Haiti 2011

pictures to go with Emily's post

2011-07-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures to go along with the previous blog post.

the ride to Bouva was very dusty, so the guys covered their noses.

Classic photo of Manno (our translator) on the phone while we are driving up to Bouva. yes the vehicle was this full. You should have seen the wall of luggage behind us (sorry i forgot to take a picture of it).

Getting into the routine of life at Bouva. Justin, Elysha, Gemson and Emily washing dishes haitian style :)

Jessica and Justin handing out soap to the people who attended our seminar in Grand Savonn.

View of the church and guest house in Bouva. The building in a shape of a cross is the guest house where we stayed and the church is to the left.

Most of the team went up for a hike and some of the local kids decided to go along.

While the team was on the hike, Jessica and I stayed back and helped with dinner. We had banana's that didn't survive the journey to Bouva, so we made Banana bread, BY HAND with a SPATULA. That took such a long time.

When Gemson returned from the hike, he helped us to make the banana bread :) (Jessica and Gemson sitting in front of our guest house with Pastor Luc looking on).

On saturday morning the team got up to go for another hike before breakfast (with the exception of Jessica and I)

Here is a picture of Charcoal being made. They burn the wood and cover it with dirt until it smoulders into charcoal.

On our way out of Bouva, we stopped by a Red Cross and MSF medical camp and donated medical supplies that had been donated to us through Michelle. Thank-you Michelle.

Saying Good-bye in Port-au-Prince.

Us ladies :) Emily, Elysa, Elna (pastor Luc's wife), me, Carolin, Jessica, Dorothy and Dominique.

The guys doing the haitian 'One Love' pose.

Manno (translator), Jay-Michelle (translator), Matthew, Gemson, Price (police man), Justin, Pastor Luc

Group shot

thanks again for all your prayers and support. We really appreciated it!

Janelle

last post in Haiti

2011-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Matt, Dom, Dorothy, and Emily here just wanting to give you an update on our last week. We haven’t been able to update the blog this last week because we were in the mountainous region of Boova. We left Grand Guave at 6:30 in the morning on Tuesday and arrived around 6:30 at night in Boova. In Haiti there is definitely no Costco so everything we needed we had to stop in all different places for. Boova is where Pastor Luc is originally from. His Father was the communities voodoo priest. He shared his testimony with us about this, and after coming to Christ himself, along with 12 years of prayer, he was able to bring his entire family to God which resulted in the tearing down of the voodoo temple and replacing it with the church that is now standing in its place.

Pastor Luc mentioned early on at the beginning of our trip that Boova was the real Haiti. Our first day consisted of getting adjusted to bathing in creeks and the slower paced atmosphere of the rural village. We hiked one of the small mountains around the village with some of the kids of the area. The ecosystem has changed over time from a tropical forest to desert dense with thorned plants and cacti. This is due to years of clear cutting without reforestation. The locals main export is charcoal, made from burning wood and covering it with dirt for three days. The land is now extremely difficult to farm because with the loss of the trees the topsoil was washed away. Apart from goats, chickens, a few cattle and many small gardens, the community survives on a constant supply of relief and aid. This was evident in the conversations of the children, in contrast to the children at heart to heart, it was disheartening to see the children of Boova view white people as a resource over a friend.

The next day we were able to start our teaching. Pastor Luc had gathered the community leaders and pastors together, and we had the community of Buva cram into the church for us to share our presentation with them. It went very well and the people were very receptive. We were able to give them all soap, bleech, toothbrushes and toothpaste which was helpful for a community so isolated. Afterwards we had a meal together with the people. As every time Pastor Luke visits he provides a meal for the entire community. A goat had been prepared earlier that day that we had actually managed to watch being butchered and prepared. This was definitely a unique and eye opening experience.

Friday was our last day of teaching. We wen to a place called Grand Savonn. This is about a 20 minute drive from Boova. The drive there and back was really bumpy and a little frightening at times when we were driving along a cliff but God helped us get there safely. Grand Savonn is right by the ocean and it’s the location that Pastor Luc has a vision of building a high school and medical clinic. He even showed us the exact location in Grand Savonn where he would like to put it. He told us that if it doesn’t happen before he “flies away” then it’s in our hands. It’s pretty cool hearing Pastor Luc’s visions for the area. The teaching went well in there. We did it outside under some trees. The people listened well and asked questions at the end. We gave out soap to the adults and candy to the kids (and some adults as well).

Our last full day in Boova was a time of rest and reflection. After finishing our final seminar, it was crazy to realize that ultimately what we had come to do in Haiti was done. Our goals and visions of this missions trip was coming to a close. We desired to make the most of the free time we had, and hike one of the bigger mountains in the area in the cool of the morning. Justin rounded us up at quarter to five and after filling our bags with water we left for a final adventure with the team. Guemson, a 19 year old Haitian which has accompanied our team since Gran Guave, helped to guide us up the mountain. The path up involved a fair amount of bushwacking through plants riddled in thorns, yet the view of the distant sea and the valley of Boova was worth the initial hardships.

Sunday consisted of our last charismatic Creole service in Haiti lead by Pastor Luke. As customary in most of the services we have attended our group had the opportunity to share in song at the front of the service. Despite the language barrier, services in Haiti are filled with thankfulness and joy, emotions that need not be translated in order to be understood. As we worship together, our group is time and time again overwhelmed with humility as we observe a culture that, in the eyes of first world North Americans, has so little yet loves so much.

We left Boova immediately after the service to drive to our guest house in Port-au Prince. On arriving here at the guest house our hearts were heavy. Reality finally began to hit for the team as we hugged goodbye to the last of our Haitian friends. There was a definite spirit of sadness in saying goodbye but at the same time there was an incomparable joy in realizing the gift this trip has been for each of us. We have been so blessed to have had this opportunity to be fully immersed in the Haitian culture and are so grateful having been able to form strong relationships with the people here. Thank you for all your prayers and support. We have been so blessed by God through you here in Haiti and we honestly cant thank you enough. Bondye benne ou! (God Bless you)

written by Dominique, Dorothy, Emily, Elysha and Matt

2011-06-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all!!

