heart of a Haitian: Gradec Orphanage

During my last week in Haiti, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.  Michael, my translator from last August, helps run the orphanage and wanted me to make a visit while I was in the country.  The timing worked perfectly since school at Centre Lumiere ended the week of June 20th and I didn't fly out until July 1st, so I was determined to make it happen.  I am so grateful that I did.

Gradec Orphanage has been in operation since 2005.  It is run by Yonel, Michael, and Pastor Wilson, who you can see below.  They provide a home for orphaned children as well as children with only one parent who is unable to take care of their child.  The Haitian government contacts them when they have kids in need of a home.  They have had as many as 45 children, but following the earthquake, many extended family members took children when they moved out of Port-au-Prince and tried to rebuild their lives.  Currently the orphanage has 15 children, but they are ready and prepared to receive more this summer.

It was such a blessing to be able to love on these kids for a week.  I've been thinking for the last few months how I thought I missed being a teacher in the classroom.  I honestly think I just miss being with kids.  These children were a blast to be around.  I wish I had more resources to spoil them with during my time there.  We spent hours playing outside, drawing on the chalkboard, braiding lanyards, coloring with crayons, playing with each others hair, dancing in the house, and laughing.  I was also able to bring clothes that were provided by friends from home and missionaries that came to work at the guest house in Les Cayes.  Check out our pictures below!

Spending a week at the orphanage was an eye opening experience for me.  I did not live in luxury at the guest house in Les Cayes, but we at least had the conveniences of running water and 24 hour electricity.  At the orphanage, our toilet was flushed with a bucket of water that had to be pulled from the well, showers were taken by scooping cups of water out of the bucket and pouring it over our head, and electricity only lasted from 10:30pm to 5:00am if we were lucky.  Thankfully I can sleep in sweat, but it's not a pleasant feeling to wake up to.  These little things that we never think of in the states is everyday life in Haiti.

My heart breaks for these children who have been left by their parent, and yet I am thrilled to see the safe, loving, Christian environment that they are being raised in.  One girl, Ismaelle, was brought into the orphanage the day before I came.  She cried for her mommy nearly everyday, and kept her distance from most people at the house.  Yet, throughout the week I would awaken to her singing as she bathed outside my window, and my last day there I couldn't help to snap photos of her smile (see below).

Michael and Yonel were both raised in a mission themselves.  It so amazing to see 2 great, Christian guys who want to bless the lives of other orphaned children just like they were blessed themselves.  If you would like to donate to Gradec Orphange, sponsor a child to help pay for schooling and medical care, take a missions trip and meet the kids in person, or possibly look into adopting one of these children, let me know!

Michael, Pastor Wilson, and Yonel

Jumping rope in front of the house

Shailla and Esther braiding Ismaelle's hair

Playing games in the living room

Michael playing with the kids

Woodro petting the adorable kitten that showed up in front of the house

Claudette, Wilson's wife, preparing dinner for everyone

Eating a meal together as a family

Pastor Wilson's church on Sunday morning

One damaged wall in the church

Kenson getting his head shaved

They know the Lord's Prayer in Creole and French... time to learn it in English!

Me helping with correct pronunciation of the Lord's Prayer in English

I love these kids!

The girls with 4 new dresses and 3 new pairs of underwear

The girls showing off a new dress

The boys showing off their new shirts... they got 2 shirts and 2 pairs of underwear

Standing in line in the kitchen waiting to see the nurse

fearfully and wonderfully made

One of the things that excited me most about coming to Haiti was the opportunity to be able to learn and communicate in a different language. Haitian Creole is a very easy language in the fact that it doesn't have a lot of confusing rules and multiple verb conjugations. Unlike English that has a lot of words that mean roughly the same thing (for example, make: create, build, assemble, brew, compose, construct, fabricate, form, generate, manufacture, produce, etc.), Creole has one word that can be used for lots of different things (for example, fè: means to make, to do, to perform, to produce, to provide, to manufacture, to achieve, to take in (money), to read, to learn, to give birth, to stay, to spend). Basically, in English we have lots of different ways to say one thing and in Creole you have one way to say a lot of different things. As long as one pays attention to context, basic conversations are easy to follow. 

When I first arrived in January, so many people said that I would be communicating in 3 months. I didn't believe it was possible. After all of the audio language courses that I did before coming, I was excited to pick out a stray word here and there in conversation.

Still, exposure does something to you, and the more that I heard the words being spoken, the quicker I was able to catch on. It seemed like every time I learned a new word, I picked it up in conversation not long after, helping to reinforce it in my memory. By no means am I anywhere close to fluent, but I can at least express my basic needs and wants, and carry on a decent conversation with someone as I walk down the street.

