Parker Sorenson's Haiti Mission Trip Experience-August 2011

August 13, 2011
Day 1: Arrival
What a day! After about 14 hours of travel, I finally made it to the Haiti Methodist Guest House safely. To be honest, I am probably better suited to write this blog on the conditions at the Miami and Boston airports more than Haiti… but I’ll give everyone my first impressions.

Once arriving in Haiti I was surprised to see that the international airport here is well traveled and much nicer than I expected it to be. Yeah, it certainly the polar opposite of the brand new Miami airport that we left behind… but seems how four (Delta, United, American, and some other) airlines operate from this airport, it’s really not bad, and the airplane (a Boeing 757 no less) was packed! We were even greeted by a local band playing some upbeat music right off the jet way. Our first true experience of Haiti was probably the moment after we cleared customs. Because our group of 8 brought 24 bags in total we needed to hire some porters to assist us to the VIM van in the parking lot a short walk away. Unfortunately there always seems to more porters than there is luggage, so an inevitable argument arises over who gets to take the bag and thus receive the tip. I was told that today was “civilized” by the group leader, but it definitely was hectic nonetheless.

The drive from the airport gave us a great tour of the city as we had to drive right through the center of town. We enjoyed our ride in the back of the VIM like “tap-tap” bus (which gains its name from the fact that you tap the back of the cab to stop), which resembled more of a prisoner transport vehicle than anything else. This is probably due to the fact that they literally cage you in the back… but this is due more to safety than anything else. Once on the streets of Haiti I was absolutely stunned. I have never been to any third world nation, and pictures and video alone don’t even begin to describe the situation. Tent houses appear in many of the city’s “open spaces” and any sensible traffic pattern is nonexistent. The 45 or so minutes that it took us to arrive at the guest house was spent in pure awe at the situation. Frankly, the living conditions of many are worse what I or most likely any of you would find suitable to camp in for one night. Yet, it’s clear that the Haitian spirit remains tremendously lively. Most storefronts are painted in bright, new colors and it’s clear that the culture runs deep in this community.

Finally at the guesthouse!  I guess I’ll keep this short for now as it’s apparent that this is getting quite long, but this is simply an oasis in the middle of Haiti. I am currently enjoying high speed internet that I’m quite sure is faster than the internet at my house and a chlorinated pool. Best of all, the food is superb. Anyway more of the guest house to come in next blogs as well as a description of the job site, more photos of Port-au-Prince, and an introduction to some of the people I have meet while here.

Tomorrow I will go to church with the congregation I’ve raised the money for and then eating lunch at a local restaurant that specializes in cooking in the “western” style.

Parker

August 14, 2011Bottom of Form
Day 2: Service with the Croix-des-Mission Methodist Church
Another awesome day! Just a quick note… I had an awesome time last night at “choir” practice to teach us how to sing 3 songs in Creole and a great swim after that while everyone went to sleep! What a special night… the “choir” director, a energetic Haitian named Stevenson Theodore (yes, in that order), was quite a skilled musician, and I must confess he encouraged me to sing a solo in Creole.

This morning we woke up nice and early (especially seems how Haiti is on Central time, so the sun comes up VERY early) and had a wonderful breakfast prepared by the Haitian cooks here at the guest house. Soon after we were off to the Croix des Mission Methodist Church across Port-au-Prince to attend service with the congregation we are working with to build a larger church. Once there we were welcomed graciously into their church, which essentially consists of a single room building made of cinder block that is big enough for about 60 people, but many more showed up, where they sat in overflow pews out the front door.

The service itself was quite different than anything else I have ever been used to. It was well over 2 hours long, but it did pass by quickly. The service is very lively, and we were lucky enough for the congregation to be celebrating the two year anniversary of the choir which was perhaps the most elegant church choir performance I have ever heard (I hope my readers from LUMC Choir don’t take offense to this). The church pitched in to rent drums, a electric guitar, piano, and sound system (the speakers were about 8 feet high… and quite loud!) and the youthful choir was just awe inspiring.

Aside from the many musical performances during the service (including our own), the service included the bible readings in Creole and French and the dynamic sermon presented by the pastor. Once the service finished, we were introduced to some in the congregation and many pictures were taken, both for our visit and the celebration for the choir.

Back in the UMCOR van, we left the church to go to Stevenson Theordore’s house where we spent half an hour or so in his hospitality. Along the way, I saw a scene that is perhaps the most emotional image I saw today. From a bridge I looked down a very low river that had trash along the banks. Within the trash there were many pigs and other animals scavenging around the trash. In the river (which was only a bit bigger than a brook) were dozens of children from the nearby tent refuge bathing in the water. While I didn’t get a picture, I certainly will not forget that image because it goes to show the conditions some of these people live in.