This may be our last post before we leave for Bouva, so I'll try and fill you in on what has been happening lately. Tomorrow we leave for Bouva; this will be bittersweet as we've gotten closer to the kids here at H2H, but we're looking forward to meeting the people in Bouva.

On Sunday, we went to the morning service. It was the first time we've really heard Pastor Luc preach, as he was gone for a funeral for 10 days, and we were in another village last Sunday. I've discovered that Haitians are love repetition, as each song would be sung for at least 10 minutes, repeating the same couple lines over and over again. It is powerful seeing them all singing and dancing, and even though we don't understand the words, we definitely still worship together. Pastor Luc is a very animated preacher! Thechurch service was from about 9 until 1 or 2 PM…definitely longer than your average Canadian service!

Later that evening, we had the opportunity to speak to the whole church. We started off by singing songs that we both knew, such as "How Great Thou Art" and "Open the Eyes of My Heart." We had our faithful translators as well as Pastor Luc. Their knowledge of the culture has been tremendous in answering culturally relevant questions that we would have no understanding of, and they are able to phrase things in ways the Haitians can relate to. I think this was probably our best presentation yet. Each member of the team has become so much more confident and comfortable, and our translators definitely know the topics well by now. Our topics range from malaria and hypertension to STI's and water sanitation, so we are able to cover a lot of ground in about an hour and a half. The church listened attentively, and we were able to have a question and answer period at the end.

Today was our last full day at H2H. It was also a great day of anticipation for the kids here because we were finally going to take them to Taino (the beach)! For the last couple of days, they have been asking us about Taino, literally counting down the days. We all piled into the back of the big truck, and shortly after began sweating profusely… This did not lessen the excitement, however.

As soon as we got to the beach, the kids began peeling off their clothes and running toward the water. There was a lot of squealing, splashing, and screaming as we all swam together. In reality, most of the kids hung on to us for dear life, while others braved the water on various floaties.

We Canadians were refreshed by the water, but after awhile, some of the kids were shivering!

So as we prepare to depart for Bouva, we ask that you continue to pray for us, specifically for safe travels and good health. There has been some sort of cold going around, and Pastor Luc has not been feeling very well today, so please keep us all in your prayers. We will not have internet or phones in Bouva, so goodbye until next week!

Day 18.

2011-06-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

One of the first dinners we had at the Heart to Heart compound, I can recall Pastor Luc telling us the story of how Heart 2 Heart came to be (Unfortunately, I can’t relay the whole thing completely right now but would encourage all of you to ask us about when we return because it’s an incredible story of God’s faithfulness). In the process of telling this story Pastor Luc told us about the church building on the grounds. He had decided he wanted to build a church and when he told a colleague how big he wanted the church to be he was laughed at. It takes approximately 10 years for a Haitian to build a house because it takes that long for them to make enough money to buy the supplies so the houses are built slowly piece-by-piece. The church that Pastor Luc proposed was much larger and more elaborate than any house and he was determined to get it done so he started fundraising. It took a long time but eventually he built the church – larger than his original proposition complete with a vaulted ceiling and balcony. He built it with the purpose of providing a place for church services as well as providing space for churches in the community to come together for events. By the end of December 2009 the church building that Pastor Luc had devoted a lot of his life to making was just nearly complete even though services had been held inside for a long time already. I think anybody reading this can guess what happened next. On January 12, 2010 the earthquake hit about halfway between Grand Goave and Port-au-Prince. While the church still stands it is badly damaged. The walls have large holes in them from where rubble fell and the roof is slanted because one side of the building fell slightly. In our first week here some engineers informed Pastor Luc that the church will likely need to be torn down because there would be great cost and risk if he attempts to rebuild it because they would need to bring hydraulic lifts in from the states and even then, the concrete roof could slide off in the middle of working on the building. As you can imagine, this is devastating news, although Pastor Luc’s trust in the Lord’s provision is not phased by it.

Our team walked through the church last week and Justin came up with the idea of cleaning it out. The church was littered with rancid beans which had gone bad before being delivered here, broken desks, dirty carpets, old barbed wire and piles of rubble. We figured we could not fix the church but we could clean it out so that the kids could use it for roller blading and stuff. Armed with a couple shovels, brooms, wheelbarrows and a small army of children eager to help we cleaned up the church and moved all the rubble to a single pile at the back of the church. While we know the kids can’t spend a lot of time in the building (it’s still a partially broken down concrete building – not the safest playground), it was a good experience for all of us and we were glad to do something to help make it a little better while decisions still need to be made about the future as it is unlikely that much will be done with the building until plans for repairs or another church are in place.

Tine helping Emily clean up a pile of rock in the church.

Some of the damage in the church at Heart 2 Heart

This past Wednesday to Friday we got the opportunity to go to the city of Jacmel on the south side of Haiti to spend some time relaxing and hanging out. This excursion was originally planned for the end of the trip and intended to be a debrief weekend but the travel schedule for the remainder of the trip necessitated an earlier trip to Jacmel. Jacmel was a 2 hour drive on a winding road through mountains. Before arriving at the guest house where we were to stay we had the opportunity to stop at a local swimming hole/"tourist attraction" called Basen Blue. Basically it's a series of three basins connected by waterfalls tucked in between cliffs. The water is deep blue and we could even climb up the waterfall and jump into the water from various heights. This was definitely a highlight of my life. The remainder of our time in Jacmel was spent body surfing at the ocean, eating Haitian cheetos (They're called mini jumbos and you can buy 8 bags for 1 american dollar!), and spending time talking, learning, and praying as a team.

