A week in Mombin Crochu (Northeastern Haiti) -- Day 4

Continuing my posts from last year's travels to collect stories from Community Health Evangelism (CHE) communities

Seen while walking just outside the village of Mombin Crochu
(My first picture of the pastoral scene didn't quite turn out since one of these donkeys abruptly mounted the other one!  Nature.)

Thursday, July 18, 2013

I wake up and look at the fruit basket that was placed in my room yesterday. Curiously, there's part of a mango missing. While washing fruit later in the day (for mangos this means scrubbing and soaking them in “regular” water, then rinsing them in treated water) I show the half-eaten one to Adelin. He says, “Oh, yeah, a rat must have started eating it.” I say I didn't know they liked mangos. He answers, “Oh, sure. Rats are wily – they will even climb up a mango tree to eat the mangos!” (FYI, mango trees are really tall!)

After a rough motorcycle ride we arrive in Logat. Osse enters the church and sits down on a pew, extending his legs, looking tired. I say, “These roads are not a joke.” He answers, “No indeed, they are not a joke. They are body-breaking.” I think about this often while traveling – that in other countries people pay dearly to play “extreme” sports, and in Arizona they build little hills for dirt bikers to have fun. But here these things are tiring, and sometimes life-threatening.  (Stay tuned for stories from Logat.)

I found out on this trip that Osse has been involved in community development since even before he started working with CHE in 1993.  He was the founding member of an organization that helped to start the first high school in his village in the early 1990s.  Osse was invited to the high school graduation in the evening and he'd asked if we would accompany him.

Kids playing with a make-shift kite on the grounds of the new high school building in Mombin Crochu.  The government built a second high school some years after Osse's group started their high school.  The new president of Haiti has a building campaign and is constructing this larger building to accommodate the increasing number of secondary school students.

Continuing adventures with a kite!

The small Catholic school that Osse helped found threw a great celebration.  There were, of course, a lot of speeches: the president of the graduating class, the president of the junior year class, the “godfathers” of each of those classes, the “godfather” of both classes combined. Then the “delegate,” Osse, the “sponsor,” and the class president of the high school all spoke.

Roselande (dance instructor Claudin's wife) with a sandwich and kleren (raw rum) with pineapple.

The students put on a play in typical Haitian comedy style: two of the actors are dressed as country bumpkins and there is broad physical comedy. At one point one of them pretends to own a rich man's house to impress his girlfriend. He invites her in to the house and starts telling tall tales, including about how he'd cut a deal with a foreigner for something. Later, he repeats the story about the foreigner and, for proof, he points to me and says, “See, there she is!” Nice bit of improv!

There were many beverages served, all very typical.  After the kleren we were given a choice of sparkling wine, Prestige beer, or the energy drink Robusto.  Above are some of the drinks on my table.

At around 11 pm we were told there was a slight problem and the food wasn't yet ready. They played some music and the kids started dancing konpa.

Konpa!

Supper!  Fried plantains, beet salad, goat, beans and rice.  After supper we each received a Dixie cup full of popcorn.  This was followed by bwason dous (a sweet liqueur) and cake.

By 2:00 am the festivities were done. We started to walk home – super-slowly, the way everyone walks that I'd always attributed to the hot sun, or the steep mountains. But even in the cool night air on a flat road we are sauntering. Osse dropped me off at his house -- where everyone was already asleep -- and left to accompany the couple to the house they're staying at. Taking advantage of the fact that the house wouldn't be locked up for the night until Osse got back, I took a quick bucket bath and was in bed by 3 am.

From gazebos to clean water to parties to growing churches!

