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Bon swa from Haiti, I hope this finds it's readers well. Time has been flying by here in Haiti. It hardly seems that I've been back for nearly 2 months. It's hardly news to say that we've been busy, but it's true just the same. Usually the less I write, the busier we are. I do covet the prayers of those who care about us here though, and thus writing is important. I'm glad the apostle Paul got arrested long enough, and enough times to write the epistles. There have been several new developments and I'll try to touch on a few. POLITICS A new president is set to take office next month. Actually this will be his second time in the palace. While I seem to be in the minority among the other missionaries I've talked to here, I am actually a bit hopeful for the new president. All things considered, I think he was the best candidate. Some of his followers are extreme but I have not seen him encourage this. His predecessor was a master of double speak and this has not proven to be a trait in the new president. Books could and may be written on all of this and I'd rather let folks read the news to follow the political situation here. I will just try to toss in a few things that the news has left out. Many consider the new man, Preval, to be puppet of the old guy, Aristide. I do not think this to be the case. They seem to have had a serious falling out some time back. The news I've heard here is that Aristide (now residing in South Africa) has been indicating discouragement about coming back to Haiti. Things are much calmer in general now. The kidnappings that were daily news, sometimes 10 to 20 a day, seem to have nearly vanished. The roads to Cite Sol eil are opening back up. People are staying out later. The main highway that runs near Cite Soleil is getting used again. When I flew in, back in Feb, we flew over Soleil. I looked down at the streets I have walked so many times. Normally these streets are congested to the choking point with people, donkeys, kids, markets, merchants peddling their wares, tap-taps, etc. They were bare. No traffic. No markets. No people. It was an eerie sight. They have been this way pretty much since December. I would be happier about the drastic decrease in kidnappings if I knew why they have decreased. There haven't been all that many arrests. There seem to have been people in high places involved. As far as I know, the people that were doing the kidnapping are still out there and I'm guessing they'll be missing those big ransom paychecks soon. For now, we'll just enjoy the peace and keep trusting the Lord. HAPPY HOUSE The Happy House has been seeing record numbers of kids. Sunday we fed nearly 50. We used to feed more like 20 to 30 on an average day, and that mostly during the week. Now every day we usually have at least 40. That's a lot of company. The children's church has been growing massively and it is becoming routine for many of the kids to come over after church every Sunday. The sad part of this is that many are coming because of hunger. One thing that has not settled down in Haiti is the price of food. In my 11 years here, I haven't seen hunger like I see it now. A lot of kids that used to eat once a day are now eating every other day. Sometimes once every three days. I have noticed many gaunt faces and tired eyes, even among many of our closer kids. The people that are usually the hungriest, talk about it the least. For kids, it is also a source of shame for the other kids to know that you haven't eaten for a couple of days. Ironic, given that most of the other kids are in the same boat. I never cease to marvel at the mentality of keeping up appearances here. I have seen kids lie and say they had food at home when I know they didn't. Patricienne used to come over nearly every day after school. Her visits started becoming scarcer. We went over a week without seeing her. When she finally dropped by a couple weeks ago, her eyes were a dull yellow. Her skeleton seemed to be outgrowing her flesh. Many bones now protruding. "Where have you been?" I asked. "Nowhere." The light in her eyes was very dim. This was not the girl I have known for the last 4 years. It was breaking my heart. She was like a candle slowly going out. Such is hunger here. So many kids here whose lights are flickering. What I hate is that it is a silent killer. I have had these discussions with many kids over the last few weeks. Ketchia, Chertaly, Ti FI, Maren, Nathaniel, Antonio, and on and on. The other day we were discussing the effects of hunger. They all agreed that they can't pay attention in school when hungry. They felt tired and wanted to sleep. Headaches. There is also an added mental stress when you don't know when you will eat again. If you know that even though you didn't eat today, you will have food tomorrow, then there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. Often kids don't know when or if they'll eat. I have told these kids that they need to be coming to our house and eating when they don't have food at home. They were all concerned about the other kids thinking they were here just for the food. I told them that all the other kids here were eating too. With their minds at ease now, we set to putting their stomachs at ease. For the last few weeks many candles have started to regain their flame. To coin a Creole phrase, "Mwe p-ap pale de de moun, non." Translated, "I'm not talking about two people." That means we are talking about not a couple, but a bunch of kids here. Little Shama,11, was nearly dead when I first got back. She was bedridden and unable to eat even when there was food. It seemed that she would be dead soon. It was so serious, that her father even came to see her for the first time in many years. It was a very brief afternoon visit. He had come to see the daughter he abandoned one last time before she passed on. We immediately began praying and got her to a doctor. After weeks of being unable to stand up, she quickly took a major turn for the better. Within a few days she was here at the Happy House. She has been one of our near daily guests since. Her health is back up to par and she is the happy kid that she should be. She sung with us in the children's church Sunday. Her biological father may not care about her but this dad does, and she is very loved at the house here. More importantly there is a Father to the fatherless that brought all this together. A FEW PROBLEMS Francios is a little girl about 12 from the Smyrne school. She was one of the kids that would always ask me for a chicken and a cell phone. She was always in the greeting crowd any time we went. One of those smiles that always makes dusty, bumpy rides worth the trip to get there. I have several pictures of her with that big smile. Manno and I went by the Smyrne school the other day and noticed her name written on the blackboard in her class. The space she usually occupied on the front bench was empty. We will not see that smile