An Adventure and an Encouragement

This is a photo from a few years ago showing the HAFF Land Cruiser taking its first outing to market in Pignon with Barb and Greg Van Schoyck and a team from Fort Myers, FL. Last evening, the vehicle was put to another use. It became first an ambulance and then a delivery room!

As the only North American on campus at the moment, I get all the calls to take people to the hospital. HAFF's driver, Elizert has been keeping the vehicle some nights to give me a break. Last night it was my turn. About 7:20, I was advised that a woman on the other side of the Bohoc River (maybe 2 miles from HAFF) was having trouble having her baby. So, head night guard Ezayi and I got in the Land Cruiser and went to pick her up. We didn't get back to HAFF for another 3 hours!

Imagine a pregnant woman laying on the bench in the back to the right in the above photo. Imagine the midwife sitting with her, her mother and several others sitting across from her. Imagine basins and buckets and a foam pad and a suitcase and a spare tire piled in between. The road is terribly rough right now. Each bump elicited an, "I'm falling!" or a "Don't go so fast!" from the pregnant woman. At one point the speedometer needle was registering 0 (even though we were moving) and she was asking me to go still slower!

About an hour after leaving HAFF we stopped in LaJeune (normally that trip would take about 30 minutes) to see if anyone was at the small hospital there. No one was there and the employee who lives nearby doesn't have a key. So, we headed on toward the Pignon Hospital singing and praying to take the woman's mind off her pains while she cried out at every dip and lurch of the vehicle.

Finally, about an hour after leaving LaJeune (which would have normally taken about 25 minutes) the baby was born just at the top of the hill going down to the bridge crossing over into Pignon. A beautiful, healthy baby girl was born by flash light and Land Cruiser dome light!

Mom felt much better now that the baby was born, so with the baby in Grandma's arms and the mom resting in a friend's lap, we turned around and headed back the way we came. The bumps and rocking of the Land Cruiser didn't bother the delivered mother anymore so we made better time. And an hour after the baby was born, the family was returned to their home (I got to hold the baby while they were unloading) and Ezayi and I were back at HAFF. Other than the time spent on the terrible roads, this is when providing ambulance service for the area is a joy.


This is HAFF's daytime gate guard, Paulers and his family in a photo taken a number of years ago. I spent some time this afternoon with Paulers (prounounced Paul-ess) asking him about the training HAFF sent him to this past Thursday and Friday. He was so excited about it that he came by while I was getting dressed this morning to tell me about it and to show me the packet of materials he had been given.

The Haitian government has decided that it would be good to establish a Disaster Preparation Plan in communities all over the country. To that end, Haitian meteorologists are training 2 people in various communities to install and gather data from government provided rain guages. HAFF was chosen as the location for one of these rain guages because of the fence and security the campus offers. Paulers was chosen, with a community leader, Lumanes, to be trained to gather the rainfall data.

The training was quite extensive and the candidates were tested on the material. Paulers was very proud that he had passed and that he would be involved in this endeavor. He is the one I deliver my weather reports to and he is the one who posts them at the front gate -- after thoroughly studying them first! He is very pleased to now be taking part in the data collection process.

Each month the data that he and Lumanes collect will be delivered to a local agriculturalist who will then pass it on to the government respresentative responsible for analyzing the data. And the data will serve as a basis for warnings of flood and landslides which will be routed back through the same channels.

I was very encouraged by this effort on the part of the Haitian government. I was also excited by Paulers' excitement. And pleased that, even though he does not have a full academic degree, he was accepted into the program and did well on his testing. When the project was originally presented to me, there seemed to be some doubt on the part of the presenter that Paulers had enough education to make use of the training. I was pleased to see Paulers shine! Keep him and the program in your prayers and pray for the Haitian government as they make the move toward being proactive in protecting their citizens.

Settling Back into the Routine

I walked into the house and called his name and was immediately answered with his always questioning meow. "It's about time you got back and what took you so long anyway?" My cat Morgan complains when I leave the house even to go to the outhouse, so he really hates it when I'm in the States for 10 weeks!

Yes, my travels back to Haiti went well and I am pretty well settled back in to the house in Bohoc. Life is getting back into a routine somewhat and I have even had my first 3 meetings this week!

Thankfully the rainy season was not a total disaster this year. Some folks aparently got their early corn crop and, while the second season corn didn't do so well, the rains are coming just right now for the beans and root crops and other crops for this next harvest. People have been cautiously optomistic this year.

But, sadly, I hear that Port-au-Prince is still a mess. People lament the fact that in the face of all that needs to be done, not much seems to be happening. But I have been told that many of the students who came to us after the earthquake have gone back to Port-au-Prince, though not all. It remains to be seen how many will return for this coming school year.

School starts the 4th of October. That is a little late this year. But I have already been meeting with Met Phanes, the head master, and others to make plans for the new year. Last year was the first we had World Vision sponsored students receiving scholarships to attend our school. Yesterday we went over some strategies for making sure we don't double up on scholarships by giving a World Vision sponsored student a work study job that another student could use!

Please pray for us this year for wisdom as we head into the new school year. Pray that we would be able to guide these young people into lives of faith and service. Pray for the students that they would be able to heal from their past trauma and would find strength in Christ and the steadfastness to ride out the waves of change this new Haiti will bring them.