Stop Hunger Now

As I mentioned before the food that is served for the HOM school lunches comes from the organization Stop Hunger Now. It is a rice mix that is fortified with all sorts of vitamins and minerals. The packets are also given out to those in need in the community…it is given the name “ti pasteur” as in little pastor as it is given out from the church and is a very good outreach in the various communities.
At the Terre Noire or Blanchard school, the rice is cooked by Madame Valmont and Madame Irene. They start very early as there are over 500 students here to feed. The littlest children (3 year olds) get out at 11 a.m. so they eat early. Lunch for all the students is over by 12:30. Starting early in the morning the ladies also chop up some extra vegetables to add to the mix—peppers and onions usually. And then there is a sauce to go with it—either bean sauces or a runny tomato sauce. Both of those are very good and it changes each day so that the children don’t get too tired of the same thing day after day after day. Sometimes they put dried fish in the tomato sauce and I don’t like that one at all but can eat the rice on its own. The kids sometimes buy what I think are cheetos that they crush and put on top of their rice for a bright orange plate of food.I’ve eaten in the cafeteria once but find it too hot and too noisy so I usually take my plate upstairs where I can also add my own seasonings.Check out Stop Hunger Now if you’re interested in seeing what they do or even how you can help feed the world…I know that they have many different ways to get involved. I also know that both Black Mountain Presbyterian Church and White Memorial Presbyterian Church package meals for SHN.

Classes

Classes are going well. I’m still surprised at how regularly they occur…having to come up with lesson plans are just never ending…I had to turn in a plan for the semester—what I would teach each class…as though I had any idea. But we’ve started (of course).
In first, second and third grade I thought to start at the beginning: the alphabet and pronunciation of the letters, then colors and numbers. So we are rotating those through and then doing them again because repetition is never a bad thing…Some of the kids seem to be getting it which is nice. The third grade had already had colors as shown by the quick way they picked it up. We started playing a game putting the girls against the boys…each person gets a chance at a card with either a letter, number or color on it, if they say it correctly in English (key point) they get 10 points for their team. If someone else gives them the answer it is -5…So far I think the girls have won every game but the boys are slowly but surely starting to pay better attention and getting closer.In fourth, fifth, and sixth grade we did lots of vocabulary (4th-house vocab and things in a kitchen-I brought in examples or drawings of what I could; 5th-feelings, daily rountines, and greetings; 6th-vocab from a reading text) and we tried to play BINGO. Something we are all familiar with but not so much here. For one thing they had to make their own board. This also doesn’t sound so hard but I guess if you’ve never done it…the directions were to make a big square on a piece of blank paper. Inside the square make 4 horizontal lines and then 4 vertical lines and fill in one English vocabulary word per box. The frames that came out of those directions, I just don’t know where they came from…but eventually we got most of them with the right board…that took at least 2 class periods…I never would have imagined. So for the game, we said the word in French, they had to know the translation and mark it on their English board…once we got started it was fine and they had a lot of fun with it. Maybe the next time we do it, more of the kids will be able to do it correctly, especially since we had candy for the Bingo’s. We’ll have to wait and see.

Clinic

We’ve had a run of groups who have been working in the clinics here. Most of them work in Cite Soleil as the clinic here where we are living is run by a different organization. On Tuesday and Friday mornings I am not teaching in the school…we had reserved those days as staff days but when there are groups the staff is too busy with them to have class and rather than sit around I go out for the morning to work with the teams doing whatever might be helpful. More often I go with a construction crew and paint or haul rocks, concrete or water but the last two weeks we’ve needed people to help at the clinic. As long as I don’t see blood or really sick/injured people, I’m all for it. Last week I helped clean and organize the pharmacy…it was done pretty well before but the shelves they were using were too high and no one could reach the drugs on the top shelf. We rearranged and now everything is within reach! Here is Katie counting and sortingThen this week I was asked to go to the clinic again. I thought I would be shepherding patients from the waiting room to the doctors’ rooms or to the pharmacy or be in the pharmacy counting pills…I was in the treatment room. Sounds pretty scary (and at times I agree though more for the fact that people ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to). I’ve now gotten a quick training in reading dipsticks…not fancy but there it is…people pee in a cup and I know how to tell if they are pregnant or if something else is wrong (granted I still don’t know what is wrong—I can just tell that it is). I’ve done finger pricks for blood sugar tests and I’ve set up asthma breathing treatments for children. It may not be a glamorous job but I do feel like I’m needed…and it gives me time to read in between patients as most of them don’t get any tests done.

