Our day today has been very similar to all of our other workdays.  We moved block, sand, cement- the work here is very labor intensive.  Structures are so close together you can’t get equipment in to move anything.  There are large metal doors are at the street, which are locked for security purposes, which prevent your unloading closer to where items are needed, so bucket brigades are formed and annually moved where needed, or moved by wheelbarrow.  The Haitian workers are good workers and take pride in what they are doing.  Our team has melded nicely with their efforts and we’re all pleased with the amount of work that has been accomplished since we arrived.  We hope the next team can make as much progress as we feel we have.

During our lunch breaks we’ve been blessed Madame Lulu, her daughter Barbie, and and another young lady by the name of Nadine, entertain us and and joining with us with their voices.  They really sing beautifully.

Several times during our stay we have been awakened by the crowing of a very noisy rooster.  I have been here before so I have gotten used to it.  I even look forward to his doing so, it reminds me of Christ’s statement to Peter about his forthcoming denial and reminds me to be careful what I say and how I present myself, so I am not guilty of making similar mistakes.

Sunday, after a 2 hour church service in which our team sang 3 songs (one in French)  We were taken on a tour to a very high mountain which tremendous view of all Port-au-Prince. It’s hard to believe such a beautiful place has such a history of devastation.  We could spot the airport, the damaged capitol building, but one’s eyes ultimately settled on a squared off area to the northwest of where we were standing.  This is a large cemetery that brings to mind that over 300,000 people were killed during the earthquake of 2 years ago.

The highlight of today for me was when Sandy Arzynski and I accompanied by our interpreter Joseph,had the honor of  visiting a local Christian school.  I had brought 144 American flags given to me by the American Legion Post in Annandale.  Each child was personally handed an American flag.  The main point we tried to make, was that while we are proud to be an American, we are here as followers of Jesus Christ and are helping to rebuild their country because of our Christian love and concern for them.

One last thing-  Every morning Mark gave us the word for the day, and asked us to reflect on the word as we worked.

When I CONTRAST the STUBBORN, CREATIVE and FLEXIBLE attitude of the Haitian people and all their trials to other countries, it gives me a great RESPECT for these people, and I’m THANKFUL to be able to do a small part to help them in their time of need.

Rudy Meekins

Haiti Is A Thin Place

Haiti is a thin place.  ”Thin Places” are places where the boundary between earth and heaven is merely a membrane–where the wall between the material world and the Divine is virtually invisible.  As you may know the term comes from Celtic Christianity, and it is a way to describe where God is especially present.  Thin places might be actual locations as the magnificent vista from a mountaintop, or the lushness of a Redwood forest where one easily hears the whisper of the Divine.  Thin places might also be experiences when we cannot deny the presence of Spirit, or the feel the compassionate hand of God on our shoulder.  Haiti’s whole history, and her present circumstances beg the question how could this possibly be such place?  As we are driven through the streets of Port-au-Prince from our comfortable lodging at the Methodist Guest House to our work site the church in Delmas 33 we pass staggering poverty, grid-lock congestion, and unimaginable circumstances that we Americans could never survive. Within these same streets we see smiling faces, neatly dressed men and women going about their business, street merchants who’ve artfully arrange the few items they might have to sell.  Colorfully painted store signs and advertisements often employ words of hope:  ”Dit Tous A Jesus Depot” (Tell All to Jesus Depot.)  The picks-ups or “tap-taps” which are the means by which most Haitians get around town are gloriously decorated with words like “Merci Jesus,” “Christ Capable,” “Dieu Garde” “Tout A Jesus,” “God of Love,”  ”Psalm 34:8.”  I wonder if they employ these words because it appears one is tempting the Almighty to ride eight-to-ten people squeezed into the back of a ramshackle truck helter-skelter through Port-au-Prince city.  Spotted today:  Dump trucks wholly painted with the words “Perseverance” and “Bethlehem” on their sides.

So here is the thin membrane between the profane and the Divine.  In another sense Haiti is a thin place because the separation between life and death seems almost imperceptible.  Life is lived very, very close to the bone here.  There are no margins of error, there are very few support systems. Evidence of this also lies in the streets and the tent cities and the hillsides surrounding the city.