The waterfall at Basen Bleu

Heading to the beach in Jacmel

We returned to the Heart 2 Heart compound last night (Friday night) in time for church and were informed at breakfast this morning that a number of pastors from the area were coming to meet us at 9 am so that we could share our information with them and they could take it back to their churches and communities. This hadn't been part of our original schedule for the day but we got our stuff together as quickly as we could and headed to the church for teaching. When we were told that a couple pastors were coming I thought, you know, maybe ten or so? False. By 9:15 there were more than 20 pastors there and by the time our presentation was well underway the number had grown to around 40. As with all our presentations, the floor was open for questions when we had finished speaking. The pastors had a number of questions and it was very evident that all of them are very involved in their respective communities and care a lot about the health of the people there.

Through the question periods at the end of our presentations it has become apparent that rumors about health related topics circulate easily through Haitian communities. Some of the questions we have been asked have to do with rumors that Cholera can be prevented by drinking copious amounts of alcohol or eating a lot of hot sauce, that there is a sore (which the locals call zona) that can develop into an HIV infection if it doesn't go away after a certain amount of time, and that there is an STI that can be picked up from sitting on hot rocks. By sharing these rumors I don't intend in any way to make it seem like the Haitian people are entirely uneducated on health topics. On the contrary, we have found that people do care about keeping themselves healthy and many are already carrying out safe health practices, however, rumors seem to spread easily from community to community.

It has been truly humbling to go into these settings to talk to communities because we often seem to come out more blessed than we feel we could have been a blessing. The church community here is incredibly warm and inviting and we are repeatedly thanked for "making the sacrifice to come to Haiti to help". I don't think there is anybody on our team who feels like they gave up even as much as we have gotten out of interacting with the people here. We are continually struck by the unity in the church here and how much the focus in church is truly on figuring out how individuals and the church as a whole can simply figure out how to love God more, how to praise God more, and how that leads to helping and serving each other.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for our team and for the people we have been in contact with!

To God be the glory.

Elysha

overview

2011-06-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings all. As one of the leaders of this trip I thought I would share some of the more specific details of our time down in Haiti.

As many of you know, we are team of nursing and biology students, plus myself a RN. The purpose of our trip is to do community assessments and then do public health teaching as a result of what we have learned from the needs of the communities. We have prepared a number of topics based on preliminary discussions with Rebecca & Ian from H2H as well as research on the situation in Haiti in general. So the topics that we teach on are limited to what we have prepared, but we adjust them based on the needs of the communities (ie some topics we have prepared we don’t teach on). Obviously there are more needs than what we can address, especially from a teaching standpoint. So another goal is to identify those needs and communicate them with H2H for future teams that go to Haiti.

Jessica and Elysha teaching in Forche with Manno translating.

Dorothy & Emily teaching about water safety in LaVange with Jay-Michel translating.

To complete our community assessment we are using the framework of a ‘Windshield Survey’. This includes assessing the: geographical region, building types, markets/stores, transportation, communication, population demographics, vocation of people, protective services, access to health care, prevalence of disease, pet/animal management, education, water & sanitation, politics and religion. We gain this information by meeting with the community leaders before we go to the village. Once we go to the area we are better able to understand what we see.

Pastor Jaque, Dominique and Rebecca watching the teaching in Forche

Justin and I meet with the community leaders on an individual basis and go through the ‘windshield survey’ with them and share our findings with the team afterwards. The community leaders are usually the pastors in the region who have connection with multiple people in the region. By utilizing the pastors, this also provides us with a location to teach, as there are no community centres in any of the towns. As a result of this our population usually ends up being those who go to church. To help reach more of the community, an announcement is made in church the week or so before we come and they are asked to invite friends, family in the area who don’t normally go to church. Much emphasis is also made on the importance of united community in preventing disease (esp. malaria, typhoid and cholera).

Once we compile our data we formulate our education around the information that we have gathered. The topics that we teach on include: water & sanitation (including waste management), spread of germs (ie importance of hand-washing), Sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), prevention/basic management of specific diseases (cholera, asthma, heart burn, malaria, typhoid, skin sores, heat illness). For some of the topics we perform skits to the get the message across. We have also been blessed with 2 amazing local Haitian translators. They have much experience translating for medical teams as well as for other public health initiatives including Cholera mitigation. They know exactly how to deliver a message to the people so that they are able to understand it and apply it to their lives. Such as by repeating certain interventions and use specific examples that are relevant to the people. Due to their wealth of experience they often elaborate on what has been taught by the students. As a result of this we are better able to reach the people, which is our ultimate goal.

Justin & Matt teaching about puberty at the H2H school with Manno translating.

The communities that we are going to are ones that Heart 2 Heart (H2H) are already involved with (La Vange, Tedabef, Forche, Grand Goave, Grand Goave school, nearby children’s home). As you have read on previous posts, H2H is very involved with the surrounding area outside of the compound and Pastor Luc is passionate about sharing the gospel and his access to resources to those around him. The communities are very rural and spread out, which limits the amount of time we can spend in each area. When we are able, we go to the community before we do our teaching to better understand the area, but those communities that are far away or difficult to get to, we are unable to have this luxury.

Our teaching time is usually between 1-2 hrs and transit to the areas ranges between 30 min – 1 hrs thus far. This means that we have a far bit of free time. I use this word loosely. As our ‘free time’ is spent preparing for our teaching, playing with the kids and devo’s. Hence the multiple pictures of our fun times with the children at H2H.

