud!
You have probably been hearing about the hunger and the food crisis. Yes, food and other commodities like kerosene for lamps and fuel for motorcycles and trucks are in short supply. And what is available is expensive. So, the people in the area are suffering. But thankfully, when the Lord takes away one avenue, He opens another. Just as we had a bumper crop of citrus this year in the spring, and a good crop of mangoes in the summer, we now have an abundance of avocados. They are sustaining the people while they wait and hope for later crops to bear.

There is some corn which might still give a good harvest and people are planting manioc and peanuts now. Please pray for the hunger and that food supplies would be made available and that people would get good harvests for the rest of the year.

School has not yet opened. It should have opened this past Monday. But, because of the devastation in so many areas of the country, the Haitian government has delayed the opening of primary and secondary schools till October 6. Parents are pleased since it gives them another month to get tuition payments and uniforms ready for their students. Please pray for the start of school.

If you want to help in this crisis of hunger and loss, there are a variety of ways. HAFF has a benevolence committee to help those needing help in our area. And any gift to the general fund helps pay the salaries of HAFF's aproximately 60 employees. That money supports and educates their families and gets spent in the markets and small stores of the area and thus helps others as well. Please consider a generous donation to HAFF now. If donations are received by the end of September, a friend of HAFF will double each gift, up to a total of $10,000.00! See the HAFF website (blog side bar for link) for more information.

Missionary Flights International (MFI) and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) are also collecting funds and goods to help in areas where HAFF does not serve. You can check out their web sites as well for ways to help in that way. MFI's link is in the side bar of this blog. MAF's link is here: http://www.maf.org/haiti. May the Lord bless you all for your prayers and help.

Training

What have I been up to recently since the teams are gone? Dealing with management issues and doing some computer training.


After the teams were gone, the Van Schoycks and Wilsons and I had a number of days of all afternoon meetings to get ready for the HAFF board meeting and to plan for various activities at HAFF in the months to come. I also trained the Wilsons and Van Schoycks how to post to the HAFF Details blog. That blog will now be a team blog where you might see posts from any of the 5 of us -- Greg, Barb, Colin, Carla or me.

Thursday (April 10) was the second day I did some training with Se Acilienne, the school secretary. I showed her how to use Microsoft Excel to calculate student grades. HAFF and BTI are slowly entering the 21st Century!

Becky Wilson has been taking photos of all the old, handwritten school record books so we can have copies on disks.

So, to train Acilienne, we are working from those photos on my computer

and putting the data in the spreadsheet in the school computer.

Demonstrations

You might be hearing on the news or seeing on the internet that there is trouble in Haiti right now. There are indeed demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes and other areas. Pignon has had some tire burning and road blocks the last couple of days and St Raphael, north of Pignon has had about 4 days of burning tires and road blocks. Yet, south of us, in Hinche, all is apparently calm.

Bohoc is calm. We have had school as normal every day. Our teachers and students and staff are talking about nothing but the demonstrations in the rest of the country. And any glance into the school office will find teachers listening to the news on the radio. People are very concerned.

The demonstrations are about food -- the price and the availability. Just an example, my cook went out yesterday afternoon to try to buy some flour, sugar, rice and oil to stock up. She found the flour and sugar and oil, but no rice. The last merchant in the Bohoc area with any rice had just sold out -- at a higher price than what my cook had last heard. The merchant called her vendor in Cap Haitien who said that, he didn't have any rice either, but there was a boat due in soon and as soon as the rice cleared customs, he would let the merchant know.

The people are blaming the government, and indeed there are delays in customs that are holding up food imports and adding to the shortages. But the rising price of food right now is a world problem. Just today the teachers were telling me that they heard that there were food demonstrations in Egypt and Ivory Coast. There is only so much the Haitian government can do in the face of such a world wide problem.

Please pray for the food shortages to come to a peaceful end. Please pray for wisdom for the people and leaders in the demonstrations and that they will be willing to listen to reason. Please pray for wisdom for Haiti's leaders as they seek for the way out of a problem that is plaguing many parts of the world. And pray for the Haitian people that they would turn to the Lord, not to violence and that the Lord would provide for them. And pray for us that we would be able to be calm lights for peace and reason and that we would be able to help where we can.

Mayonaise

This is a story about how we often don't know what an impact we make, or how far our influence goes. This is a story of Mayonaise, but it applies to our witness for Christ as well. Last week, I heard about Mayonaise.