Today we attended services at the Delmas 33 church where we have spent the week working side-by-side with magnificent Haitian laborers who show us everyday how to make something out of nothing–creatively and gracefully.  Together we have successfully added several feet of height to the cinder-block wall that needed augmenting and during the service we were graciously thanked by the congregation.  Although this church has a roof, and doors, and windows, it still is very much an open-air sanctuary, barely a separation from the outside.  Formed concrete louvers allow constant circulation of fresh air, and there are open windows shaped into crosses which line the sides of the church so that one can see straight through to the sky above.  From my vantage in the first row pew, I could see blue sky and a dazzling green banana plant leaf through that cross shape.  White lace curtains gently swayed behind the minister as he delivered what we all know was marvelous sermon despite the fact that it was entirely in French and not a one of us grasped the gist of it.  As we sang familiar hymns in an unfamiliar tongue I was struck by the “thinness” of the whole experience.  There was barely a membrane between this congregation and heaven above, between us and them, between them and circumstances that could end their lives quickly.  When we were asked to stand in front of the congregation to introduce ourselves we could even see to the now familiar street outside where a man was bathing himself in just a pot of water–his unclothed body framed in the doorway of the church–no separation between that of the earth and that of heaven.

For me today, Delmas 33 Methodist Church, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was both a location and an experience of a thin place.  I am forever grateful.

Claire Baker

Petion-ville, Haiti – Saturday 1/21/12

Greetings from Delmas 33 Methodist Church where we have been working this week.  The rebuilding of the security wall in the back of the Church is just about finished.  Our Team has been helping the Haitians with this.  Also many of the church members have been visiting and helping as well.  The children especially are eager to help with the tasks needed to support the project.  One youngster , Daniel (the 4 year old grandson of our cook for today) was very anxious to push the wheelbarrow loaded with sand or gravel to the back of the Church.  He was very persistent and cute with a happy smile and undiminished energy.  Many of our team “helped” Daniel to push the load.  Fortunately the little guy wasn’t crushed under foot on his many trips throughout the day.

At lunch time we sang songs with the children and some young adults joined in as well.  They sang in French and we sang in English but the tune Rudy played was familiar to us all.

Working together on the security wall helps cement (no pun intended) our friendship with each other and our Haitian brothers and sisters.

I am very proud to be working with Mark Bradley’s team this week.

Dan Pemberton

Day 5- Blessings

From the start, our trip has been a series of blessings. Safe travel, resort like lodging,  beautiful country, lovely weather, delicious food, and such surprising people; welcoming, warm, resilient, resourceful, joyful, … people like Madame Lulu, who watches over us during the day and cooks our lunch, and her daughter Barbara with the sparkly eyes who speaks English very well and sings like an angel, Lorsa who helps cook, and her daughter Nadine, who french braided our hair, Paul who lives nearby and is currently out of work, and his adorable son Christopher age two,  Pierre and the rest off the Haitian laborers who are so patient, and share greetings and smiles with us, Eric our driver with his great sense of humor and wonderful laugh, Joseph our translator who checks on each of us regularly  and offers praise for our work …  just to name a few.

One special  blessing I received here, took place outside the church, Delmas 33, where we have been working this week.  A truck had come by and dropped off a load of gravel.  Several of us were  shoveling the gravel into a wheelbarrow, and wheeling it to the back of the property.  An older woman  passing by stopped and greeted me in Creole.  She didn’t pass on, but continued to talk, speaking with great enthusiasm, and picking up speed as she went.  Minutes went by, and I began to feel that I should try to break this off and get back to work. I felt quite handicapped, not knowing the language, and felt badly about not being able to speak to her.  Pondering my options, I continued to listen.  Suddenly in the string of foreign words I heard one I recognized–  ”church”.  Oh!  I thought, we have common ground!   Hoping to explain what I was doing, I said.  ”travaux por Deus” - I work for God, in mangled portuguese/ french and pointed up in the sky.  Almost immediately the woman went down on her knees in the road, making the sign of the cross and  offering her praises to God.  I stood there utterly utterly stunned, utterly humbled.

God’s presence is so very evident in Haiti!

Molly

 

Day 4 by Sandy

We had another wonderful day in Haiti.  It was officially my day.  I was in charge of the morning devotion and now I am in charge of writing our adventures down for you to read.

We had a half day of work and a half day of sight seeing.  Worked started as usual.  We moved a pile of sand and then a pile of gravel to help asset in the buldining of a wall behind the church.  We finally can see some progress in our work.  We added 5 rows to the wall.  We had help from several local workers and then we had several young adults who came to visit us and volunteered to help shovel and move the piles.

