Life in the slow lane, going very, very fast….

I have been back in Haiti for 11 days now for a very short trip; 11 more to go. This trip I am traveling alone because Denise is in recovery from her recent cancer surgery. She went to our family doctor on Friday because she felt a respiratory infection coming on. He diagnosed it as bronchitis and is treating it with anti-biotic. All is well.

This is the first time she has seen him since the surgery. He told her he had been constantly updated on her condition and told her that the type of cancer she had was “small cell” cancer. He went on to tell her that this type of cancer is untreatable.

We have believed this whole experience has been a empirical, from the way it was discovered, (one week before we had planned to leave for Haiti), to the very qualified medical personnel, to the success of the surgery. And now to realize this… If the cancer had not been discovered so early….

Some people believe in coincidences, but we give thanks to the prayers of the faithful and the saints that have gone on before us, and our humble thanksgiving and and praise to our Creator God.

What a Thanksgiving this will be!!!

I have not written sooner because I hit the ground running and have had little time to collect my thoughts. I am in Port au Prince now to pick up our daughter, Sarah Joy. Sarah Joy is an nutritionist and is joining me to analyze the food we have been serving in our school lunch program since we switched to locally grown food.

Now that we have jumped the hurdle of changing the mind set of serving American rice and beans to local food, the next step is to ensure that meals served are maximized for nutritional content. She will begin by analyzing the lunch reports from the last few years and visiting four schools to interview the school directors and cooks, and see first hand the food and preparation.

When I first arrived in Haiti, I purchased $900 worth of heavy duty tarps at the request of Sr. Augistane for emergency shelter at the school and for homes in the Kalabat area. That leaves a balance of $4,100 in our “Earthquake Relief Fund”. Almost $3,000 of the fund was from the quick response of many of you. From the peasant who are suffering, M`ECI ANPIL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

The Haiti Project made up the difference to $5,000 came from funds that were generously donated for “Unrestricted Needs”.

Again, From the peasant who are suffering, M`ECI ANPIL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

This past Friday I met with Sophia, Fr. Dachemy and Fr. Janin to discuss the best way to use the remaining funds.

Sophia is a young Argentinean volunteer that works with Sr. Pat and Sr Jackie. She is helping to translate and facilitate the many meetings I need to squeeze into this short time span. She is a remarkable, faith-filled young women. I know that God had put her in this place and time, I could not accomplish a fraction of what is needed with her service.

Fr. Dachemy is the priest of “Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish”, the new parish formed as a result of the splitting for our original parish, the parish of “Riviere Mancelle”. Fr. Dachemy is an energetic, godly man dedicated to serving his parishioners. He was educated in Port o Rico where he graduated with an MBA.

Fr. Janin is the new priest of “Rivier Mancelle” who replaced Fr. Gracia this summer. He also is an energetic, godly man dedicated to serving his parishioners. He was educated in Italy. Saturday was the first time that Fr. Dachemy and I met him.

At our meeting along with plans for addressing our collaborative response to the earthquake, we discussed several areas where the interest of both parishes overlap. I stressed the need for the collaboration needed by both men as Denise and I can not, and will not be torn between the two parishes; but all of us working together can find solutions to the many needs of both parishes. To put this to an immediate test we proceeded to divide the contents of the sea-container shipment sent last spring. This is a large task and along with the many hands of local volunteers it was accomplished and fairly quickly.

The first meeting I had, Geri, another volunteers with the sisters, translated for me. This meeting was with Fr. Dachemy and our new supervisor of schools for the parish of “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. I apologize I cannot find his name at the moment and want to publish this blog while I have the opportunity.

This man has about 10 years experience supervising 10 schools. He only left the position because he had to pay his own transportation cost, so he changed professions, moving to banking. He is extremely happy to be back in education.

Now he is overseeing the two schools that THP supports as well as a third parish school, St Theres, that is independently supported.

Our discussion revealed that we all have a similar vision for the schools. I believe that with this team we will make significant advances in the education that we are providing. After this meeting I met with Sophia and she assumed the roll of translator for the remainder of my visit.

With my initial meeting with Sophia she outlined a program she is developing for the pre-school teachers that uses government guidelines to assure that the preschool students will be prepared for 1st grade. We are moving ahead, making sure that this formation will be presented to the schools of the parish of Riviere Mancelle as well.

During my initial visit to the Fr Jim Agriculture Center, I met John, the new guardian. The original guardian, Lavalos left for personal family reasons. John is a soft spoken younger man from the village of St Theres, another village in the parish of “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. John’s addition to the center is apparent immediately entering the gates of the center. You are now greeted with beautiful flowers fronting the pavilion. The area is spotless and inviting. He is excited about this new opportunity for himself and is eager for the education that comes along with the responsibility. Welcome John!

Last Thursday, a group of volunteers came to the center and planted and an additional 20 mounds of yams. Yams are a staple food and an important part of the school lunch program. The volunteers worked for the meal we provided after they finished.

After the planting, we met with Delius, manager of the Fr. Jim Agriculture Center and agronomist Guy Mari. The agenda for this meeting was to address the progress in the development of the center. We began this meeting with me defining the two main goals of the center. One, recognizing that rural Haiti’s economy is based on agronomy and the center was built as a resource to raise the income of the peasant farmers. Second, Haiti is now over 99% deforested, that is why we do not cut trees with out a purpose that supports agroforestry. Our goal is to have a showcase that farmers can visit and see the possibilities for themselves to reclaim their countryside.

As a result of that meeting Guy Marie committed to working with us to develop a formal long term development plan and beginning December, assigning one of the agronomist that works under him to work hands on at the center one to two days a week.

We also discussed the “buying local” aspect of our school lunch programs and how to promote participation. Guy Marie suggested that we facilitate a local market one day a week. The center is located in Buchan Richard which is located half way between Gros Morn and Pilat. Each is at least an hour and half walk up and down the mountain. He told me that it would be necessary for me to participate in the meetings to create the market because since we provide the money to buy the food for the school lunch program, the peasant farmers needed to hear from me personally that the schools will buy the food.

The basic idea is that farmers from each of the 7 zones in Garcin and Buchan Richard would participate. They would bring their orders for the school. If the produce is sold to the general public, they will then fill the order from back up sources. This should give assurances of success to the farmers. We then scheduled a meeting that we had last Saturday.

The meeting on Saturday was attended by 15 leaders representing the 7 sections. During this meeting a discussion took place with positive and negative aspects. This is a new idea and at first there was oblivious reluctance. However as the dialogue continued and potential problems where addressed and solutions were discussed, all agreed excitedly that we should proceed. A meeting is scheduled for next Saturday with this group along with Fr. Dachemy, the new school supervisor, school directors and others that are involved in the school lunch program. It was further decided that the first market day will be the following Tuesday. Tuesday will be the last day that Sarah Joy and I will be working. We will be traveling to Port au Prince on Wednesday to fly home on Thursday.

Later when Sophia and I were discussing the upcoming meeting, she suggested that Sarah Joy share on the importance of following the menu guidelines that she will be developing.

That brings us up to today. Today I plan on visiting artist and and art co-op to buy art for our upcoming Advent Sales when I return to the States. Stay tuned for a

Then this afternoon I will pick up Sarah Joy from the airport and head north.

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