Screen porch

Our dining area is open air and it is beautiful…at dinnertime when the sun is going down, the natural light is getting low and we turn on the light bulbs we attract bugs—moths, bugs, and mosquitos. So we decided to screen in the dining area. For those who have been here before it may feel too ‘closed in’ but I think it is a great improvement…before it was started there were 2 quotes to be found…one done but the local woodworker and one by the metalworker…when the metalworkers price was the same as the wood they decided that metal would last longer so he was hired.
It was supposed to be done over the Christmas break since there would be no teams and not many people…but the day they started they brought up sheets of metal grill…that is what they saw a screening. I stopped that (or made sure it was stopped) because the plan wasn’t to build (and I didn’t want to eat in) a cage and it wouldn’t do any good against the bugs. So until the decisionmakers returned from their holiday the project was put on hold.
Then things got moving again. As it turned out the metalworker had never done screening before so this was something new but he didn’t want to lose the job. It wasn’t the most efficient way to finish but it has worked very well at keeping a large number of the bugs out. Granted there were holes in it even before they finished the job (I believe that one of the guys on a ladder stuck his foot through it) but the bigger holes have been patched and really there is no way to keep all the bugs out with the free form shapes we have all around the area. It took about a week to figure out the door. This brought us no end of laughter…there was no door at first and we talked about what might go in…a full metal door that had no screening in it (you’d never know who was on the other side) but then came a very good screen door in a metal frame (of course) but there was no way to keep it shut (no latch, nothing). Don’t worry, it’s not finished. The next day it had a hard core lock and deadbolt on it…but then the latch was too far away and it still wouldn’t stay shut…not only were we in a screen porch but the heavy duty lock (that is unnecessary if you want in you can get in) didn’t close…we thought that would change as all that was really needed was a simple latch but it has stayed and the closing mechanism was moved so that the door now stays closed…as if that were all.
Within in the first week we had been both locked out and locked in…to get in you have to turn the key to unlatch the door…and if you turn it left you will engage the deadbolt…not a big deal as then turning it to the right will usually unlock the deadbolt…but this time it didn’t. We tried over and over again to get the key to catch but eventually we went in through the side (able to pull out without adding a hole and using the key on the inside to turn the latch). Duct tape over the deadbolt to hopefully put enough pressure that the person turning the key will try the other direction before engaging the deadbolt again.Then someone took the ducttape off and about 2 days later we somehow got locked in the dining area…that means that someone turned the key from the outside (not necessary when leaving) and left…for a while we had the extra key in the lock on the inside (for just such a case) but I was told that it was confusing people and so it was removed…(I was blamed for getting locked in as I had asked that the key stay inside the dining area somewhere and was denied)…but we were quickly freed before too many people realized that they were trapped (in a screen porch). Now the key is duct taped to the inside of the lock for just in case…
And now we have decorated as well. We are trying curtains to block the sun in the mornings but the wind is having a field day with those and actually knocking out the light bulbs on occasion…Christmas lights are up for a festive look, and table cloths are on the tables (unless the wind blows them off).

