A Big Thank You to my Staff

As I have seemed to pick up more and more roles here in Haiti, I grow ever more grateful to my staff here that I work with on a daily basis.  I think we have become a very tight knit small group and work as a team to accomplish the vast amount of work placed before us.  Since I have been here, I have picked up roles as the Team Coordinator, the Project Coordinator, minor accounting, guest house assistance, civil and structural engineering assistance for our VIM program, for our Housing Assistance Program (including three separate projects), and for an UMCOR funded project rebuilding a Methodist school that collapsed in the earthquake.  Additionally, I’ve somehow become the IT department for our small office here; setting up computers for our staff, installing software, solving hardware issues, and answering general computer questions.  My staff has taken on tasks from many of these roles as well.  My staff includes; me – the Team/Project Coordinator, Carine Odilus – the Assistant Team Coordinator, Oge Celin – the On-Site Liaison, and Spana Mix – our Drive (he is a DJ in his spare time).  Additionally, we have assistance from Derly Charles – the Head Engineer for the Methodist Church of Haiti, and Nicolas who helps us out with car cleaning and general lifting around the Methodist Guest House, where we are stationed and where I work and live.  They are all Haitian.  We also have one other American with us for a couple of months.  He is a Methodist ordained missionary specializing in finance and is working to close out our books at the end of October since we will be switching to a new program run through the Methodist Church of Haiti.  His name is Teri, and it has been great working with him as well and hearing of his years in service in Nigeria, Russia, Lithuania and now Alaska. 

 

The VIM Staff from Left to Right:  Spana Mix (Our Driver), Carine Odilus (Asst Team Coordinator), myself (Team Coordinator), Oge Celin (On-Site Liaison)

I couldn’t be more proud and grateful for my staff.  Carine is so on top of everything.  Anytime I ask her to do something, she has already finished the task at least 10 minutes ago.  I’m really not sure how she does this.  This morning, she had already arranged with our missionary doctor to go out and buy medicines for a team that is coming in two weeks and will be holding a clinic.  Oge keeps me on track and makes sure I don’t forget any important tasks and also makes sure that our project sites are ready for our teams.  This morning, he reminded me what we needed to do for a team going out to one of our worksites next week that will be serving hot lunch everyday to the children.  He reminded me that we needed to exchange half the full payment from US dollars to Haitian Gourdes and he arranged for the fellow to come from the worksite to pick up the payment and get the food ready for when the team arrives.  Spana gets us to where we need to go in a safe manner.  The way that everyone drives out here, it is important to have a driver that knows the system well.  Spana is certainly one of those persons.  The other day on our way to our jobsite, Spana drove full speed between large rocks that a couple of guys had put in the road.  I think my exact words were “Holy Crap!”  I was wondering why we didn’t slow down at all and then Oge informed me the next day that these were bad guys.  They were trying to get money from people, and the police tied them tight like a chicken (an expression he uses to describe how tight the police held them, since all the chickens have their feet tied together around here to sell in the market.)  It was a good thing we didn’t slow down!  I am amazed at the good and dedicated work that each of these persons does for our volunteer program and look forward to many more months working with them.  I know that I can count on them for anything.  We are small, but we are mighty!

 

Spana and Teri – Our Finance Missionary

Happenings at the Guest House

Well, finally I am back to writing again.  Sorry it has taken me so long.  There has been a lot going on and sometimes, having an engineer’s mind, I don’t always know what to write.  But, I will be back again posting at least once a week.  There are a lot of pictures I have to show you as well of different communities and project sites.  Here is a little bit about what has been going on the last couple of months:

In early June, I went with a team to a small community up in the mountains called Sobier.  This was the first time one of our teams had gone to Sobier, so we had to camp in tents and use latrines.  We did some medical assessments while we were there and tried to determine the greatest needs in the community.  Hunger and malnutrition were major issues and as was access to a good water source.  Everyday, family members hike down the mountain to the water source and then back up.  It takes them about three hours.  I did this hike one day and was amazed that these families did this everyday!  It was a difficult hike and I couldn’t imagine carrying water back!  Later in the month of June, unfortunately, our guest house manager here, Ruth, passed away.  There has been a lot to do in trying to coordinate everything in her absence.  Two of our dear co-workers also departed for the U.S. – Sarah and Bill, as their contracts were complete.  They are wonderful people and it is hard not having them around anymore.

