The Kingdom of God, birthdays, and 2012

On this bright and sunny birthday morning I finished reading The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person. It was recommended to me by Jason Philbrick when I told him this summer that I'd been obsessed lately with the Kingdom of God.

Apparently the author, E. Stanley Jones, had someone tell him once that he seemed to be obsessed with the Kingdom of God. Jones writes that he then thought, “Would God that I were, for it would be a magnificent obsession. Jesus was obsessed with it, and to be obsessed with his obsession is to be on safe and universal ground. But I'm also obsessed with the person of Jesus, Jesus Christ.” This year I read through the Bible chronologically again and I drew a box around every time the Kingdom of God was mentioned and starred every time the Good News was mentioned, trying to grasp the full picture of it all. Reading Jones' book this past month has helped me to put some things together.

He emphasizes that the Kingdom of God and the parousia (the Second Coming) are not joined in Scripture. “The Kingdom was a vital and decisive issue now, while the Coming was delayed. This is seen from the fact that after the resurrection [Jesus] talked to the disciples about one thing for forty days. He talked to them of the Kingdom of God in the same terms as when he went about preaching the gospel of the Kingdom as a burning issue – now.”

The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person was one of his last books – he was 87 when he wrote it. Here's the last paragraph: an great way to start my 42nd year of life and the new year 2012:

So that would mean that if we are to think and act as though the Kingdom were already here, if we have said personally that Jesus is Lord and have made a personal surrender to him with all we know and all we don't know, I belong to the Unchanging Person, and therefore we belong to the Unshakable Kingdom. Then I prayerfully consider how I can apply the Kingdom spirit and principles to all my relationships as far as it depends on me, to my personal thought, life, actions, and habits, to my family life, to my professional or business relationships, to my class and race relationships, to my recreational relationships, to my church relationships. I can't change everybody but I can change me and my relationships as far as they depend on me. In each of these I can say: As far as I am concerned the Kingdom is already here. In the light of its being already here, how do I think and act? I am certain of one thing about that kingdom, that the Kingdom is the kingdom of love. So I will begin to love, if not by my love, then with his love – for everybody, everywhere, I am a disciple to the kingdom of God, under its tutelage and control and unfolding sovereignty. I may make blunders and fall, but if I fall I will fall on my knees, and if I stumble I will stumble into his arms. I have a destiny – I am a seed of the new order – “the good seed means the sons of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:38 RSV). I am sown in this particular place to be the interpretation and meaning and message of the new order. I know the seed and the soil are affinities, so that all the resources of the Kingdom are at my disposal. So “in Him who strengthens me, I am able for anything.” (Phil. 4:11 Moffatt). I have a total Gospel, for man's total need, for the total world. I ought to be happy – I am!

Trujillo, Peru (part 2)

Every morning in Trujillo was spent preparing lessons (printer issues led to walking to sites which would print for us, then we walked to the photocopy shop, then to the internet cafe to prep my next trip, etc.). In the afternoons we did lessons in Barrio 6 A, then in Libertadores and got home in the evening.

A lesson on how to make oral rehydration serum in the home, for when children have diarrhea.

One evening on our way home we stopped by the town square. Above you see the beautiful cathedral in downtown Trujillo.

Check this out! My last day there I got to go see some amazing ruins. This is called the ruins of the "Sun Temple," since it is guessed to be a monument to the sun god -- although that is hotly debated, and some say it is only thought to be to the sun god because that's how they do things in Mexico (just a little ways away). Only 25% of this building is left intact, and it's still gi-normous! Excavation hasn't yet started.



This is one of the painted walls of the "Moon Temple" (again, see controversy above). This was painted some time around 400 AD using charcoal, calcium, and some plant extracts. These constructions pre-date the Incas; they were built by the Moche people whose civilization had disappeared by 800 AD.

Here is the facade of the Moon Temple. See the different stories? Every 80 to 100 years they completely filled in the story below with bricks and built a new one on top. Only the top two have been excavated so far, the rest are awaiting experts to tell them how to do so safely in an area so prone to earthquakes.

The rent in the center of the facade was caused by people who ransacked the temple for treasures centuries ago.

On our way to the airport my hosts drove me through a fruit market. Mmm... olives. I currently live in an olive-free zone and so my hosts said, "Let's stop and you can take a picture -- take it like you're selling the olives!."

Then my zany new friends said, "Pretend you're eating them!" So, here goes!

Marco and Vilma, my hilarious hosts, next to an incredible variety of fruit.