again this side of heaven. She died suddenly last week. This makes me want to go up on top of a mountain and cry out. We can't find out how she died. All we get are stories that she was poisoned by a wicked aunt. Since most folks here do not go to doctors, or even believe in them, sicknesses are all attributed to falling under a curse sent by an enemy. This is part of the Voodoo mentality. Francios' death will not likely be remembered for long. Her parents live somewhere back in the mountains and her life had little worth in this society. It's not two tears that I have cried over this. Life gets cheaper here all the time. So many kids having kids. Today we learned of an abandoned baby lying in a dry river bed about 2 miles from here. A three month old baby girl in the dirt under the hot sun. A bridge was nearby but the mother had not even bothered to abandon her in the shade. A lady heard the crying and went to get the baby. She took it to the police and they announced it on the local radio. Eventually the dad, if you could call him that, came and took the baby. The lady that found the baby collected a finder's fee. The baby's mother is 16. The numbing part of this for me is that I know the mother. I knew the mother as a little girl. I remember when her father died. I helped her for a while in school. She eventually got involved with other friends and I saw less and less of her. I heard a while back that she was pregnant. Now she had become a single mom that couldn't take care of herself or her baby. They said she felt tied down by the baby so had decided to toss it like so much garbage. Fara, the girl relating the story to us said that she saw the "mother" this morning. The girl acted as though nothing had happened. "Hey Fara, how are you?" Fara replied, "Don't even talk to me after what you did. You're a criminal. I can't even look at you." The girl just grinned and walked on her way. Standoni came by the other night. I haven't seen him in a few years. His body has stayed little but his voice is that of a young man now. At 15 he is now the man of the house. His father passed away leaving his mother with 7 kids. The oldest daughter also now a single mother. He needs help to go to school....and eat. We have 13 year old boy at the Royale school whose parents are both crippled. They live in a woven hut and the boy has a little bicycle that he peddles around trying to sell candy and various little trinkets to make a living for the family. His younger brother died a few months ago and he is the only child now. We are starting to plug into his family now and making sure they have food. The boy eats at the school 4 days a week now. A little girl and her little brother at Pastor Abner's school just lost their father when he fell off of a roof top. Jameson was another little guy I saw when visiting a neighborhood of huts and shacks. He's a real smart little guy, but no dad, and no one to put him in school. We talked to his mom and got him measured for a uniform. He started school last week for the first time. He was also at church, if not for the first time, certainly one of the few times of his life. He is another walking skeleton. His days don't usually involve a lot of bathing or putting on a lot of clothes. His six years on the earth have been spent mostly playing in the dust and with toys rigged from sticks and old scraps of iron and discarded plastic of any sort. He'll have to adjust to school and clothes, but we'll keep after him. There's Solange. Wide eyed and full of wonder. Her father had two wives. He died and left them both. Solange's mother didn't care to have her around so she gave her to the man's other wife. We went visiting in some huts out by the Royale school last week. Some of the people whose huts were burned down during the political turmoil have 2004 have been trying to rebuild. Nearly two years later, many are still living in cardboard, woven branches and rubble. Many of the kids there are in the Royale school so they are getting fed. For many, if not for the food at the school, they would be eating only 4 or 5 small meals a week. When I say meal, I'm talking about rice and hopefully some beans. Kids rarely starve to death here, but 80% of sickness here is due to malnutrition related problems. Little kids by the thousands, sitting naked in the swirling dust. Bloated bellies from worms. Mud caked on their hands and feet. Eating dirt. Eating mango peelings. Picking fallen grains of rice from the dirt and putting them into their mouths. No dad around. Mom is gone off in search of food. The nine year old girl there is responsible for running the house till mom gets home that evening. Hopefully she will have something for them to eat when she comes. If she comes. A hut full of kids. Kids with names. Nosilia, Sheleh, Jemina, Samanta, Jonas, and on and on. All these kids, being watched by no one. I'm kind of letting my head explode here. I'm trying to spew all of the things I've seen in the last week into this e-mail. I doubt that it's working. I'll hold off on the problems here for now. This is all part of the world here and to understand the significance of feeding programs and Happy Houses, you need to know a little about the world in which they exist. Believe me when I say these are only a tiny few of the things we are dealing with. A POSITIVE NOTE As for me, I'm not discouraged. I'm mad at this hunger thing and we are attacking it with all the resources we can get our hands on. We are putting out about 2,000 meals a week at the Royale school. Grace Chapel/Luncroom is nearly finished. About 300 meals a week in Smyrne. Between 250 and 300 lunches a week at the Happy House. We still have two schools and a food program in Cite Soleil. The school in Au Parc is still going. I have seen the health of many kids improve here at the Happy House over the last few weeks. Also the kids service at church is growing massively. We have started a new choral group and the kids are real excited. Some of the older kids from the House are helping in the services now as well. I praise God that many of these problems can be helped. There is so much we can do. The wrong thing to do is sit back and be depressed. Hundreds of kids are getting meals that wouldn't otherwise. Thousands are getting some education that wouldn't otherwise. For many the only time they hear the gospel is at school. This big increase at the House has definitely put a strain on our finances, so anybody that wants to help out, feel free. We are getting involved with more families and small communities. We've had many new kids come stay a weekend at the Happy House and given out bags and bags and bags of clothes, shoes, beanie babies, pencils, etc. Are all of these efforts making a difference here? Ask the kids and their parents. It won't be two kids that will tell you YES! As always, we thank the many folks that the Lord uses to make this possible. Please keep us in your prayers. I'm still glad to be here. Bon Dieu beni nou! fre Ed |