Transition Time

One of the best parts about this job is all of the incredible people I get to work with!  The above picture is of Erigeur and Madame Erigeur (I'll try to find her given name to include it here) with their daughter.  They are both very gifted CHE trainers.
“Copyright © 2012 Deborah Carr”

As you will have seen in my latest newsletter and Christmas card, I returned to the United States in late November to discern next steps in ministry with my main sending church, Epic Christian Church. (If you don't get my newsletter, please let me know!)  My mission organization, Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), asked me to continue working with them in a different region. However, the local Haiti team and our American church partners have asked me to continue working with them in Haiti.

Ministry in Haiti has expanded so much over the past two years that I have been there – not due to me but due to the fact that so many people are hearing about the effectiveness of our ministry tools, Community Health Evangelism (CHE), and are asking us to partner with them all over Haiti. In addition, our dedicated volunteer trainers continue to spread the good news of the whole gospel, which in these tragic times of cholera has been recognized for the good news that it is, both physically and spiritually! It is so exciting to be part of a ministry that is bearing so much fruit.

So, after much prayer and counsel, I have resigned from MAI but I will be continuing with the same work in Haiti as a missionary sent out by my Arizona church, which has an account for me and will accept donations for my work (see below for how to do this).  I will be traveling in the US and Europe from January to March, visiting friends and family.  During this time I will work remotely, assisting our American church partners with their communication and plans with the local Haiti team and helping the local team in other ways that they ask.

During my five years with MAI I've met so many wonderful people and seen incredible transformations of both individuals and communities, witnessing God's faithfulness over and over again. Thank you for your support which makes this possible!

Here I am with Erigeur's son on their porch.  He'd exchanged shirts with his little friend this day (she's a girl).  One of the elements of my job that I like the most is interpreting -- here for the photographer of this picture, Deborah Carr, and our Canadian interns at the time, Rick and Rhonda Hamilton.
“Copyright © 2012 Deborah Carr”

To donate for my work in Haiti:

Epic Christian Church

P.O. Box 550

Queen Creek, AZ 85142-1810

Write in memo line: Haiti Mission

To donate to the local Haiti team or to our Area Coordinator, Osse St Juste:

Medical Ambassadors International

P.O. Box 1302

Salida, CA 95368

888-403-0600 x215

Write in memo line: Haiti or Osse St. Juste

Shocking?

The tragedy in Newtown:  people said it was "devastating" and "shocking" and couldn't stop posting about it.  I didn't get it.  I mean, obviously I get that it was horrible, but it certainly didn't seem completely unexpected, given the frequency of mass shootings.  But my response seems so at odds with that of many around me (I am currently in Arizona).  Is that because I've been hanging out with non-American expats (primarily French and Belgian) in Haiti that are not surprised to hear of these things happening in the US, what with our lax gun laws and lack of health care coverage (including mental health care)?

I started to wonder if I was perhaps just getting immune to tragedy, with floods and cholera and other disasters and diseases coming one after the other in Haiti without safety nets or funds for adequate risk prevention.  And those things are happening to people I know personally, to my friends and their families. 

Or was it because I have been living overseas for five years and am more distanced from events here in the US?  Or perhaps was I not so affected because Connecticut is geographically far away?  But I'd just been horrified by the fire in a Bangladesh garment factory that killed 112 people.   Of course, I felt partially involved in that event since I had recently broken my decades-long ban on Walmart (I've always been aware that there's a reason why Walmart can sell merchandise so cheaply, I just tried to push those thoughts aside since the Walmart is the closest store where I'm currently living). 

Was it because I am painfully aware that I pay (via my tax dollars) to kill children overseas?


I don't know.

Sermon heard in Cap Haitien

My notes from Pere Noe's sermon on Sunday, November 11, 2012 after severe flooding in Cap Haitien:

"This week we saw the water come down. We saw people die. But we also saw solidarity....Human beings are fragile, our lives can be snuffed out in a moment like a match....As Christians we are salt and light. We need to be an example of love and solidarity – we need to follow Jesus not just with our mouths but with our actions. Jesus paid the debt for our sins by dying on the cross. He accepted suffering and death to give us life. We also must act in solidarity with people who are suffering....

1) We are light. Where we see corruption, Christians must stand up and be light....The prophets denounced injustice. We need to take up this responsibility.

2) As we live in harmony with God, and also harmony with our neighbor, we recognize that we are responsible to build up a society that reflects peace, joy.

3) As we live the Word we ask God for forgiveness for what we have done wrong – no one is without fault.

My problem is your problem. My trouble is your trouble. My tèt chaje (lit. “weighted/loaded head,” meaning stress over lots of trouble) is your tèt chaje. And as we do this we break the works of Satan."

Traveling -- this time for fun!

On a train heading to a woods in which to hike

I'm on vacation!  Well, mostly -- I've had a few work calls and e-mails, but I think I'm nearly done with that.  Work has been pretty intense recently -- lots of travel -- including weekends -- and staying in the office late while in town.  I'm really glad to have these days off.