Trujillo, Peru (part 1)

I had the opportunity to go to Trujillo, Peru to do some trainings. Marco and Vilma, CHE trainers, have started CHE programs in two urban neighborhoods. Here I am with Vilma, posing in front of the boats that have been used for centuries there. Cargo (or a tourist) goes in the hollowed out portion and the rower kneels in the front!
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One of the lessons we did was "Nutrition: 3 x 3." We separated food into three groups: protein, protectors (fruits and veggies), and carbohydrates. We discussed the importance of having all three groups at all three meals (hence 3 x 3).

The lessons I facilitated are usually done by trainers; I don't usually teach the Community Health Evangelists directly. In this instance, since Marco and Vilma are the sole trainers there in Peru, I went to provide a bit of back-up.

Marco and Vilma,Mmm, the Libertadores group made picarones for us this day -- the batter is made from wheat flour, sweet potato, and squash then fried and covered with syrup. My co-worker Marco tells me that this is a really big deal -- a few years ago there was an organization that provided food and/or money for every training. People only came when things were provided, and didn't contribute anything of their own. Now that they are truly implementing the CHE model the community members have started making treats and coming to trainings on their own initiative!


Tee-hee, this picarón is in the form of a dog!

Peru is known for its varied cuisine. Here I am with Marco and Vilma's family about to enjoy a traditional ceviche.

The day after our "3 x 3" lesson the "Barrio 6 A" group made ají de gallina for us all. They very cheerfully noted that it met the 3 x 3 standard: chicken, potato, and lettuce!

This is the drive between the two target neighborhoods. Marco and Vilma are both taxi drivers, so we had their (rented) cab for transportation. The neighborhoods are new, built over the past ten years on land which formerly was used as a garbage dump. The drive between the neighborhoods is through the current dump site.

There is no dirt here, only sand -- to grow anything you have to lay dirt down first. Many people cleared away the garbage first and then built a solid foundation for their house, although several sections were clearly built more precariously and without removing the trash first. Marco jokes that either way, they aren't showing wisdom because there are building their houses on sand! ;-)

Events Far Away

Phew! There's been a lot going on these past few weeks! But first, a few definitions important for this post:

A vision seminar is a one- to three-day event for people interested in CHE to see if we have a common vision for holistic community transformation and if they want to commit to sending people to a week-long Training of Trainers 1 (TOT 1). After trainers apply the principles they learn in a TOT 1 they participate in a TOT 2 which enables them to form and train a committee and Community Health Evangelists (CHEs).

In October alone we've got two vision seminars (Grand Goave and Leogane, both in West Province), a TOT 1 near Jacmel (Southeast Province) and a TOT 2 on the island of La Gonave (West Province). Our office is in North Province. I'm won't actually be present at any of those events but I've been involved in most of the planning since we are organizing them with other NGOs and the communication has mostly been in English.

Last Saturday the vision seminar was held in Leogane. During the starter for the first lesson everyone was given a piece of paper and told to find the "match." "Soccer player" and "ball","hair stylist" and "scissors."

One woman got "door" and found "key," who just happened to be a pastor. The assignment was to exchange information about each other - why they came to the seminar, where they were from, family info -- and then present each other to the group. She decided to tell this pastor about her faith journey -- she had been considering Jesus for a long time but continually felt blocked at the point of making a decision. And then she decided to follow Jesus! They shared this decision with the larger group and everyone prayed together and welcomed her into the family. We rejoice along with her because of God's persistence, mercy, and love!

This month we're also celebrating International Handwashing Day with activities throughout the month, not just on the day. In addition to all of this Osse -- the director of Medical Ambassadors Haiti -- and I will be traveling to Argentina for our Regional Council. We'll stay afterwards to facilitate a TOT 1 and 2. All told, I will be traveling from October 28 to December 6:

• Continuing medical education conference in Orlando, FL

• Regional Council (Caribbean and South America) in Cordoba, Argentina

• Facilitating a TOT1 and 2 in Cordoba, Argentina

• Travel to Buenos Aires to see friends!!

• Trujillo, Peru to facilitate a training of CHE workers

• Lima, Peru to meet a contact interested in working with CHE

A day in the life

Wednesday, September 14

Woke up looking forward to my breakfast, chiefly for the caffeinated portion of it since throughout most of the night it was 88 and humid. I breakfasted with a woman from France who has come to work with the music school (at which I volunteer) for the year. Conversation in French and Kreyol, hah!

At the office we spent time in prayer and singing as we've been doing every day lately (yay!). We have a lot going on these days and it is so good to recognize the hand of “Gran Mèt la” (this is how the Kreyol Bible translates “LORD God”, but it literally means “the great teacher/master”). Some of our day's activities:

• Look up flights – I have to go to Orlando for a medical conference next month, then straight-away to Argentina and Peru for meetings, trainings, and follow-up. My co-worker Osse will be going to Argentina, and since he doesn't speak Spanish or English should really travel there with me or our Dominican co-workers. Since we have internet today we start to look up flights, but are stalled by not knowing if he will be able to pass through certain countries without a visa. We try to call consulates but the phones aren't working – it is suspected that the new internet company is combining with one of the major telephone companies and their work has interrupted service.