Much of our funding for 2014 has come from the organization World Challenge.  Most funds are spent on training, but we also sometimes support community projects or provide funds for events to encourage our volunteers.  Here are just two stories that I received in July:

Shelter and benches that were built for meetings and trainings in La Planj

Before the CHE program started in La Planj we had lots of difficulties, especially with our water. The water was really in a bad state and a lot of people suffered from typhoid, intestinal worms, and cholera. We were not well-informed about what was happening. When the CHE program came, because of the good training they brought and the way we applied the principles, well, everyone worked together to clean the water sources and protect the springs. Now the water isn't wasted (by falling on the ground) and the animals cannot put their bacteria in the water. Everyone is so happy because they have good water to use. In the name of the CHE program we thank you for your help with the gazebo we now meet under (completed in 2014) as well as the improvement of our water source (completed in 2013). To the supporters of World Challenge we say think you. We hope that God will protect you and your communities. We will always remember you in our prayers. Thank you so much. – Borgella Lucile, secretary of the La Planj CHE committee
.

Mother's Day party in Grand Ravine:  CHEs, committee members, and community members were present

We had 32 community health evangelists (CHEs) in Grand Ravine, but some of them had stopped being active in the program. This Mother's Day party (given with World Challenge funds) was important because it showed those CHEs what they were missing out on, what we were giving to the people with our trainings. Also, there were others who came and were interested in the CHE program who now want to be trained. The CHE program is very important – since it started in Grand Ravine four years ago the community is different. Spiritually, the churches in the area have more people and more evangelism is done. There were 100 people in my church before CHE and now there are 150! Every Tuesday they go out in groups and evangelize. – Vitalus Victales Wilnique, trainer in Grand Ravine

Stories of Transformation -- Community Health Evangelism (CHE) programs in Lospinit, northeastern Haiti

Noël Anisia, committee member

For me, before CHE came to Lospinit we had so many things ravaging the community. For example, we had kwashiorkor, children with bloated bellies. We learned a lot about nutrition, and now the children are more well-nourished.

Also with cholera, God really extended grace to us through the CHE program – the trainers taught us great lessons. They taught us to wash our hands before we eat, to make a Tippytap to wash our hands. They taught us to make a dish rack, to make latrines, keep our yard good and clean, and gather up the trash. Oh, man, this was really good.

The trained a committee and community health evangelists (CHEs). The CHEs started doing home visits. Whatever house we go to, people are really glad and they tell us not to get discouraged and to keep visiting them. After we learn something we show it to our family.

Something else we teach people is to sit down once a month to share. We meet the fourth Sunday of every month – the trainers, committee members, and CHEs. We gather funds into a pool, we call this a “mutual.” We loan the money to each other, and for every 100 gourdes you borrow you have to pay back an extra 10 gourdes. It's for when one of us has a problem, this augments what we have. Once I had a need and at our monthly meeting everyone gave me 100 gourdes. . . I resolved the problem. In two months I repaid the loan.

In terms of what we learn in CHE about wisdom: even if it's not easy, because of the training we learn -- even if we are the loser in a situation we control ourselves, we use wisdom, we measure our words.

Do you have any more spiritual brochures that we can leave with people? We do the lessons with them, but particularly the ones that have Bible verses in them people say they would love to have them at their house so that they can read them again. [Someone else added: Yes, yes! They always say they would like this!]

(c) copyright Noël Anisia. Used with author's permission.

François Jean, committee member

CHE has taught me many things. I have learned how to have better hygiene. I have learned SODIS [solar disinfection of water]– we do this quickly and we see it's a really good way to treat water. Before I treated water with chlorine but that's difficult because you have to buy the chlorine. SODIS is easier.  Also, we help people built latrines so that they can protect themselves against bacteria. 

 CHE also teaches us how to evangelize better and in a way that is more brief. We don't talk on and on like we used to. With what we learn in CHE we learn we should speak briefly and simply. We shouldn't talk on an on, brief is better. I like to use the brochure “Peace with God,” we teach a lot of people how to use it.

Once I was walking down the street and I came across a person who was evangelizing. He was talking a lot and made people tired. I looked for him later on so that I could teach him this method. He thanked me, saying that he thought the brochure was really good. He asked if I could get one for him and I said I would look into it for him.

(c) copyright François Jean. Used with author's permission.