Chaos

It has been mentioned more than once that here in Haiti you so often see chaos right next to order. I contend that anyone who has worked in a school sees it all the time, but I also agree that it does seem to be more in your face here. There is the constant noise—outside noise (animals, traffic) and the drone of voices. The classes are all constantly reciting lessons, singing songs, chanting…from 6:30am until 3:30 pm the school is abuzz. After that there are choir practices, worship services, rehearsals at the church—usually using microphones and speakers. Even in my class I can’t find quiet…there is always someone(s) talking/murmuring and I can’t even find them—I have yet to find them and get a class quiet. Occasionally you can get a call and response going but as soon as you stop so does the order it created.
I watched Souls 4 Souls, an NGO, come in with volunteers one Saturday morning to give shoes to the children. They set up in the church—a measuring area, feet washing area, a place for runners to get the right size shoe and a place to put them on the children’s feet to be sure they fit. The whole front of the sanctuary was filled with children and their guardian (parent, bigger sibling, etc). Nadege (principal) came in and announced who would go first and kept things moving and it worked…for a while anyway. The longer they had to wait the more movement of the people waiting…moving toward the areas where the shoes were being given away, hoping to be able to get into the line and the noise was loud but not really overpowering. I was sitting on the side. Nadege had asked me to come to help but they had enough volunteers that I would have felt like I was in the way. Different people came to me and started chatting…in English and French and even a little Creole…sadly some of them wanted to know what was going on and when it would be there turn which I didn’t have any idea about. But most just wanted to chat (and were very surprised that I, an American, spoke French). Within about 3 hours all the children had their new shoes and the church was empty and reordered…
a different handing out of shoes-this one at Bayonnais
long term volunteers--Matt, Patty, Katie, me

Devos

That week devotions came out of 1 John. The importance of sharing what we know to be true, of God’s love for creation and how we should also love each other. (The greatest commandments: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.)
God is light and when we try to follow in the light we are exposed and vulnerable but we are also living to the best of our abilities as Christ taught us. We won’t have the need to hide or be ashamed as our true selves will be evident in the love that we share that will translate into our actions toward others. That we love in deed and truth, not just talk to show that our faith is alive as faith without works is dead. Though these actions don’t bring us salvation but are a response to the love we feel from God and God’s community.
Someone said, “I am always hoping that each confession I make is shorter than the last because that will mean that I’m working each day to be a better person.” While we all laughed at the sentiment, I believe that we all found it true…that would be such a good goal to have as we move forward in our lives.
We read together each night:
‘Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.’

the National Cathedral
a fresh coat of paint for a new look

Group work

My second group was from the Church of the Apostle in Montrose, Alabama. They came with 16 people ready to work both construction and education…so I was put with the educations team…no surprise there. When there is a group that works at the school, English classes are put on hold (during the day for the kids. I was still on for the teachers in the afternoons). I will have to admit that I’m not completely sure what the construction team did—there was some moving of topsoil at the Repatriate field (finished and waiting for grass seed), painting of various houses or the roofs of houses with a rust-proof paint to elongate their lifespan. (can I say that?) And stenciling the last 2 phrases on the school wall and painting one.

school children and their sponsors!
taking a bow after the performance

The education team had picked the story “The Rainbow Fish.” (I recommend it). In the classes they did art projects with the kids from the 3 year olds to the 5th grade. Different projects for each level and they had brought all the supplies they needed…it was an amazing undertaking. As there are two classes for each grade, they split into two art teams each with translators. They also had someone to read the story in the classroom in French! Fish with all sorts of decorations, jelly fish, octopi…it all came out of the classrooms and the kids and teachers loved it.
The 6th grade put on the play of the Rainbow Fish which I believe was made just for this play…There were 2 songs that one of the classes learned and performed. And the other class was putting on the play. 5 pages of text and lines and they memorized it in 4 days! It was amazing. And of course, when you are working with children you never know how it is going to go…especially children who didn’t have a choice in the matter or have ever seen a play! Erin works in children’s theater at home and I was assigned as her translator. She was relieved and happy and wouldn’t have let me leave if I could have found her another translator, I was nervous and hoping the kids would understand me (and listen to me). At one point during the week we had a revolt—they said they didn’t get their break yesterday so they were done for right now. Nothing I could do about it. They went out for break and then came back and did a great run through.
Friday morning the whole school went into the church to watch the play. Everyone did an amazing job…singing, saying their lines, moving around the stage and taking their bows. After the play the kids came and gave us hugs which was so sweet (as I had been hounding them all week to behave and listen and felt like a real tyrant). A wonderful play, cute story with the theme of sharing to make yourself happier, and a fun team to work with.