We are having a wonderful time here in Haiti and are very thankful for your support and continued prayers J

me with Ti Poupe (who I met the last time I was here)

Justin & Matt with Nadison & Mackinley and me with Marconson.

pictures to go with Emily's post

2011-06-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

and a picture of Elysha's braids for her mom:)

2011-06-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

What an adventure we had today! It began with a journey to a small village in the mountains called Tetebiff. There is very limited transportation here as the only way to get there was by taking either a donkey, a motorcycle or walking. Our team decided on the motorcycles. This was very exciting as some of us had never ridden on motorcycles before. They are a common form of taxi used here. We hired ten guys to come and take us up to the village. Once we had all found ourselves a motorcycle Rebecca gave us some great advice before we left. "Don't be afraid to get cozy girls, cuddle up." Haha I thought this was quite hilarious at first but soon realized how essential it was to stay close. Calling the road bumpy was a great understatement. We formed a great motorcycle gang as there were ten of us in total. The path up the mountain was narrow and winding with several hairpin turns complete with large cliffs. There were several points on the journey where the road was too bumpy and so we had to get off the bikes and walk a portion. But, wow, was it ever beautiful. You could see many rolling hills and mountain ranges in every direction. Once we had ascended far up into the hills you could look back down to grand goave and the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking. We were literally in the clouds once we arrived at our destination. My favourite part was when we would be driving on a path about a foot wide where if you look down beside you to see a cliff. Good thing we had experienced drivers!! Dominique especially loved her driver and raved about how amazing he was. She wouldn't ride with anyone else... she had a splendid time.

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We arrived at the church at 9:30am. The service was not scheduled to begin until 10am. While we were waiting outside the church and enjoying the wonderful view the pastor came up to us and offered to show us his water source and some of the village. We immediately took him up on his offer. We didn't realize till later that a short walk to the water source meant a hike around the mountain. As we were walking it was hot but we were going downhill so it wasn't too bad. Dominique had some troubles hiking though as she only wore flip-flops after being assured we wouldn't be doing much walking. Our translator was asking how long the walk would be and the pastor assured us we were almost there. In Haiti that means were only about a half hour away :) After 45 minutes of walking we arrived at the water source. It was now 10:15am, but we had the pastor with us and we were the speakers for the day so the service couldn't start without us. We took a short break in the shade and observed their spring of water coming from the mountain. We began to realize that the walk back to the church would be a hot one as it would be all uphill. The walk was steady but it was such a wonderful hike. I cant even begin to describe how beautiful it was. We were walking up a small path on the side of the mountain with a light breeze. You could see from the mountain ranges right down to the ocean. We had some water with us which proved to be a life saver. However, Janelle seemed to over heat a bit. We think she had the beginnings of heat stroke. After making it back to the church Janelle went to a small spring of water to herself down. She was having trouble figuring out how to dunk herself in it until one of the local Haitian ladies used her bucket of water to douse Janelle. It was quite hilarious when she retuned to the church soaking wet and ready to begin our presentations. It was now 11am and we were an hour late for the service having initially arrive a half hour early But what a splendid hike/adventure we had.

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After a small sermon by the pastor we began. It was a great audience and the people listened intently. The most amazing part was what the pastor said at the end. He thanks us dearly for having come from Canada to his village. He told us how much he appreciated us and how useful this seminar was for them. He talked about the need for health education. It was humbling just sitting and listening to him share. He talked about the communities many needs and felt bad that he had nothing to offer us back. But the truth is they don't even know how much they blessed us by welcoming us in with their abounding love and hospitality. Even in the midst of so much devastation and poverty they remain completely devoted to God. Wow! What a testimony they have. The pastor finished by telling us that they would be praying for us and that they would greatly appreciate our prayers. The welcomed us back any time we were in Haiti again. They even offered us food but there wasn't enough for the drivers as well as us so, after confirming with the translator that it wasn't culturally offensive to decline, we left for our descent back into Grand Goave.

The ride on the motorcycles back down to Heart to Heart was a little different then the ride up. It was very steep going up so you can imagine what it was like going back down. One bike had trouble with its breaks, another was sliding down the hill sideways at times. Matt had a bit more trouble as he has a little more muscle mass then the rest of us. He ended up running down the mountain on the way back as he found that to be more efficient and safer then riding the bike. But in the end we all made it back safely with many stories to tell. What an exciting time it was!

After lunch we were given the privilege to return to the beach. It was a blast once again. We went with our team and a few of the Haitians here at Heart to Heart. It was so relaxing after our busy day. We were lulled to sleep by another violent thunderstorm which lasted till the morning.

To all our dads we want to say happy belated fathers day, we hope your day was as exciting as ours!

It has been amazing to see God's hand at work here around us. We continue to appreciate all your prayers.

God Bless,

Emily

june 17th

2011-06-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

June 17th, Friday- Grand Guave

Back again. Justin here. Since we spend every day at the compound it is more feasible for us to write in the blog every 2 days or so. I know our friends and family will be appreciative of that. Additionally, we want to thank each of you that are responding to our posts and reading faithfully, your thoughts and prayers give us strength and protection.

Today I am writing because one of the team members was minorly hurt yesterday. While playing soccer with the locals, they were tripped by an opposing teammate and fell to the ground splitting open their chin. Luckily we were able to get to the hospital and stitch it up quickly and for no cost at all. Your prayers for safety were greatly appreciated as there is no damage to their teeth, tongue or face, just an open cut on the bottom of the chin. Additionally, the rest of the team is quite safe from any harm or sickness. To date, not one person has felt any sickness whatsoever, except a headache from minor dehydration. Praise God.

This the prevention on brushing teeth; the kids (and adults) always laugh at the demonstration of the white people:)

Today we went to a small mountain church called For Che. Again we presented our public health topics to the locals and addressed any issues they happen to have. Sometimes we are a little vague in our presentation sentences but we have amazing translator that has saved our butts many times. Today I quoted Genesis and said, ‘when a man leaves his wife and is joined to his wife, the two become one’ oops. No big deal, the Haitian translator (Mano) converted my oral mistake into excellent Kreyol. We are realizing that the information we present is very valuable to the people, but our English communication is less than effective. The translators, however, really know how to preach the information we teach and present examples that their culture would understand. We sat there under a hot coconut leaf roof and presented our information to the local church; they sat there patiently and quietly, listening intently on the words of the translator and taking to heart the sermon on washing hands and preventing cholera. We are humbled by the works of the translators and realize we have a strong partnership.