• October 15 is Worldwide Handwashing Day! UNICEF has supplies: soap, buckets, posters. We work on filling out a request (in French, ouch) for these materials. In addition to our usual house-to-house teaching we'll be doing some local radio spots and events in schools and churches.

• Solencia, a trainer and friend, comes to the office. She's had an abscess on her leg that she would like advice about. I examine her leg. She also tells me about her godmother's uncontrolled asthma, Solencia is worried about her. I give her suggestions for her godmother to take a preventive medication regularly, along with a list of steroid inhaler options (I don't know what's available here).

• A team of four is coming from Detroit next week to make badges for our volunteers and see the communities where they work. We discuss again which communities we'll be going to on which day and make a few changes to the schedule.

• Dina, a woman who recently moved here from Nicaragua to marry my former co-worker Enoch, comes in the office to discuss a lesson she needs in Kreyol, one of the basic ones we do upon starting to train our trainers to work with perinatal topics. We don't have this lesson in Kreyol yet and had quickly translated just the supplement for a training last Saturday, but Dina would like the entire lesson today for a training she's planning in a village tomorrow.

• We fill out a report for the Ministry of Health on last month's activities. As much as possible we try to work together with the government authorities.

• Osse and I will be going to Port-au-Prince at the end of the month for a meeting with the Association of Christian Health Organizations. We contact those in Port-au-Prince that we've trained to see if they would like to meet.

It's late and my co-workers Evelyne and Osse are getting ready to go home. Anias, another trainer, comes in the office to collect his things and start his 1 ½-hour motorcycle ride home. We hear raindrops starting on the tin roof. He pauses, and it starts pouring. Anias says, "Well, I could leave my bag here, with all my life in it. And my shoes so they don't get wet." Osse answered, "And your clothes!" Anias: "Great idea! All the other vehicles would move aside: get out of the way, there's a crazy naked guy on a motorcycle coming our way!"

Anias leaves (clothed) and Evelyne and Osse decide to wait a little to see if the storm will subside – they are leaving by motorcycle too. We have to shut the windows because the rain is streaming in and it's steamy hot. The internet stops working due to the rain. We go into the second room of the office because it has a ceiling which muffles the sound of the rain. A group for which we will be doing a training in the south next month has sent us an old lesson they would like to use if we think it's appropriate for CHE work in urban settings in Haiti, since that's where some of the participants will be working. Up till now the CHE work in Haiti has primarily been in villages. Since I'd downloaded it before the internet went out, I verbally translate it from the English for my co-workers to see what they think. Nope. I translate another lesson that we have used in South America as an introduction to how to do CHE in urban settings – it's a go. Written translation of that will have to wait, though – the rain has slowed down a little and my colleagues leave.

I meet the woman who prepares my evening meal and take her blood pressure, since I also act as her doctor.

This morning I'd loaned the woman who washes my clothes some money – her son broke his leg and a few days ago she asked me for help. Tonight her brother – my mango supplier – comes over to thank me. He tells me that God also gave me a gift today – the rain made it cool enough that I should sleep well!

Unedited and Unbridled

Tonight I'm reading Fil Anderson's "Breaking the Rules":

"For most of my adult life I've believed that nothing was more important than delivering the good news that God is in love with every person in the world. And through his sacrificial death Jesus has earned for us what we could never earn for ourselves; God has provided unconditional forgiveness for all of his creation.

"However, pondering the mystery in Jesus' declaration 'I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her' (Mark 14:9) has caused a deep shift inside me. The gospel is meant to produce in me, just as it did in that woman, an unedited and unbridled response to Jesus."

During the past couple of years I've been struck by this woman. She went up to Jesus while he was at someone's house having dinner and poured expensive oinment over him. If I'm called to imitate anyone (other than Jesus) I think it's this woman and Peter. To me they represent two people who really saw Jesus, recognized that he was the pearl of great price, and risked everything -- in fact, saw nothing but truth, reality, and LIFE before them in Jesus and pursued him.

Update from Arizona

So, I'm still in the United States, and since mid-July I've been in Arizona. Here I've gotten to meet and get to know lots of wonderful people from Epic Christian Church, my main sending church. The past few weeks have been full of lunches and dinners and coffees and frozen yogurts with people from church, as well as formal presentations at community groups. I've actually been gone four years now -- and even though I've come back for a little while each year there's still a lot of catching up to do! I'm staying with a lovely family in San Tan Valley, Arizona. Their middle child was in my two-year-old Sunday School class back when I was living here. It's been fun to hang out with him and his sisters: talking about their school day, sharing Bible stories, and even spotting them as they do pull-ups (they like to keep me company as I do P90X).