I'm a full-time missionary, which means that my salary and work expenses come from donors.  Now, I've always been a very frugal person, so mostly this isn't difficult.  Living in Haiti has also made me a more generous and sacrificial person, and I have even learned to (sometimes) give up my food so that a friend could eat.  But I'm actually on vacation in Europe right now.  How does this work?

My friends are scattered all over the world, and it just so happens that one of my best friends from way back is a woman who lives in Germany.  Eva and I were roommates for three years, and we have stayed really close -- since I've become a missionary she's paid the phone bills so that we can continue to talk several times a month.  She was due to visit me in Haiti in October, but sadly had to have an operation and canceled her trip.  I really wanted/needed vacation, and actually had some people give me personal funds to make it possible to come visit Eva.

To me, spending vacation in Germany is about the same as spending it in Ohio or California -- I just have to sit a little longer on a plane.  I've lived in Europe twice (Italy and Spain) and before becoming a missionary I traveled here several times.  I've even visited Eva twice in Stuttgart already (well, I think it might be three times, but she thinks it's been twice).  So I would like to list the things that make this trip exciting to me.  They are actually all things that would be true of my life if I lived in Arizona, Minnesota, or Seattle -- and are probably true of your life, too:

• Clean drinking water from the tap!
• Hot water from the tap!
• Autumn weather (although in Arizona we would call this "winter weather")
• A beautiful apartment where things work and paint isn't peeling
• Quiet
• A piano to play
• Coffee shops
• A really huge variety of healthy food, and yummy, yummy food (Vietnamese food!  hummus!  pastries!)
• Comfortable furniture
• Exercising without feeling faint from the heat
• Not having to scrub the dirt off my feet at night
• And the biggest and best and most important thing of all:  A friend to talk with face-to-face that I've known for more than a year or two.

This is a very over-exposed picture of Eva -- we were eating outside at a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Stuttgart. (It's phenomenal to travel with a vegetarian!)

Now, I love the life that I live in Haiti -- the ministry, my co-workers, the music school at which I volunteer -- and do not spend my days thinking about all of the things listed above that I "lack."  (Well, except for friends -- I haven't known anyone in Haiti for more than a year or two, and many of my friends there have already moved or are moving away.)   And I sometimes feel weird that people know that I'm here in Stuttgart, since it sounds exotic and tourist-y and castle-y to many people.  It doesn't sound that way to me (and donor funds didn't pay for it).   Tonight I get to meet Eva's small group (cell group/community group) from church, and on Saturday her parents are coming down to visit -- fun for me, but not a castle!  :)

Moving?

I lived the first 17 years of my life in one place:  a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  My Mom just sold that house two years ago.

Once I graduated from high school I started moving around -- I spent a year in Italy as an exchange student and then moved to St. Paul, Minnesota to start college.  I moved around in a typical way for a college student, I guess:  two dorm rooms, five apartments, my aunt's house for a summer and a semester abroad in Toledo, Spain.

Fifteen years ago I left Minnesota for...  

• medical school in Des Moines, Iowa (two different apartments in my two years there)
• Dayton, Ohio for my third year of medical school
• I then put my things in storage to spend a year of medical rotations in Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, the Bronx, Iowa (Davenport), Ohio
• back to Minnesota for residency
• Arizona for work
• Argentina
• Haiti

I currently live in a pension, where I have my own bedroom and bathroom and am given breakfast every morning.  During my first year here I got lunch as well, but I quickly grew tired of fried meat and simple carbs (boiled plantains or rice and beans with far more rice than beans is daily fare here).  So now I eat mangos, freshly roasted peanuts, imported Grape Nuts, etc.   I still haven't fully figured it out.

My good friend Blandine has decided to stay for the next year -- or rather, she said "sûrement," which is apparently only 95% sure.  Her roommate leaves in two weeks, and I can move in with her.  Her apartment is very close to where I currently live and work and is still on the sea (read:  slightly cooler breezes than the rest of town). 

Advantages:

• I will be able to keep it clean -- my current place has really old tile and stuck-on grime everywhere.  Blandine's apartment is new-ish, so much easier to clean.
• When all of my friends and family start to come visit me (ahem), I will have a place for them to stay.
• I will have a kitchen and a refrigerator, expanding the possibilities for what I can eat (or at least of what I can import and then conserve)
• I will have a little privacy -- right now the guests that are put in the rooms next to mine can see directly into my room from the shared balcony.  
• My French will improve!

Disadvantages:

• The people that work at this pension are like a second family to me.  And while for me that is an emotional tie, for them it is both emotional and economic (this place is kind of run down, and every guest means more job security for them).
• I haven't had a roommate for 15 years.  I think I'm pretty flexible, since I do live with other people for several months out of every year as I travel, but still -- I'm a little worried this could hurt our friendship.
• I don't have to deal with a lot of things at the pension -- I don't have to go to the market for food very often or pay someone to go for me, I don't have to get my own drinking water, or buy things for an apartment.
• Where I live is really secure.  Not that Blandine's isn't, but my place has people there all the time and is on a major road.
• Here at the pension when there's no electricity in the evenings they turn on the generator.

