{"id":4093,"date":"2016-11-26T21:50:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T03:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=4093"},"modified":"2016-11-26T22:14:28","modified_gmt":"2016-11-27T04:14:28","slug":"a-long-overdue-trip-to-chapelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=4093","title":{"rendered":"A Long Overdue Trip to Chapelle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_7498\"<\/a>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 \u201cnormal\u201d after the hurricane, we decided to go ahead and make the trip. \u00a0I flew into Haiti on November 5th along with our friend Rita who sends much of the support for the school.<\/p>\n

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)<\/em>, Bill and Richard left\u00a0there\u00a0for a few days \u00a0and 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\u00a0children\u00a0live. Her new baby boy, Scott, named after Bill (William Scott) was adorable!<\/p>\n

\"Nono<\/a>

Nono with her children Scott and Lohan<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0to help for three weeks and do some video of JUST MERCY working in Haiti.<\/p>\n

\"Loading<\/a>

Loading up for the trip<\/p><\/div>\n

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. \u00a0(More pictures below the update.)<\/p>\n

\"Chapelle<\/a>

Chapelle school roof damage<\/p><\/div>\n

The school suffered\u00a0some 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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Since the \u201cdepot\u201d in the teachers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The food received from MOH\u00a0are 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.<\/p>\n

\"img_7520\"<\/a>We didn\u2019t realize that all these years the cooks had had to borrow the pots they use\u00a0and as they had not expected to cook lunch that day, the ladies had to scramble to get\u00a0the pots and prepare\u00a0to cook.<\/p>\n

\"Serving<\/a>

Serving lunch<\/p><\/div>\n

We took \u201cclass\u201d 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 \u201ctailgate\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"Rita<\/a>

Rita with some of the children<\/p><\/div>\n

Rita wrote:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope Tree of Life <\/em>(Rita\u2019s organization) has helped to get a secondary school started. Last year Pastor Jackson started a 7th<\/sup> grade, this year there is 7th<\/sup> and 8th<\/sup>, and next year there will be 7th<\/sup>, 8th<\/sup>, and 9th<\/sup> grade!<\/em><\/p>\n

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!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Having the secondary school is really exciting because it means that after these children\u00a0graduate\u00a0from the 6th<\/sup> grade, to\u00a0continue 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.<\/p>\n

I was personally excited to find 15 year old Mania there, a student we had at the Pelerin school we supported for several years. \u00a0Now 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. \u00a0She is\u00a0one of those students who hasn’t had to leave their families to continue their education!!\"img_8015-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"img_1047\"<\/a>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\u2026..what can you do except go?? It was refreshing!!<\/p>\n

After our return to Fonds Parisian, we were delighted when Len and Suzette stopped by for a visit, \u00a0They 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.<\/p>\n

\"Len<\/a>

Len and Suzette with Rita<\/p><\/div>\n

\"14996559_981071492036316_2086550153_n\"<\/a>Rita left the funds to buy the pots, more\u00a0spoons, and other things for the school which Jackson bought the next day. We are so grateful for her organization\u2019s support of the school through JUST MERCY and to all those who pray for and support the many things we do for \u201cthe least of these\u201d. Blessings on you.<\/p>\n

(Please scroll on down for more pictures of the mountain trip.)<\/p>\n

\"Driving<\/a>

Driving the mountain road (one of the “best” parts)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"...and<\/a>

…and one of the “not so good” parts<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Chapelle<\/a>

Chapelle mountain school in the clouds<\/p><\/div>\n

\"img_7546\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Washing<\/a>

Washing the dishes at the school<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The school latrine. The sheet was a courtesy for us “blancs”.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The evening “tailgate” party for the teachers and cooks<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Rita<\/a>

Rita with one of the classes in front of the partially repaired teachers’ house.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the secondary classes that meets in the afternoon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bedding<\/a>

Bedding down in the school<\/p><\/div>\n

\"James<\/a>

James and David running ahead going down the mountain road to video parts of the trip<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Anodes<\/a>

Anodos by the waterfall<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The road we’ve traveled.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cnormal\u201d after the hurricane, we decided to go ahead and make the trip. \u00a0I flew into Haiti …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4093"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4134,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions\/4134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}