Morning started with our devotional and a wonderful breakfast. Once we gathered the clan we departed on the tap-tap. Our driver was Max and Valerie our guide. First stop was the water distribution center where 4 trucks are filled from the top at a time. The water comes from a well. The distribution center runs 24 hrs. a day 7 days a week. This is the water system for all of Port-au-Prince. Once the truck was filled we headed to Number 26 (an area of Cite Soliel) to provide water for the local residents. We filled 100’s of 5 gallon buckets and drums with water, which is a life source for these people, that we in the US take for granted. These are all carried by women, children and Healing Haiti volunteers. It is amazing how small children are expected to carry these buckets. It was a blessing to be able to help mamas by watching their babies or to help by carrying the buckets and tubs. The smiles of the children and the thanks-you’s from the families makes it all worth while.
Our next stop was Number 21 where we got a guided tour of the most impoverished area many of us have ever seen. Valerie took us down by the ocean where we watched men building a boat by hand. One man was shaping boards with a hand chisel and one was hand planing the boards to be used on the hull. As we walked between their homes people were very welcoming with friendly greetings. It was heart wrenching to see the conditions they had to live in, and to watch children walk barefoot on layers of seashells.
Our second water stop was Number 25. It seemed like it was bath day for the children as they soaped themselves and played in the water. For the adults it was more urgent to get the buckets filled. This was our last opportunity to help with water delivery while we are in Haiti. It is hard work but a blessing.
Our last stop was Apparent Project/Papillon-Enterprises. This organization was founded by an American woman who initially came to Haiti to adopt. When she arrived she learned that the child was not a true orphan, but an economic orphan with a family who wanted him, but could not afford to raise him, she decided to start a business for mothers and fathers. The jobs gave them the ability to keep their own children at home. There is a daycare which provides care at no cost to employees. She began with a small number of Haitian employees and has grown to a company of over 200 employees. Everything is handmade here in Haiti, from glass beads to cereal box beads, pottery, stuffed toys and silk screenings. Every item is from recycles materials.
After enjoying a wonderful smoothy from the restaurant and a shopping spree in their retail store we returned to a Haitian meal and our team meeting.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you visited me.
Matthew 25: 35-36
Truly I say to you as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
Mathew 25:45
Teri, Tom, JoAnn, Kathy
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