This past Sunday, I was able to understand my first sermon, from the passage, to the illustrations, to the outline as a whole. I do not say this to “toot my own horn” because I know that none of this has been through my own strength and I still have a LONG way to go. Yet, after being here for only 5 months, I am amazed by how much I've been able to learn. When David states that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” he wasn't kidding (Ps. 139:14). Just our minds are a marvelous creation that should bring us not only to awe and wonder, but drive us to use it to it's full potential. If we would not only believe that we had this potential, but put it into action, how much more abundant our lives could be? God promises us that He has the ability to do amazing things in and through us (Phil. 4:13, John 14:12), we just have to step out with full confidence.

rain, rain, go away

My last blog on Wednesday was about the rain.  Over 80 hours later it is still raining.  We had a break for about 2 hours on Thursday and then the sun tried to peak out for about 20 minutes this afternoon... long enough to decide to take a walk and then get caught in the rain on the street.  I guess rainy season decided to hold off this year.  I've never experienced anything like this.

I remember when I first came to Haiti last August, I was welcomed by one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever been in.  It was my first experience in a flooded road, and what was supposed to be a 3 hour drive ended up taking over 5 hours.  The streets became rivers and trash flowed to unknown locations.

Now, I love a thunderstorm back in the states.  In the safety and comfort of your home, you can curl up with a blanket and a nice book or pop a movie into the DVD player to pass the time.  Some of the best naps are taken on a rainy afternoon; the same can not be said for Haiti.

As my team sat in traffic on the flooded streets last August, I remember Michael, my translator, looking distraught because of the rain.  I leaned over and asked him if he was okay?  Did he not like the rain?  I will never forget the look that he gave me or the response that followed.  "When it rains in Haiti," he said, "people die.  Children in the tent cities will drown tonight."  I froze.  If I hadn't yet realized that I had entered a different world from the sights of people living under tarps and the earthquake destruction still to be seen, that one statement made it real for me.  Something that I enjoyed back home, something essential to plant growth and drinking water, can bring death to those that leave in extreme poverty.

Though no one lives in tents in my community, flooding is still a significant problem and living in rain days on end forces you to have to make some changes.  I honestly don't know how the people do it.  No one in our house can do laundry because the clothes will not dry on the line.  Just yesterday, we tried to light a match to burn a mosquito coil.  After 14 matches, it finally lit.  They were either too moist to keep burning long enough to light the coil, or the phosphorus match head would scrap off just like wet chalk. And, these matches where in a closed jar just moments before we tried to use them.

I wonder how the Haitians are able to take care of their everyday needs?  How do you cook food with wet matches and fuel.  Since no one has indoor plumbing, were do you go to use the restroom?  I guess no one bathes until the rain is gone, or maybe they just bathe in the rain.  Not only can you not do laundry, but it doubles in size with all of the wet clothes everyone accumulates.  Also, no one goes to school on rainy days, so kids have to be entertained somehow.

After feeling like we were under house arrest, and about to go stir-crazy, the PT team this week jumped in the car with our cooks for a trip to the market in town.  I was in disbelief at how flooded the streets were.  Most places were at least to mid-calf, some areas were all the way up to people's waists.  Yet, market day continued to go on because people have to make a living.  See the photos below of the flooding, and please pray for the people of Haiti and the DR right now as we are all affected by heavy raining.

My friend, Felix, walking on the flooded streets outside of my work place

The start of my walk home from work

Wet feet for 4 days straight

The main corner in Simon

Downtown Les Cayes, the streets have become rivers

Wouldn't the National Guard be helping if this happened in the states?

Our Land Cruiser leaves a wake as we drive down the streets

Haiti has disappeared on the weather radar

lapli tonbe (it's raining!)

It has been raining non-stop for the last 8 hours.  It is so amazing how life here is controlled by the weather.  Everyone's plans change when the rain starts falling.  Work ended at 4 today at the Child Care center (I will blog more about my 2nd job later), and all of the pastors were sitting out on the porch waiting for the rain to dwindle down before jumping on their motorcycles to head home; they quite possibly would still be sitting there if prayers were not answered.

I grabbed my disposable poncho out of my backpack that I've carried around for emergencies to keep my laptop from getting drenched.  As I pulled it over my head, I heard a discussion going on about the need for the center to invest in raincoats and umbrellas to have on hand.  Immediately my mind converted to the American response of how to fix the problem.  I was already thinking about types and brands, and what the best way would be to ship them to country upon my return to the states.  I never once considered that God had the problem solved himself long before I even knew the rain would start.

Marie Lucie offered me a ride home, which I was grateful for.  Though my laptop would have been dry, walking a mile in the rain doesn't put you in the best mood.  As I jumped in her truck, she said we would have to make a quick stop by another missionaries house to drop off some mail.  We said "good bye" to the pastors who were still under the covering of the shelter, and headed to Tim's house.  Marie Lucie stopped to chat as she dropped off the mail (running errands in Haiti are never quick), and the topic of weather came up.  Out of the blue, Tim said that he had extra rain jackets that his team did not use and the Child Care center was welcome to have them.  Out of his depo came 6 high quality, adult sized rain jackets.  Marie Lucie just smiled about the answer to prayer.