I also continue to work with our team in Haiti from afar. We communicate via text and telephone -- and thankfully I finally found a reasonably economical phone card. Our office in Cap Haitien hasn't had any reliable internet for the past several weeks, though. The cable internet is not working and our neighbor finally put a lock on his wireless account.

Some of my latest projects?

• helping plan trainings with other mission organizations in Haiti
• detailing plans for a Canadian missionary couple that will be coming to join us in November for nine months
• next year's budget

I get back to Haiti at the end of the month. Some of my goals before returning:

• two-year supply of contacts -- done
• source for contact lens solution -- sort of done
• piano books for the music institute kids -- started
• new passport -- done
• appointment with a dentist -- done and in tip-top shape
• virus-free netbooks running Linux -- done
• purchase electronic items my co-workers (from Haiti to Argentina) have requested -- started
• Hepatitis C test (I got stuck by a dirty needle last fall) -- done and clear
• work on CHE lessons for our CD in Haitian Kreyol -- not even going to start
• send pictures of ministry in Haiti to our co-worker in Finland for future website use -- not started yet
• a cleaned out e-mail inbox (I'm really far from this one)

Back in the US

With my lovely friend Sara, near her home in Seattle. Our other beautiful college friend, Eva, snapped the shot.

So, I've been in the US for six weeks now. I've only lived in Haiti for eight months, but some newly-learned ways of thinking are dying hard (and some of the following were picked up in my travels in South America, so they've had more time to become ingrained).

I adjusted to the following after a couple of weeks:

• recognizing electricity will always be present, so I can wait until phones and computers have less charge before being sure to plug them in
• tossing toilet paper in the toilet (not in a wastebasket) when out and about

I still have to remind myself it's okay to drink the water from the tap. Frequently on my way to brush my teeth I think, "Ooh, I'd better get a water bottle to take with me."

Here are some items I packed that I completely do not need in the US:

• wet wipes for bathing "in case there's no running water at some point"
• washcloths (in the countries I've been in the past four years, their presence in other's houses is not a given)
• bandanna to keep dust off hair while travelling
• cloth to wipe sweat off of face
• toilet paper

Now, while packing I did know that I wouldn't need the last three items while in the US, but I thought they would be so critical for the two days (in three months) I would be in Haiti that I should carry them around the rest of the time. Yikes.

I'm still not used to the fact that we can alter the temperature at will in cars or houses. I use hot water from the tap every chance I get. And I get really covetous at grocery stores with the immense variety of produce and fiber-filled grain products. Mmm...off to eat some Mestemacher bread and an apple!

With Niki, another phenomenal woman from college, and her daughter.

The American Midwest

My Aunt Char, me, and my Mom in Minnesota.

My "tour of the American Midwest" is about to come to an end. I have been in Minnesota, Michigan, and now Ohio, visiting with churches, family, and friends. I have had a lot of opportunities to speak about the wonderful things happening in Haiti, as well as some time to just hang out.

People have been the focus of my stay. But since those of you reading this won't know most of the people I've been with, I'll list other delights:

• hot water!
• "cool" weather for running
• speedy internet available absolutely everywhere
• customer service
• food: Thai food, Punch pizza (St. Paul), home-made bread and pannekoeken (thanks, Libby!), lettuce, cheese, hummus, strawberries, blueberries, s'mores, superb coffee

My Mom moved out of my childhood home six months ago and is living very happily in a retirement community. I had the opportunity to speak to people there a few nights ago. A very appreciative audience!

On Monday I head to Seattle to meet my newest nephew!

A baby Canadian goose relaxing in Ohio.

Another great day

I have the best life.

This morning I traveled with two of my colleagues and two American missionaries to two nearby CHE communities, Goden and Macedouan. We had good visits in both of the communities. In Goden they shared a lot about their perinatal program. We also took a short walk to see a committee member's garden: plantain, carrots, taro. One highlight for me was the children -- in March they started a children's CHE program in Goden, one of the first in the country. The kids sang us a song, it was very cute! In both villages they mentioned the significant reduction in illness, particularly among the children. In addition to appreciating the physical and spiritual lessons, in Macedouan one of the women said that she really valued the lessons she'd learned about how to get along within her immediate and extended family, to really “live well.”