Madam Claude is the wife of Met Claude the coordinator of HAFF's Project Healthy Family. She was also in the 3rd year class of the Godly Woman Christian homemaking class. When Mme Claude was in the Godly Woman class, I taught the women to make Mayonaise using a recipe modified from the More With Less cookbook's Cooked Mayonaise recipe. The people of the Plateau like mayonaise for salads and it is a luxury item for them. I thought the ladies would use it in their homes and maybe in their churches and it would save them some money.

But, in the Godly Woman class, we have always encouraged the ladies to pass on what they have learned. Mme Claude took that to heart and her husband's contacts with groups in other areas gave her the perfect way to share her knowledge.

Last week Mme Claude came to ask me to give her the mayonaise recipe again. She had lost it. The reason she wanted it now is that she had been asked to share the recipe with a group of 30 women in a World Vision supported group near Hinche! She had taught the women how to make mayonaise once already, but they didn't quite feel like they got it, so they asked her to come and repeat the training. While we were talking about the up coming class, she also mentioned that she had previously taught 30 women in the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) group in Mombin Crochu how to make the mayonaise. They had so taken to the recipe that the CHE group is making Mayonaise in larger quanities to sell!


Please pray for all our Godly Women and Young Leaders both past and present, that the things they learn in their classes would be a blessing to them and to the surrounding communities. Please pray also that the Gospel would spread at the same time and in the same way.

Teams and Veterinary Agents

From February 8 till March 15, there were only 6 days when HAFF did not have visitors. In that time, HAFF has hosted 5 teams and a few individuals or a total of 34 guests coming and going within days of each other. It has been rather hectic, but the teams have accomplished a great deal, learned much about HAFF, blessed the Haitians in the community and encouraged the Haitian and American staff at HAFF.

The last team to arrive was the Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM) Canada team. They hailed from multiple countries but were all connected in one way or another with the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island. This is the team I spent the most time with.

My American colleagues and I translated everyday for them as they did a spay and neuter clinic (since there were local veterinary agents observing),

2 vaccination clinics

and 2 days of training local veterinary agents. I, of course was in my element -- having wanted to be a veterinarian at one point in my life.

Please pray for the veterinary agents who were trained this past week that they would remember and put into practice the things they learned and that they would continue to be blessed by the time with the folks from Canada and with each other.

Vet Agents at Eye Clinic

This morning Becky and I got to the Eye Clinc and found that 4 of the 6 people signed up for today were veterinary agents from the seminars last week! They came almost all at once, were relatively easy to fit with glasses and had a grand old time visiting with each other and with us! The 5th of the 6 people signed up was one of the agent's neighbor and the 6th person didn't come. But we saw 2 walk-ins, since we had the time. So, today we saw 2 people from LaVictoire (90 minute walk), 2 people from Savanette (2 hours by bicycle), one person from Pignon (90 minute walk), one person from Grand Latanier (45 to 1 hour minute walk) and one person from Bohoc. Thankfully we were able to help everyone except the one lady walk-in, who came for medicine we did not have.

Christmas 2007

My Uncle Richard and I met in Memphis TN for Christmas this year. It is equal driving distance for him from Texas and for me from where I land in Florida.

We had a good Christmas with all the trimmings except snow!

We also spent some time in downtown Memphis including Beale Street

and we had dinner on board the Memphis Queen III.

Then, in January, instead of heading right back to Haiti, I took the Auto Train to north to go to Pennsylvania. Our dear family friend Marie McGhee had died in December and I went to attend her burial and memorial service. It was a sad occasion, but it enabled me to see some extended family and to see some snow.

Bumper crop of citrus

When I got back to Haiti in later January, it was to find that all the rain we had in the fall had resulted in a huge crop of citrus fruit in the area. I have never seen so many grapefruit, oranges and red limes in my entire 22 years in Haiti. The photos are of the trees after several weeks of picking -- and they are still laden! Ely, the HAFF farm manager told the story the other day about being hungry one day. His wife hadn't cooked that day, but he remembered he had a roasted sweet potato. So he ate that and a grapefruit and it chased the hunger completely away! Thank the Lord with us that at least one crop did well this year.

Eye glass Clinic

I am back to work at the eye glass clinic Wednesday mornings.

Becky Wilson works with me and we see 6 people each time.

Thanks to an Iowa eye surgeon we have the means to check distance vision and to easily change lenses to see what strength glasses some one needs.

We use the Creole "Here is the Path God has Traced for you to get to Heaven" tract as the reading material, then the person may also keep the tract. Then the people can choose from a variety of styles in their prescription.

Teams of visitors (these ladies are from Grand Rapids, Michigan) have been helping us as well cleaning some of the donated glasses and praying with the people once they get their glasses. Please pray for me and Becky as we minister to this physical need, that the love of Christ would be made mainfest and would draw folks to Himself!