Captages & Hens

Water is a very precious commodity in Haiti-especially treated water. Lack of clean water is a major contributing factor to sickness, mortality and poverty.  Every afternoon here in Gros Morne, especially now, during the dry season,  you can see people carrying containers of various shapes and sizes to one of the water offices to collect clean water.  Usually, the job of collecting the water falls to the women and children.  In town, it’s easy enough to collect clean water although I wouldn’t want to haul those containers of water very far.  The lucky ones have a wheelbarrow and the real lucky ones can use a moto.

Out in the countryside, it’s not quite so easy.  Here, it usually falls to the women to walk to the nearest spring each day and fill up a container of water. Often the nearest spring is an hour walk or more away over steep, treacherous, narrow paths. (Ayiti means “ land of high mountains,” after all) Not only that, but collecting water from a spring generally means  collecting quite a bit of silt as well, since the water just percolates up onto the surrounding dirt.

As a result, many volunteer groups help build a “captage” at the spring. The captage is a concrete structure  which permits the water to be collected without so much of the silt. Then, a series of pipes brings the water to a central location that is much closer to the villages that rely on the spring water. Often, a reservoir is included in the system so that water can be stored.  Without a reservoir, of course, the water just keeps pouring out whether anyone is collecting it or not.

Resurrection Parish in Maryland , under the leadership of Sr. Rita Ricker, RJM,  has been part of the “Parish Twinning Program of the Americas” since 2001.  (www.parishprogram.org). This program connects Catholic parishes in the USA with a sister parish in Latin America and the Caribbean but primarily in Haiti.  Resurrection’s twin includes the greater Gros Morne area.  They have been helping with various projects in this area and sending a delegation to visit each year.  In addition to building chapels and schools, the Parish has also helped to build several captages in the communities in the mountains surrounding Gros Morne. Below are some photos taken of one of those captages they visited  during their stay here earlier this month. 

Although not part of the Resurrection Parish program, you could say that “Hens for Haiti” was hatched from it. (www.hensforhaiti.org). Below are some photos taken when the founder, Christie Newman, a former volunteer here in Gros Morne,  and the rest of the Resurrection team visited the “poulaye” (hen house). Egg production provides economic stimulation, increased local food security, and is a cheap source of protein for Gros Morne.  Plus, I can tell you, they are pretty darn good!

Hen House

Captage

Trail to Captage

Inspecting the Reservoir

Delcys Journey

Delcy is a 20 year old young man who lives in a small village outside of Gros Morne. He has a chronic heart condition that will lead to his premature death if he doesn’t get open heart surgery.  Unfortunately, this is not available in Haiti.  The Religious of Jesus and Mary sisters here in Gros Morne have been helping to support him, paying for his education and medical care, etc. for seven years now, all the while trying to get him to the States for the surgery.  

How could it take seven years you ask? Well, the short answer is, “It’s Haiti.” When he was a minor, his mother had to be involved which is fine except, although she had multiple IDs, none of them exactly matched the mother’s name on his birth certificate. So, that was a dead end as far as getting Delcy a passport was concerned and without a passport, he wasn’t going anywhere.

 When, be became an adult, the process started again.  I can’t tell you all the obstacles along the way but I do know a few of them.

For some reason, in order to obtain a Haitian passport, among other things, you have to have somebody who already has a passport vouch for you. Not only that, but a passport holder is not allowed to vouch for more than one person.  Now Delcy lives in the mountains, in a town without running water or electricity.  He doesn’t know anybody with a passport.

The sisters were eventually able to locate a kindly woman who agreed to do it without charge. Down to Port-au-Prince we go with Delcy to fill out the paperwork with this woman. Then, the Haitian Embassy claims that she has already vouched for somebody else-somebody the woman says she’s never heard of. This means she can’t vouch for Delcy. Such a disappointed to all. 

Eventually, a friend of Delcy’s cousin agreed to do it for $500. That’s right, 500 USD! So, another trip to PAP and $500 later, we get past that hurdle.  Other hurdles followed but, in the interest of brevity, I’ll spare you the details.  You get the idea, I’m sure.