The local kids and adults joined in with us to sing songs. They sang the songs in French and we sang them in English.  It was really remarkable.  Lunch was prepared by Madame LuLu again today and it was divine.  The Haiti cuisine is very tasteful.

As part of our sighting adventure we headed to downtown Port au Prince to visit the Pantheon Museum of Haiti History.  We had a tour guide who took us through the museum  and explained the history of Haiti.  Around the museum were Haitians living in tents which is now there home due to the destruction of their homes by the earth quake. On the hill top above the park, we could see what was once there homes.  Most of he homes only had one or two walls standing with no ceiling.  Some of the homes had been rebuilt, but many were still in shambles.  The palace of Haiti, once very beautiful in its design, is now empty and destroyed.

Driving back to our Guest House, we saw many empty lots where once a home stood.  Many families have to  wait to rebuild there homes until they get more money.   They are still trying to rebuild there lives here, slowly.  However, they are very happy and are  moving on with everyday life,  making the best out of what they have to work with.  They are very creative people.

Yesterday,, I made friends with a little boy who cam with his grandmother to make lunch for  us.  He and I colored in a coloring book and I noticed that the little boys was wearing a pair of TOMS, the shoes.  And yes,  The company TOMS really does give a pair of shoes to children in need when you buy a pair.  I saw it first hand.

To close, it is raining here.  Ya!. It has cooled off and it will make great sleeping weather.  We don’t get much sleep here, due to the rooster who crows all night long.   It did not get the email about Roosters only crowing once at 6:00 am.

Sandy

Day 3

    I tried to come on this trip with no expectations of how it would actually be.  I have never been to Haiti before, and have never been on a mission trip.  You hear so many negative things in the news and in conversation with others about Haiti, but I have had enough time on the planet to know that it is best to see things with your own eyes and to not be hasty in forming opinions.  In the last few days, I have approached an understanding of how complicated this country is, and how many contrasts there are.  “Contrast” by the way,  was our word for the day for yesterday, and made us all mindful of percieving and appreciating contrasts during our time here.

     One contrast that is apparent to us each day, is the transition from the Methodist Guest House here in Port au Prince to our jobsite at Delmas 33 each day.  Port au Prince is bustling and a beehive of activity, while the Guest House is a place of tranquility only a wall away.  There are cars, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians everywhere, and all seemingly very intent on going in their own particular direction all at once.  Lane changes, turns, merges and passing all seem to revolve around who can honk at the appropriate time and  who can get their vehicle’s nose in first- DC traffic is tame by comparison.  I will tell you this, you don’t see despair on the faces of these people- you see determination.  I wonder how well we would do under these same circumstances.

    Making do with what you have seems to be a national talent.  Today at the jobsite we continued our excavation of the side of the church, and helped our Haitian co-workers prepare the wall for additional courses of block.  We assembled reinforcements out of steel, and I was blessed to witness first hand just how well these people handle limited resources.  A bending jig for the steel was assembled out of a 2X4, a concrete block suspended by wire for a weight, and several nails cut from the same steel we were using for reinforcement- no running down to Home Depot around here.  A bending tool was fabricated from an old steel handled hammer, and our foreman Peter patiently showed me how to make the bends correctly so the finished product  would be usable for them in assembling the reinforcements.  Once the my first clumsy attempts improved, I was amazed by the elegant simplicity of the whole process, and I happily spent the afternoon bending steel accompanied by many of the locals who like to come out and see what is going on at Delmas 33.  Smiles, laughter and good will abound…

     Perhaps the highlight of the day for those of us that love the local cooking- and I think that means everybody-was our lunch prepared at the jobsite by Madame Lulu.  Spicy coleslaw, beans and rice, barbecued chicken, fried plantains, and potato salad were consumed with great appreciation by all of us.  Madame Lulu seems to be a woman not only of great talents at cooking and singing, but a leader of the church and the community.  We have felt truly and warmly welcomed by her and several of the others in the local church and community.

     At the end of the day, we pack our bodies into the van for the ride back to the Guest House, and the contrasts are everywhere.  The happy activity of the work at Delmas 33 gives way to the streets of Port au Prince, and thanks to our skillful Haitian drivers, eventually this too in turn gives way to the peace and greenery of the Guest House.  We all enjoy relief from the heat and the dust in the cool pool here, and enjoy fellowship with each other and sharing our experiences of the day.  It is a diverse group, and we all bring something to the table.  In the same way, but on an even more meaningful scale, the people of Haiti give something to us, and bring something to the world’s table. It is up to all of us to approach the world and each other with open hearts and minds, and to look for and recognize the love and beauty that can exist and thrive in even the most chaotic and stressful of environments.  It certainly does here in Port au Prince.

