Women and a Well

Today was an incredibly long day, not by hours but by miles.  Not even by miles but by arduous journeys up and down and around mountains, on Haitian roads.  You've seen the videos, they don't do it justice.  Many people say "it's not just the destination it's the journey" but haven't been in a truck in Haiti.  You can't relax.  It's constant stress, not to mention for the driver.

 

 

 There are also a lot of sights to take in.  In some ways there are 10 Haitis, maybe more.  And the truth is there is a tremendous beauty in Haiti, especially the long range view of its vistas.  But the closer up you get, the more you see of reality.  There are very few trees.  The mountains are eroding, others being mined.  Some slopes can't hardly keep soil anymore.  Remember the mud in the streets the other day?  That comes from any rain because it just washes right down into towns. 

A very difficult view is of the hillsides.  Two years ago these hills were mostly empty.  But when the government didn't want the tent cities giving blight to the capital, they paid people in the tents a few hundred US dollars to relocate. Many of them moved here.


Our first stop was Belladare for a graduation from SHG facilitator training.  We met 5 nice ladies, one of which has already started a group. 

 

Our next stop was Miriballais to meet Pastor Paul.  For those of you from FBCW, there was a large sum raised during 90 Days of Generosity that was presented today to Pastor Paul.  His church is building a new school on a plot of land and we are funding a well project that will not only provide fresh, clean water to the school but also the whole village. 
     
    

The new school already has a soccer field
(even before there is a school).  Watch out
for their goalie. I hear he has a mean foot!
Four of them to be exact!

 

After touring the church building and current school site, as well as the site for the well and new school, we were invited back to his house for a "little something to eat".  We took the opportunity to make an official presentation of the funds for the well project with Robyn and I serving as representatives of FBCW.  He was visibly touched and told us that it was a blessing from God that we didn't just send the money but came here ourselves.  It was an honor to be a part.

  

 

 

Pastor Paul's wife is also starting a chicken coup microenterprise, sponsored by another church.  We delivered some of the wood and the chicken wire today as well.


Pray for Pastor Paul's church. From what we understand, they are incredibly evangelistic.  They are all incredibly poor and yet they continue to raise funds for building a church building, and reaching the community for eternal life and for better living.  We asked how we can pray for him, and he responded, "no! I'm praying for you now.  You are now our ambassadors for our church and school."


You should come here and see it for yourselves.  Next year maybe?  Build a church or school? Evangelize a village?  Any dentists out there that can give a few days in a rural clinic?  A GYN that could spare a couple days a few times a year to help thousands of women?  What about you?

Lots more to tell, but exhaustion does not permit.  Tomorrow we go to the orphanage.
 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Real Hope for Haiti

 

Today we took a two plus hour drive, half of it straight up and down rocky hills with no road, to a very very rural clinic called Real Hope for Haiti in Cazale.

Our Chariot

Here are some images and a couple bonus videos of the many faces of life in Port au Prince.  A bonus video below might help you understand why I say "give me DC traffic anyday!"  In fact, Andy and I sat in the middle of an intersection for a good 5 minutes as cars tangled, untangled, and we finally broke free.  Not at an intersection, in it.



mud from last night's rain brings mud
from the mountains (no trees, terrible erosion)

 



give me DC traffic anyday

coolest "carry on your head" so far:
7 feet of sunglasses!

Once out of the city, the "road" was so rough, at one point we had a 9 year old boy running beside us trying to get money for having moved some dirt and rock into a hole for us.

 

I'm not sure how to process let alone describe or capture for others everything we heard and saw.  For now I'll just say they treat thousands of people and specialize in malnourished children.  We saw a family who had sand fleas that had burrowed into their feet and hands.  I won't show that picture.  The rest I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is RoseMarie.  She's 3. She's about the size of
an 8 month old.  Real Hope will feed her medica mamba
(medical peanut butter).  Pray for her.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at a bench on the side of
the mountain with our Haitian friend
and ate a sandwich before coming down
off the mountain

   

 

When we got back to PaP, we dropped Jutta and Robyn at the "flat" and went out to get wood and chicken wire for a coup that will be built by an SHG in the place we're going tomorrow.  We went to several stores, and at times our best communication was flapping our arms and clucking.  I was almost killed crossing the street and a Haitian woman said (in English) "Be careful don't get hurt".  I'm pretty sure she was making fun of the way I leaped to the curb in utter terror.  REAL Haitians don't jump, hurry, or move out of the way.  According to Andy, their idea of a close call isn't even when the rear view mirror whacks them in the arm "because they know they should have moved."

We stopped at the orphanage to say hello. I saw two guys I had seen last time, one was on the work crew.  All the kids are so much bigger!  We'll get more pictures on Saturday.

Tomorrow we are off to Belladere and Mirebalus with a possible stop in Lascahobas.  Maybe in that order.  Get out your maps!

Haiti Trip 2014 Travel Day

You can't see her pocket,
but Robyn's shirt says "I'm with TIM"

We're here. We're fine. A long travel day. But from what we hear today's 30 minute drive to the airport at 6am may be about our average start time and by far the shortest easiest drive the whole trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Ric Wyatt!  There are also a whole bunch of lanes for immigration! They have conveyer belts now!  No more piles to climb!  It's like a real airport now.   Of course, we sat there watching the same four bags go around and around for a while before our last one came off.  But no problem. 

 

 

A View From the Hill

Most of the pictures we (I) took on the road from the airport came out blurry as we whizzed and bounced by, except this one.  We got at least got a couple pictures from the balcony of where we are staying.  We'll get some better ones tomorrow.

 

 

 

Mapping Our Week

Because we'll cross at least one mountain each day in different directions several times first going through the maze of trucks, bikes, and streams of humanity known as PauP, we thought it would be great to show everyone as much of Haiti as we see.  Plus it helps to convey the life that Andy and Jutta live here, traveling all over creating and supporting Self Help Groups (SHGs). 

 

So go looking for a map of Haiti, preferably one that shows topography and has lots of city dots on it.  Many of the spots we'll go are smaller places up in the hills.

 

Find Port au Prince.  We are 109 Rue Armand Holy, it's part way up the mountain in the southern end.  This is where Andy and Jutta live.

 

Tomorrow we go to a very rural clinic for malnourished children called Real Hope for Haiti. We leave at 6:30 or so and go about 2 hours to Cazale. The sea is in a reverse C shape with PaP in the center.  Cazale is due north of Cabarat on the northern side of the C.

If there is power (electricity is on and we're still on) we'll have Internet later at night and will try to connect somehow to share a few pictures and prayer requests and then point you to the next days travels.

 

The Citadel

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall dwell in the shadow of the Almighty...

Psalms 91 has been on our hearts around the Owen house for some time now.  I find today as we just finalized travel for going back that this incredible image of the Citadel in the mountains of Haiti is an almost hauntingly powerful reminder that the secret places of the Lord aren't so far removed from everyday and that life in the shadow isn't necessarily so far removed from real suffering.

Robyn and I are going together this time, not to build or sweat under toil of cinder blocks and buckets of concrete.  Instead, it's an exploratory journey to support CBF missionaries Andy and Jutta Cowie and to survey ways we can support them from here or perhaps with mission teams again next year.

We're scheduled to be in Haiti May 21 - 28, 2014.  Pray for our trip, our kids back here in Woodbridge, and the grandparents who will labor to keep them while we're gone.  We'll be posting more shortly on how you can pray, how you can support this trip, and what we might be looking for while we're there.  Oh, and if you're interested, we'll offer up a devotional book to help pattern prayers and daily scripture reading from Psalms 91 to tune our hearts as we live Life in the Shadow.

Lord be with you.