If you haven’t heard yet, we are moved by the people of Haiti. We are learning from Rebecca that the men do not date within the compound and instead observe from a distance. Instead of becoming infatuated with one another, they wait and see if the person they are interested in is a good worker, cook, gentle with kids or if they can wash clothes quickly. It is a good trait that is not practiced in Canada. Additionally we notice that the people are of solid stature but passionate when need be. In Church we join with them in outspoken prayer and praises, and then sit quietly and with solemn emotion as they listen to the strong willed preacher at the front. The Haitian walk is our favourite; a slow saunter. It seems like they have no worries, but will save their energy as the sun beats down on their short cut hair. We should mention that all Haitians like guy’s hair to be short and they constantly tell me to cut it. Matt gave it and got the buzzà check it out.

Finally I will say that it is such a blessing to have time to spend with the children. Many times teams will come here and focus on the task of building houses and fixing illness and have little energy to spend with these children. We take great pleasure in the times we get to chase them around the playground (Jessica did today and wiped out on the gravel, now she has a bruise on her hind but she says, “im ok. It doesn’t hurt at all” in the moment).

Hmm. Maybe you want to know who it was that split open their chin? Well that would be the guy who is writing this blog. Not to worry, the cut on my leg hurts more than the 4 stitches in my chin, and I still have all my teeth intact. But I will say that the Cubans in the hospital worked a little too quick. I spent a total of 10 seconds in the waiting room and as I sat down on the table they immediately injected me with lidocane. Janelle gave them my name at this time and I now have a prescription for iodine that says ‘justin Bat’ at the top. Ha, at least it was free. About a minute later he took the needle and driver to my chin (normally the lidocane takes 10 minutes to work, I now know that first handJ). On the positive side, Janelle is taking good care of me and the cut is under my chin and hence will not be visible for my wedding in July. Love you Pia and family

The glory be to God the Father,

Justin Baerg

2011-06-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 14

I tried to upload this on the 14th but is failed. Here is the belated post:)

Today marked the end of another memorable day encompassed by such a distinct culture in a beautiful country. The morning consisted of our final rehearsals for our seminars before we traveled back to the mountainous terrain of Levange. Two days previously we made the Trek to do a community assessment and today we returned with translators to experience our first attempt at bringing the health lessons we have prepared to the Haitians. The ride up to Lavanje once again was breathtaking as we rode in the back of the pickup through the river passing massive jackfruit trees, coconuts and huge sandstone cliffs. The coolness of the mountains and the water brought some relief from the hot humid air. As we continued along the 45 minute bumpy ride we only got stuck once in the water, but our skilled driver Enoch had no difficulty in establishing a new route despite the hindrance of our small truck being packed with 12 people. Passing houses we could see the evidence of US aid in the form of tents and houses built contrary from the typical Haitian style.

The houses usually tend to consist of hand made bricks made from a mixture of cement and river rock. Rebar is used often, but the heavy materials and lack of support caused the majority of the houses after the earthquake to at the least experience damage if they were not completely destroyed. Pastor Luke has such a unique system of respect and brotherhood on the heart to Heart compound. His focus is unlike some of the other orphanages in the area. The common process of orphanages in Haiti consists of allowing kids to survive until the age of eighteen upon which they are let out into the streets with usually less then a high school degree and forced to resort to theft in order to survive. Pastor Luke not only teaches the kids simple stewardship skills of no littering and the art of sharing but shapes men and women out of poverty and into middle class. He keeps them until they have finished high school (which often isn’t until they are in their twenties) and finished tradeschool or in the process of university. He prevents the poverty cycle by ensuring that his men do not get married until they have built a house. This process is not as simple as in Canada, because instead of starting a mortgage, the Haitians only build from Pay check to Pay check. A small house may take the process of 5-10 years.

Anyways apart from a tidbit of the heart to heart culture, we arrived at the church in Lavanj to give our seminars with two translators Mano and Jay-Michael. They both were more then we could ask for in a Haitian translator. Mano had previously translated for the hospitals in the area, so he was not only skilled in the language but also in the topics we promoted. He was able to give much more insight than we presented, due to his previous knowledge in the area. The topics covered by our first group Emily and Dorothy was Cholera, Typhoid and the prevention of water born diseases. It was amazing how simple things such as using a small concentration of bleach in the water and washing ones hands could bring impact to a community. Their presentation was the longest because there were many questions that arose from the common disease of Cholera. Elysha and Jessica talked on the prevention of Malaria by the prevention of breeding grounds for Mosquitoes, some of the basic health care of skin sores and diseases, and the ever present influence of aids. Justin and I covered the final minutes on sexually transmitted diseases, but we learned quickly in a church setting that bringing up some of the issues of STIs was crossing cultural boundaries. Ending the day by handing out soap and bleach for the villagers was an excellent way that we could provide them with the initial means of putting some of the thoughts we had presented into practice.

A sad note for the day was that our translator Jay-Michael most likely has Malaria, a common occurrence in Haiti. After returning home, his fever worsened at night, he dreads taking the common Chloroquine medicine because he is highly allergic (as many Haitiians) so he has to wait for blood tests to confirm he has Malaria in order so that he can get a prescription for an alternate medicine.

We are all so thankful for your continued prayers for our team

In His grip,

Matt

A Mix of Things

2011-06-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Today was a relatively cool day here in Haiti. Last night we had an amazing thunder and lightning storm! The whole team was sitting on top of the school roof watching the lightning in the distance. The wind started picking up to such a point that we decided to watch from the ground. The storm quickly came closer to us, and we were suddenly in a torrential downpour. The lightning was so close that it was literally blinding, and the thunder was very loud as well. We all were singing and dancing in the rain, relishing in the coolness for once. Stickiness is definitely a fact of life down here, so being soaked through was actually quite pleasant…

In case you were wondering about the wildlife in Haiti, let me fill you in. Mosquitos, ants, and flies are literally everywhere all of the time. Apparently I have delicious blood because I currently have… wait for it… 57 mosquito bites. No exaggeration. I counted them this morning. And then there are the delightful inescapable ants; the worst are the little red ones that have a mean bite. We also have a couple roosters and multiple chickens roving through the compound. I'm finally starting to sleep through the rooster, who seems to think we should all be awake at 4AM. Other than that, there are a lot of goats and donkeys.

