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 Deacon Anita and I traveled to Bondeau on Sunday November
15. We were met my Pere Kesner and a driver with the Bondeau truck.
The truck was packed with mattresses, large water tank to replace one that had
a leak, and our many bags.
From Pere Kesner we learned that his vehicle was
totaled in a accident a few weeks before. He was not in the vehicle and
there were no injuries, but the vehicle was a total loss with no insurance due
to a miss communication with the Diocese of Colorado. A week following
the accident, Pere Kesner was riding on the back of a motor cycle down from
Jeannette. The driver skidded, and Pere Kesner suffered some neck
injuries and was waring a neck brace. Despite these setbacks, he is
moving ahead full steam.
On the way through Port au Prince, Anita was taking
video shots with the window open. As fast as a bullet, a person ran up to
the truck while moving, snatched the camera and was off. Anita had a bit
of a bruise. Without a battery charger, and camera is worthless.
When we arrived at Bondeau, we found the bag for the driver missing.
While taking care to secure all the items in the truck, his was
not.
Driving up to the school, the Maison d’Amitie is
blocked from view until you come around the corner, and it is there!
There were many people working on final touches of painting, carpentry,
plumbing, electrical and cleaning. There were still many finishing
touches, but it was ready for use. One of the people there was a
representative from the UN, who had stopped by to see the progress. There
was little time with him, however, he made it very clear that the Maison
d’Amitie was a outstanding model for the community and truly was inspiring
development for this part of Haiti.The location of the Maison is inspiring, set
up the hill from the school with views all around of lush green and looking out
to the sea in the front with the large island in the mouth of Haiti and hills
and peaks all around. The views particularly from the upper covered deck
are spectacular.
Pere Kesner, Deacon Anita and I were l the first
guests at the Maison d’Amitie. The cook, on loan from St.
Paul’s, prepared sandwiches for us for the first meal there in the dinning
room.
Sunday service was scheduled for 4 pm in the
school. The new seminarian assigned weekends to Ste. Marie Madeleine and
the seminarian assigned to St. Marks, both assisted in the service. The
church was packed. With many children, there were about 250 at the
service. We saw many babies in arms, and importantly, many men. One
of the early grades sang two pieces of music without any music. The
church was very hot, and the service long. The children are amazing in
their attention for all that time including a long sermon by Pere Kesner that
was delivered with great emotion. It would have been nice to have known
what he said.
By the end of the service, it was nearly dark, but,
the entire yard by the school was lit up, and the drive to the street lit
up! There was light in Bondeau, the last of the areas in the provence of
Nippes to get any electricity, even if only one light at the highway.
Behind the school, the yard around the Maison d’Amitie was also lit up,
and there were many lights in the Maison. What a sight! I brought
50 low wattage bulbs, and they gave a lot of light, even if only for a short
time to conserve energy.
People stayed and talked and greeted one another as
well as Anita and Dave. There seemed to be real positive energy in the
air.
We had a dinner of snapper and rice and beans for the
first dinner in the Maison. After dinner we went to the open deck on the
second floor with wonderful long views, a cool breeze and talked. Early
to bed with the luxury of a private bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and
sink with running water. The second floor with, seven bedrooms, is
reserved for partner guests and missionaries.
After a excellent night’s sleep, we began the day
with wonderful Haitian coffee and a breakfast of Corn Flakes, fresh fruit and
hard boiled eggs.
We had time during the day to spend reviewing detailed
operating records, discussing ideas and plans and observing the
classrooms.
From an operating standpoint, the major issue is
increasing the operating budget to pay for a overall Supervisor of the school,
church and Maison d’Amitie. Pere Kesner has hired a young lady,
Daphne, who has been working at St. Paul’s. He has made it clear to
all that she is in charge, and to follow her direction. In addition, a
house keeper for the Maison is Miragoane necessary, and Pere Kesner interviewed
a candidate who has worked at a hotel in Miragoane, and seems to be trained and
a hard worker. These staff additions and added food cost are the
immediate budget items. We agreed to pay the first two months through
December for these two salaries from St. Gregory’s, for a total of US$
876. The school kitchen seems to have adequate food supplies, but is
still lacking propane. Pere Kesner is paying for charcoal from various
funds to keep the kitchen going, which it is and doing well. In addition
to student lunches, the kitchen prepares food for the teachers. They have
requested food in addition to beans and rice. At this time, we believe
that they should provide for the addition on their own.
Another addition to the staff, is a physical education
teacher. This is a young man from Miragoane trained in physical education
who works with all grades. With no sports equipment or facilities, he has
little to work with other than exercise and fitness.
From observation, of the classes, learning is taking
place, and there is a clear separation from one grade to the next. The
materials available provide some base for the teachers. This, however,
needs more care to move to the next level. We discussed the need to have
some level of testing to determine the level of education being
developed. We asked Pere Kesner to see if the Diocese has a test model
that could be used to determine success in teaching at different
levels.