At the end of June, I visited Haiti Artisans for Peace International (HAPI) in Mizak.  HAPI is another methodist mission project here in Haiti providing for the community of Mizak.  My pastor from when I was a youth was there with a group from her Michigan conference and I wanted to visit with her and see the work of HAPI.  How great it was to see her after so many years!  We thought it was quite funny that we hadn’t seen each other for quite some time and then we met up in Haiti!

July has been just as busy.  I experienced my first tropical storm/hurricane – Chantal.  While we prepared for the storm and I was worried since I hadn’t been through something like that before; it turned out to be not much of anything for us here in Haiti, especially in the Petionville area.  We were quite glad for that.  In mid-July, I traveled to the Dominican Republic to renew my visa here in Haiti.  It was interesting to see the difference between the two countries that share the same island.  I was so excited to see a McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and Burger King – just because I haven’t seen these types of things for three months!  Later in the month we saw the departure of our Finance Director followed later in the week by the departure of Tom and his wife Wendy.  Below are a few pictures from the celebration of Tom’s time here in Haiti.  Tom has been the Program Coordinator here for the last three years.  I miss all  of these people dearly.  I am taking over for Tom for the next year, and I have big shoes to fill.  In addition to doing the work that Tom was doing and running the program, I’ll be doing a little of what our Finance Director was doing and a little of what Bill and Sarah were doing.  Wow, I think it is going to be a busy year!

 

Pentecost Sunday

Yesterday was Pentecost, which is sometimes known as the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and gave them the ability to preach about Jesus in other languages (speaking in tongues).  It is also known as the birth of the church.  I attended church yesterday at the Thomassin church near Petionville where our Pastor Tom, the project coordinator of the United Methoidist Volunteers in Mission Haiti Response Plan program that I am here working through, gave the sermon.  How amazing it was to be in a place on Pentecost where the sermon was given in both English and French!  It felt just like the scripture from Acts (See below.)  Even the chickens were excited!  At one point a chicken walked into the service and walked up to the pulpit.  Chickens and Roosters are common occurrences around here, but I didn’t expect to see one in church that day!  According to John 1:32 “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”  Maybe this chicken was confused and thought itself a dove!

Acts 2:1-7:  When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.  And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.  And they were amazed and astonished, saying. “Are not all these who are  speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?  

Acts 2:12-18:  And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, “What does this mean?  But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”  But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them:  “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be knownto you, and give ear to my words.  For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.  But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.  

Ode to Mothers

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day, and so I thought I would share a special story about how my mom helped me out significantly in preparation for this Haiti journey.  I needed to move out of my apartment and decided to put everything in storage.  My mother was kind enough to fly all the way from Michigan to Seattle to throw all of my stuff – and a lot of it I did have – in boxes and then to help me with the movers as they packed everything up in their truck and drove it three blocks away to my storage unit, and then to clean my entire apartment; all while I was at work most of the time.

The funny part, that we’ll always remember together, is when we got locked out of the storage unit the night before our flight was to take off at 6:00 in the morning.  We knew the outside door to the complex locked up at 11:00 and we were just about done moving the remainder of our items into the unit when we realized we couldn’t move the last few items up since the interior elevator had also locked up at 11:00!  Even worse, we had left the storage unit unlocked upstairs!  The building wouldn’t be unlocked again until 5:00 am and our car was coming to pick us up for the airport at 4:00 am.  What were we to do!  Luckily my good friend Michael helped us out!  Thank you mom for all your help that week, I couldn’t have done it without you.  Your willingness to come help me with such a difficult task and the expense to do it were some of the greatest donations I received for this Haiti journey.  And I’m so glad we have such a funny story to tell from our little adventure!  I hope you all have some significant stories you can share about your moms in your lives and I hope that some of them involve a little humor just like mine.  Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!  Even if it is a little late.  -Jackie  

Saying Goodbye to Groups is Hard to Do

The guest house has been quite lively last night and today.  Two groups came in from the field on Friday afternoon, joining the one group that has been staying here all week.  Now, two of those groups have left for the airport and the last one will be leaving soon.  It has been very sad seeing them go, they have all been wonderful.  We’ve had a group from Lover’s Lane UMC in Dallas, a group from Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and a group from Newtown, CT.  I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know them all through site visits, dinner conversation, and evening game playing.  Below is a picture of the group from Dallas hard at work with the Haitians.

