SILOAM SCHOOL AT LABASTILLE
(AKA Haiti Mission School)
UPDATE
February 2012
RECAP OF OUR TRIP TO HAIT!
Our trip to Haiti this month (January 2012) was chock full of things to do, places to go, meetings to attend and decisions to make. Son Steve was able to travel with us. It was his first time to Haiti. Both the land and the people have found a special place in his heart
We arrived in Jeremie on Saturday and were met by Dieudonne (our man in Haiti). We spent time setting up our house and office keeping, meeting visitors (some in need, some to spend time with), and planning our agenda for the week. We visited Dieudonne's new (under construction) home. It is up a very steep hill and is difficult to get to, but the views of the Caribbean are spectacular. We laughed about how hard it would be to get there when it snows. Steve had been pretty awed by this time by scenes at the airport, driving through Port Au Prince and our flight into Jeremie
On Sunday, we attended church in Jeremie and shared greetings and some thoughts with the congregation. We spent much of the afternoon walking around town, visiting with friends and then went to our young friend Friznell's home for supper. They don’t eat with us, but all the family do come to visit and for pictures (and leftovers) afterwards. We try to eat enough to show our appreciation, but leave food for them too. In typical Haitian style, thirteen family members live together in this small home with Friznell and his grandmother
Later, we went to the town square where a revival was in progress. It was the third day of a three day event, and was attended by thousands of Haitians. The town square was packed. I’m not crazy about crowds, but it was quite an amazing thing to be among that many Christians praising the Lord through song and sermon.
Monday was spent planning for our Tuesday visit to the school and showing Steve around the city of Jeremie. We visited the market and I bought a new cap. I told the woman that I wanted the eighth one on the rack. She thought that I wanted all eight. We are learning the language, and these kinds of things do happen (frequently??) New hat in hand (or on head), we headed back to the hotel where we received more visitors.
Later in the day, we visited with Pastor Brunache at his home which is also his church. We were impressed, that day or night, whenever we visit him, there is always something going on… language classes… bible study… worship… etc. for young and old alike.
Tuesday, the local committee members met us, we prayed together and motorcycled to the Labastille area. Then we walked to the school. To our surprise, it had rained recently in the countryside and there was considerable labou (mud) to navigate. The mud is mostly clay, and it was glise (very slippery). But we persevered and made it to the school with no real problems other than muddy feet (except for Dieudonne who never seems to get any mud on his shoes or pants. During the day, we met with the student body (like an assembly), talked with the teachers, offered our gifts, ate with the children, and had a meeting with the committee from Jeremie, the one from Labastille, the predicators (preachers) from the Labastille church and the teachers.
During our trip, Dieudonne pointed out to us why we would not be able to construct the road that we had wanted. Heavy rains and steep hillsides make for frequent washouts. We actually were able to see this, since the road that they had worked on so hard last year was worse than it had been before they worked on it. That fact has changed our plans for drilling a well since we won’t be able to get the well drilling equipment to the school. Assuming Board approval, we have now decided to build a cistern that will use rainwater from the roof of the church and install a water filter to purify the water. We will begin the project as soon as we can get approval and raise the money (Initial estimate of around $3000. US, plus the filter). The cistern is 3x3x2 meters or roughly 10x10x6.5 feet and will hold about 4750 gallons when full. We hope that the Rotary Club or another group will install the filter.
The $2500 is for supplies, sand, stone, rock, concrete, labor, water, etc. It includes hauling the materials up the road to the beginning of the trail to the school. Sister Lucienne (the predicator) thinks we can pay some local people a small amount to carry it to the school. At first she said free, but all involved think that it will go faster and more efficiently if we pay the people who carry it.
We also came up with a design for the new school building which we need to build to replace the earthquake damaged buildings. Even though they are safe, they must be replaced because the government will not allow us to continue to use them when the school is registered. The new building will consist of six classrooms and an office for the supervisor teacher. Classrooms would be about 16’ square.
During this visit, we gave each child a packet of goodies (pencils, pens, erasers, balloons, candy, rubber balls, marbles, etc). We had hoped to include a little flashlight in each packet, but they didn’t arrive in time so we’ll give them when we go back in May
On Wednesday, we visited with our friend Pastor Maccene at his school and orphanage. He had just returned from the States, where he had been in treatment for cancer, which is now in remission. We told him of our sorrow about his wife who had passed away in December. We discussed our school and asked for his advice on several issues including the issue which was holding up our registration with the Haitian government. (more about this later)
Later that evening, we met with the Committee. For numerous reasons, we were unable to complete the work we had to do and had to meet again later. We agreed to meet again on Saturday afternoon and closed the meeting with prayer. Since Saturday was our last day, we worried that we would not be able to get the work all done. We prayed about it, asked others to pray, and left it in God’s hands.
