We're in haiti!

Well, we’re finally here! We moved to Haiti on June 16. Overall, the trip went well. We had one glitch with the luggage. We had spent many hours trying to fit all our stuff into 10 suitcases, each weighing less than 50 lbs. When we arrived at the airport, we were informed that Haiti had an embargo on “excess baggage”, meaning we could only bring 4 of the 10 bags! American Airlines had failed to mention this on their website L. But, thankfully, my sister lives 15 minutes from the airport and was kind enough to come and get our extra bags. A friend of ours is coming to Haiti next month with his daughter and will bring 4 of our suitcases. We’ll retrieve the others when we go home in December.
We did lots of running around in the days before our trip to get all the travel paperwork together for our cats, Bear & Tigger. However, nobody in the US or Haiti asked to see any of it! The cats survived the trip, but it was rough on them. These are 2 spoiled indoor pets who don’t even go outside, so an airplane trip to another country was quite an ordeal. Tigger had a bad reaction to the tranquilizers the vet gave us and got quite agitated. He wiggled around so much in his carrier that he got tangled in his harness, was choking and had passed out. Thankfully, we realized what was happening and were able to remove the harness. He was pretty shaken up by his “near death” experience but seems fully recovered now.
When we arrived, we got a nice surprise concerning our housing arrangements. We originally thought we would have to stay in the guest house for a couple of months while we waited for our house to be available (it’s currently occupied by another missionary who is waiting for completion of the new med clinic apartments). However, we were told we could use the eye doc’s house while he and his wife are home on maternity leave until mid August. The guest house is very comfortable for a week or two but one bedroom and a bath might have been quite confining for a long period. Having a whole house, with a bit of privacy and being able to prepare our own meals, has been a lovely and unexpected blessing.
Since our arrival Ed has been busy with meetings and the gathering and sorting of information. Since there has not been a Director at Christian for a couple of years, things have gotten a bit disorganized. Just sorting out finances and staff is proving to be a big challenge.
I’ve been working on some things to prepare for the coming school year at the English Academy, where I will be the Administrator and teach kindergarten and first grade. We’ve had some new applicants that needed to be interviewed, teacher contracts to be renewed and facilities to be cleaned and painted.
One thing we’re learning about Haiti is that nothing happens fast and almost everything takes longer than it would be in the States. Just going food shopping is an all day affair. The only real grocery stores are in Port au Prince, about 90 minutes from here (just 20 miles, but it takes a long time due to road conditions). There are 4 food stores (like small versions of US stores) but you frequently have to go to more than one because the first one probably doesn’t have everything you need. Food is quite expensive since many items are imported. And to make it even more complicated, each store prices things differently. One store may list prices in American dollars, one may list it in Haitian dollars and one may list it in goudes (there are 5 goudes to every Haitian dollar and 8 Haitian dollars to every American dollar, so it takes awhile to figure out how much an item costs!) Then, after you go to the actual grocery stores, you go to the open air market for your fresh fruits and veggies. This is like a farmers market that’s open every day but is not nearly as clean as it would be in the US. We have one close to the mission. Since the missionaries go there on a regular basis, the vendors are very friendly and give us decent prices even though we’re “blanc” (white – which usually means you pay more). This is very INexpensive. Yesterday I bought a head of cabbage, some onions, potatoes and garlic and only paid about $1.50 for all. We may have to become vegetarians J
Yesterday was an interesting day. After going to the market we drove about 45 minutes to the town of Grand Golve (pronounced “guave”) to visit Lifelife, another mission. It’s very well run and we came away with lots of good ideas. The couple who founded it, Bob & Gretchen Defoe, are really amazing! They started the mission in 1980 and have since expanded their program to Hondurus and Cuba. In addition to a school and med clinic, they build houses for local families. For $3600 they can build a simple but sturdy 2 room home. They use skilled Haitian workers for the masonry, etc. (providing employment) and use short term missionary teams from the US for the grunt work. They build a house a week! Isn’t that amazing? The family has to own the piece of land for the house and sometime helps with construction, so it’s sort of like Haitian Habitat for Humanity. They really inspired us and we left feeling very encouraged. Then we went to visit a family in a nearby village and our hearts sank (it was a day of highs and lows). This family consists of a mother and her seven kids. They live in the smallest house I’ve ever seen (maybe 8’ x 8’?). There is only one bed and very primitive cooking facilities. Two of the children were ill in spite of the fact that free medical care is available through Lifeline. Haitians are skeptical about “free” because their government doesn’t supply anything like that. We arranged for a worker from the mission to escort them to the clinic to show them it’s okay. Two of the daughters have US sponsors so they go to school and get one good meal a day, but it hardly seems enough!
The problems in Haiti seem so overwhelming at times but I need to remember the verse the Lord led me to the first time we were here. 2 Chronicles 20:15-17 “…thus says the Lord to you, “Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude. For the battle is not yours, but God’s… do not fear or be dismayed, tomorrow go out and face them for the Lord is with you”. We just have to work on the little piece of Haiti that God has sent us to and trust He will enable us to do our best for these dear people.
Please pray for us on July 4. We’re having a meeting with all the employees of the mission (over 200 people) to formally introduce Ed as the new Director and explain to them how we plan to run the mission from now on. Due to a lack of leadership, there has not been as much oversight or accountability as there should be. Things like lying, petty thefts and laziness have occurred in some areas. We need to start fresh and remind our workers that the goal of this mission is to glorify God. We cannot do that with ungodly behavior, so certain things will no longer be tolerated if you want to work here. We’re all going to work together and a team/family to please the Lord and help the Haitian people (in that order). Needless to say, this may not be a popular position with some of the employees, so we’d really appreciate your prayers!