Breanna and I got back from Haiti late Tuesday night. Our time there is now a memory, and a very good one! We spent a day and a half at the beginning of the week helping Michael finish up the last few things for the team, and we worked on the never ending project of repairing and servicing the truck. Wednesday, the rest of the team flew in, and we spent the night at CAM.
Vita Power, Jerry and Debbie Power, Emma Power, Michael, Jean Louis Ytler, Breanna Keller, Caleb Trent, me, Jean Harold
Early the next morning we headed north. Two hours on the best paved road in Haiti took us to the hot, dirty city of Gonaives. There might be 5 trees in the entire city… not really, but there are very few! We stopped there to pick up the Haitian coordinator and the cook, with the food we would need. They gave us lunch, and it was some of the best fried fish I’ve ever had! We loaded back up and headed out, leaving the pavement for a rough gravel road. Traveling north, we left the normal green trees and scraggly bushes and grass, and instead the cactus trees and other desert plants took up the job of giving the landscape color.
We came over the top of a curve, and there lay a gorgeous line of coast, white rocks with teal and blue waters. It was one of the prettiest coastlines I think I’ve seen! Pictures can’t do it justice.
We traveled along the coast for a couple of hours, and it was so hot! The cactus gave way to a thorny brushy plant called “barren”. The land really was barren. NO GRASS. Not even cactus. The land was dirt and “barren” bushes and little else. There are people who live in this barren place, I don’t know how. The sea water sometimes covers the land, so it is too salty to grow anything. The residents of the area do use the “barren” trees to make charcoal, and I guess that is how they survive. Further on, there are the salt flats. I think it is fascinating! They dig these shallow areas out and heap the dirt around the edge. Then they channel in sea water, build a dam, and allow the sun to do the work of evaporating the water. As the water leaves, the salt crystallizes around the edges. Sometimes I think they let in sea water several times before they harvest the salt. Anyway, somehow they gather up the salt crystals, and sell it throughout Haiti. I don’t know if they refined any of it, but I do know I have seen salt being used that looks like it came straight from the salt flats.
(Please excuse the cracked windshield. Michael would need $400 to get it replaced.) 🙂
Anyway, we left that behind, and headed into the northern mountains. Being the beginning of rainy season, there were clouds that gave welcome relief from the sun. The vegetation soon became the normal tropical mix, and cresting a mountain we saw a very green valley. We arrived at our destination of Fourby within 15 minutes, and unloaded our luggage at the Pastor’s house. We were sorry to learn he was in FL at the time, I’m not sure why. We had time that evening to go to the church building to set up the clinic. The next morning we got to the chapel and were surprised to only see a few people around. Normally, the seating area would be packed. Michael talked to the local leaders and found out that the area had only one market day a week – Friday. So he had a person go to the market with a megaphone and announce the clinic. People came a few at a time throughout the entire day, and I think we saw over 50. It was nice to have the time for the doctors to talk to each person, share the Gospel and pray with them. It was so nice to be able to give people their medicine and make sure they understood it. I had taken along some papers with verses on one side and a health topic on the other. It was fun to give them to the patients, and hear them walk off reading aloud.
Debbie worked in the pharmacy with me. She was such a huge blessing and help!
Jerry seeing patients with Wilmon as translator.
One older gentleman was carried in, almost dead. Literally. The doctors started an IV, and gave him some high-powered antibiotics. They learned he had been healthy 9 days earlier, then became ill and got weaker, couldn’t eat etc. We kept him all day, and in a couple of hours he had started to show signs of improvement. I’m not sure when he went home, whether it was that night or the next morning. We heard Sunday morning that he was starting to eat again! Praise the Lord for allowing him to respond favorably to the medications! I’m sure that Caleb and Michael shared the Gospel with him and his family. (I was in a separate building in the pharmacy, so I don’t know exactly what went on.)
Friday night we planned to have a church service, but it poured rain in the early evening preventing anyone from coming out. We went to bed, and slept well except for Michael. There was a batch of kittens where we were staying, and one was crawling all over him, and crying. After attempting to make it leave, he simply rested his foot on it and it settled down and started purring. Then they both went to sleep and had a good night. 🙂
Saturday was busier, we had a little over 100 patients. Again, we had more time than usual to talk with people. There was one girl who came in with something that we have never seen before, at least to my knowledge. Dr. Caleb asked her what her problem was, and she said, “I eat rocks. Everyone laughs at me because I eat rocks. I have eaten them since I was a small girl, but I don’t want to eat rocks.” She had with her one of the rocks that she gnaws on, and it was a type of clay, and you could see the mineral crystals in it. The medical name for this type of rock/clay/dirt that people sometimes eat is “pika”. Most of the time it is a lack of vitamins and minerals in the diet that causes the person to want to eat rocks or dirt that have trace amounts of minerals in them. We gave that girl a lot of all the vitamins and iron and folic acid that we had, with very clear instruction that SHE had to want to stop eating the rocks enough to break her habit. It is very hard for someone who eats pika to stop. It is such a habit to them, that they can crave it even after the need for vitamins and minerals has been taken care of.
The “pika” rock
The girl listening to instructions. It was a matter important enough for Michael to do the translating/talking for Caleb.
There was a very cute little boy who was brought in, he didn’t have anything the matter with him as far as I can remember. He was such a jolly fellow, with the sweetest smile, but I didn’t have time to do more than snap his picture. Unfortunately for you, he wasn’t smiling at the moment.