I really enjoyed spending the day with the missionaries. Their organization has been doing both church-planting and building transitional housing in one of the areas hardest-hit by the earthquake, but they are now wanting to transition away from relief work into development and are interested in using the CHE tools. It's also just fun to meet different missionaries and hear about what they do, even on a personal level: how do you exercise here? What do you do in your free time?

On our way back to town I was dropped off at the music school. I had told them I might arrive late or not at all today, but since it was to be our last rehearsal before our May Day concert I had hoped to make it. I was nearly an hour late, but they were still setting up. We rehearsed our three pieces for tomorrow's concert. It has really been fun to conduct this orchestra. The majority of them are very new at their instruments but have really great attitudes. And they are showing up more consistently to rehearsals now which really helps!

I stayed after the orchestra rehearsal to practice piano. I haven't played seriously for nearly two decades, and really don't play at all here. But I was told last night (!) that all of the teachers would be performing, so I needed to practice (I also teach piano at the school). While playing, I realized I'd become defensive in a conversation earlier that day. Of course, I really wish I would have noticed this at the time so that my reaction would have been entirely different, i.e.: helpful. (I will say that attempting to work through a process of reflexion, asking God for forgiveness, forgiving oneself, and determining next steps is probably not best done while one is still trying to practice the piano. If you try this you may realize that the issue is still unresolved and you'll have to pause later in the evening while writing a blog entry.)

As it became early evening, several of the other music teachers came to rehearse in twos and threes. The music school director asked me to accompany him tomorrow on a flute piece and we practiced that. There's only enough room in the music school now for either the orchestra or an audience, so we'll be playing tomorrow at a government building in the city's largest public square! What a place to make my conducting debut!

I came back to my lodgings for a small bite to eat – not too much, because I didn't want to spoil my appetite for the mangos that were waiting in my room. Three varieties are now readily available in this region, each one remarkable in its own way. Francique: large, juicy, fruity. Baptiste: smooth texture, perfume-y flavor. Trop Douce: delightfully sweet with a subtle flavor, ridiculously fibrous but oh! so worth it.

And now to wash up. It was warm today, and even a cold shower sounds awfully lovely when dust has stuck to your sweating skin all day. I need to take our visitors to the airport at 5:30 am, so I'd better quit typing. I love Sundays, though – I can just rest after church until the afternoon concert.

I have the best life.

Easter Sunday

Baptisms Easter Sunday

My first praise of the day: we had electricity at 4:45 am so I could make coffee in my room before leaving for an early-morning service with a group of missionaries. One highlight: a family of four sang a song in harmony with bluegrass-style guitar. We ended with a breakfast feast which included cinnamon rolls, mmm. I also got to connect with some people I've never really talked to before, nice.

Then my church -- the pastor read a message from the Monsignor, including how to place our hope and trust in God in a country that had the January 12 (2010) earthquake and then cholera, and in a world that just experienced the Japan earthquake and new civil wars. I also had time to reflect on the fact that whoever thought that choir robes should be adopted in a Caribbean nation was nuts.

As I write, my neighbor's church is baptizing people in the ocean near me with lots of celebratory music. A British acquaintance was standing next to me for awhile. In the pageantry of the baptisms he saw tools used to placate and cheaply entertain people. He also commented that it was ironic that in a symbol of cleansing, people are actually dipping into what amounts to a cess pool. It is icky -- it's always icky, and we see people swimming in it every day. But I thought: well, baptism is symbolic of being baptized into Christ's death and then being raised with him, maybe that's not so inappropriate.

The best part of the day? Greeting everyone for Easter, hearing stories of how they have celebrated. Where I live everyone still has to work today, but they all had stories of special things done at church last night or this morning that made them smile. We take time out to watch the baptisms, comment on the music, greet each other with kisses and "Happy Easter." We share brief comments on what it means that Jesus is risen.

And I sit here in the shade, enjoying the ocean breeze and the blue sky, looking at a hummingbird, a fully-laden mango tree, and two other flowering trees, trying to grasp what it really means that death is no more. That it has really been conquered. That the beautiful things that we see in the world are part of the future breaking in to the present, they are the presence of the kingdom that is here and not yet. In Friday's sermon the pastor spoke of the cross, and one of the things he said was that the cross has crushed the power of darkness (kwa a te kraze tout fòs fenwa). This is clearly a "here and not yet" in a land of cholera, malnourished kids, bursts of violence, denuded mountains. But that's what I see. Because this is also a land of flowers, of beauty, of dignity, and of laughter. Alleluia! He is risen!

Mangoes

This is a collection of fruit I had at one point last week. The brown one is custard apple, the spiky one is soursop, and the rest are delectable mangoes (ripe, despite their green-ness).

I love mangoes. The season just started last week and I have been eating about three per day. I might have even had four once. They are seriously incredibly amazingly good. My day started out with "custard apple," though, another yummy fruit. Memene, who washes my clothes, brought me some as a gift this morning.

