Scenes of destruction and suffering from the earthquake in Haiti wrench our hearts. They also bring back vivid memories of my first visit to that ill-fated country in 1996. Today the guest house in Leogane where my husband and I stayed and the mountain church where we worshiped are both destroyed. I wonder how many of the friendly people we met and worked with were crushed beneath the rubble of concrete and my heart aches.
Harry and I spent ten days as part of the first Haiti Mission Team from Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church. Mission teams of volunteers go to share their skills – surgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists, engineers – and even those like us, who can do “grunt work” such as painting or making repairs. The volunteers usually find they gain more than they give as they observe how the Christian faith is lived by these joyous people who have so little.
Drivers from the hospital met us at the airport in Port-au-Prince and helped us through customs with our personal luggage and our many trunks. Everything we would need for ten days had to be packed in a carry- on so the two trunks each person was allowed could be filled with clothing, medical supplies and toys collected at our church. Our destination was Leogane, about 19 miles distant, where we would spend the first five days at Hospital Sainte Croix (Holy Cross).
That ride we will never forget! Poor roads, heavy traffic, no traffic lights, no stop signs or officers to direct traffic– five hours traveling less than twenty miles! As our driver nosed ahead of competing vehicles, we confronted first hand the worst of Haiti. The streets of Port-au-Prince were littered with garbage, flattened plastic drink bottles, and dirty water from a recent flood. Pedestrians – women with heavy loads perfectly balanced atop their heads, men pulling heavy loads on homemade carts, hucksters selling fruit drinks and popsicles to hot, weary passengers—wove their way among the stalled or slowly moving vehicles.
The first five days we stayed at the hospital guest house, painting walls there, creating simple dressing areas for the hospital X-ray department to provide privacy for women patients, or in my case assisting doctors from the Center for Disease Control (Atlanta) as they collected data for their study of filariasis, a tropical disease caused by parasites.
The CDC doctors measured 350 children in two schools — private and public. Carol Brash, a team member, measured the circumference of the upper arm of each child. I knelt beside the scientific measuring board, made sure heels touched the board, toes were together, eyes looking straight ahead, and recorded three measurements taken by the doctor – accurate to the second decimal. I learned your knees get blistered when you kneel several hours a day for four days.
Filariasis affects growth and later in life causes a disabling disease, elephantiasis. Blood and stool tests indicated if the children were infected with the parasite. A pill was given each morning at school. In one year they would be measured again to see if normal growth occurred. Positive results would convince the World Health Organization to give a grant to cover daily pills to be each child in the schools, preventing the life-long disability later in life. We were gratified to learn (much later) that the study was effective, and the prevention program was continued in Leogane.
After our stay at Leogane, we proceeded to the mountain village of Cherident to observe the work of a Haitian priest, Père Albert (Father Albert). Père Albert believed God sent him to this parish to provide schools for the children of that mountainous area. He believed education and faith were the hope of Haiti, and his goal was to build a school at each of the churches in his parish. Seated on straight-back chairs in the bed of a huge truck, we traveled the rocky mountain roads, to visit schools constructed by funds from churches in the United States.
At La Revoire we forded the river and visited a palm branch shelter attended by 100 children who could not cross the river on foot to attend the school there.
Returning to Roanoke, we told our story and our church voted to build a school at La Revoire.
We also built a church and we believe they were spared, since this area to the south of Haiti on the Caribbean is farther from the epicenter of the earthquake near Leogane.
Père Albert passed away in 2005, but his work continues by priests who shared his goals and the beneficence of the Haiti Education Fund. HEF was established by Frances Landers from El Dorado, Arkansas. Frances is a 93-year-old cancer survivor who considered it her“kitchen ministry.” The foundation pays all administrative costs, so donations are used solely for Haiti relief. But Frances Landers is another story.
All these experiences engrave Haiti on my heart and I wonder how this country, which faced so many disasters, will rebuild and continue its struggle to rise above the limitations of poverty and ignorance. I still believe faith and education provide hope for Haiti.
By Mary Jo Shannon [email protected]