Friday Family Photo--Haiti Mission

Boarding the plane after a long delay in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Better to have problems on the ground than in the air!

The classes he's teaching this week are perspective drawing and they get to make a model. This is the model he constructed there which is one of the classroom buildings not yet built (no money) which he designed a few years ago. Each tiny piece was cut out here at home and carefully packed into the suitcase.

The accomodations for the volunteers are nice--much better than what the people of Haiti or even the mission staff have. It's sort of like a camp--they have a dorm and working toilets and showers plus very good food. This mission group's purpose was to build up the tech support so it involved a computer team. Equipment was sent down ahead. My husband doesn't even do e-mail, but he went along and did after school classes in art. These photos came via Facebook from the team leader, Gary.

Here he is at work in Haiti during his last architecture class of the week, Friday. From their hands, I'm guessing they are working on perspective. On Friday the kids get to wear school t-shirts, but M-Th they are dressed up and the teachers too.

Update April 29: Home safe, and on time. He says it was the best mission ever! But I think he says that every year. Monday's teaching day was lost because of the delayed flight into Cap Hatian, but the rest went well. He was teaching 4 classes a day, plus one day filled in for a teacher who didn't show up (very common in the public schools but very rare in the Christian schools).

Lutheran seminarian killed in earthquake

Ben Larson, a cousin of our senior pastor, was killed in the earthquake in Haiti, where he was on a short term mission with his wife and other relatives. Story here. The other members of the team survived and have returned to the states.

We also learned that the emergency bus and truck load of food, water and medical supplies from Ouanaminthe to Port au Prince made it and returned safely with about 100 people from Ouanaminthe, including the four nursing students from the school in Leogane west of Port au Prince with 80% of the buildings destroyed. Of their four other students, 2 haven't been located, one had a foot amputated to get her out of the rubble, and another is safe. Those four had gone into PP. Our UALC pastor, Dave Mann, who lives and works in Ouanaminthe says of the return trip,

"The pick-up was stuffed inside and out. The bus was full both inside and on the roof. Many other vehicles were headed north with similar overloading.

Mèt Arne, our high school assistant principal, discovered that his wife is okay, but his 15-year old daughter along with many other students in her school died.

Dr. Riccardo, former employee of UMC [this might refer to their clinic, not sure], and his mother died in the quake.

The government’s Northeast Department director of education died. Several senators, other top governmental officials, heads of police stations, and many U.N. personnel died – and untold tens of thousands more. I don’t know if we ever will have an accurate count of the dead. Estimates range from 50,000 to 500,000. Some bodies have already been covered in mass graves and many are uncounted under the rubble. But still many, many corpses are lying exposed, bloated, and stinking."

Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo

Last night we got in line, after line, after line along with thousands of others from central Ohio to see the Wildlights (Nov. 20-Jan.2). The temperatures had moderated a bit, and I think everyone within 100 miles had decided this was a good time. I can't tell you how many children and elders we saw in rolling vehicles bundled in coats and blankets. It was really fun to see people of all ages, but particularly multi-generational families, out having a good time. We took our house guests, Zeke and Frandy, citizens of Haiti and students at the University of Akron. But it was our first time to see the lights too, and I doubt that we'd been to the zoo in 20 years. All the animals that weren't asleep were visited, because people wanted to get inside warm buildings! We didn't leave home until about 6:30, and if you're planning to take in this show, I recommend you start out much earlier than we did. We were probably at our exit off Rt. 33 at least 30 minutes, and I think the people exiting the outbelt waited even longer. While we were waiting the boys sang "O Holy Night" for us in French. (They know four languages.) Fortunately, in our last line, the ticket line, someone had extra coupons for one person free with one adult purchase, so between the four of us that saved us $14.

At church today, our guests were able see our Haiti missionaries, Dave and Pam Mann, home for the holidays, and visit four of our nine services to meet the people who support Institution Univers. Our son joined us for dinner, and tonight our UALC couples' group and some neighbors will get together at our home.

The beautiful children of Haiti

Please see the previous blog entry first so you understand why we have these photos. It's hard to hold the camera when they all want to see the picture.



Lunch time! There are many shifts, and the food is on the table before the children enter.





Girl's choir from 2007 trip

Scenes from Haiti 2009

On Monday afternoon my husband returned from a short term mission trip in Ouanaminthe Haiti. This was his third year to go, and he hopes to go again next year. He loves the people there. By our standards, they don't have much, but they are so joyful in their faith, and the students he works with are just delightful.
The 2009 team with Dave and Pam Mann (UALC ministers who serve there)

The container with the construction materials didn't arrive until Thursday, but God always has a Plan B, so the team busied themselves painting a room cream with salmon pillars.

Two of the team members have medical equipment backgrounds and were able to help calibrate equipment in the clinic which is now completely staffed with Haitians. The first few years of the clinic it was staffed with rotating teams from the USA.

After he was finished with his construction responsibilities, my husband taught a 13th grade class in model building. These are models of the buildings he has designed for the vocational school which will be built next to the academic buildings.

3510 Trip Tales, Haiti #3

Read part #1. Read part #2. In addition to working construction jobs, many of the team members also offered special classes for the children at the school--art classes, tin whistle classes, perspective drawing classes and a bicycle repair clinic. My husband taught the upper grades perspective drawing and he says they were outstanding students who caught on very quickly. Most classes had a translator, but one class didn't (the students were all learning English) and he said they had no problem. He'd prepared a multi-page handout ahead of time for the 75 students.


On Friday the children performed with their tin whistles. A red shirt indicated academic excellence.
The bicycle repair clinic was very popular. Bicycles are a major means of transportation.

3509 Trip Tales, Haiti #2

Read part #1. The mission team's purpose was to help with construction at the school--building platforms for the school rooms (European style with the teacher somewhat elevated) and wiring for lighting. The heavier pieces of lumber and equipment had been coordinated and sent ahead by Howard, who before retirement was a construction manager. The younger men primarily worked with the wiring (crawling around above the ceiling) and the older men built the platforms with help from some local men. The dirt and dust (no paved roads) plus the heat was almost overwhelming, so some of the men had breathing difficulties by the end of the week.

Howard and his crew building the platforms
Lunch was in the main cafeteria with the children--beans and brown rice, or rice and beans, and there was plenty for all.
Exterior of the school
In the U.S., we having vending machines in schools; in Haiti, the vendors set up shop in the school compound.

3506 Trip tales: Haiti #1

When the team arrived at the airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, they were greeted by Dave and Pam, our pastor and wife, who are on assignment there at Institution Univers school, and the school director Hugues. Because it was a large team, they all boarded a school bus, and the luggage went into a truck. They headed for the border between DR and Haiti where they would spend the night--normally a four hour trip. But the truck broke down, so the bus had to tow it, slowing things down to a bumpy crawl, and six and a half hours.
Pam and Hugues

The border between Dominican Republic and Haiti
The day they entered Haiti was Sunday, so they went directly to the school and mission house where they would be living, and then walked to church.

The mission house was very nice with modern facilities including plumbing and electricity (part of the day).
Despite the extreme poverty, the Haitians are a proud people and dress well--the women in dresses and hats, and the men in white shirts and ties--to attend church.
The service was jammed (Baptist Church) and lasted for 2 hours, with a lot of beautiful singing and a full choir.
It wasn't unusual to see partially completed buildings in use. They make the cement blocks or bricks by hand, and when they have enough, the building constuction continues.