Then my work day started, with a meeting with the logistics guy for IOM. We needed to change a request order we'd put in for cholera supplies due to space and availability issues. Then we received boxes and boxes of soap, buckets, jerry cans, and chlorine. For free. Again. This is just so fabulous! With the first shipment we received we were able to supply our oral rehydration posts (which provide oral rehydration salts to cholera patients in rural areas as they are on their way to treatment centers), then some of our community health workers and a couple of schools. Now it looks like we might be able to supply all of our volunteer workers and some committee members, plus two hospitals in the northeast -- they'll get oral rehydration salts and IV solution as well, and get it all transported for free by the World Food Program!

This is the cholera treatment center for the rural hospital in Bois de Laurence in the northeast. We stopped by there last week.

Last week my colleague Solencia had two people in her family, both young, die. The causes were unknown, which is common. She had to leave early today to go to her cousin's funeral. We prayed for her and her family with her before she left.

Due to virus problems and varying solutions, my main computer was my netbook, then my laptop, then my netbook, then my laptop again. Lately my laptop has been acting up (I think it's old) and since I'd recently managed to back up everything I only copied a couple of recent documents and started using primarily the netbook. Well, today I realized one of the documents on my netbook wasn't the latest version. So I needed to access the laptop. But Linux won't run on the laptop with the SD card I have, and I found out today that a CD I'd burned won't run on it either. So I had to shut off my netbook to use the flash drive with which I'd been running Linux on it. And I got frustrated. Blah.

The report I'd been looking for was on our oral rehydration posts, I needed to add the latest data and send it to the health department. In March, the 39 posts that reported in saw 119 cases of cholera. (These are the numbers for the posts we have, many people thankfully can make it directly to cholera treatment centers, or stop by other posts.) Some sites had seen no cases, but cholera has increased recently in some areas, in part exacerbated by drought making it more difficult for people to incorporate hygiene techniques.

Here's a house we passed by last week in the northeast, an area that's really been suffering from the drought, with SODIS bottles on the roof. Yup, turns out one of our community health workers goes to this house, and they now use this free method to get clean drinking water!

I'm working on solidifying travel within the US for my three-month trip this summer. The connections from Minneapolis to Detroit are ridiculous, and it will take me just as long in terms of travel if I fly to Chicago instead, hang out with Mark and Julie, then take a train the next day to Detroit. Seriously?

Tomorrow's a holiday (Good Friday), so I won't see my colleague Evelyne again until Monday. She started a school in her village a few years ago and needed to send off the budget to some potential partners. I'd agreed to translate it into English for her. We finished just before 7 pm. Which is when I realized that I'd missed yet another Lenten service. Sigh.

Which means I'll just have to eat more mangoes and practice the cello (the music school where I conduct and teach piano lets me borrow a cello!).

Moolah

Have I mentioned anything about the money used in Haiti? The currency is called "gourd," and it used to be tied to the US dollar, at 5 gourdes per dollar. So, people started referring to 5 gourdes as "one dollar" or "one Haitian dollar." It's no longer tied to the dollar, it's now about 40 gourdes to the US dollar.

Why is this history important? People still call 5 gourdes a Haitian dollar (HT). And they speak in terms of Haitian dollars much more than in gourdes. This is a mathematical nightmare for me. I mean, 100 HT is fine, that's 500 gourdes, no problem. But in the market they'll say something is 65 HT -- that's not so easy to do quickly. And this week my colleague cashed a check and came back with "1875 dollars." I count 9375 gourdes and know it's all there (after taking out my calculator).

I usually talk in gourdes, because I haven't been able to understand how people easily go back and forth. This got me into trouble once when I asked a colleague to give me "400" of phone credit. A few minutes later I got a text that I'd received 1818.18. I was completely confused until I realized that she thought I'd wanted 400 HT, or 2000 gourdes, and then the phone company took its cut.

So, I've been wondering for awhile how everyone does it, talking in Haitian dollars. They have just told me "it's easy." But yesterday I finally got some insight! I watched my colleague Evelyne count some money. She held a 500 gourd bill and I saw her lips move "100," then a 250 gourd bill and I saw her murmur "50." At the end she knew the amount in Haitian dollars. So what she's doing is looking at a bill that has "500" stamped on it and thinking "100."

This actually gives me hope. I actually might be able to do this if I translate each bill in my head, not the total. Especially for receiving change. No, really, I think this could work.

Mangos

I'm reading the minutes of a meeting I missed last week: “Dans la perspective d’une recrudescence du nombre de cas avec l’arrivée de la saison des mangues, des spots de prévention sont en préparation au niveau du MSPP. Ces messages s’adressent particulièrement aux enfants qui sont les populations les plus à risques pendant cette saison des mangues.”

