Please check in tomorrow to hear about our first orphanage visits and time spent in the city of Port-au-Prince!

Today we were able to see much more of Port-au-Prince. We spent a lot of time in the car; however, this gave us time to observe local life here. The city is busy with tons of cars, people and the occasional dog, all doing what they can to survive and make it through the day. School is out for the summer therefore we saw many children; however we learned that not many children in Haiti attend school due to a limited number of public schools and expensive private schools. The children that are able to attend school are put through rigorous testing, including 4 government tests during high school which they must pass in order to graduate.

The first orphanage we visited was one completely run on faith. We spent time touring the facility, which included a girl’s dormitory, boy’s dormitory, kitchen, and dining area. The orphanage works to help over 100 children with 84 living on the premises, 10 living at the director’s home and several others living with their family but coming to the orphanage for food and support with education. The children range in age from 4 – 23. The orphanage struggles to meet the daily basic needs of the children, including providing three meals a day. The director of the orphanage is a very passionate woman committed to meeting the needs of all of the children in her care. Not only does she strive to provide protection and nutrition for children she also works to send the children to school, including attending the university. In addition, the orphanage provides training in various trades so when the children no longer live in the orphanage they have a way to provide for themselves.

The needs of this orphanage are incredible. They range from food and bedding to $100,000 to buy land to build a better facility which needs to be completed while the director’s father is still living. This is because his connection to the ministry is what provides the space for the orphanage.

We also had the opportunity to visit two pastors that Julio works with. Both pastors run schools, provide housing for children and families in need, and are struggling to keep these missions going. We look forward to attending church on Sunday to spend more time with the pastors and learn more about the culture here. We have been asked to speak to the congregation on Sunday and explain to them why we are here. People here truly appreciate outside support and people around the world recognizing that the people of this country need help.

Tomorrow we head to an orphanage in the city of Gonaives, located northwest of Port-au-Prince. Please check in to read about our day and see pictures from our trip thus far.

Once we made it to Gonaives we were invited to the home of the orphanage directors. The directors are an incredible couple who have suffered many hardships and persevered. In addition to their daily struggles of running an orphanage, they were kidnapped in December. They talked about their horrible experience, but how after a week they were released unharmed having paid a ransom of $80,000. Out of desperation the kidnappers have chosen this as their form of income. The intent is not to harm people even though the experience was very traumatic to both. When she suffered a heart condition the kidnappers took her to the hospital, but kept her husband who negotiated with the kidnappers to pay $170,000 less than what they originally asked for.

The couple prepared a meal for us before our arrival, anticipating that we would be hungry after our long journey. The meal was fantastic, sandwiches with ground meat, fresh vegetables and the best homemade lemonade we have ever tasted. Over lunch they shared with us stories of how they met and the difficulties they faced after Hurricane Jeanne in 2004.

We then went to the couple’s orphanage. This is a home to 19 children ages 8 months to 13 years old. With construction underway they are aspiring to someday house 80 children and have their own school. In the meantime every Saturday they feed 60 children from the community a hot meal. Both said this is their favorite day of the week because they do not have to turn any children away. The children living at the orphanage are fed three times a day and there is a doctor and nurse available. They have running water and created a well outside the orphanage so the entire community has access to fresh water. The children were charming. They sang for us and recited Bible verses. We then went outside and with the help of the directors’ son, taught everyone “duck, duck, goose.” It was the most entertaining game of “duck, duck, goose” that we have ever seen. The children learned quickly and seemed to really enjoy playing. Because we had to return to Port-au-Prince before it became dark, we were forced to leave before we were ready.

Today started out with an informative trip to the Haitian Historical Museum of Art.  It was surprising to us how close the Haitian history is to the U.S.  Native Americans were the first and only inhabitants of Haiti until the arrival of Christopher Columbus.  He left the island of Haiti in the hands of the Spaniards and with good will toward the Native Americans.  It wasn’t long before the Spaniards started mistreating the Native Americans.  Following the take-over of the country by the Spaniards, slaves from Africa were forced to Haiti on ships with deplorable conditions.  After approximately 300 years of slavery, the slaves revolted and slavery in the country ended although the ramifications from it are still felt today.