Once we left Stevenson Theordore’s we went to visit the new church site, and it is much larger than I previously believed. By my guess, it’s about 5 times larger than the current church. More about this later.

Tomorrow we will have a full day at the work site, which is where we will spend the bulk of our time this week.

Parker

August 15, 2011
Day 3: First Day at the Work Site
Today, our third day in Haiti, was the first in which we went to the work site to help the congregation with building their church and the beginning of our week long Vacation Bible School. In our hour long trip to the site, I had the privilege of riding in the front passenger seat. To anyone who has ridden in a car in the Caribbean you’ll understand, being in the passenger seat is closer to an amusement park ride than an actual car ride. In Haiti it seems that anything goes on the streets of Port-au-Prince, and it was quite special to experience that from the front of a big flat nosed 15 passenger van.

The roads to the work site are heavily traveled and many are crowded with street vendors on the side of the road. Most are paved, but drivers beware: potholes are prevalent throughout all the streets, and many may lead right into the sewers several feet below. The route we took to the site today actually seems to bypass much of the crowded part of Port-au-Prince and instead goes by the huge UN compound and the elegant US Embassy. Throughout most of our route to the work site there seem to be UN patrols everywhere.

Upon arrival at our work site today we made breakfast for the workmen and the neighborhood by providing them with bread and peanut butter. (Side note… grocery shopping is very easy here, all you have to do is flag someone down on the road, and they come to your car and sell it to you there. Kinda like your local drive thru). Many came and enjoyed this simple breakfast and we enjoyed their hospitality as I could instantly tell that we were very welcome in this neighborhood.

As far as physical work for us to complete today… there was not much. Instead, we focused our attention to working the Vacation Bible School (where 60+ kids showed up) and providing some afternoon entertainment in the form of soccer and jump rope. Aside from that we paid for lunch to be made for us and about 150 others and talked with some that knew English, or for me, Spanish (where I got to stumble through my rough Spanish, but I actually could understand him!)

Tomorrow we will work on a security wall on the side of the building lot, carrying rocks that will be used as the foundation from the front gate to the wall.

At the work site today Bob, Don and I spent much of our time helping out the building of the security wall next to the church. About 15 feet of security wall was destroyed in the earthquake, and has not been worked on until this week. Fortunately this was the only damage the church really sustained during the quake as construction has continued as normal for the past few years.

Today we left at lunch once again so we could take some time to tour some other areas of Port-au-Prince before our departure on Saturday. (This came as a sad surprise to the children at the church site because we needed to take the soccer ball from them to make sure the ball comes back throughout the week). Our original plan was to first visit the Grace Children’s Hospital run by International Child Care and then tour downtown by the palace to see the destruction to the palace and the downtown markets. Yet, as we have learned during our short stay here thus far, almost nothing goes according to plan if you plan on traffic to flow quickly on the main streets.

 

 

 

 

Instead we got caught in an awful traffic jam on Rt. # 1 and was forced to turn back to take side roads to Grace Children’s Hospital. Fortunately we were still able to visit the small children in the recovery ward even though we were quite late, but we never ended up going to the palace.

With the mention of this traffic, I would like to point out some of the small differences that people take while in Haiti because of the prevalent presence of Cholera. According to some of the other group members, Cholera has been somewhat of a recent problem here, but it seems to have changed the way that all Haitians live. As an infectious disease that exists in the water, Cholera is something that can be easily prevented by using clean water, but that is something easier said than done. Even at our guest house which is much, much nicer than most Haitians could possibly ever afford, the tap water is essential toxic to drink.

Precautions are taken so that daily tasks such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, and even showering (Carolyn knew someone who got sick from not keeping his mouth closed in the shower) are much harder than at home with clean running water. Water bottles are filled straight from the water cooler and you must constantly be aware of where you put your bottle so as to make sure you don’t get the top all dirty. When brushing your teeth you have to resist the urge to put your brush under the tap and instead make sure that you moisten the brush with your water bottle. It’s annoying and perhaps hard to remember, but it’s certainly doable.

For the Haitians on the other hand… it’s another story. First off, these luxuries (which you can see aren’t really luxuries [clean water]) cost money to buy. I have seen public water fountains throughout the city for people in the tent cities, but it doesn’t seem to be guaranteed to be clean of Cholera. For those that can afford it, there is a well established system of clean water trucks, 5 gallon water jugs (which we use in our water cooler), and vendors that sell pint sized water bags (literally, think sealed zip block bag where you rip one corner open to get the water out). With cooking with any water, one must boil the water and then wash out any of the vegetables and fruits before they are used in any of the foods… and from my understanding, this is not normally done in many families. Anyway… enough for now. Tomorrow we will be going back to the work site and then visiting the artist co-op where we will look at some of the art there.

