This morning we left at 5:45 to attend The Church on the Rock. The Church on the Rock runs a daily sunrise service which consists of worship and an inspirational message. The service was a mix between English and Creole. Even though most of us speak very little Creole, we could feel His presence and the power of the message. The Haitians are a faithful people. They are proud of their faith and are certainly not afraid to show their faith. We left the service to find a large rock wedge between the duallies, which led to a consistent "bump" every 3 feet for the ride home.
When we arrived back at the guest house, we had breakfast and quickly changed into our "water truck clothes". We were all excited to hear that we would be making the trip to Cite Soleil to visit Hope School and finally get to help with water delivery.
Hope School was built on a waste area, where people sent trash and human waste and even buried their dead in 2015. It has progressed since then to include a school, a church, an innovation center, and soon a health clinic.
Once we finished our tour of the school, we started water delivery. Dylan was on hose duty and pumped approximately 3000 gallons of clean water into containers of various shapes and sizes. The rest of us loved on some babies the small children who were playing in the area. We also helped to deliver the water back to the homes of individual families. This gave us a glimpse into the everyday lives of these hard working and strong men and women.
As we moved from our last water delivery stop, we were able to walk out to a pier and witness life by the water's edge. We saw fishermen with large nets. Women cleaning fish on the pier. And young children holding seagulls by the wings!
As we boarded our tap-taps, we all agreed that we came to Haiti to "fill" the Haitians with love when in fact it was our hearts that received the filling. We are all truly blessed to have answered the call to serve in this way.
One quick stop before returning to the guest house was at Fleri Farms. This farm was purchased by Healing Haiti 2 years ago. They grow many types of produce including: mango, coconuts, breadfruit, limes, lemons, avocado and even a cherry tree! This farm is used as job creation in Cite Soleil. They hire a handful of workers on the farm but also allow locals to purchase the produce for resale in the area. They are hoping to expand operations to include chickens and bees and hope to also allow for teams to serve more on the farm in the future as well as fencing in the entire 28 acres.
In conclusion, we saw much more of Haiti today then we were able to see earlier in the week. We see continued growth in Healing Haiti as an organization and continued growth in the Haitian communities.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
Written By Team Members,
Jessica Duflo and Terri Grubaugh
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