Haiti Trip 2014 Thursday

After sleeping relatively well on our first night in Haiti, I woke up at about 5:15 and forced myself to stay in bed until 5:30 before grabbing a shower. A new shower system had been installed the week after we left last year with a large tank on top of the shower house and I decided to take advantage of it instead of treating myself to a more traditional bucket shower.

I had also brought my French press with me which wound up being a good thing since we couldn't find the Mission's press that first morning. The compound gradually came to life and the team had breakfast before hopping on the Mission's Mitsubishi for transport to the market at the base of the climb that started our real journey to Jabouin.

Our plan was to camp at the school in Jabouin Thursday-Saturday but there was a little bit of doubt as to whether we would be able to stay the first night or have to hike back down to the Mission. The rain made it harder to get a truck all the way to the school and unless it made it, we wouldn't have tents or any of our other supplies. We packed our backpacks for the truck and carried only what we would need for the day in case we would have to come back.

We arrived at the market and climbed out of the truck. Things were bustling at the market as we made our way past tables of produce and bread as well as a few mules and other livestock. We crossed a small creek and began what would prove to be a slippery, somewhat muddy climb.

We met several of these guys on the hike up the mountain

The path up the mountain was fairly clear, but initially resembled more of a rain gully than anything else. We made our way up, occasionally passing people headed down to the market. It wasn't a big deal until we encountered our first mule being led down. We did our best to make our way past, but the footing wasn't great and we found ourselves doing our best to stay upright.

We finally reached a point where the path met up with the road and the going got significantly easier, although we were still walking uphill more often than not. I was a sweaty mess by the time we reached the school, but the walk hadn't been nearly as bad as I had feared.

The sign at the school in Jabouin

We could see the tents the team had set up in September from the road as we approached the school. The foundation that had been laid for the first set of classrooms now had cement walls and the kids were already in class. The pastor from Jabouin greeted us and helped us get our things settled while we prepped to get day one of VBS underway. The theme for the day was Daniel & the lion's den. We broke the team down to three tasks and sent Tom and Jeff up the road a little farther to get some beams for the next day's construction project.

I wound up as a part of the storytelling crew where Julie shared the story for the day while Art (playing King Darius), Pam or Jeff (playing the lion) and I (Daniel) acted the story out. We wound up acting it out seven or eight times as we went to each of the classes. We learned after the first few classes that most of the kids had no idea what a lion was. We (i.e. Julie) worked that into the story as well. We had another crew that was doing a craft with the kids and another doing a game on the road where kids ran past members of our team who pretended to be lions trying to catch them.

Aubrey the Lioness ready to catch a kid

The older kids were in the classrooms which had tarps for covers that we planned to replace on Friday with a tin roof. The younger kids were under the tents with tables, chairs, and chalkboards to separate the classes. It was great to finally see the kids we were building the school for and to have a better sense of what the layout will ultimately look like. We could see the footprint for the second building and some rebar was already in place to allow for construction to continue.

One year ago, all that was on this piece of ground were three guys digging a well. This was the same place the team had encountered the well being dug. Unfortunately, they never did hit water and by the time the team showed up in September, it was being used as one of the deepest toilets in Haiti.

As the morning continued, Tom and Jeff eventually returned. Tom was carrying two 16 foot 2x4's and looked completely shelled. He said he had started with three boards, but just couldn't do it. It had been a long, hard walk and his shoulders were killing him. Jeff tag teamed his boards with one of the youth and they carried them in tandem. Jeff said the kid was half his age, so no matter how badly he wanted to put them down, he wasn't going to let the kid outdo him.

Art and John

The morning went well with only one exception. Pam had brought John, a deaf boy from the mountains, with her and even though she tried to tell kids to treat him well, he was punched by one of the boys. His cries brought a huge reaction from the other kids and some of the girls, in particular, continued to mimic and make fun of him for quite awhile after.

John was a kid that had just wandered the mountains without a real home when Pam first came across him. Those with defects like deafness are often mistreated and viewed as less than human in Haiti, but despite his poor treatment, John was always quick with a smile and generally joyful. Pam had tracked down a living grandmother after learning that John's parents were dead and she arranged so that John would go home to her at night no matter where he might have spent the day. Pam had also arranged for private tutoring for him in the hope of giving him a better life. Seeing John hit and mocked was definitely a low point in the day for all of us.

The younger kids were let out at about noon and the older kids at about 1:00, but with us visiting, there were always extra people hanging around. During a little break in the action I also got to try my first coconut in the mountains. One of the school's neighbors (who would help with the roofing the next day) offered them to a bunch of us. He would hack a part of the coconut off until he exposed a hole you could drink the milk through. I'll readily admit that the mustache/goatee combo was not exactly ideal for the task, but it was well worth it. Once all of it was gone, he chipped a little piece of the shell off and then split it in half. You could then use the small piece to help dig out the meat. The coconut was wet and warm, unlike any I'd ever had before. It made a good late morning snack as we waited for Mike to arrive with the truck.

When Mike arrived, he had Nelson, our bags, tents, food, and the trusses for the school. We unloaded and went about setting up tents. I was staying with Art, Jeff, and Scott in a fairly sizable tent. We each had a mattress and sheets and the tents were put up in the middle of the school compound.

One of the homes we visited in Jabouin

Once things were somewhat settled, a group of us went to do some home visits. Pam wanted to get as much info about the families of Jabouin as we could, so we went from door to door asking to know a little about who lived there, primarily so that we knew if there were any kids that we should know about for the school. During each visit Pam would ask if the family was Christian, if we could pray for them, and then we would leave a hygiene kit for the family.

We were welcomed warmly most places we went and it was an honor to be welcomed into their homes. I even saw the only hummingbird in my two trips to Haiti on these visits.

Near the end of our visits, we encountered a girl with very short hair along the road. Pam asked if any of us had hair bands or anything of that nature that we might be able to give to her so that she wouldn't be made fun of. Barline (Aubrey's Haitian sister) was particularly burdened for this girl and Pam and Aubrey had to console her because she felt so sad for her. It was beautiful to see her heart for this child.

The final house visit was one of the strangest encounters that I have had so far. We entered a yard where a couple of men were pouring something in a bowl with two large sticks. A third man (older, very thin, and shirtless) was talking very excitedly to Jeff when I got into the yard and was very animated throughout our visit. At different times, he would lock in on different team members and talk to us. It was unsettling since we didn't know if he was drunk, crazy, possessed, violent, or all of the above. We managed to finish the visit and got out of the yard. Pam said he was making no sense and that she had seen him before but had never had a chance to speak to him.

We made our way back to the school for some lunch (prepared by Kehno) and made some plans for youth group which was supposed to start around 4:00. Pam had been asked to go to a meeting in Ti-Riviere at 3:00, so we were on our own to carry the meeting.