ONG, Sondeo, Christmas and STA

There are several strange words and acronyms in that title. Briefly, the ones you might not know are the French acronym for Non-Governmental Organization, a Spanish (I believe) term for a Rapid Rural Assessment and Sustainable Tropical Agriculture. Those 3 terms and Christmas summarize the highlights of the last couple of months.

After the Chattanooga team left in November, we started working in earnest on the ONG Report required each year by the Haitian government. It is a huge report asking for lots of details about the activities of the organization during the previous October through September. The US staff gathered to look over the forms and to divide up the tasks of gathering and tabulating the details needed.



It was necessary to look through accounting records and to ask our Haitian staff members for their input as well.



Barb and I then took everyone's results and put it into the official forms for the government. This report consumed a great deal of all of our time during most of November.

Heidi is former ECHO intern who spent 3 months at HAFF in the 1990's. She is now working on her graduate degree in entomology.

Rob is a lawyer from Virginia working on his graduate degree in Agriculture. Rob heard about Heidi and HAFF through ECHO and he and Heidi are working on a joint research project that brought them to HAFF in November just before Thanksgiving.

Heidi, her husband Jeff and Paul, a friend from their church, joined Rob in a Sondeo of farmers living in the Bohoc area.




During 4 days the US HAFF staff and some former HAFF students joined the team in visiting people's homes and gardens and engaging them in conversation. The conversations were a way to help determine what people were growing, what other activities they carry on to make money, what pest and other problems they have and what they do with what they grow. It was a fascinating and informative 4 days. Heidi and Rob will now be working on the paper with input from us here in Haiti.

I just got back to Bohoc from 3 weeks in the US for Christmas. I spent most of the time in Texas with my Uncle.

We kept very busy visiting Texan historic sites from The Alamo to the Alsatian town of Castroville to the Birthplace of Texas, Washington on the Brazos, to Mission Espiritu Santo and Presidio La Bahia in Goliad.

We celebrated Christmas and New Years with friends

and were thrilled by the music of ŚLĄSK (pronounced shlonsk), the National Ballet of Poland. It was a busy time.

I arrived back in Bohoc Thursday evening about 6:00. Friday afternoon the STA class from Gordon College arrived. They will be here till Wednesday morning learning about Haiti, Haitian agriculture and what is being done about agricultural problems.


Please pray for Haiti and for HAFF. Times are still tough for the people in the area and it is hard not to be able to meet all the needs we hear about. Please pray for the school that the students would work hard and would develop godly characters.

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.