Parker

Instead of starting out the day by going directly to the UMC van to go to the work site, we decided to take a tour around the 10 acre campus that the guest house is situated on. Within the campus exists a 2,500 student school and a church that by my estimates can seat 2-300 people. This morning was the first time we toured the campus, which is quite beautiful. It is a couple minute walk to get from the guest house corner of the property to the church corner of the property which is on the opposite side.

Today was the same as yesterday. We worked until lunch time and then left to view the sights in downtown Port-au-Prince to see the Presidential Palace (and the damage is remarkable) and the Methodist church around the corner where they had another high school… before it was destroyed in the earthquake (although the elementary school and church survived). At the church we met the church choir leader named Fritz Hunter who spent some time with and he generously told his story about the earthquake.

Simply, his story is one that exemplifies the small ways in which God shows his love and speaks to us. Fritz has been the choir director for his entire life at this church. He has had the tradition this entire time to go to the bell tower every day at 5 pm. The earthquake occurred in Haiti shortly after 5 pm. Fritz told us how other people came up to him one right after another to ask him to do something. While talking to some of these people, he said he remembered hearing a clear voice from his cell phone telling him “don’t go to the tower”. Once he started walking away from the person the earthquake came and he fell to the ground and said he remembered hearing the tower come crashing down.

God definitely works in wondrous ways sometimes.

 

Not really… I was actually so busy with putting together the gifts for the neighborhood after dinner that I didn’t get a chance to write, but I have decided to post a few pictures instead.

The team with all 600 t-shirts for the neighborhood surrounding the work site in Croix de Mission.

 

 

 

 

Today was the perfect ending to the excellent week I have spent with the people of Croix de Mission. Throughout the week I have spent a lot of time speaking with the people of the neighborhood, helping organize the VBS with the 70+ kids (and not getting trampled down by the kids when I brought out the bubbles), and moving rocks. This morning we toured the neighborhood with the neighborhood leader while Stevenson Theodore took care of the kids and were working on practicing for their performance to the neighborhood.

What I saw was absolutely eye opening. Gilbert, the neighborhood leader, was specifically showing us houses that Bob Parker gave him money to fix, but we got a pretty good feel for the lifestyle in the neighborhood. Many live in nothing bigger than what most would be small for a dorm room. It seems that structures were historically made out of cinder block, but after the earthquake, things have certainly been damaged. Some were extensively damaged or were completely destroyed. In one instance, Gilbert showed us a house where the back wall literally separated from the house by a foot (as it was part of a larger security wall) and funds were found by Bob Parker to rebuild the back wall of the house after the earthquake.

 

A few people still lived in the Samaritan’s Purse tents that were distributed after the earthquake. While these are much better than nothing in a temporary situation, their continued use is unsuitable. During rains, the bottom of the tent washes out with mud and living is unsanitary. As a temporary situation, Gilbert installed concrete beams around the base of these tents to shed water away from the inside of the tent, but this is not a permanent situation.

After our tour today we went back to the church to watch the children’s performance and then to share lunch with the neighbors and finally give out our t-shirts and say goodbye. The performance was spectacular… as many kids performed with solos and small groups sing Christian songs in Creole. Stevenson was sure to bring his keyboard and a sound system, which was truly special as the kids were able to use the mikes and make sure they were heard all around the vicinity of the church. I am sure it will be a long lasting memory for all those that were present.

As I have not described how lunch operated anytime throughout the week, I’ll take this opportunity to explain it now. Essentially our team pays the UMC women roughly $200- $300 each day to feed the community. By our estimates there are roughly 200 people coming each day to receive a hardy meal. Today there were many more, and we counted 140 children alone! (We have certainly been grateful for our translator on the trip, Michelle Pierre). We are forced to eat first as we are the guests, but the food is very good and usually is rice with a bean based sauce with vegetables and spices. Certainly something I will miss at University of Connecticut!

Finally we brought out our 16 bag loads of free stuff to them to be divided among them. As you can probably guess, this caused a little stress in the afternoon as many wanted to make sure they received something, but we made sure we had enough as we came down with 600+ t-shirts, 130 work gloves, 60 hats, and enough art/school supplies to make little gift baggies for 130 children (notice there were 140, which was an issue settled by a few more t-shirts). After that hectic mess was done, the team went to the front of the church to distribute the rest of the items and shirts to the adults… which was a situation I did not wish to participate in. Overall, I believe everyone was pleased with something.

Leaving today, it’s almost weird to be leaving them. This week has been awesome, so a bit disappointed to leave them. Their hospitality has been generous and their friendships like family. In all this is a great group of people that I would be hopeful to meet again in the future again.

What a great week it has been!