So I ask my colleagues, “Is 'saison des mangues' what I think it is? Mango season? And if so, why are we having to increase our cholera prevention messages for that, and why are children more at risk?

Turns out there are mango trees everywhere in the rural areas (heaven?). Lots of people, and most children, just pick up mangos whenever they're hungry and eat them without washing either the mangos or their hands. There are also too many mangoes to sell, and so they rot and flies accumulate. Apparently “everyone knows” that diarrheal diseases greatly increase in mango season.

The latest happenings

These CHE trainers are tying up buckets to be able to transport them back to their villages. We received a large donation of buckets, scrub brushes, and hand soap from IOM to distribute at oral rehydration posts.

Someone very close to me asked me tonight what I'm doing these days at work (thanks, Mom!). It turns out I've never mentioned that I'm no longer helping coordinate volunteers coming to work with cholera patients. Thankfully, the worst part of the crisis seems to be over. So, while we will continue to maintain oral rehydration posts in rural areas for the foreseeable future (so that people won't die of dehydration on their way to cholera treatment centers), we're mostly back to our former work of training in disease prevention, spiritual discipleship, and development.

I am still involved in trip planning:

• A group from southern Haiti will be coming to see some of our CHE villages in the northeast in April, as they consider whether to be trained to use the CHE tools themselves. I'm really looking forward to this trip since I haven't been to this area before and it's where some of our strongest programs are.

• Marcelo Lopez, an Argentine accountant and economics professor, will be coming in May to give a microenterprise training to our trainers. He comes once or twice a year with different materials. I've been coordinating his trip in part because I'll be his interpreter while he's here.

• A church in Detroit will be sending teams to make badges for our trainers, committee members, and community health evangelists. We are so excited about this! Almost everyone who works with us is a volunteer and doesn't receive renumeration. A badge is something they've been asking for for a really long time.

Speaking of “encouragements” for our volunteers: we've ordered t-shirts! Over five hundred volunteers have been working so tirelessly for months with the cholera epidemic, and before that they were teaching their neighbors about physical, spiritual, and emotional health in their spare time. We received funds a few months ago to buy everyone a “Medical Ambassadors Haiti” t-shirt! So, one of my jobs was to aid communication between my Haitian and Dominican colleagues during the ordering process (they don't make t-shirts here). And the upside is, I learned how to say “polo shirt” in Kreyol and Dominican Spanish. (It's actually not that exciting, it's essentially “with collar” in both languages.)

Nurse Marie Junie and my colleague Osse stand by a rented truck ready (as soon as the tarp's put on) to take donated cholera supplies to a hospital in the west. In addition to buckets, soap, and brushes, IOM also donated this hospital several boxes of IV solution and sprayers. A big shout out to Marie Junie: she left her house before 5 am to get to our office, and then had car trouble returning over the mountains and didn't get to the hospital until 5:30 pm.

Children's TOT (part b)

One of the many "tent cities" in Port-au-Prince. This is a small one covering a town square; we passed it daily on our way to the training site.
One of the small groups demonstrated ways to get kids engaged in project planning -- here is their drawing of a reforestation program.

Another small group draws a neighborhood clean-up project.
Groups practiced using skits as "starters" to discuss community problems with children. This skit is about cholera.
A "starter" showing steps to community development. The last step is "aksyon," or action. Many others tend to start at this step, but we think that unless the programs are truly community-owned from the very beginning (the first four steps) they will never truly be sustainable.

One of the participants explaining the steps to implementing a Children's CHE program.

Studying how Paul got to know the city of Athens.

Studying what observations Paul made about the social and spiritual life of Athens.
Training is finished! What a great group of people. They represent three organizations that already have wonderful children's ministries. They are now working on implementing the CHE strategies to make their work more holistic and sustainable.

Children's TOT (part a)

In February we were finally able to hold our Chidren's Training of Trainers (TOT) in Port-au-Prince! We'd planned to have it in December but several weeks of riots and unrest made that impossible.

Here the participants enact the story of a paralyzed man's four friends bringing him to Jesus. This story is really rich, not only for the beautiful demonstration of the wholeness of our being (physically and spiritually) but also for the life principles it demonstrates that are useful in development: persistence, love being our motivator, and the use of local materials. ;-)

This participant presents aspects of a children's program -- using games, stories, and drama to help with learning.


Morning small group Bible study.

After lunch most days the participants formed an impromptu worship band -- a nice break from lessons!

