Haiti - Trip Day 11 - Sunday (November 9)

Roy and I woke up under our mosquito net for our first day in Haiti! After a great breakfast we headed over to church in a village called Merger. It isn't too far out of the city and is where most of the CVM projects are currently located. At church it was the end of a week long missions conference of all 7 evangelical churches in Merger. The church started a half hour late and was in the Creole language, and we enjoyed the worship! We purposefully sat in back in case the service went super long. After 2 hours we decided that we were ready to go. (I'm not sure how long the service lasted, but the sermon hadn't started yet!)

2 girls who wanted to sit with me in church

a church full of people

the church decorated for the missions conference

Ronald catching up on sleep during the service

Kelly showed us around the village. Not much was happening since it was a Sunday, but our tour was great! We went to see the building were Kelly's goat project was based and also a sewing school that Jan helps with. We got to peak into the sewing school where ladies design and sew their own dresses. They first make the patterns and sew their project in paper before they do it in cloth. 

paper dresses

On of the boys Kelly works with wandered up and Kelly gave him a hug and introduced him to us as Desperado. Desperado is one of the goat project's success stories. He was a troublemaker, had already spent time in jail and hadn't been to school. He was chosen as one to be a part of a "Gangs for Goats." He and several other older boys were taught over several weeks how to take care of a goat, how to plant a garden for them, and they were also taught basic literacy. They had to come every week to the trainings and show that they were ready for the responsibility and had a way to care for the goat, and then they received a pregnant momma goat that would later give birth. Desperado's goat is still doing well. And after receiving his goat he has also continued on into regular school with other gang kids. The program has been successful enough that they had to make special grades 1 and 2 for these older boys! What a difference it makes to give these kids a purpose, give them a way to be productive and to make a small income without stealing! They are introduced to Jesus too! 

Kelly and Desparado

Desperado showing off his reading skills

The Gangs for Goats is an extension of the Give a Kid to a Kid program Kelly started where 4th grade students in the village learn for a year about taking care of their goats and then they receive a goat. Eventually one of the babies from the goats will go back to the project to help others. All of the other offspring will be theirs to keep or sell and helps provide income to keep the child in school. (School fees including books and uniforms can be up to $250 per year!) I got to ask Kelly what happens if the momma goat dies...do they get a replacement? She said that each situation is looked into. If the goat was properly cared for then it can be replaced for them. However, if it was just running at large (the goats are supposed to be tied up so that they won't be stolen or hit by car, etc.) and not cared for then they won't receive a new goat.

Currently there are 96 children in the Give a Kid to a Kid program. And more schools would like to be added. Click here if you want to learn more about Kelly's work and see a video about the Give a Kid to a Kid. You can also follow Give a Kid to a Kid on Facebook for current updates. 

We also got to see Pastor Johnny's church and school. This is the organization that CVM partners with in Haiti. The school is in the process of expanding and is very open air!  Desperado and Ronald, (Kelly's son she is in the process of adopting), showed off some of their reading and writing skills on the chalkboard for us! 

As we were leaving Kelly pointed out "the village" on the other side of the main road. There is a church plant and a goat project in the beginning stages. It is neat to see the work of the Lord expanding out! 

the Shakabana!

Kelly, Jan and Rhoda took us out to a new joint to eat--it was something like Haitian food meets hamburger. Then we went Christmas shopping in a market where craftsmen make art out of old oil barrels. 

The metal craftsmen

Then finally we made it back to Jan's house to relax for the afternoon and prepare for our trip out to the countryside on Monday morning.

Dominican Republic to Haiti Day 10 - Saturday (November 8)

Our tenth day in Dominican Republic was our last. It was one of those days that we were just happy to get through. It started out with us getting up ½ hour late because the alarm clock didn’t go off. (can’t remember why). We got ready quickly and grabbed some breakfast. We were planning to take a 6-7 hour bus ride from Santo Domingo, DR to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There are no direct flights from DR to Haiti, so the options were to take an adventure on a bus or to catch a flight to US and then another to Haiti. We chose the $40 bus ride. One of the SCORE drivers was going to take us to our bus station. It ended up that two of them took us since they didn’t really know the way. We gave them the address and they looked up directions (although they didn’t look totally convinced that they knew where they were going). We said goodbye to our teammates. We left in plenty of time so that we’d get there at least an hour early.

DR takes Christmas seriously--a view in Santo Domingo on the way to the bus station.

The trip to the bus station was an adventure on its own. Our drivers called the bus station a couple times, looked at maps and asked people on the streets; they drove in circles with nervous tapping on the brakes at red lights. Roy and I tried to trust patiently in the backseat. (We thought we had been transported back to Africa! :-) ) Finally we got to the station 25 minutes before our planned departure, we prayed a quick prayer of thanks and they dropped us off and wished us well. Neither Roy nor I speak much Spanish and no Creole, so I really felt like a tourist. Our bus was a tour bus. We laughed when they showed us a video of the fancy bathroom in the back. When we checked it out later, we found it to be a really run down version of the video. It didn’t even have a way to lock the door while in there. Then in the uninhabited mountains about 2/3 of the way to the border our bus died while going up a hill. The bus drivers messed around with it for 20 minutes or so and then we were on our way again. (Roy thinks it overheated.) I was thankful that it wasn’t too hot that day, because while the bus had AC, we were in a tin can warming up while it was broken down. A few miles down the road the same thing happened again but we were on our way in just a few minutes the second time.
 

This was a neat intersection to see the first time, but not the second time when we were going in circles on the way to the bus station.

We got to the border crossing, and Roy and I got tricked by a “helpful” young man. He asked for our passports and the $20 border fee right outside of the border patrol office. He then handed a second guy our passports and disappeared with the money. Of course we realized it about the time it was too late. Oh well, at least he didn’t take off with our passports.

Finally we made it back on the bus and into Haiti. The border between DR and Haiti was marked by a 4 foot chain link fence. We could see differences right away. Lots more people hanging around, the road turned to gravel (we found out later that a flood damaged the original road), and colorful painted taxis became common. The language also changed from Spanish to Creole and the people looked more African and less Latino.

view of the Haitian road with taxi in the center.

a Haiti shop on the side of the road

We were thrilled to get to Haiti and Rhoda, a CVM missionary picked us up. She took us to her and Jan’s house. We were welcomed and that night Kelly came over for a wonderful supper that Jan had prepared for us. (Rhoda, Jan and Kelly are all CVM missionaries. Jan and her former husband, Keith served in Haiti for 26 or so years and Keith passed away a couple years ago. Keith was the vet. Jan has a neat sewing school that we would get to see the next day. Kelly has been there since 2005, and has a neat Give a Kid to a Kid program going…more about that tomorrow. Rhoda is a CVM agricultural missionary and was preparing for a CVM training of trainers for CVM future and present missionaries and Haitian trainers that happened in December.)

CVM missionaries: Jan, Kelly and Rhoda

We no longer had the air-conditioned luxury of the SCORE compound, but we had a welcoming home, and we were thankful that we came late enough in the year that we didn’t have really hot temperatures. There were lots of mosquitoes and we were thankful for mosquito nets and thrilled to hear that the Chikungunya virus was not near as prevalent now as when it first appeared in the country. 

Happy to be safe in Haiti

Jan's house has a balcony where you can climb on the roof. It didn't take us long to climb out.

Overlooking Port-au-Prince, capitol of Haiti