June 18 - 25, 2011 - Haiti - LaHatte Village Survey

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands…  The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.  - Deut 28: 1A and 4

The first two days were spent visiting other ministries to see what they are doing and to gather information and ideas.

Saturday:

We visited Christianville, a ministry of similar size and scope as Mission Possible - they have 7 or 8 schools, one main campus and other smaller mountain schools; a Bible College for adults; and a medical clinic. In addition, they have permanent dental and optometry clinics. They currently have about 1,200 students. Attendance has been down since the earthquake; prior to the earthquake, attendance was about 1,800. They have also partnered with the Universities of Florida and Alabama, and they have an on-site research laboratory where university researchers are working to permanently eradicate malaria, typhoid and dengue fever from Haiti.

Our specific reason for visiting was to see their feeding program. They raise chickens and tilapia. Protein is a major component that is missing in the diet of the people in their area, and we believe that it is a factor in the malnutrition in LaHatte as well. Christianville has about 1,000 chickens in a large barn yielding 1,000 eggs per day. The manure from the chickens is washed into a pond which grows algae. The algae is diverted as feed to several tilapia ponds. The fish are harvested weekly, and the children are fed meals that include ground fish, rice and eggs.

While there are many positive benefits to their feeding program and there are many technical things that we can learn from them, their purpose and goals are not the same as ours. Their purpose is to provide protein for the students in their schools. Our goal is to help the community in LaHatte develop and improve their situation, built on a foundation of God’s principles and pointing each person to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. That is not to say that Mission Possible cannot or should not also have a similar program to feed the children of their schools.

Sunday:

We visited Christian Veterinarian Missions with Dr. Kelly Crowdis. After a wonderful Church service and a very apropos sermon (God is amazing!), we discussed and visited with some of Dr. Kelly’s students from the “Kids for Kids” program. The program is a one year extra- curricular class for fourth graders. Care of and feeding goats are taught in a three month curriculum. At the end, the children are tested and must pass with at least an 85%. Once they have passed (a remedial class is available for those who do not pass as the real goal is that all fourth graders receive a goat) the children then receive a pregnant goat to keep. The children give back their second kid so the program can be self perpetuating. The rest of the year is spent on follow-up and further instruction on goat husbandry.

The Kids for Kids program goals are similar to ours, and this program is trying to work with the children and the adults to help them improve their situation. Though the program is not yet completely self-sufficient, it is increasingly approaching that goal. There are many positives about this program, and one of the major side benefits is that it could encourage school attendance for the children.

Dr. Kelly is very willing to share her knowledge and curriculum with us and will even train someone to be a trainer for the students.

Monday:

We went to LaHatte, set up camp, visited with some of the people from LaHatte, did a small slide presentation of what we had seen earlier in the week in the hopes that the villagers watching could catch a glimpse of the possibilities for LaHatte. We also showed them pictures of themselves that we had taken earlier that day. They got a big kick out of that! Then Valise finished off the evening by showing The Jesus Film.

Tuesday:

We met Tim Vanderbeek from Healing Hands International about installing a well in LaHatte. We met at the Nazerene Church in Sous Rigot at the bottom of the hill, drove about halfway up, then walked the rest of the way because Tim needed to replace ball joints and tie rods in his truck’s front end and he didn’t want to do it on the side of a mountain! We took him on a quick tour of the village and the school, and we explained the water situation and how far they have to go when the cistern is dry. Pastor Joseph prayed, then Arlene and I walked Tim down to his truck. He told us that on our trip up the mountain he did not think there was anything they could do for us, but after meeting the people, especially the children, hearing how far they had to walk (and seeing many walking with buckets as we spoke) AND after hearing Pastor Joseph’s prayer, God touched his heart and he knew we had to try to get a well up there!

Tim will return with the man who actually digs the wells and knows the equipment best to see what it will take to get the rig up to LaHatte. If they decide that they are unable to get their equipment up to the village, he is already making plans to borrow other equipment in order to make it happen.

The team then met with Duville, one of the village elders and a leader of the community. We spent about 3 hours talking and learning and sharing with him. After that, we met with Osmane, the Church Deacon. At one point in our conversation, he told us, with great conviction, that he was committing himself to help the village in whatever way he could, and then later he promised that he could deliver one hundred men to help on whatever projects they decide need to be done, including fixing the road so that the well drilling rig can get there. The more I think about his statement and the conviction in his voice, the more excited I get about the relationship that is developing.