Amelie Jean-Baptiste, Community Health Evangelist

What I like about CHE is the Bible teaching. When you see a portion of Scripture, that really helps you. If you have a disagreement with someone we have learned we shouldn't yell at people. We have changed this and really behave better with people within the CHE group and with our neighbors. We even tell the children they should live like brothers and sisters and not argue or hit each other or throw stones and hurt one another. When there is fighting the children suffer and their parents suffer, too. They listen to us, and even though they still fight sometimes it's gotten better.

(c) copyright Amelie Jean-Baptiste. Used with author's permission.

A week in Mombin Crochu (northeastern Haiti) -- Day 3

Continuing my posts from a trip I took last year to collect stories.

Wednesday, July 17

No communities to go to this morning. I went to bed with a headache and woke up with one. I've been told that perhaps I'm tired, so I take a nap. I wake up and there's a crate filled with mangos and pineapple in my room.

In the afternoon we walk a short distance up the road to the community of Lospinit.  As we wait for people to gather these three children come over to play.  

Next post:  stories from Lospinit.

Encouragement

This morning in church the priest said that we would do something special for Mothers Day (celebrated today in Haiti).  He said that mothers give us life – that they cannot do so without men, of course, but that we must recognize the role of women as essential to life.  He then said that instead of the regular “passing of the peace,” the mothers should all sit and we should greet them with a kiss.  I went around to women who were seated  and I greeted them with a “Bon fèt” and a kiss on the cheek.  A man I’d never met before came up to me and kissed my cheek.  I said, “Oh, I’m not a mother.”  He said, “It doesn’t matter.  Life comes from women.”  He stepped away, then came back a moment later and said, “Also, I don’t know what you do here [I am clearly a foreigner, which means I likely work for a mission organization], but if you give your life to help others, you are a mother -- more than a mother.”

I thought that was very sweet – and very much in keeping with what we’d heard in the sermon from the intern just a few minutes earlier, who'd said (better than this, but I didn’t take notes):  When you receive someone in love, you [?].  When you respond to others with sweetness, you are allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you.  When you encourage someone, you are true to your baptism.”  Thanks for the encouragement today, Holy-Spirit-by-way-of-a-stranger guy!

On the Road Again

Depending on how you count the moves, you could say that I have moved six times in the past eight months:

• From Haiti to Arizona -- although I was only there for a few weeks, that is where I moved all my things back to (and where I still have many boxes!)
• From Arizona to my aunt's in Minnesota
• From my aunt's to a friend's in St. Paul, MN -- I thought I would be there for several months but it turned out to only be weeks
• From St. Paul to a now-friend's house in southwestern MN -- where I thought I would only be a few weeks but it turned out to be several months  :-)
• From that house to a furnished apartment in the same town, waiting for another place to be renovated
• From the furnished apartment to my own apartment in the same town -- got the keys last week, move in tomorrow!

Why so many moves?  What's the plan?

Ever since moving overseas in 2007 I've been planning to come back to the US to prepare for my every-10-year family medicine board exam (taken two days ago).  See, after completing my family medicine specialty ten years ago I worked in a prison (mostly men, with very few women and children and no hospital work) and then worked in community health and development overseas (administrative and teaching work).  I'd been away from full-spectrum family medicine much longer than I'd been in it.  After starting the process back here in the US last fall it soon became clear to me that would take much more than just a few months to get back up to speed.  But there was still no one with the language and cross-cultural skills available to fulfill the role I played in the continually growing ministry in Haiti, so I also wanted to stay involved there.

So here's the plan:  for the next several years I intend to continue working half-time as a physician in rural Minnesota, taking one day off per week to work administratively with the Haiti team and several US partners (via phone, e-mail, and Skype), as well as spending several months per year in Haiti.  After having my things scattered between several states and countries for years (I have lists of what is where), I am very excited about having one place where I'll have my home and my home office, so to speak.  I will admit that last fall I had hoped to not move anywhere new again (sigh) but this situation has turned out great -- my colleagues have been very supportive about mentoring me and I've met a lot of really friendly people.