Tonight we had our first real Haitian meal. The ladies have been cooking us huge delicious "Canadian" meals, but we finally had the opportunity to eat like the locals. We had rice and beans, as well as a vegetable meat dish. I am probably in the world top 5 picky eaters, so to say that I loved it is definitely saying something. In fact, tonight was the first night I had seconds!

Dorothy got her hair braided yesterday and it looks awesome. The mix of blonde, black, and red looks amazing on her! Elysha is getting her hair braided as I type this, and some of the other girls are going to in the next couple of days as well. Oh, and Matt got a buzz cut courtesy of one of the Haitian men down here -- significantly cooler apparently. Photos to follow…

Anyway, we are having a wonderful time down here. Please pray for continued favour in our community teaching, safety in travel, and continued growth in God. We covet your prayers!!

Beach Day!

2011-06-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today was an amazing day. We woke up, hung out with the kids, and then did some Kreole lessons. The lessons are really helping but I still feel like I can’t understand the kids that much but at least we can interact and play games and I hope to get better as the days go on. This past week has been great being able to get to know the kids. I feel like I’m starting to recognize specific kids now whereas at the beginning they all looked the same. I really enjoy interacting with them. They are all so cute!

The definite highlight of the trip for me personally so far was going to the beach. We went there this afternoon after lunch and it was beautiful! The water was a beautiful turquoise colour and the beaches were white sand. There were palm trees as well among other beautiful plant life. We played a lot of Frisbee and went swimming. The water was pretty warm compared to the ocean and lakes in Canada but the salt burned the eyes when going under it. I got to experience my first fresh coconut today and drank the coconut juice. It was wonderful. Overall I could almost say it was the best day of my life.

Today was a really good day and I feel like we are bonding more as a team. The personalities in our group just seem to go together so well even though we are all so different. It is definitely a blessing to be on this team. We had a lot of fun today and it felt more like a vacation but tomorrow is down to business. We have our first teaching seminar. I am a bit nervous but I hope it goes well. Please pray that God will give us the words to speak and the boldness and confidence we need. Thanks to you all for praying for us so far.

PS: Go Canucks!!

posted by Dorothy

2011-06-12T19:28:00.001-07:00

This is Dominique here writing from Justin’s account (sorry about the confusion with this) So today is our 6th day in Haiti, and once again it was amazing. Today being Sunday began with church. All the kids were dressed in their nicest clothes, and we all assembled in the heat in the church. The church service was amazing, the pastors spoke encouraging everyone and then the singing began. The Haitian people sing and dance like you can’t believe! We have lots to learn from them. It was amazing to experience and be apart of the joy that filled the congregation, and the unending energy that everyone seems to have as they praise God. Everyone worships with absolute freedom, it is so beautiful to see! We joined in with the singing and eventually gained confidence to join in the dancing so we went up front and danced. This made me so happy! I felt quite at home in the church, filled with lots of soul, joy, and dancing, and everyone worshiping so genuinely. In the odd time in between singing and dancing, I had a little boy named Elyou fast asleep on my lap! I must say the kids here just capture your heart instantly, I just love them all so so much, and it is awesome getting to develop relationships with them from being here over a longer period of time than other mission teams would usually.

We are definitely learning a lot from all the Haitians, they are very dedicated, and devoted people, and their culture is becoming more and more known to us. Heart to heart is really an amazing children’s home. Pastor Luke who runs it has set up an incredible system here that is in such an evident and realistic way breaking poverty and raising children to be real men and women of God. Through providing them education, a place to live, and in having all the older kids care for the little kids, these children taken from all kinds of heart breaking situations are given a chance to just be kids and enjoy each other and life here in a country that is suffering. These children are then provided with education, mentored in their faith, and brought up to be the next middle class of Haiti. I could rave about this place all day!

Anyhow back to our day, after church we played with the kids for a while, and even brought out a volleyball! It took a while to convince them to not jut use it as a soccer ball, but eventually we had all these little kids lined up in their volleying position (with their hands clasped ready to receive the ball), and waiting for their turn for the ball. One kid, Jason, climbed the mango tree and dropped mangos down for all the kids and all of us so we all took a break and ate mangos which is always wonderful!

After playing with the kids we set of to take a look at the first few places we will be visiting to begin our health teaching. We are targeting a lot of more rural communities as they are the areas that have the least access to health care, and are most in need. We all piled into the back of a little Toyoto truck and off we went. It was about a 20min drive to the first community, Foche, where we were shown to the church, which was a plywood small church with a tin roof quite far in the bush. We then headed for about a 40min drive to quite a rural community called Lavanj. If their would be one word to describe Lavanj it would be breathtaking (that may be two words but still J )!! We arrived at their church, high up in the mountains, and people just started showing up. We met different families, and along with some of the younger kids, and one of the older girls, we all walked down to their water source so we could have a better idea of their living conditions. It was quite a walk to their water source, more like a very steep descent and then a great stroll along the river which ran through the green mountainous wilderness of Haiti! The water source was actually from a natural water spring and was almost crystal clear, so we were happy to see that. Matt and Justin were then splashing kids by dumping rocks in the water, and I had a good chat with the young girl we were walking with. My French has been coming in handy, each day I just pray God will be my translator, and I each day I manage to manage quite well, so he is blessing me with communication!! Anyhow after some good time seeing around Lavanj we headed back for heart to heart. Our drive was once again quite bumpy, and we sang all the way home, all standing on and holding on for dear life in the open back of the truck looking out at the sunset while we drove through the wilderness along the river, or more literally at times through the river! I have to say it was unbelievable and a time I will never forget. We are truly so blessed to be here, and it is so wonderful because God has truly given our team a unity that is really helping us to grow and join in on everything we can to better get to know, better love, and receive love from all those around us. It is only day 6, there is even so much more to come, may God continue to anoint each and every day as he has been so evidently doing for us already!

