Lynn University Students: Installment Three

Wednesday

We drove for a little over an hour to an area called Thomazeau. We visited sisters who do medical work there in a little clinic in a property they rent at present. One was Spanish, one Columbian and one Puerto Rican. They also run a mobile clinic where they actually visit and reach out to the very poor who cannot come to the clinic. They were in need of funding for a permanent structure and they are building actually on a piece of land that was donated to them. They are building a home for the sisters and on the front of that land they have submitted a project for us to fundraise in order to build a permanent clinic for them there. They made sure to tell us that they will continue to work with their mobile clinic also.

The sisters told us a story about the time when they got started with this clinic because of a little boy with very low hemoglobin and his father, both of whom were very ill. They were driving in that area one day, which suffers from flooding and there was flooding at that time. The water came above the motor of the car onto the hood. Somehow, miraculously, they managed to put both the father and the little boy in the car and drove them to a hospital. They were both saved. That little boy had lost his mother and he has become like a member of their family. He has adopted the 3 sisters — one as his mother, the other as his aunt, and the eldest as his grandmother. The little boy is so happy!

There are 15 communities that these sisters serve with their medical mission within the area of Thomazeau.

We went to another housing area called Emmanuel Village, which is funded by a church group in Orlando. Here, again, we saw beautiful homes and easily available water. It was amazing, because there are still some of the old shacks there where people live while waiting for their new home. The contrast between the old mud huts and the sturdy new concrete homes we are building is very clear and sharp there. One would wonder how these people could live without any ventilation. Every rainfall would destroy part of their walls. You could see the much different look on the faces of those who had already received their homes. The others were waiting patiently.

From here, but within the same area, we went to visit Julie’s Village. A donor called Julie donated the money to have a village of homes built in this very poor area. It is wonderful, because they have also built water wells and the people are living in much better conditions now. There are also some self-sustainability projects with goats, chickens and agriculture. We saw a beautiful church in the area, which was built by Madame Boniface, who was the wife of one of the past Presidents of Haiti. They had sanitation blocks as well. When we looked at the people, we could tell that they had suffered a great deal in their lives. They were very quiet and almost cautious of our visit. It was a strange feeling. They did not seem to have the same type of energy as many of the other people we had seen. With time…

After Julie’s Village, we traveled to our Boys’ Orphanage called Notre Dame De L’Espoir (Our Lady of Hope) also with almost 200 boys. There is also a school attached to the orphanage. The students from Lynn University and their faculty were very excited about this visit, because they had challenged the boys at the orphanage to a soccer game. There were quite a few soccer players in the group that came with us. Lynn had a small cheering section, but the “home team” had around 200 children wildly cheering for them. It was a very exciting game. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Lynn University’s team lost and the boys beat them with a score of 6 to 4. We had a very delicious lunch right after that and then became engaged with a basketball game.

It was a very competitive but enjoyable visit. I observed that, in spite of differences of race, culture, language, nationality and financial status, in the final analysis, people just want to relate to each other as human beings. It was beautiful to see the relationship form and the bond between our Lynn University students and the boys.

Upon leaving the Boy’s Orphanage, I thought once more… “These are also saved.”

Right next to the orphanage, we walked across to the Village of the Elderly. This is one of my very favorite stops in Haiti. It is a beautiful assisted care facility, and we actually had this before assisted care became fashionable.

We built 325 beautiful little wooden homes with cement floors and we got over 300 of the elderly who were homeless in the streets of Port Au Prince in the capital of Haiti and brought them into this village. Here we take care of their medical, laundry, food and every other possible need they might have. There have been marriages of a few couples. We have buried a few, but the beautiful thing is that they have not died alone. One very old gentleman who was dying on one of my previous visits there was surrounded by 6 or 7 of his friends, who prayed by candle light and sang hymns by his bedside. If you can call a death scene beautiful, this certainly was. He felt comforted and at peace by the fact that he was not alone — as would have been the case if he were still homeless and wandering the streets of the capital.

One thing that always makes our visits there memorable is that these people (some in their 80’s and many of them near 100 years old) love to dance. They have their own little band and they play drums and guitar. We all get together in the common area and they will dance, and dance, and dance. I don’t know where they get the energy, but it must be the spirit. We truly had a wonderful time with them. It was gratifying to see all of the students from Lynn University completely relating to these beautiful men and women who could easily be their grandparents… dancing with them… joking around… having a great time. It is something that has left its mark on our hearts and in the hearts of the elderly people we visited. They will never forget this experience and neither will we.

After we said “goodbye” and hugged everyone there, we went back to the hotel for the evening.

Thursday

We drove about 2 hours out of Port Au Prince to a Fishing Village called Pierre Payen. We do fishing villages in very depressed and poor coastal areas. Through the generosity of our donors, we form something like a cooperative and we supply them with 4 large boats with engines and motors. We build a shed for the equipment, and provide all of the necessary supplies and training for the fishermen of the area in deep-sea fishing.

The problem is that those fishermen are using little boats that they scoop out from a tree that they have cut down, and some of them are so old and in such terrible shape that one of the fishermen told us that they only go as far as the reef. They are depleting the reefs very quickly.

Two people must go in their little boat… one to fish and the other to bail out the water because the boat has so many holes in it. When we train these fishermen to go and do deep-sea fishing, all of a sudden they go from catching tiny little fish to very large, high quality fish that are easily marketable and can provide a good income. The fishermen have to give 10% of their catch as a tithe to the community. Many of these people are invalids or have some sort of disability and 5% of their catch goes to helping with their needs; the other 5% goes to maintenance of the boats. The fishermen on each boat are required to teach someone in the younger generation how to fish.

Speaking of the younger generation, the young people from Lynn University had a tremendous treat because the fishermen took them out on the boats. They went around the coast for about a mile to a beautiful beach. I decided not to go by boat. I walked and met them at this unspoiled and natural beach with white powdered sand, where the water was completely clear. Most of our group spent a lot of time in the water and we had a picnic lunch there and a great time was had by all.

Every evening, either before or after dinner, we had a reflection meeting led by Father Paul. Basically, he gave us some food for thought with regards to the activities of the day. He asked for our comments as to our feelings about what the day meant to us and if we had connected with anyone in particular. On this last evening in Port Au Prince, I was again very proud of our young people. Every single one of them talked about how much they had been moved by the plight of the poor and each one of them pledged that they would do something when they got back home in order to help the poor. It was not going to be just a matter of seeing it and feeling it, but, rather, they were going to be moved from awareness to action. I am convinced that the world will be fine in the hands of these amazing young people.

Friday

We got up early in the morning and left the hotel for the Port Au Prince airport and returned home to the U.S.A. “Adieu, Haiti!”