Osmane graciously walked us to his farm. Most of the farmers grow—and have always grown— watermelon, corn, sorghum and some beans. They have problems with caterpillars eating their plants, and they lose about half of their corn after it is harvested to rats and mice. Obviously, irrigation is also an issue. There are several banana groves in the area, but the villagers think it is too dry for mango, breadfruit and other fruit trees.

We learned a little of their history. The area used to be called La Racque, which means “nothing” as in “nobody lives there” but after it became more populated, they changed the name to LaHatte, which they said is just a name with no particular meaning. Duville was born and has lived his entire life in LaHatte; he is 62 and his parents lived there before him; clearly, people have been living in LaHatte for a long time. Duville said that the village was originally settled because the land was given to the new residents for free. There has never been any stream or any springs in the area. There is a spring about 2 hours walk up the hill to the North, but it is “salty.”

As we were talking to Duville on the school steps, a young white man came walking up from the road toward the school. We were all surprised and curious as to who this stranger was in “our town!” Funny how quickly you can feel right at home with these beautiful people! He is a Jesuit Priest, and he said he was there that day to check on a woman who he helped deliver a baby the week prior, or at least help get to a hospital. We learned that his interest in LaHatte is to build temporary houses for the community, like those in Canaan. We have passed this information and the Jesuit Priest’s contact information on to Pastor Herve.

Wednesday:

We shared an awesome devotion time with Rosemond and Pastor Joseph and said goodbye to Sally and Arlene, who had to get back to the States. We then did a final tour of the village, and said goodbye to LaHatte. Michael, Linda, Rosemond and I went to the market at Arachaie. Dorcian and Sergo were there also but stayed with the truck. That was an experience that won’t soon be forgotten! Crowds pushing and rushing, a multitude of smells and sounds, a visual blitz of color and activity, all very exciting with so many people in such a small area that we could hardly stop to look at anything for fear of being crushed by the crowd. What we did see, though, was quite a large selection of fresh vegetables, some fresh fish and meats, very little canned or preserved food, and a few locally made tools and supplies.

Our next stop was in Montrouis at the Watershed Initiative For National Natural Environmental Resources (W.I.N.N.E.R.). WINNER is a government organization funded by USAID and partnering with UF- IFAS, the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Our thought was that they might do soil tests and maybe have a type of extension service available. What we found out exploded the possibilities for LaHatte. They do have extension services available as well as a Master Farmer program, but, they also do micro-banking and micro-business; they are working on a wholesale network so that participant farmers can get better pricing from bigger markets without having to spend time physically selling at a local market; they have a program that can set farmers up with chickens for egg production that will provide income (and hopefully food/nutrition) year round, not just during the growing season; and they have grant money available for irrigation projects, reforestation and ravine remediation. As our contact listed off what is available, I kept saying, “ LaHatte needs that, and that, and that….” Many of these things we had seen were needed, but we had assumed that they would be out of reach for LaHatte. But we know that what seems impossible to man is possible with God, and we are praying expectantly that He wants these things for LaHatte! All the Glory to Him!

We then went to the Mission Center and spent the rest of the day putting on paper what we had learned so far on our trip.

Thursday:

We went to MPCA and visited with Meteniel and the moringa grove. Everything was in pretty good shape. The trees had been recently pruned and the leaves had been dried. The field was in decent shape, not too overgrown. Meteniel had been drying leaves but left them a little too long, and they were too old to use for powder. We explained to Pastor Rosemond and Meteniel that the leaves only need to be dried for 2 or 3 days. Pastor Rosemond told us that they are planning to start incorporating moringa into the school lunches this fall.

We also toured the grounds and the schools, and we met with Madame Mark, the school administrator, to learn from her knowledge of and experience in LaHatte.

We then went back to the Mission Center to get more facts on paper and brainstorm the possibilities.

Friday:

We went back to MPCA, and we cleaned the old leaves out of the drying shed. We gave them to the goats so that they would not go to waste. We met with Pastor Rosemond and did soil tests from samples taken in LaHatte and MPCA, and we said our goodbyes to Pastor Rosemond and the others and went back to Mission Center to begin planning and packing to return to the States.

After supper we met with Pastor Herve and Illioney, and we shared many of the things we had seen and learned along with some of our thoughts about what we hope can happen next. We also discussed some ideas from Michael and Linda about the possibility of World of Change partnering with MP to bring some jobs to Haiti, and Herve spoke of how partnering with World of Change  could even be an opportunity to help send missionaries from Haiti to Africa!

Saturday:

             We had to say good-bye for now and head back to the States.