Blog from Denise

September 12, 2015

This time coming to Haiti was harder for me to leave my family, my freedom

and the comforts of living in the Us.  It was hard to know I will miss the

grandchildren’s birthdays, their soccer games, helping with school work. I

will miss my children and their spouses. I will miss my friends, I will

miss my freedom.

Here in Haiti Bob and I should not go anywhere alone, the Priest we work

with has someone with us 24/7. I am not sure if this is really necessary,

but Fr. Gracia thinks it is.  We know other Americans that travel around

Haiti without this protection and have not had problems.  Although we have

been in a few situations where we did not know what to do and the help of

our friend was good (usually it is to give money).

The fears here in Haiti are mostly because of Voodoo beliefs; even if a

person does not practice voodoo they are still afraid of its effects.

These fears run deep and control most aspects of Haitian life. So they

also affect our work here. Last spring a beautiful garden was started here

at the school we live at. Much work was put into preparing the soil,

planting and watering the garden. Then there was voodoo symbols found in

the garden, they are believed to be powerful symbols and the garden was

abandoned. It is believed the symbols made the garden unsuccessful and in

a sense it was because the garden was not cared for and did not produce.

But the people believe the voodoo destroyed the garden.

We have asked Fr. Gracia if we could have a prayer service and bless this

garden spot and try again. Father said we could but the lack of fencing

around our compound makes it difficult to keep people out, so this could

happen again. We are trying to have gardens at each of the schools to help

offset the costs of the feeding the children and we will keep trying. Bob

and I are planning to hold a meeting at each of the schools to involve each

of the parents in the schools and part of this will be helping in the

gardens

Sunday Sept 12th

Upon arriving at our apartment we faced many problems, no water, no

electricity, no internet, and my new phone won’t accept the Haitian sim

card. Bob has been working on the electricity with help from our friend

Elwood but has not solved the problem yet, so we run the generator for a

couple of hours each night. A local man has worked on the Water and the

problem is at the spring capture so we have water sometimes.  We have a

couple of meetings in the morning but are hoping to go to Gros Morne

tomorrow to solve the internet and hopefully the phone issue.

We have had many people come to greet us and many have brought gifts of

coconuts, avocadoes, and a fruit called kinip (grape like with a hard

shell and big seed). The welcoming has been very nice. Tomorrow we will

visit the Center for the first time in many months I am looking forward to

seeing the progress there.

I was feeling pretty lonely this morning and a bit over whelmed by all the

problems. Bob suggested I call our daughter and it did lift my spirits.

Also we had a visit from our friends Anita and Elwood and that was very

nice. We will start a full week of work tomorrow. The laundry has

accumulated and will take the whole morning if I have water to catch up

1. We are working on sorting the shipping container and have a lot more

to go. Saturday Bob was working on it and pulled a muscle in his back. It

was scary because he felt the pain in his chest first. We were scared he

may be having a heart attack. But after some rest it was apparent he must

have pulled a muscle.

Thank you for your interest and prayers,

Denise

1. If you have e-mailed me and I have not responded I haven’t been able to go

on the internet all week.