Thursday, we returned to the school as planned. We watched the classes in session, and talked with the teachers. We also looked at classroom space and took measurements for the cistern and the future building.
There were about 100 children there the days we went. We have a registration of about 120. Like our schools in the US, regular attendance is sometimes an issue. Partially as a result of this, some children are not able to pass exams and are not moving ahead. When they are joined by new classmates, it makes the beginning classes larger and the upper classes smaller. Our desire has been to keep classes to around 25 students. We discussed this with the committee and head teacher, and they are working on plans for dealing with this situation. We might have to limit how long a child could continue in a class before taking a year off.
When we begin building, we would like to take a team from here to work together with the Haitians in constructing the building. All the materials will be brought in from the road by donkeys or by Haitians. This should be done by the time our team arrives, and we should not have to do any of this.
Dieudonnè estimates that we should be able to get the foundations and footings for the whole building, the office and first two classrooms built for around $5,000 US. The remainder will be completed as we can raise funds. We are now looking for an engineer or architect here in the U.S. who will draw up the plans. Hopefully this work will be donated.
Prior to any construction, however, the title to the land must be transferred to the Labastille church. Sister and Brother Lucienne, who own the property say that they will give the land to the church so it will always belong to the local people, but it will first need to be surveyed. We agreed to pay for the survey. We hope the land will be transferred either while we are there in May or before.
After school, we visited with some students in their home and met the parents(?) In this situation, it turned out that 4 of our students live in the same home, but none with their own parents. One had been there since she was a baby. A man and his mother who own the home are providing the home for our students. It was a very nice home by Haitian standards about a 20 minute walk from school. (They did not, however, have individual bedrooms, private bathrooms, granite countertops or stainless steel appliances!)
In return for living there, the children have chores to perform. I suppose this could be a potential Cinderella situation, and we have heard horror stories about child abuse in Haiti, but in this case it seemed to work, since the kids appeared happy with their situation and are attending regularly and doing well in school. We spoke with these four children plus one more of our students who was there. Of the 3 boys and 2 girls we spoke with, their hopes were to be a doctor, a lawyer, a mechanic and two nurses.
On Friday, we visited our head teacher (Kenold Derailin) and his family in their home in Jèrèmie. We have come to really appreciate this man and his abilities. He is finishing his teaching degree now (he is in the third year of a three year program in Haiti) and this will qualify him to become a director teacher, which we will need in order to qualify for our license. We gave him a laptop computer to use for maintaining school records, and told him that he could also use it for his own schoolwork.
On Saturday afternoon, when we were finally able to resume the meeting with the committee, it was with much trepidation. The committee brought as their translator, Pastor Houston, the head of the local federation of pastors in Jèrèmie. He was an excellent translator and helped not only bridge our communication difficulties, but also solved another problem that we had.
We had not been able to get the paperwork finished to receive our license. The Committee said that it was due to the fact that school founders had to be Haitians. We had talked to our friend Pastor Maccene about this and he said that he was certain we could be the founders. We mentioned this to Pastor Houston. He said that his friend was the Minister of Education for the region. Pastor Houston called him, and the Education Minister said he would come over. He arrived 5 minutes later and after hearing our difficulties said that there would be no problem with our registering as “founders” and he would see to it that the paperwork would get through. We ended with agreements on all our other issues and finished the meeting in 1 ½ hours. It was nothing short of a miracle, and another example of how prayer changes things.
Steve was an invaluable member of the team in contributing his listening skills, suggestions and advice… help with the heavy work… building relationships with the children and several of the young men who assisted us… note taking at meetings and many hours of work on the computer. He made many friends and was a great ambassador for the school, his church and his Lord. We thank him for joining us and we thank his family for supporting and encouraging him.
Finally, we enjoyed meeting many of our friends and traveling around the area during the week hope to return early in May for a couple of weeks. At that time we will be working on the contract for the next year, doing some more with the building plans and hopefully completing the registration of the school. We hope and pray that the cistern might be in progress, or even completed by then. As we often say in Haiti, “Bondye konn!” (God knows)
Until next time... Beni Swa L'eternel (Blessed be the eternal one!).
The children of Haiti are so beautiful. They are friendly, gentle and loving.
The beauty of the island is undeniable.
Unfortunately, the country's economy is the poorest in the western hemisphere.
This is not the fault of the children.
For reasons beyond our understanding they have been born into situations outside their control.
Many have asked us what hope is there for this country just a few short miles from the U.S.?
What could change it for the better? With so many things broken,
it is doubtful that it can be fixed for many years if not generations.
What hope then, is there for these children?
Like a lot of other things,
if you only look at the big picture, it's discouraging.
But if you look at the picture,
one child at a time, there is some hope.