Day 2 The word of the day is contrast

Several of the folks had difficulty sleeping with the roosters and other background noises.  Breakfast was plentiful, with eggs, fresh toast, and cereal and lemonade.  Morning devotion was about Jesus “the vine”, (John 15:1-8).  This week, we are blessed to be working for Jesus!

We arrived at the work site, after making a trip to the bank and adjacent, brand new grocery store (very nice!) for bottled water.  We did note 3 armed guards (riot guns) in bank parking lot.

Our interpreter for the week, Joseph, is very cordial, very engaging, At the work site, our work supervisor Peter, and Mark discussed the work project for the day/ week.  Materials were to be delivered later in the morning.  Initial work consisted of trash pick up from adjacent housing area (throwing trash from adjacent properties seems to be a common problem.)  Trash pick up countywide seems to be a bit sporadic, although we did notice / find out some recycling is taking place

We are the first team to Delmas 33 church (a beautiful small chapel)- Work goals include building up walls in the rear of the property, for security and to reduce influx of thrown trash; work to reduce drainage problem  at the rear of the building ; some “apparent” cosmetic cracking of the plaster overlay on concrete masonry units.  Painting was discussed but is not a priority work item.  Morning work continued with trash cleanup, unloading CMU for wall construction (430); and start of digging at the rear to improve site drainage.

We took lunch prepared by the Guest House to the worksite–ham/cheese sandwiches, chips, cookies.  Lots of water consumed with Molly checking to ensure breaks were held on the hour and folks drank lots of water.  Madame Lulu was on site most of the day–Madame Lulu holds the keys for the church and was dressed very attractively in a long colorful native dress.

Afternoon deliveries included sand, which was dropped off at the street side and moved by buckets and wheelbarrow into the compound.  We also received bags of cement @ 80 pounds each which were moved into the compound (strong shoulders).

We had support initially by several young Haitian men and several others joined us as the day progressed.  We also had number of the young Hatians students come by and “chat” with Barbie & Nadine, whom Claire and Molly became good friend with on day 1.  Barbie was sporting a new hair dew–very short & cute that the ladies noticed and fussed over.

Folks put in a full day today with the work involved, even though our leader considered it a mild day (shows the difference here).  Jim Wall (Doctor) has become the leader of the shovel brigade and would not give up his shovel all day.  He was supported by Pat Baker and Dan Pemberton with their buckets along with others in the brigade to the dump pile.

We left the worksite around 3:30, taking another interesting ride back to the Guest House.  The pool was enjoyed by several team members upon returning from the worksite.  The water was cold but still warmer than the water in the showers.

Tom (Guest House UMCOR manager) and Wendy Vencuss  celebrated their 25th wedding anniversry at the evening meal (chicken, rice, salad, fried zucchini, finishing dinner off with a special anniversary chocolate cake.  We were joined @ dinner with two other teams–one from the Stony Creek area (a part of the Jack Martin’s three week group in Haiti), and one from Richmond–the “James Gang”.

Lots of folks got worn out from the day’s activities.  One minor cut and a stomach problem–nothing serious.

Rudy shared devotions followed by singing–joined in by the other groups along with “Sam” a VT student on his guitar–lots of singing and fun.

Good news!–lunch upgrade with Madame Lulu preparing meals onsite (she lives near the church)–true Haitian cuisine versus sandwiches–Wednesday through Friday.

Pat Baker received Mark’s Kudo award for his work on day #2.  It was noted that Pat was the only team member to bring two others (his son and daughter) to help him.  Folks noted that Pat should share his Kudo bar, but alas, Pat had already eaten his reward.

Pat Baker entertained and surprised us with an outstanding performance of the hula, performed to the sing along tune of Halle-lu-jah’.  It was his first public performance and Pat’s daughter and son were amazed, but did note that Pat is an “superb” dancer.  He got a round of applause for his dance routine.

The word of the day–”Contrast” was discussed with input from the group on what they saw in the word during the day.  Mark noted we should all try to see things through others’ eyes–this week through the eyes of our Haitian hosts and friends.

We continue to be on Haiti time with “Patience” being a key element to follow given the way Haitians have to live and travel.