Hope that was an adequate update for today! God Bless, please keep praying for us and all the people of Haiti, Dominique

(One more thing in response to Justin's previous post on our Creole, the sentence is actually Mwen prale manje :) Elysha just told me to write that, sorry... our creole is a constant learning process!)

(the picture below is of Macason, one of the boys here at heart to heart, I had to get a photo of him and share it with you cause he has the best smile, and it lights me up every time I see it! )

day 5

2011-06-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Day 5

Oke. Jodia nou fatige tou piti. We are now quite settled in and becoming good zami (friends) with the children in the compound. Some of the popular ones are named: Tine, James, Markinson, Justiphon, Fre, Woody, Wood, Woodley, Makenley, Ronaldo, selina, Rebecca, Angela, Jessica etc. You get the idea. The children are just too cute for words. Yesterday at church we were surrounded by small children who were quite content to sit on our laps, play with our hands or hold our hands. They think it is hilarious that our skin turns different colors when someone pinches or presses against it. One girl (Ashley) asked me to take her younger brother (James) home to Canada with me; I would have if I could (just don’t tell Pia). We relish the mornings and afternoons when the kids are on a recess break; adventures in chaos! About 7

0 children run out of the school straight to the playground. Young kids are sucking on a fresh mango, the girls are doing flips on the bars and the boys are playing ball. I made two mistakesà 1) I decided to show the kids how to do a chin up on the monkey bars, thinking that I would tire them out more than me. But it was soon evident that the kids could not reach the bars and I had to pick them up. One by one they tore on my arms to be picked up and eventually I was covered in Haitian from head to toe:J. 2) The next day all my muscles in my arms and back were SORE, and so this time I thought I could out run these little ones. At first, I thought I would have success but soon, as the hoard grew, I looked back and found myself surrounded on all fronts. I made a dash, left, right. I was surprised my sandals were holding out until I saw the ground a little too close for comfort and my body tumbling over the rocks.

There is a picture of a few kids sitting against the tent. Tine (pronounced, Teen EH) is the one with the big stomach and was rescued from an abusive parent. He has a one track mind and will continue running despite the enticement of candy or people ha; he is everyone's favourite, sometimes there is snot leaking from his nose:). Junior is the other. I don't know the name of the girl.

Well maybe you want to know what we are doing other than playing with the children. The past few days have been on Haitian time. Breakfast at 7:00 (or whenever it is ready), personal and group devotionals right after, play time with kids. Then, before it gets too hot, we sit down and review our goals, projects and how we are going to accomplish our teaching. More kids and then a shower before lunch. Honestly when we first got here, the heat was not unlike BC, but now that the sun is out and the rain is gone, it is necessary to shower at least twice a day; Rebecca, our host takes three everyday! Since Matt and I are the only guys we get along quite well, and every time he exits the shower he tells me, as liquid drips from his nose, “Justin, the water is turning to sweat already!” Today we made the fatal mistake of playing soccer with the locals right after lunch in the heat of the day; Matt was about to have a stroke and I felt like the sun was burning me from the inside out. It took us 2 hours after the shower to control the profuse sweating from our faces. Meal times have been fantastic. The cook learned to prepare food from pastor Luc’s late wife who used Canadian recipes; you should ask Matt about the food cuz he is a tank when it come to eating. Even Jessica is eating healthy portions despite her picky tendencies. The afternoons are the hardest because of the heat, but we survive in the shade of the palm trees and church.

It may seem like all fun and games right now (and mostly it is) but there is work to be done. Janelle and I have been meeting with the community leaders in areas around Grande Guave and preparing a trip to these communities. As I write this, the team is meeting with our translator and reviewing the project before we present to the people. I’m not exactly sure how things are going to play out, because we have a lot of information, but we know the communities are willing to let us inform them about communicable diseases and other health issues. It is good to see that the community is pro-active in letting us come into their culture and share knowledge.

Speaking about sharing, we are learning Creole at an alarming rate. Already we are making sentences and communicating with the youngsters. I am going to go eatà mwen pral manje. See, easyJ

Tomorrow we are going for a tour to For Che (we need motor bikes to get there) and checking out the community situation and investigating on a recent disease that has killed a few individuals in the last month with no known signs or symptoms, ie: no fever, diarrhea or other things.

If I haven’t said so yet, we are amazed at the faith these people had. The other day some young adults were sitting in the open church listening to the radio that was playing half creole half English songs. It was amazing to sit there and sing along and see them worship the God of our lives. The LORD is doing great things out here.

Ok awesome story. Today the kids were following us around as usual and they poked a fresh mango from the tree and told us to eat it. Before we knew it, our faces were covered in mango juice and threads of fibre were stuck in our teeth. There is a picture of us all (not posted) orange faced and ecstatic about the exotic fruit.

Ps: the Kid’s favourite artist is always Justin Bieber. Ha they all know my name.

Justin Baerg

(love you Pia!)

We're Here!

2011-06-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Bonjou!

After many hours of planes and airports (many more for Dorothy than the rest) we arrived at Port-au-Prince International Airport. From the air we were struck with the beauty of Haiti – a small island covered in green mountains. Taxiing down the runway we could see abandoned planes parked in fields nearby. We were greeted by a band of musicians while walking through to customs. Waiting for luggage was a new experience since Haitians simply remove all the baggage from the luggage belt so people have to go searching everywhere for everything. In our case we searched for a long while… and our searches were never rewarded. None of the 7 team members that met up in Toronto got our luggage. The only bags that came through were Jessica’s since she met up with us in Miami. After some time talking to the luggage claim people and throwing a Frisbee around the small terminal we headed out to the truck that would take us to the Heart 2 Heart compound in Grand Goave.