After touring the Museum we went to visit the Mayor of Petion-ville, Claire Lydie Parent.  She is a dynamic woman with a progressive vision for the country of Haiti.  Petion-ville is considered the nicest and most elite city of Haiti; however, it did not look much different to us than the rough and dirty streets of Port-au-Prince.  The road to the Mayor’s election was much different than what someone might expect in the U.S.  She was part of a popular singing group that worked to convey positive images of community and humanity within their music.  While living in the U.S. she was elected by the people of Petion-ville to be their mayor.  Due to the facts that she is a woman and a dark-skinned Haitian, she was an unlikely candidate for mayor.  What is even more remarkable about her election to mayor is that she was not running for the position, but voted in by the people.  Upon her appointment she returned to Haiti to serve her people.  Now in her third term as mayor, she is continuing to help settle a country that has undergone major unrest and political upheaval.  One thing we must note is that even as mayor in the nicest city of Haiti, the electricity turns off at noon everyday so the generator can be recharged. 

As mayor, she put order in the city, destroyed part of a cemetery to build a much needed road despite opposition, she is giving direction to children including building schools, colleges, and meeting with them.  She has brought electricity to the community, portable water, replaced trees and fixes homes in order to prevent people from becoming homeless.  She has also built a house care center where people are trained to go out in the city and teach others about proper health care.  Because of her success, street children have swarmed to Petion-ville because it is safer than Port-au-Prince.  She is now planning to build a center for the street children including a place to sleep, go to school and learn a trade. 

This strong-willed and tough mayor has taken her job home.  She has opened her private home to 50 children she cares for 24 hours a day.  In addition, she feeds and funds the education of 100 other children.  With the money that she makes as mayor in the wealthiest city in Haiti, she returns everything back to the people.  There is no way for us to impress upon you what an incredible woman and leader Claire Lydie Parent is.  She was very interested in our mission in Haiti, and after meeting with her she shared with us that she believes in what we are doing and would like to visit Omaha someday.

Next we drove up into the mountains surrounding Petion-ville.  We had the opportunity to look down at the city of Port-au-Prince and see it surrounded by ocean and mountains.  Haiti truly is a beautiful country.

First we attended a Haitian church service. This is one of Pastor Julio’s churches. We received a warm reception and were invited to sit at the front of the congregation. They asked us to share about our trip and mission here in Haiti. The people at the church are very active in the service. Everyone sings and prays together. People here are very passionate about church, they sing powerfully, have enthusiastic movement, and pray intensely.

After church we met with Julio’s friend Lauri and her family again. Lauri was incredibly helpful in describing the culture of Haiti and was a great resource for us. After talking over lunch she helped us set up visits with three more orphanages. She gave us lots of information and we believe she will be a good follow-up contact as we build our program.

All children are educated in English in order to help with the transition to American families. They have 28 staff members. All nannies are trained and two nannies live in the orphanage in case extra help is needed. The program they use to train their nannies is open to women want to become a nanny. After completing the program they will either hire them or write references for them to work with other orphanages. The couple also runs a program for medically fragile children. They will house the children temporarily and complete paperwork so they can go to the U.S. for medical procedures that are not available in Haiti. Once the children receive the needed medical attention they return to their families in Haiti.

Tomorrow we have a very busy day of visiting three orphanages.

Below is information on our busy day of visiting three orphanages.

Orphanage 1:  This orphanage has two houses.  One with approximately 85 children ages infants to three and the other with approximately 85-90 children ages three to ten.  The house for the younger children has room for medically fragile and premature infants.  There are two nurses in this room at all times.  In addition one of the directors is a nurse to help with care.  This room is equipped with incubators, IVs, oxygen masks and medicines to help with emergencies that arise.  There are 50 staff total between the two houses and nannies are with the children at all times.  Volunteers come regularly for extended periods of time ranging from two weeks to six months.  Each volunteer is assigned 8 children to give individual attention to throughout their visit.

Orphanage 3: There are 45-50 children ranging 6 months to 9 years living at this orphanage.  The director is a Haitian woman who has adopted one child herself.  This orphanage has 7 nannies to care for the children and many rooms divided by ages and gender.  There is also at least one nanny who lives there. The children were playful and enjoyed having their pictures taken.  They seemed to have a good routine established.  The older children go to school daily.  There is a lot of space for children to play both inside and outside.  It is a large house with rooms for adoptive parents that are still in need of furnishings. 

Although people were wonderful and welcoming, it was clear that our first visit with everyone was about developing trust. Every person we met asked when we were returning again. They love their country, as we do now, and are very appreciative of any help to alleviate the needs. What has been most remarkable is to see how far this country has come in just one year. As we have said before, it was extremely unsafe and dangerous. But because of the current leadership in Haiti, safety is starting to become established and development projects are being set into motion.

We would like to thank Pastor Julio Volcy for his support of our mission in Haiti, and all the people we met during our week here. We appreciate all you do and are looking forward to working more with you.

A bientôt! (See you soon!)