So, if Blandine's sûrement turns into a certainement, in two weeks I'll be making my eighth "permanent" move in 15 years.

Travel by Land, Sea, or Air

My good friend Solencia just left for the airport.  She flies to Port-au-Prince today with Erigeur and Lucson, and tomorrow they drive to Petit Goave to facilitate a Training of Trainers 1.  Today she will fly on a plane for the first time.  It was Lucson's first time flying when he and I went to Petit Goave for the Vision Seminar in May.

Solencia Altidor, CHE trainer.
Photo by Deborah Carr (www.deborahcarr.ca)

In our writing workshops in April, led by Deborah Carr, Solencia wrote the following piece after being given the prompt "I remember a place."  Since it's about overcoming fear during travel, I thought I would share it with you today.  Sadly, she received a phone call just this morning from a friend on the island  that she writes about here -- there was a boat that sank this morning, and 13 of the 23 people on board have not been found.  There are very real reasons to fear traveling here, whether by land, sea, or air.

I remember a place
Solencia Altidor

I remember a place...I went to a Training of Trainers 1 (TOT 1) in Mombin Crochu. As we were traveling, we reached the village of Pignon. After that the roads were terrible and I got very discouraged. I decided I would never travel to that area ever again. While I was at the training I was very happy because it was the first time I received training to become a trainer, which would enable me to work in my community with the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) program.


Another time there was another training in the same part of the country, and even though I'd said that I would never go back there -- well, I felt that God wanted me to continue this work. God gave me the courage and I went there again. It makes me so happy now to be a trainer, working with the CHE program.

I remember a place that I went: [the island of] La Gonave. Before going there, I was someone who was deathly afraid of the sea. Medical Ambassadors Haiti decided to send me to facilitate at the TOT 2 in La Gonave. I was so afraid – I don't even go swimming in the sea, I'm that afraid of it. I got together with my good friend Liz, and she gave me a lot of advice, she encouraged me to not be afraid, because it's God who makes all things. She spent several days praying with me to take away the fear that was inside of me. I went, and I'm no longer afraid. I even went back to La Gonave a second time, because I need to transmit what I've learned with Medical Ambassadors Haiti.

Now I'm no longer afraid – they can decide to send me anywhere and I can go because God took away my fear.

(c) copyright Solencia Altidor. Used with author's permission.

Motivation

Vision Seminar in Petit Goave.  Photo by Kathy Naugle.

The past few weeks have been challenging for me at work -- I've been slow to get over an upper respiratory infection and I still feel very weak, in addition to not being used to the heat.  I've just not been very motivated at work, no matter how many iced coffees I make.

Today one of my tasks is to fill out some forms for funding from the United Nations for some of our cholera work.  I'm just not feeling it today, although this is clearly a very worthy task.  So, as I go back and forth between this and other activities, trying to stay motivated by doing things in short bursts, I remember another post I'd wanted to write.  I've been wanting you to get to see the amazing evaluations we receive after our trainings.  These comments are just one of the many reasons I love being involved with Medical Ambassadors Haiti. 

Comments from Petit Goave Vision Seminar, May 2012:

“I really enjoyed this seminar. It pushed me to figure out how to work together in my community so that things will work well. It made me understand the importance of the Kingdom of God. It gave me a vision for how this program could change the people in my community through the Word of God.”

“I would like another training like this because I'm already thirsty for more.”

“Come back again now, you hear?”

“The lesson 'How God Sees Human Beings' is very valuable.”

“In this training, what was good was the way it was organized – when we debated a subject or a topic we did it as a group. And the lessons were very practical, too. We got to know one another.”

“I would like this program to continue because it is a good program that will teach people how they can live well with God in all different aspects of life.”

“I appreciated the way that Brother Metellus and Dr. Fleming Elizabeth gave all of themselves to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ, during this seminar. We ate, we drank, we played, we laughed together.”

“The lessons that we most important for me was when we follow how God sees the community and the good examples we found about how to show people how to get out of a bad situation.”

“May God cover you with blessings.”

“We thank you for the great things that are being spread throughout the country, because this is something that is very valuable for a community. We do not have enough words with which to thank the trainers.”

“I found many things for my life and for the society in which I live. This training was good, through and through.”

“We found many good techniques for evangelism.”

“I appreciated the way the trainers facilitated the lessons because they made them both theoretical and practical so that everyone was edified.”

“I would like to implement all of these methods in the entire Petit Goave regional area.”

“Starting the very first day this training has been remarkable. By that I mean that the subjects are very interesting and the explanations were very good.”

“All the lessons were important, but the one that really affected me was the one on the Kingdom of God.”

Thanks again to Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City for sponsoring this training!