Coming and Goings

 

2/27/15

Yesterday we traveled up to Kalabat. First we met with Frankie, a volunteer at the Sisters house who has agreed to help me write for a grant to further develop our Agricultural Center.  I am hoping to find a grant that will allow us to work for the next few years without having to worry about how we will continue the following year.  Frankie is very bright and her degree is in community development, she is giving me the confidence to pursue a larger grant. The meeting was just discussing preliminary steps. We will meet again next week.

We left the Sisters house on motos because the road to Kalabat is too rough for our truck. The moto ride up the mountain is difficult but there is no easy way to get to Kalabat. On the ride up Fr. Gracia saw us and stopped our motos. He was attending a meeting in Atrell and invited me to attend also. The meeting was very interesting. I could understand much of what was being said, it was a group that had organized themselves within their community. They had broken up into groups and were deciding how to better their community. Top on everyone’s list was to plant trees, they also talked a lot about cutting the weeds not leaving soil bare, and each house putting in a toilet. This group is also organizing to fix the road.

I found all of this so inspiring. They were not asking for any help only information, and not necessarily from me. I learned at the meeting that an organization that works here named Caritas is an organization that’s main office is in the Vatican. Caritas has many projects and programs helping in most areas, including health, agriculture, water, social development, and probably a lot I don’t know about. I was very happy to hear this news.

When the meeting was over Fr. Gracia, Sr. Victoria and I walked the rest of the way to Kalabat. There were nine more river crossings on our way, but mostly it was a pleasant walk. Shortly after returning to the rectory Bob and I enjoyed a very nice dinner with Fr. Gracia and Julia his cousin. Then Bob and I went to our room and watched a movie on our computer until the generator was shut down.

This morning we went to the school and started taking the pictures of the sponsored children. This is a big project as the schools are pretty far apart. There are two schools that you can only walk to, and it is not an easy walk. Bob and I will take the pictures on our side of the mountain and plan to meet with Fr. Gracia next week to continue getting the rest of the pictures at the other schools.

The children are so cute, the pre- schoolers surrounded me and all wanted to hold my hand. Soon I had several children holding my hands then they tried to see up my shirt and to lick me. I guess they wanted to know if I was white all over and what I tasted like.

At the rectory some crazy person keeps cutting the water line, the water line gets repaired and then it is cut again. So the result of this is no running water. It was a challenge, and another time I was reminded of just how spoiled I am. There is a fifty gallon barrel outside of the bathroom; from there you fill five gallon buckets to bathe, or to flush the toilet. Unfortunately I woke up sick at three in the morning on Saturday.  I had to fill this bucket to flush many times. I started to feel sorry for myself, and then thought of the other people here that don’t even have a toilet. But I have to admit when it continued into the day I did ask Bob to help me with filling the bucket. The water to bathe was very cold, like to take your breath away (although I am a wimp). I felt fortunate to return home and use our shower can for a warm shower. When I return home to the US and get a nice long hot shower I will feel like a queen.

We returned to Garcin on Sunday afternoon. It was a very nice visit but it is always nice to be home. This week has been a busy one .Monday morning I drove to the school in Atrell with Bob. We drove through the river many times. Fr. Gracia was very surprised to see that I had driven. I really love off the road driving, but there was a whole new set of obstacles to contend with. Large rocks, where to cross the river, where to come up on the other side, people, goats, donkeys loaded down, and children. The good thing is you are driving very slowly so you have lots of time to choose your route, or avoid an obstacle.

At the school in Atrell , I recognized the director right away. I haven’t seen him in a few years. A Baptists group came to this area several years ago and built a school very close to ours.  They offered free tuition, books  and uniforms. Many of the parents moved their children to this new school and our school closed.  After a few years the Baptist school could see this was not good and started to charge for their school.  This was about the same time that Fr. Gracia came and he reopened  our school . The school director introduced Bob and I as the people who built the school. The school was really built because of the support from the faithful benefactors to the Haiti Project. We took the children’s pictures and then I spoke to the children. Fr. Gracia also spoke to the children. Then we left with Fr. Gracia and went to pick Sr. Pat up.

St. Pat has a school in Fon ibo, a village just outside of Gros Morne. This school recently got a grant to put in a computer lab. Fr. Gracia was impressed with the computer lab and can see how this would benefit the school in Kalabat. Fr. Bart, a Haitian Priest living and working in Florida that we visited on our way to Haiti just had satellite internet installed at Kalabat. This is service is for the community, he desires to see the people of Kalabat come in to the 21^st century.  We will look into submitting a grant to this organization to see if we can also receive help. Of course we then went to get an egg sandwich, and then went to Sr. Pats to work on some problems in the parish and the grant.

Tuesday we had our third clinic, although we had about ten less people it was still a good clinic. We finished early and Sr. Julian decided to walk over the mountain to return home. She had money for a moto but decided to save the money and walk. My understanding is this is not a far walk but a very difficult one. Our friend Bermand went with her to help her find her way.

I hope the clinic continues doing well after I leave. It has been told to me that the success of the clinic is because I am involved. I am hoping that the people can see that I have respect for Sr. Julian and they should also. Time will tell.

We are beginning to get ready to leave. We only have a couple of weeks left. We will start packing the shipping container when we get home. We are looking for tables and chairs still, we need lap top computers (for Kalabat, now they have internet and only two people have a computers. Lap tops take less energy so until they get more energy they can only support lap tops), shoes of any size or type, over the counter medications, then of course the same things we have collected in past years.

Thank you so much for your interest and your prayers,

Denise