1. Pastor's conference on Dec. 12-13th, hosting 3 people who were leading discussions on the connection between the church and the environment (at least that's what we asked them to do, although the only part of the conversation we could follow was about how the church could make money) with about 15 pastors who came each day at 8am and finished around 3pm.
2. Teacher's training from Dec. 15 - 20th. We hosted four teachers from La Gonave who came to do a fòmasyon in teaching methods and theory. About 20 teachers came each day around 8am and left around 2pm.
3. Teacher's training and excursion to Anse Rouge (Dec. 22 - 24th). We stuffed the aforementioned teachers, 2 partners, and 6 MCC workers (22 people total) into our Toyota Landcruiser and Hilux pickup and drove 4 hours through hurricane-damaged Gonaives and into a super-dry deserty part of the country for three days of training with the folks at AMURT. I was most interested in their salt-making projects using seawater.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
The teachers putting a Bible verse in the correct order.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
Fritzner who is a pretty cheerful guy, but also a heavy thinker at times - on this trip we learned he preaches once every month in his church.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
This is Naomi, one of the members of MCC's environmental education team: she always seems to be thinking more than what she says.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
Our big stack of sleeping pads in the barn-turned-guesthouse in Anse Rouge. Fortunately these were provided, although Sharon and I missed the notice to bring linens and ended up sleeping in our jeans...
4. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We returned from Anse Rouge in time to make it to the Christmas Eve service at our local Catholic church, which ended around 10pm. Normally that's not too bad, but after driving for 4+ hours over the worst roads in the Caribbean, I was a bit beat.
5. Christmas Day. Got up early to drive into Port-au-Prince to celebrate Christmas with our friends there. Christmas finally arrived!
6. Deal with a case of dengue fever. We both caught this mosquito-born virus, unfortunately; Sharon was laid out for most of the Anse Rouge trip (in her jeans on one of those little mats) and I got hit the day after Christmas. In some ways it's similar to the flu, with aches and pains, nausea, fever - and a crazy full-body rash, and apparently it causes depression too. (So if we sound a little down it's just the dengue talking).
7. Dominican Republic (Dec. 29th-Jan. 3). A short 8-hour bus trip brings us to the land of milk-and-honey. Paved roads! Electricity! Indoor plumbing! A bus system! You get the idea. (Check out the Depps' blog for more photos.)
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
Outside of a church in Santo Domingo.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.Dec.Jan.2009 |
Alms for the poor.
8. Relaxing on the beach, 0n the north coast of the D.R. for New Year's Eve.
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| From Haiti.Dom.Rep.until.Jan.2009 |
Sunset on the beach on New Year's Day.
9. We headed back to Port before we going home for a meeting on Monday morning, but while there we got to meet the newest member of the MCC team: Josh and Marylynn's new son, Hayden Jwasiys. (Jwasiys is a Creole name that means "little Josh" - and our Haitian coworkers think it's hilarious he's named that. Apparently it's a name common with country folk.) We also met up with someone from our home congregation (Frazer Mennonite) to chat and pick up our new laptop (yay!). Grabbed some groceries that we can't find in Desarmes (cheese).
10. Jan 5th, 8:30 am meeting to select candidates to interview for new position in the reforestation program (we intend to hire a woman, which will be great for the team!). Check to see if garden is still alive. It is. Our helper-kid actually put in an entire crop of beans on our roof. Thanks, Jides!
11. Braved the market to restock our kitchen, where we learn that a nationwide gas shortage means no eggs for us. (We're not yet sure why there's a shortage: anybody know?) Hopefully this shortage doesn't last too long, as our boss reminded us that people have little patience for higher prices and lack of transportation, especially when food prices are already high and there is not much transportation infrastructure to begin with.
12. Today, Jan 7th, 2009. Internet catch-up, e-mails, blog to post and some quality time with our friend Google.
The End.
4 comments:
Oh no, not the dengue fever. Hope you are both feeling better by now. Glad you are enjoying the magazines and other goodies.
Hey guys, not sure if you remember me. I'm Jonathan (a Mennonite from Norristown PA) with Beyond Borders. We communicated briefly before you left but didn't have time to catch up. Cindy Koser gave me the link to your blog. Looks like you're learning a lot. I was at Holy Trinity and Saint Vincents from 1988-91. I was the "special teams" organist (my label) playing for Christmas, Easter, wedding of the bishop's daughter, etc.
Anyway, I was wondering if you've met Ad deBlaiej yet? He's an avid biker and actually trained in Haiti for an across-the-US bike trip this past summer. Email me at jonathan@beyondborders.net.
What a whirlwind. Sounds great though. Sorry to hear about the Dengue. Hope you have completely recovered. People here have it too, and every time a mosquito comes buzzing by, I get a bit nervous. Sigh, such is life. Happy New Year!
Hi, When I was in Haiti,I "got"
Dengue Fever too.A local doctor prescribed Vit.B12 shots and I only needed to take 1&1/2 days off,because I could eat again (and snooze at work if I needed).I even entertained some of my sister's in-laws for a week & they never knew.
Eating = getting more weapons to fight off the disease.
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