Food I like

I’ve found 2 condiments that I think are great…and totally by accident. In the peanut butter they put chili powder or cayenne so it has a little kick. And most of you probably know I like my food with a kick. The other thing I found (at the Obama Beach Hotel) was hot ketchup. Same idea—add some cayenne for a little kick.
Another great discovery was a drink, Kremas…we had it at the New Year’s gathering…it is a creamy liqueur that I thought was going to be eggnog but it wasn’t. Very good…
They also do a great relish of onions, peppers and carrots…kind of a slaw with a real kick because they use some kind of jalapeno pepper in it…they serve it when they do French fries and fried plantains…it is awesome.

ps. I think I have been falling to peer pressure...Everyone here (long term) complains about the food but it is not because it is bland just that it is on a rotation that we get tired of pretty quickly. Mom pointed out to me that it tastes pretty good and I agree just wish for more variation...

Mom in PAP with me

All too soon our time in Bayonnais was over. The group was headed home after a night in PAP and mom was coming with me to HOM. She was a trooper and came to almost all of my classes. In the older classes she introduced herself and they got to ask her questions (one of their favorites being how old are you) and some classes asked about her parents, uncles, etc. My teacher classes loved meeting her. They also got to ask questions and had a pretty good conversation. In the younger classes I introduced her but then we jumped into learning colors…I think I picked too many colors to start with but we’ll see how it all goes. Sadly I think she skipped some of the quieter classes but made it for some of the really rowdy ones. We had a wonderful visit together and it will be so nice that she can picture what I’m telling her and who I’m talking about.

On Friday morning (I don’t have class) we got a taptap (not the public one that I don’t know how to use—but a private one called by HOM) and went to the Missionaries of Charity (a Mother Teresa hospital) to hold the babies and see what was going on. Other groups had been but I’d always been working so I was excited to see it. I had also thought it was an orphanage but it is more of a hospital where most of the children are malnourished and so are kept until they are healthy again. Many parents come to visit their children there during visiting hours which was so touching to see. You could see the anguish in some parents’ eyes knowing that they couldn’t take care of their own kids but also the hope in seeing them getting stronger. There is a playground where the stronger kids could be taken out to play. Mom and I sat and fed 3 little ones who didn’t have visitors and were hooked up to IVs and so couldn’t go outside anyway. They were the smallest little ones I’ve seen. The nurses all had smiles on their faces as they worked amongst the often screaming children—always ready with smiles, jokes and help. It was a beautiful morning.
It was hard to see mom go on Tuesday. Luckily the airport is close so not too much time to dwell on it. She had a safe flight home and I am so glad she came.

Bayonnais

A small community in the mountains near Gonnaives center around a church, a school, a vocational school, feeding program, clinic, and agronomic project. It is an amazing place. The school has close to 2000 students from the area—some kids walk an hour and a half both ways. The morning is for over 1000 elementary students and the afternoon is for high schoolers. There is a rice depot where people who work on various projects such as road repairs can collect rice as payment for their work. The clinic has a dentist as well as doctors to see the community. They are planting expo fields to show new ways to grow a variety of foods.

I was ushered into the Guesthouse and shown to the dining room…don’t know where Mom was but lunch was a very good pumpkin soup (though on a hot day). Then mom came back from wherever they had been walking. YEAH!! So good to see her. We set to talking and catching up in between getting introduced to the rest of the group. The air feels cleaner there (out of the city) and it is definitely cooler (in the mountains).

While we are there we took a hike up into the mountains to a village called Nichola. NIchola is even poorer, so much so that the people in Bayonnais felt called to send teachers to start a school there for the children. We left early in the morning so that we were there to see school start (with some songs and prayer) and then the kids went to classrooms…one stone building with 1 window and 1 door served as 2 classes faced in opposite directions and a reed structure that served as 2 more classrooms. The teachers walk from Bayonnais each day (about a 1.5 hour hike up)

While at the guesthouse there are always people around. And they want to practice their English. Or just gawk at the white people (that is what it felt like at times though I’m sure it was all well-meaning). If you sat on the porch you were pretty much fair game…and it was shaded so it was a great place to sit. I found that when I sat out there I would get an audience of 18-20 year olds pretty quickly. And when they found out that I spoke French it was even bigger. They seemed to want to test that…no more English. So the first guy would sit next to with the rest standing and watching. We would start. ‘Hi, my name is _____. What’s yours? You speak French. How long are you staying in Haiti? Etc.’ it would go on for a while and then his turn would be over. He would go to the watching area, the next guy would sit down and we would have the exact conversation that I had just held and he had just watched. Seriously. And this went on for ages…and every time I would sit outside it would start again. As friendly as I am…I wasn’t too impressed but then what else could we talk about. I run out of questions pretty quickly.
I loved visiting and seeing another ministry that is doing such good work and having the freedom to wander around the village (though I noticed that already I didn’t go far on my own).