Three little girls who got new dresses thanks to Gary Pfeifer and the folks from his church!
That evening we heard that since there had been no meeting the previous evening, the people of the area didn’t know that there would be one this evening. We decided to go up to the church anyway, and sing awhile and see if anyone showed up. Our translators went along, and the people who lived at the house we were staying in. We sang some songs in English, then the Haitians sang a couple in Creole. Then we sang one together, English and Creole to the same tune. It was beautiful! The children of God worshiping together, His love in our hearts overcoming the language barrier. More people came, and Caleb preached a beautiful message relating to the crucified and risen Savior.
Sunday was another smaller than normal group, there was a death in the community and many were at the wake. (It was man who had tried to find help in witchcraft.) Jerry preached a very lovely message on Christ, and Caleb followed it up with some very pertinent remarks and questions that ended up being a message in itself! It was a very refreshing service to me. We ate a quick lunch and headed back to Port. Across the desert that was muddy now from a heavy rain, through the salty land. The cactus was beautiful, clean from the rain, and starting it’s blooming. When we got to the place where the ocean was just a few yards off the road, we stopped for a short break. The water was polluted enough to make you feel sticky, even though (or maybe because of it) it was a beautiful intense teal blue. Later at the top of a hill we stopped for a few pictures with the white coast and blue waters for a backdrop. The sun was blazing, hence the squinched up faces. 🙂
Jerry and his family
As we neared Port, we drove through several rara’s. Easter is a big time to the Haitian people, a lot like Mardi Gras. The wickedness and sensuality that is normally suppressed to a degree, is put on full display and made a party of on Easter Sunday. It is heartbreaking to see it. May God help us to share the Gospel with those who are dead in their sins before it is too late for them to hear the call of Christ!
Monday we went to Mirebalais with one of our oldest friends in Haiti, Pastor Urlich. The Artibonite river flows though that region and it is one of the most fertile spots in all of Haiti. It was so beautiful, and such a stark contrast to the barrenness of the desert/salt regions in the north that we just had come through. After about 2 hours, we turned onto a foot path, and drove into the hills. It was muddy because of the night’s rain, so we got down and walked while Michael navigated the truck along the hillside. After a few minutes we came to a steep decline with a sharp curve and a river at the bottom. There was some discussion on whether or not it was possible to get back up if he went down, and the decision was made to not try it. Beings that the plan had been to drive the whole way in, there was no crowd to help carry the buckets. So we “blans” took what we could carry and started for the church house on the opposite hillside. It was about 10-15 minute walk. Not at all bad, except for the mud. My feet slipped and slid in my flip-flops till I was sure they were going to tear. I only had them to wear, so, I did what a Haitian does. I took them off and went barefoot. It made me see that aspect of the Haitians lives in a much clearer way. Where most people go barefoot, I always wear flip-flops. I don’t like my feet unprotected on the bottom, in fact I have a strong aversion to it. But the Haitians have to go barefoot a lot. They only have one pair of shoes or flip-flops, and can’t afford to have them destroyed by the mud. So they carry their shoes, and that morning I joined them in the act and understood another aspect of their lives in a new way. I did clean them off though to wear in the clinic! I drew the line at that.
We had another smaller than normal day. It was good though, I am really glad it was that way. I guess I thought subconsciously that if we didn’t see a hundred or two people, it wasn’t as good of a trip. But that isn’t necessarily so. The time spent with each individual, sharing the Gospel, praying, encouraging, is even more important than taking care of two hundred physical ills. Sometimes we lose sight of the real reason we are in the mountains holding clinic, when there are hundreds of people gathered and the individual is lost in the crowd. We go to spread the Gospel, and it is the individual that needs to hear. Caleb was able to share the Gospel with a young man who was an unbeliever and knew it. I believe that God was convicting him of his sin, he had that look on his face. Please pray for him that he would turn to the one and only Savior!
Michael and Caleb
Breanna was so much fun to work with, and my other huge help in the pharmacy!
We headed back to CAM mid afternoon. That evening, just as we had finished getting through the shower and were sitting around talking about the trip, Michael got a call from some of our missionary friends who live several hours from Port. Their son had fallen earlier in the week and broken his arm. The doctor that set his arm took X-rays that were to be shown to an orthopedic doctor. Well, that doctor took a short look and said “It’s fine.” The parents were concerned though, because the bones were obviously not straight in the X-rays. “Would Caleb take a look at the X-rays and maybe be able to set the arm straighter?” They emailed the X-rays, and it was true, the arm needed reset. Caleb agreed to try if they wanted to come into Port yet that night, as he was flying home in the morning. They arrived at midnight, and the boy was laid sleeping on the kitchen table. With some IV medication and lots of prayer, Caleb set to work straightening the crooked bones. With only his fingers to “see” with, an hour later he had done his best and recast the arm. The next day, new X-rays were taken, and Praise the Lord the bones were straight! The one break was hardly visible I heard!
We all woke from the short night, and quickly finished packing up. Caleb was taken to the airport, and the Power family was dropped off with one of our Haitian friends who was taking them sight-seeing for the day. Michael dropped us girls off at the airport about an hour or so later, and headed out of town.
The trip was over, but the memories remain. It was a good team, and God blessed us with each other. Pray with me that the seeds of truth that were sown in the hearts of the people we met would grow and bear fruit. May the Kingdom of God grow in the country of Haiti!