As we drove back to the Child Care center, all of the pastors looked at us trying to figure out what we forgot.  As Marie Lucie pulled the neon yellow jackets out of the truck, I witnessed grown men jumping and dancing for joy.  God at work in Haiti... it's hard to miss!

i must be honest

I don't like the food here. It's not that I hate it... it is palatable. Aside from the assorted tropical fruits that we can get when in season, rice, beans, and chicken for every meal of every day are rather bland. I hadn't considered it before, but I have never seen a Haitian restaurant. Come to think about it, I believe I have seen a restaurant for every culture other than Haiti.

When I think of the foods that I have had here, 2 different things come to mind. I believe I've shared this before, but the repetitive menu of chicken, rice, and beans has been a blessing to me. So many people in this country eat to survive. If food is put on your plate, you eat it, and you eat all of it because you can't be sure when you will get your next meal. What is considered extreme measures in the states is unthought of as such here. A bug in your drink? Remove it and keep on drinking. Ants on your food? Blow them off and keep eating. When I step up to the kitchen bar only to see rice and beans again, it is a great reminder to me to be grateful for what I do have and pray for those who are not as blessed materially.

Yet, I have also been thinking of the bland taste of food. Like I mentioned, there is such a wide assortment of fruits and vegetables here in this country. I have fallen in love with avocados, figs (mini bananas), zabrico (like an apricot), and mango juice (the fruit, though... yuck!). You would think with so many unique flavors that the dishes would be tasty. Yet, in 4 months here I have come to find otherwise. It is not that our cooks don't like flavorful dishes, they just are unfamiliar with new recipes. They are stuck in a rut of what they've always known and don't know what they are missing. I've gone out on a limb to make some more flavorful foods (like guacamole!), but all of the Haitians were hesitant to try a new taste, and prefer to stick to the ordinary. They are missing out on what great things they could be having.

I find such a stark comparison to Christians who are hesitant to step out in faith when God calls us to do great things. Rather than taking a leap into the unknown and experiencing for ourselves what great things God has in store for us, we shrink back, hesitant that anything could be better than how we are currently living. We lack faith that God is there with us in the unfamiliar. Yet, He promises that He will always be with us (Deuteronomy 31:8), we only have to trust Him.

The various recipes that I am sharing with the cooks are not meant to shame them for not knowing or make them sick. I only want them to experience the joy of trying new foods. God wants the same for us... He doesn't want to bring us harm or humiliate us when we step out in faith. Rather, He desires for us to experience for ourselves His power in us and give us the pleasure of bringing Him glory. “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

jou fèt (day of celebration)

It's so hard to believe how fast 4 1/2 months have flown by.  The end of my current ministry in Haiti is right around the corner.  Endings are always bitter sweet.  They are a great time to reflect back on where you've been and celebrate what has been accomplished.  It's exciting to look forward to what the future holds, but closure is always difficult.  Since I still have a few weeks left, I will focus on the celebration now.

Olga, my boss, leaves for the states next week for the textile market in High Point.  Since she will not be returning before the school year ends, we made the decision to have all of the "end of the year" celebrations early before she leaves.  We've had 2 creative craft days for our students, teachers, and the annex schools.  While the ladies are studying home economics, their focus is solely on sewing, crocheting, embroidery, and pattern drafting.  I got the pleasure to teach card making with rubber stamps and card stock materials that were generously donated by MTI individuals.  Check out the pictures below of all of the creative work the ladies did.

On Thursday, all of our staff and students squeezed on a tap-tap and into Olga's car for a day at the beach.  What started out as a dreary, rainy morning ended up being a nice overcast day at the beach.  Upon arrival we had singing and a devotional on the beach about Jesus always being with us (in Creole and I understood!).  Then, everyone enjoyed various snacks, games, and playing in the ocean.  I've learned that Haitians love to have fun and act just like kids when given the opportunity.  The girls were dunking each other in the ocean and throwing sand for hours.  I also witnessed everyone collecting clams by the edge of the ocean like I used to do as a child, but they intended to take them home to make clam chowder.  Seems like too much work for such a small amount of meat.

We had a wonderful time and it's a pleasure to see what great friends these women have become over the 3 years that they have studied at Centre Lumiere.  My prayer is that they will be able to use the trades they've learned to better not only their lives, but to impact the lives of many others throughout the country of Haiti.

Checking out the materials to begin planning their cards

Devotional for the annex school teachers and students

The biggest class I've ever taught... 48 students!

Students and teachers squeezed in the tap-tap and excited about the beach

Colorful lobster

Beautiful Haiti

DOMINOES!

Waiting for lunch... pwason (fish)

If you were a teacher, what would you do?

Nets hanging to dry and waiting to be mended

I love the creativity... flip-flop soles for floats

Colorful fish

No, they do not eat these :)

This is what happens when you only wear Rainbows for 6 months