Actionnel

Actionnel Fleurisma is the heart and founder of OFCB (Organisation Force Chretienne de Bayonnais). He is a native of Bayonnais but had left for the city of Gonaives when he felt the call to go back and help the people of his hometown.
When I found out that Mom was coming down with a group from NC (composed of people from many churches) I thought about trying to go up to them and see what they were doing over the weekend. I was told that traveling on my own isn’t safe (and I wouldn’t know how to do it anyway) but they would look into it. I received an email saying that Actionnel was coming to pick up a student on Saturday and I could easily get a ride, but I would have to stay until Tuesday when the group came back down. Yeah!
Soon before the trip I talked with Actionnel on the phone and found out that his Saturday trip to Port-au-Prince was JUST to pick me up. I told him that it wasn’t necessary, that I could wait, but he told me he was coming down for me. He didn’t know me. He didn’t know my mom (yet). And it turned out that the trip can be very long.
But I was excited. To get out of PAP, to see the north, to be in a village/mountain area, to meet this pastor who was putting himself to so much trouble for someone he hadn’t met. So that Saturday morning I got a ride to the Guesthouse that he stays in when he is in PAP. Turned out he had gotten in his car at 5am to drive the 3.5 hours to get me with 2 of his children, and we jumped right back in the car for the return trip (via the supermarket for some essentials), the return took a little longer as there were more people on the streets later in the day. (I found out that when the group arrived it took over 8 hours to get there because they encountered “the log of unity” marching through Port-au-Prince from the south tip to the north and they couldn’t get through so many people) We stopped briefly at his house in Gonaives and then continued our trip for an hour up a dirt track into the mountains. From 5 minutes into the trip it felt like I had known Actionnel for years and I am so glad that he gave up his Saturday to spend the day in the car that I might see my mom a couple days sooner and see the amazing work that God is doing in Bayonnais.

another world

On New Year’s Day Pastor Leon’s family has a gathering. His brother worked high in the government for a while…a completely different social circle. A large house in a more affluent neighborhood where it feels that you have entered a different Haiti. Very friendly and welcoming, speaking Creole, French and English. Family from around the world—studying in Germany, living in NY, Atlanta, Haiti. The discrepancy between being there and working and living in/near Cite Soleil is enormous though not any bigger than what I’ve seen in Malawi and even the US. It was a wonderful afternoon/evening with great food and conversation. I think in a way it showed what could be.

before school

That morning I had a long chat with Jacky. She is an amazing woman. She was in medical school when she attended a seminar put on by a visiting pastor who then worked to get her a scholarship to seminary or university in the states. However Leon was the one who was talking to her about this scholarship and he told her that he would rather she stay and marry him…she did. She is now the superintendent of the 4 HOM schools, she knows every child by name and usually a thing or two about his or her family as well. She is interested in every student and sees their potential, pushes them to reach that potential and helps to open those doors. She is so proud of all those who have been through the school and have gone on to become the leaders she helped raise them to be. She told me stories of the students who come to her for advice (getting into school, finding jobs, internships, relationships) because they know she cares, she is hard and tells it like it is but the love is so evident. She invites church members and students to their house to show them what they can achieve, what they can dream of past what they have seen in their neighborhoods. Past the one room house to dream of multiple rooms, multiple stories, electricity, etc…if you’ve never seen it you don’t know that you can achieve it—she gives them hope and the push to get there. The conversations started with her saying that I should work for the UN or USAID here in Haiti since I speak both English and French, that I could do that. And I just find it so hard to justify, working and living in what I see as so removed from the multitudes. She showed that it takes all kinds and even with that affluence you can have the right influence if your heart is in the right place and you use it to your advantage—to let God work through you.