It is hard to say goodbye, but I know I will stay in touch with many of them and see them some day in the future.  And I look forward to continuing to meet new groups.  We will have another come in tonight.  I continue to have new experiences, I went with the Dallas group last evening down the street here to a local place for the debrief and this morning I climbed on top of the van to help them load their luggage.  Each day brings something new!

A Week in Haiti

Well, as of yesterday morning, I have been in Haiti now for a whole week.  I’ve been traveling quite a bit visiting several of our different project sites including; Leveque, La Tremblay, Yvon, Furcy, and Petit Goave.  Haiti is both quite beautiful and quite different than my usual American life.  Furcy and Yvon are both up in the mountains and the views were nothing short of breathtaking.  Below is a picture of a mother and her children walking back to their home from church on Sunday morning in Furcy along the path in the mountains with the view just beyond.  There aren’t even any vehicles up in this area.  We parked at the top of the hill, and walked down probably at least a mile.  I had the opportunity to ride a horse part of the way back up to the vehicle, that was much easier than the hike!

I have been getting to know a lot of people and have been settling into my life here in Haiti for the next year.  It has been great this past week to really get outside the walls of the campus here and start to meet some of the communities that we are working with in partnership.  The sights of the cities are becoming more common to me, but it is still shocking to see the difference between the cities here and other major cities around the world.  My eyes are just glued to the built environment everytime we travel.  Yesterday, I experienced my first major rainfall here in Haiti and it was interesting to see this in the context of the city.  The markets temporarily closed up and then bustled with activity again when the rain slowed, people were making use of the water coming from downspouts, and gulleys normally full of just dirt and garbage starting raging with dirt brown water – taking everything with it in it’s path.  I’ve heard that these gulleys become quite dangerous during these rain storms and that usually at least one person dies in them each time. So I was grateful to hear that our partnership agency, UMCOR, is working on a project to put in many footbridges around the city to help alleviate this problem.  Working in such a different environment can be tricky and stressful, so I was happy to learn that there is a gym nearby that many of my colleagues attend.  I have signed up and attended several times already and am excited to report that the gym also has hot water!  Since the Methodist Guest House only has cold water and is sometimes only a trickle, this was some of the best news of the week!

Second First Impressions

As many of you know, this is my second time in Haiti.  I was here last February/March of 2012.  It’s different than when I was here before.  Partly because some things have changed, partly because I’m seeing it again with eyes that have already had a first impression.  I came in on a holiday, May 1st.  It is like Labor Day for the Haitians.  Therefore, there was less activity happening on the streets and less shops and markets open.  They have started to collect the trash from the streets, so everything is a bit cleaner and they are working on improving the roads and adding sidewalks.  On Delmas, the main street close to the Methodist Guest House,  they have added solar powered streetlights down the median and they continue to tear down buildings that have been damaged by the earthquake.  The airport was my first big surprise, the main terminal with baggage claim is up and running again.  No more do you go through the scary warehouse where they lump everyone’s luggage in one large area.  The biggest surprise to me so far though is learning that Petionville, where the Methodist Guest House is located, is somewhat the “Beverly Hills of Port au Prince .”  (Although, this is saying a lot.)  It had been that way some time ago, and I understand is moving more in that direction as the reconstruction of the city continues.  There are now a couple of expensive hotels that have gone up in the last year including a Best Western Premiere that you can stay at for $250 a night as well as many decent restaurants in this area.  I have not yet seen a McDonalds or a Starbucks, but there is a Domino’s Pizza.  Not sure if they deliver.

Typical Haitian Houses on the Hillside pictured above (many Haitians can’t afford these types of homes)

Since we are required to provide for our own lunch, we went to the local grocery store – The Caribbean Market, which had armed security guards. Probably only about 1% of the population of Haiti can afford to go to the grocery store.  As I was somehow bumped up to first class on my flight from Fort Lauderdale to Port au Prince, I’m shopping with the 1%, and have been to a couple restaurants with some friends, I feel pretty strange as though I’m not quite in mission – even though I am living pretty poorly compared with my life back in the states.  There is no hot water here at the Guest House and the water we do have is sometimes just a trickle, I can’t just walk to the local Starbucks for my morning cup coffee, and eating out anywhere is usually a special occasion.  Overall, the experience so far has been good.  I’m glad to see that much progress has occurred in the past year, but I do hope to be able to extend myself more past these walls, to the poorer areas of the city and the rural areas of Haiti.  This will come with time, but will need to be something I continue to work towards as well.