We Meet Yvrose!

The first week I was here, Bill and I took a trip to the Dominican Republic for three days.  The officials here do not want to continue to give us 30-day permits to drive the truck.  The original title was still in Santo Domingo with Omar, the pastor who helped us all when we first came in February and we needed the title to complete paperwork here to get the truck registered.  While we were there, we had some work done on the truck as it goes through a beating on these roads and needed new tires and the front end fixed.

Back in Haiti, we began the process of trying to get the title transferred.  I will never, ever again complain about standing in line at the license office or other places to get things done in the US.  At least you know you will get it done, usually that day.  NOT HERE!  I won’t bore you with the entire account of the three days we’ve spent so far but I will give you just a couple of paragraphs excerpted from the diary I am keeping to give you a feel for the bureaucracy of Haiti.   Bill has also already traveled to 4 different cities trying to get a particular “number” which one office was out of, another’s computers were down, etc.

“Bill would come out every 20 minutes or so to check on No-No and I who were sitting on the concrete sidewalk in the shade of the building.  I would ask him what was going on.  He would give answers like “This lady is examining the papers.  Then she will reach over and type one character on her computer, turn the papers and look at them again for a minute, reach over and type one character on her computer, repeat…………”  In one office he had to pay a lady $100.  We’re not sure for what.

Bill took a snooze for about 15 minutes sitting beside us.  Fegens would stay in the office and when they would need something else, he would come and get Bill.  Twice he came to get Bill so they could find some other number on the truck, such as the mileage or the weight.  When they finally got the number we had been waiting on, Bill came back out and said now the papers had to go through seven more offices!”

Work has begun on the lot for Jolius’ house that we hope to build.  The trench has been dug for the foundation to be laid.

Haiti’s election was held this last Sunday.  No cars or trucks were allowed on the road for over 24 hours.  Everyone now says the election was full of fraud and corruption.  We heard (though this could just be a rumor) that here in Fonds-Parisien, the person in charge of turning in the vote count reported that no one voted in FP which is obviously not true.  The people are angry.  We tried to go to the local “market” Monday morning but the road was blocked with trash, boulders, and tires burning.  We’ve heard it is really bad in Port au Prince!

Cholera ward next door

In the meanwhile, the cholera epidemic continues to grow.  I took a quick tour of the cholera treatment center next door at the Mennonite hospital on Thursday. They had an observation tent for people to receive initial oral rehydration.  If the people needed an IV, they were taken into the hopital/clinic and given one.  At the time there were only about a 10-20 patients there.  But Mike, the director, said Croix de Bouquette, the nearest treatment center, was full and he expected to get busier.  By Saturday they had treated 160 people and had to set up another observation tent.  They continue to receive more and more people.

We are investigating the possibility of taking a treatment center up to Pays-Pourri where our school is as people are getting sick and dying up there and many can’t make the arduous journey down for treatment.  Please pray for the people of Haiti.  Between the poverty, pervasive corruption, natural disasters, and now cholera, life continues to be a severe trial for most.

Yesterday we met a wonderful Haitian Christian lady, Yvrose (pronounced Eve-rose).  She had lived in the US for over 20 years and speaks pretty good English.  She was married during that time but had over 10 miscarriages and evidently could not have any children.  Her husband left her for someone else.

In 2006, the Lord convicted her heart and she came back to Haiti.   A year after her return, she remarried.  Her husband bought her the plot of land they are on not far from us and they set up a school in three tents.  She along with some additional teachers have nearly 150 students.  She is trying to do with them what we are trying to do in Pays-Pourri, give them an education while teaching them about the Lord.  She also recently started a school lunch program as many of the children, just like in Pays-Pourri, come to school hungry and it is hard for them to learn with no food to eat.

Yvrose’s tent school

Yvrose and her husband, Pierre Richard, built a house near the tents and have “adopted” 14 children!  She says that once she gave her barrenness over to the Lord, it had been all joy to be given these children.  Meeting people who love the Lord and are trusting Him on a daily basis for His provision like Everose are such an inspiration!

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.  We are set to come home Dec. 7 if the roads to the airport are clear and we can make it unless we are in the mountains.  The results of the election are also due to come out Dec. 7 so who knows what will happen?  As the Haitians say, “God knows!”  May your hearts stay close to the Father!