We piled into the back of the Heart 2 Heart truck and started the journey out of the capital city. It took us about two hours just to get out of Port-au-Prince. Driving in Haiti involves a great deal of honking and taking serious risks to pass vehicles at high speeds. It rained for the last 2 weeks straight here and the roads are bad to begin with so going was slow over huge pot holes filled with water and areas of deep mud. Driving past the presidential palace, the damage of the city was accentuated by the ruins of the beautiful building. The streets and rivers were filled with garbage and shop keepers selling their wares at small booths and colourfully painted shops. Upon leaving the city we could speed up a great deal and it took us another hour to get to the Heart to Heart compound. The drive was beautiful – the road was lined with all sorts of tropical fruit trees and the odd cow, horse, pig, or dog could be seen just off the road. So here we are now at the heart to heart compound in Grand Goave, Haiti. We sleep in bunk beds with arguably better mattresses than the ones we sleep on at Trinity which is sweet even though last night was a bit of an adventure since everybody’s belongings – including blankets and mosquito nets- were somewhere in the states but we shared whatever we had with each other and got through the night amicably. Already today we’ve spent some time playing soccer and Frisbee, learning some creole and attempting to communicate with the kids here.

As of now our luggage has all arrived at the heart 2 heart compound! Praise the Lord for safe travels and getting our luggage! The next couple days will be spent getting oriented and settling in. More stories (and hopefully some pictures) to come!

Peace

Hi Everyone!

2011-06-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name is Dorothy. I am 20 years old and I am currently from Regina, Saskatchewan. I am a nursing student at Trinity and I just finished my second year. I am so excited to have this opportunity to be going on a mission trip! I have never been on one before but have been interested in missions ever since I became a Christian. When I first found out about this mission trip to Haiti I never imagined that I would actually be going on it. It seemed like a faraway dream because I didn't think I could afford it and I didn't think it was the right time do be doing a mission trip. But God had other plans! Through much prayer and from other people's words, I ended up applying on the day before the deadline. Even then I didn't think I would get accepted when I heard that there were many people that applied and only a few spots. But when I found out that I was accepted I was so excited and couldn't believe that I was going to Haiti!!!! It was crazy. Now I am just so thankful that it is working out and that we have such a wonderful team! I am looking forward to what God has in store for us there! I know it will be good! Not going to lie though, I am a little nervous but I am totally relying on God for His strength. One verse that I love right now is 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline."

3,2,1... Countdown is On!

2011-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

My name is Jessica Nyman, and I am going into my 4th year at TWU in the nursing program. I am born and raised in Surrey, BC, but I hope to "spread my wings" a little bit further than that :)

My extended family has long been involved with missions around the world, so this kind of trip is something that I had long considered. When I heard there was a trip specifically for nursing (and pre-med) students, I jumped on the opportunity. There have been times of uncertainty, but I am so glad to be going to Haiti! I can't believe that we're leaving in just a few days... God has been so faithful in His provision for this trip, and I strongly believe that we have a great team in place. I am very much looking forward to spending these next 4 weeks with my awesome team and the Haitians.

And yes, there is that small matter of missing the Stanley Cup Finals. Not going to lie -- I am a hardcore Canucks fan, so it's a little hard to be missing it. But hey, bigger and better things, right?

Keep us in your prayers, and we'll try and keep you updated as we go!

A Little About Elysha

2011-06-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

My name is Elysha VanderVeer. I will be going into my fourth year of Biology at Trinity in the fall. I spent the first 7 years of my life as an MK in Pakistan, the next 10 in Ontario and my family's residence has been in Calgary Alberta since that time. I'm already in Ontario on a week long precursor trip and I'm incredibly excited about the trip to Haiti and about the team that has been brought together to go on it. God's done some great things in getting me here and instead of typing out that whole story again you can check it out on the TWU Impact site! I'm on the right in this picture. (the fine young lady on the left is my friend a room mate Lydia). Peace out homez!!!

2011-06-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well this is it. Only 4 days to go before we take off and invest 28 days into the people of Haiti. Specifically we will be travelling to Grand Guave and staying at Heart To Heart (H2H) where Pastor Luc's ministry first started a number of years ago. You can read the story about how pastor Luc first started his church in the backyard with 40 orphans in his home of 1,200 square feet at H2H's website.

Our team, of 6 TWU students myself and my sister, has a goal to build relationships with the Haitians in the surrounding area around Heart 2 Heart Valley, and provide public health education to those that are suffering from preventable disease and sickness. If you did not receive a cover letter (which contains more details) from one of our teammates, you can find it here. My sincere appreciation and thanks to those that have donated to this cause; $23,000 was raised for donations to the ministry and funding for this mission.

Back in February we had a fund raiser as part of a TWUSA sponsored concert with Starfield where we raised some $300.

We have been blessed with donations of money, but also gifts for the people of Haiti. Sarah Pankratz has brought us 25 brand new soccer balls, Larry Larkin has donations of sandals and has hooked up with a local high school to donate handmade cloth bags to the girls in the orphanage, Tim and Christie Wray have donated a duffel bag of clean clothes, TWU athletics has donated some volleyballs and basketballs, oh ya, and the nurse at TWU, Michelle Regher, has left us a few large boxes of non-expired, non-prescription medical bandages and gauze! Now we are all packed up with gifts and donations such that each person will be taking a carry on full of donated supplies for the children, staff and hospital.

So, with hearts full and bags packed (well not quite yet) we depart on Monday evening and meet up with the rest of the team in Miami for our flight down to Port Au Prince. And if I haven't said it yet, our team is amazing! We will all be keeping up this blog down in Haiti, such that every 2 or three days there will be a new post by a different team member. That way everyone stays informed while spending minimal time on the internet.

We ask that you will also pray for us as we depart for a journey that will be full of God's glory but also full of spiritual oppression.

Psalm 24

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory!

Justin Baerg

Oh ya, and the pretty girl in the photo is my fiancé who will be waiting for me when I get back for our wedding in July!!