A Long Overdue Trip to Chapelle

This trip to visit the school JUST MERCY supports in the mountains of Pays Pourri was planned before Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti. As things in the east of Haiti were fairly close to “normal” after the hurricane, we decided to go ahead and make the trip.  I flew into Haiti on November 5th along with our friend Rita who sends much of the support for the school.

Rita and I had planned to make the trip ourselves as Bill was busy on Ile a Vache with the hurricane relief effort but after the “stoning” incident (See “Stoning” the Hand That Feeds You), Bill and Richard left there for a few days  and Bill and Sherlie were able to meet us at the airport. We drove back to the base at Fonds-Parisien where our Haitian daughter Nono, her husband Clenold, and their children live. Her new baby boy, Scott, named after Bill (William Scott) was adorable!

Also at the base were our daughter Hannah and her boys, Anodos and Paul, who had arrived a few days before. Our friend James who has been to Haiti many times and his friend David were also there. They came to help for three weeks and do some video of JUST MERCY working in Haiti.

We spent Sunday resting and preparing for the trip and left early Monday for the mountains. We dropped off the guys and the boys at La Roche and they made the long hike up to Chapelle. Bill drove on with us and the supplies in the pick-up. I was praying all the way as not only is the road very narrow and steep but the truck has been breaking down on a regular basis. We made it safely, praise the Lord, and arrived at the school while it was in session.  (More pictures below the update.)

The school suffered some roof damage from the hurricane but the village people had come together and gotten it repaired right away so the children only lost a week of school after the hurricane. But the worst loss was the teachers’ house where the teachers stayed during the week (most of them come from Port au Prince) and the books and materials that had been stored there. The hurricane basically destroyed it.

We had sent some funds immediately following the hurricane and rebuilding had started. They had one room completed that could be locked up and another very small room in it with one bed where the teachers slept. I sat down on the bed and realized it was basically a piece of plywood with a blanket on it. A common thing in Haiti.

Since the “depot” in the teachers’ house where food and supplies were stored had been destroyed by the hurricane, the children had not been getting their daily lunch so before coming up the mountain, we stopped and picked up some of the boxes of food that are sent from Mission of Hope to feed the children each day.

The food received from MOH are the packets that are put together all over the U.S. by churches with organizations such as Feed My Starving Children, Lifeline, etc. It has the nutrition the children need packed into it along with the rice. Over 300 children are fed each day. For some of them, this may be the only meal they receive.

We didn’t realize that all these years the cooks had had to borrow the pots they use and as they had not expected to cook lunch that day, the ladies had to scramble to get the pots and prepare to cook.

We took “class” pictures that morning and helped serve lunch to the children. That afternoon, Sherlie, Estane, and Ermithe who came with us cooked supper for the teachers and cooks and we had a “tailgate” party with them. Then we cleared out one section of the school, spread out a tarp, and all of us slept together in the school.

Rita wrote:   “We traveled up to the school at Chapelle which we have been supporting for five years. I could not wait to see the accomplishments. When we started in Chapelle, there were one hundred children and three teachers. Now it has grown to eight teachers, over 300 children, and two pastors. We are so grateful for that.

Hope Tree of Life (Rita’s organization) has helped to get a secondary school started. Last year Pastor Jackson started a 7^th grade, this year there is 7^th and 8^th, and next year there will be 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade!

We were able to provide things the school needed like spoons, bowls, some of their own pans to cook in, and we made arrangements to have 12 new benches made!”

Having the secondary school is really exciting because it means that after these children graduate from the 6^th grade, to continue their education they do NOT have to leave their families and go down to a town to live. As far as we know, it is the only secondary school in the mountains.

I was personally excited to find 15 year old Mania there, a student we had at the Pelerin school we supported for several years.  Now she comes in the morning to Chapelle to help with the youngest children’s class in the morning and then goes to the secondary school in the afternoon.  She is one of those students who hasn’t had to leave their families to continue their education!!

The next morning, we visited a little more and then headed back down to Fonds-Parisien, stopping on the way to hike up to a waterfall we had passed for the last seven years and never climbed to but with grandsons asking to go…..what can you do except go?? It was refreshing!!

After our return to Fonds Parisian, we were delighted when Len and Suzette stopped by for a visit,  They are the friends that originally took us to Haiti in 2003 and they had met Rita on her last trip to Haiti a few years ago so she was really happy to get to see them.

Rita left the funds to buy the pots, more spoons, and other things for the school which Jackson bought the next day. We are so grateful for her organization’s support of the school through JUST MERCY and to all those who pray for and support the many things we do for “the least of these”. Blessings on you.

(Please scroll on down for more pictures of the mountain trip.)