Haiti Trip, Part 6

Monday

The plans were for a smaller group of ours to travel outside of the city on Monday to view the land that FHG/Maison may be purchasing for a new site for the orphanage. They were planning to leave at 6:00 am, to beat the traffic in the city, and there wasn’t room for all of us to go in the van, so I was more than happy to stay back to spend the day with the Elijah and Josephine. They had planned to get back to the hotel shortly after lunch, and then head to the orphanage to work in the afternoon.

Jock got up early to go on the trip, and I was glad to have had him go and see the countryside a bit to share with me. He took lots of pictures and a couple videos of the country. He said the pictures didn’t do it justice, but I thought it was just beautiful, up in the mountains North of Port-au-Prince, with the beach very close-by. They said it’s 20 acres of land (but Jock thought it looked more like 80 acres).

My understanding is that the money to purchase this property has been donated by a church in the U.S. In order for the purchase to be completed, it has to be approved by the government and the community. The community is very excited by the prospects of the orphanage moving in nearby. Apparently while the group was there, a deal was made between FHG/Maison leaders and community leaders, and, as is custom in Haiti, they broke coconuts and drank the milk/ate the flesh as a sign of their deal. Remaining is the agreement of the deal by the government.

The new property signals the beginning of a bright future for the orphanage. Just with the purchase of the land in the country and a well that is already drilled on the property, it could save the orphanage thousands of dollars per month in rent and purchasing clean water to drink. (If I haven’t said this before, it’s a huge deal – you can’t drink the tap water in Haiti, or even use it to brush your teeth or wash dishes!) The land could also be used to plant fruit trees and gardens. I also understand that it has a couple small ponds that could be used for a supply of fish for protein.

The vision for this, however, is to be much more than an orphanage – it is also hoped that the property can be used for outreach to the people in the area, with a church, a school, a feeding program, and medical clinic as well. There is a partial building that was started being built on the property for a hotel that would/could be finished, but other than that, there is much more building that would need to be done – property border walls (very common in Haiti for security), orphanage buildings, clinic buildings, school buildings, kitchens for feeding program and for the orphanage, guest houses, etc. FHG has a building committee that has a very good start to the planning for this property. There will also need to be a good deal of fundraising to get this effort off the ground.

After seeing the land, meeting with the community leaders, and dipping their feet in the waves on the beach, they stopped by a Lifeline site on the way back to the city. Except for the orphanage, it apparently has very similar facilities to what FHG/Maison wants to do with their property. They toured the Lifeline facilities to get some ideas for the building committee. (My understanding is that Lifeline has many facilities throughout Haiti, and this was just one of them.)

Also, on the trip, the group traveled through some of the more dangerous parts of Port-au-Prince. This included the downtown area near some of the government buildings, as well as through Cite Soleil (pronounced City So-lay), that is considered to be the most dangerous slum in the world. Jock took some pictures, but he said he’d never experienced anything like it, and the pictures didn’t do it justice either. He also said that some of the people who’d traveled there before had said that it looked cleaner than before, but Jock said that was hard to imagine it being worse. Apparently they did see dumpsters in some areas, and the government is putting efforts into cleaning up the city.

When the group got back from their country excursion around mid-afternoon, they had a little time at the hotel, before they re-grouped to head to the orphanage. Again, they were taking only one trip in the van, and since the men had lots of construction-type work that needed to be continued, mostly men went to the orphanage for the remainder of the afternoon. I stayed back the rest of the day at the hotel.

I had all sorts of fun with Elijah and Josephine that day, watching them interact a little bit more. I also got to see the stubborn side of Elijah a bit. He apparently likes to throw his toys – at people (not very good aim, but you know…). I’d tell him no – which is the same in English and Creole, so I know he understood me. He’d still do it, and I’d stop him. He’d still do it, and then I’d take it away from him. He didn’t like it very much, but didn’t cry about it. He’d just kind of fall on the floor or the bed, and lay there and look at me funny for a few seconds, then get up and play nicely again. Funny how even at such a young age they’re always testing their limits with things. They both took good naps, although not at exactly the same times, so I had some fun with them together, and with each of them separately. I had some help in getting them up to breakfast from others that hadn’t gone on the outing in the country (otherwise it could have been interesting getting them both up to breakfast myself, and back down to the room!). We stayed in our room and ate what we had brought with us for lunch since they were sleeping around that time.

That evening, our dinner at the hotel was shrimp alfredo spaghetti, and something else (maybe garlic shrimp again? I can’t remember), and a fruit plate. The shrimp alfredo was good, but not really an alfredo sauce to it, just a really light flavoring that might have tasted a bit like alfredo. Jock did the devotions that evening. He focused on the Optimist creed, talked a little bit about how things can change in an instant (at the injured little boy’s adoptive parents’ request), we prayed for the little boy, and then finished up with reciting together Psalm 23. I was impressed to hear that the older kids from the orphanage that were staying with their adoptive parents at the hotel knew Psalm 23 as well – in English. Very nice!