For the guest house, some funds will be needed to
complete final details, such as paint for the back of the building, railings
for the stairs, metal enclosure for the second floor, doors for the store space
under the bathroom sinks, doors for cupboards in the kitchen, furniture for the
dinning room, upper deck area, etc. The road from the highway to the
school and Maison needs to be leveled and dressed with a layer of gravel.
All of these items need estimates from Pere Kesner and can be added as money is
available.
Looking forward to the two year plan, we discussed may
projects and developments. These include applying for grants to Trinity
Church for skill training projects, developing a Normal school with the aid of
the World Bank. Both of these projects are ones Pere Kesner has in place
at St. Paul’s. More details will be provided before we have a
executive committee meeting December 2.
After the service Sunday evening, a man attending
introduced himself as Ronald Joanuel, as a member of the Bondeau
community. He spoke excellent American english and offered his services
as a translator. We asked him to come back the next day. Ronald
translated for Anita, and worked with her with the woman’s sewing
group. This group included nearly 30 women. In conversation with
him, I learned that he had worked in the past as a translator for many world
news organizations in Haiti, had traveled the country, and had come back to
Bondeau Arrondissement to help the most poor people there. He expressed
great hope for the community. Two extraordinary examples were bringing
light and bringing hope for the future for Bondeau. Bondeau is one of
four Arrondissements in the Department of Nippes. The other three all
have had light for some time. Now “Bondeau” has light.
With the generator and battery storage, there is light at the main road through
the area with the light at the entry to Ste. Marie Madeleine. While only
one light, it is light, and the lighting on the entire property is
extraordinary.
The second thing he told us makes the entire project
truly worth while, and it is hard to believe. We have known that many
children are given up by parents to be house slaves in Port au Prince as the
parents cannot feed them. If they escape from the captive houses, they
end up street people in the worst areas of Port au Prince. With the hope
seen from the school, church and now Maison d’Amitie, parents are seeking
out their abandoned children and bringing them home. Despite not having
much change now in their capability to keep the children, they see enough hope
to reverse past decisions. He claims that he knows of 40 to 50 children
that have returned. Even if it is only one, the project is successful,
and this is not something that we had even thought about
achieving.
By staying all day and all night at Bondeau, we could
see better some of the children near the school that were not attending.
We discussed this with Pere Kesner and the school principal. The school is free
to people in the neighborhood. They must however, have shoes and a school
uniform to attend. Many have never had shoes, and parents could not
afford the uniforms. After discussing the situation with Pere Kesner and
several of the parents, Anita decided to provide each family with children that
wanted to come to school, with $25 to get shoes and be ready to attend.
Pere Kesner addressed the women in the sewing program and directed them to make
the necessary uniforms at no cost for the children. We started with two
brothers that had caught our attention as hanging out near the school with the
same tee shirts as prior visits and no shoes. After the word spread, we
ended up with 19 children that were invited to receive funding to prepare for
school. Each parent was directed by Pere Kesner as to what they needed to
do, and that the money was to be used only for the needed items. Anita
and I committed to providing the necessary funds for this
need.
Our newly met Ronald, told us he had started about 50
mango trees that need to be set out, or they would die. He offered them
to us, and we drove to his house a few miles down the road West, and picked up
many of the seedlings which will be set out on the grounds of the
Maison.
While getting the mango seedlings, we were introduces
to a boy who they believe is eight years old. A beautiful boy with wide
eyes, was described as without parents. The people in the
neighborhood believe he was dumped on the road. The neighborhood people
all seemed to share responsibility to keep this child. He has no one
“responsible” for him, and without that Pere Kesner was reluctant to
invite him to attend school. The Principal of the school, James, wanted
to take him in, but could not become “responsible”. We left him
with the hope that someone associated with SMM would take responsibility and
that the boy could be helped before he would be passed into slavery. It
was hard to leave him, there are so many in Haiti with such needs. I
cannot imagine any child in this country with a plight similar to his. He
had only what he was wearing! There must be a better way and Hands
Helping Haiti must work to find it.
Leaving the Maison d’Amitie with a wonderful cup
of Haitian coffee, we departed about 4:45 for Port au Prince and home.
The yard was light in a yet dark night. With the quite, the sound of the
surf was quite in the distance with the rhyme of the waves. As we left
the grounds of SMM, we turned toward Miragoune, and as the light from the
street light faded, we were greeted with the most brilliant display of heavenly
hosts ever. With only the headlights of the truck to compete, the sight
was amazing. There were no clouds, and no moon out. On future
visits, sky searches will be a must do.
Except for the usual hard ride, the trip to the
airport was easy, and the flight home uneventful.
There will be more details in the future, and photos
to post to the web.
David J. Gury
November 19, 2009 |