Today was my last official day at the clinic before spending a few months in Haiti.  One of our hospital administrators stopped by with a card and had written,  "You truly 'Bloom where you are planted' and we are grateful that your roots are growing here."  I am feeling blessed tonight.

More community stories: from Dèyè Gad, Venbal, and Lagwamit

The ministry tools of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) encourage people not only to come to a living faith in Jesus, but also to work out their faith on a practical level.  Just like in the United States, in Haiti it is challenging to walk as Jesus walked, to love our neighbors and give of our time and our efforts to bless them, to be people of peace and reconciliation in our communities. 

Unlike in the United States, a majority of people in Haiti struggle to meet their everyday, basic needs (in large part because of policies that keep the U.S. and other countries rich -- but we can talk about systemic injustice another time).  Many people walk long distances every day to get water for their household.  They do not have consistent water purification systems to remove the cholera and E. coli from the water.  They do not have latrines.  Our volunteers teach some very simple methods that help with these daily needs, including teaching about the Tippytap -- a simple system that allows people to wash their hands using a minimal amount of water (remember, they spent a lot of effort to get that water) and also be able to wash their hands without having to call another person over to pour the water for them.  We also teach gardening techniques and help people find seeds to help with the daily challenge of feeding a family in a very food-insecure environment.

Here are some more stories from three communities in northeastern Haiti: Venbal, Lagwamit, and Dèyè Gad.

Edouard André, committee member in Venbal

I haven't been with CHE long but the little bit that I've been involved with has really been good for me, both physically and spiritually. When they talk about washing hands after we leave the latrine, not walking barefoot. I'm not perfect at it but I'm trying. Also with trash cans, not leaving trash on the ground, raised cooking fires so that children don't get burned.

We also really have seen resolution of some problems in the neighborhood, we have started to talk together.

(c) copyright Edouard André. Used with author's permission.

Philius Fils-aimé, community health evangelist in Lagwamit

We did a survey – there were people that didn't raise up their cooking fires, but I left my house to help them to do so. We also learned how to make Tippytaps, something we'd never seen before. It doesn't cost any money, it's something you can do for free. I really applaud CHE for this.

A lot of people now live in peace because they participate in a savings program in CHE and can get advances from that. . .

On Sundays before going to church I visit five to ten houses.

There are some people that are interested in starting vegetable gardens when they see how nice my garden is.

(c) copyright Philius Fils-Aimé. Used with author's permission.

Cheristen Renellus, committee member in Dèyè Gad

I was kind of lazy – I didn't do anything at home all day. I didn't dig a hole for a toilFrançois Jeanet. But the trainers explained all of this and really set me in a good direction. I see that I've become a different person. And I want to keep moving forward so that I can change completely.

The trainers come and pray with us. We used to have division among us but now there is peace.

I have a lot of children at home – eight kids plus my wife and me makes ten. Almost everything is completely changed: we have a Tippytap, we have a raised cooking stove.

I go to church, and now I have the skills to change my life so that I am stronger and live in God's presence.

(c) copyright Cheristen Renellus. Used with author's permission.

Pierre Jacsen, vice-president of the Dèyè Gad CHE committee

Those of us in our community, we really weren't living well in a physical sense.  Those of us on the committee wanted to choose our worst problem.  We decided to work on the problems of dish racks and latrines.  We started with latrines.  One of our neighbors, he had a lot of children.  He never dug a hole for a latrine, we saw him go to the bathroom a few inches from his house.  We wanted to help him get out of that situation.  We chose a CHE [community health evangelist] to go to his house, but the man wouldn't let him talk to him.  After two or three different trips the CHE made, some of us committee members went secretly to see how the work was going.  We saw that he had started to dig a hole!

People were putting their dishes on the ground and all sorts of animals, dogs would walk over them.  We brought people information, we explained to them how to build dish racks.


(c) copyright Pierre Jacsen. Used with author's permission.