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.