No electricity

No electricity today from early morning until just now (4 pm). That's rare for us -- it usually only goes out for a few minutes to an hour at a time. I was able to use our neighbor's wireless for awhile since he's got an inverter -- until the battery on my laptop was finished. So then what to do?

1. Organize my new desk! It's a thing of beauty to have my own desk. I have had piles and piles of papers I've been working with the past five months, and today I had the perfect excuse to make time to file some and make a nice to-do pile out of the rest
2. Pray with my colleague, Evelyne! We started out singing "Dieu tout puissant": Alors mon cœur redit, la nuit, le jour, 'Que Tu es bon, o Dieu d’amour!' -- a song I love in English and Spanish, too. We had a lot of things to pray about: Evelyne had to meet with her community yesterday to tell them that they had no funds to pay teachers. Our colleague Anias left today for a long journey by road to Port-au-Prince, where he'll work for two days and then go to the island of La Gonave with two other colleagues to the CHE programs just starting there. I need to get a vehicle, and need wisdom as to how to go about it.
3. Get stories from our colleagues to fill out one of our overdue quarterly reports (we can still blame the cholera epidemic for being behind on paperwork, I think). That was super-fun, as everyone shared great stories of changes they've seen or heard about in CHE communities.

So now I have a clean desk and an overflowing e-mail inbox! ;-) Glad to have the electricity back on!

Miscellaneous

Last month Ambassadeurs Medicaux d'Haiti (AMDH), the Haitian NGO that is primarily responsible for CHE programs in Haiti, held a preliminary meeting but didn't have a quorum present. Two weeks ago they met again, and in this picture you see five of the seven board members -- one was still unable to come due to injury, another was out of the country. Also in this picture are the three AMDH staff, Enoch (The Water School, formerly with AMDH), and me. What a great step for this organization.

Today in the office Wilnique, Clercilien, Evelyne, and Solencia were putting together "gift bags" for our trainers and CHEs. Our nearly 500 volunteers are truly volunteers, meaning they don't receive any renumeration. So we're putting together bags with toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, oral rehydration salts, sheets, and towels. Kind of like the gift bags at the Oscars. :-)

United Nations peacekeeping force from Nepal, sightseeing.

I took this picture of a typical fishing boat from my lodgings.

Training in Limbe

Okay, here I am teaching my first formal lesson in Kreyol! I love this picture because my colleague Evelyne (far left) could not look less enthused. ;-)

Here are Enoch and Clercilien, making a "fly" out of a banana, matches, and leaves. It was used in a skit about cholera transmission.

We held two big trainings the second week of January, one for our trainers in the province of the northeast, and this one in the north. We wanted to make sure that all of our trainers had the latest lessons on cholera prevention and treatment, including the Doctors without Borders strategy of oral rehydration posts scattered throughout the communities to prevent the countless deaths that have been occurring when people cannot get to cholera treatment centers in time. (It is often impossible to travel at night and in the rural areas distances are long over difficult roads.)

Here is Madame Grimard, one of our other core facilitators, teaching a lesson called "God and Cholera." There is a pervasive belief here that God is cursing Haiti. This lesson goes through Scripture passages showing that God seeks to bless us. We then discussed practically that God had indeed given us everything we needed to combat cholera, including essentially free methods for hand washing and making water potable.

And finally, here is Anias -- he works with our partner organization The Water School. He moved back north after surviving the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince last January and started with us in the spring. His amazing work with the SODIS method for making potable water along with training on hygiene and latrines has now expanded from zero to thirty communities. He has a fabulous smile, can you see it?

Cholera Treatment Center photos

In December I had the opportunity to work a few more nights in a cholera treatment center in Haut Limbe (see previous posting). Above is 15-year-old Juan. He was very ill, and you can see that he has two IVs running. But when one of the volunteers was making balloons for the kids, he was well enough to ask for a cat to be drawn on his!

Here I am at 5 am with a volunteer named Travis, a fabulous ICU/ED nurse. The first night we worked together he put in an IV in the scalp of a little girl for whom they just hadn't been able to keep IVs going the day before. Scalp veins are really tiny, so only small amounts of fluid can pass through them, and this girl was very sick. So he and I stayed at the bedside to push fluids via syringe into the catheter. While we were doing this dawn broke, and the family members throughout the center started a worship service from the bedside. They sang hymns, recited psalms, and prayed out loud. What a beautiful accompaniment to our work, to be reminding of the One who is always working in and through and around us to bring healing!

Rehydration is the key to curing cholera. Here a girl is receiving oral rehydration solution from a family member in addition to her IV fluids.

This picture was taken the day this boy arrived. I met him the next day, and although he was still quite sick he was sitting up at the end of his bed drinking oral rehydration solution from a pop bottle, a little cutie-pie.