Finally, last December, we get the passport.  Alleluia!

The next step is to obtain a US visa. Essentially, in order to obtain the visa, we must demonstrate that all Delcy’s expenses will be covered. So, while the passport saga was playing out in Haiti, a former volunteer, now living in the US, was working on this portion of the project.  

Slowly but surely she put together all the pieces: a hospital and surgeon in Omaha agreed to provide the surgery without charge;  a woman in Tucson agreed to donate sufficient miles for Delcy’s airfare to and from Omaha; a family in Omaha agreed to provide room, board and transportation for Delcy while he’s there; another family in Omaha knows a young man there who can speak Creole; others donated money to help pay for his other expenses such as winter clothing.

On Monday afternoon, Sr. Jackie received an email from the US Embassy saying that Delcy had an appointment for his visa application the following morning at 7:00 AM at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince. She had put in a request for an “emergency” appointment due to Delcy’s failing health. Little did we know it would turn into our “emergency,” seeing as PAP is a 4 hour drive from Gros Morne!  Fortunately, Delcy was staying with family in town so after much frantic gathering of documents, double checking the “check-list,” and packing for an overnight in PAP, Sr. Jackie and Delcy were on their way, with Tiden, our driver, at the helm.

Less than 24 hours later we heard the wonderful news that Delcy’s application for a visa had been granted. We were ecstatic, of course. It is so nice to have these little victories now and then.

He’s a little nervous, of course, but he has no idea how different life will be for him in the States.  It will be so, so far from his life in Haiti in so, so many ways. 

If you’re interested in following Delcy’s journey, please check the blog we’ve set up at www.delcysjourney.blogspot.com.  We’ll keep it updated. Now, we need prayers for a successful surgery and recovery.

More Photos

Creche at the Church.  It looks like a cave, as you can see. The cave is probably3-4 ft high

Inside the creche/cave-the baby Jesus doll is in front with the head out of view

On Christmas morning, we baked cakes and in the afternoon we brought them, some sodas and a priest to Kay Pov. On the right is the priest, explaining the gospel. Sr. Pat and some residents are listening.

Kay Pov is basically a homeless shelter.  This is a resident.

The neighborhood kids got in on the cake as well!

A few days after Christmas, there was a Christmas concert in the Church courtyard.  This is me with my buddy.

Tonton Noel at the Christmas Concert. Literally translated as Uncle Christmas

 

Kids waiting for their turn on the stage.

Joyeux Noël

This Christmas will definitely be a little different for me.  I will miss my family, especially my little boys. I mean it’s hard to beat waking up Christmas morning with two little boys jumping up and down at my bedside, saying, “Granny, Granny, get up! Santa came.” Skype is a poor substitute but it’s better than nothing.

But, I continue to believe that this is where I should be-for now. Each day brings its challenges but nothing like the challenges facing most Haitians every day.

In many ways, it doesn’t really seem like Christmas at all.  Most all the trappings of Christmas to which I have become accustomed are missing.  There is no frenetic Christmas shopping, no Christmas lights or decorations on the houses or stores (except for one house which is completely covered in lights), no Christmas greetings heard, no Christmas cards arriving in the mail (the absence of a postal service here might have something to do with that), no nativity scenes-not even in church, no festive Christmas apparel, no incessant Christmas music being piped in wherever you are, etc. As to the latter, as I write this letter, I am listening to the parish radio station (which operates semi-periodically) and it doesn’t sound like Christmas music to me. I guess that pretty much leaves one with just Christ’s Mass. Hmm. Maybe they’re on to something here.

Today, we’ve been working on the Christmas meal.  I use the term “we” loosely. I basically do that chopping, peeling, etc. and try to stay out of the way of the real chefs.

Tonight, at 10:30 PM we go to the Christmas Vigil Mass. My Creole is improving slowly but not enough to be looking forward to 3 hours of it in church.  Actually, I probably wouldn’t be looking forward to 3 hours even if it were in English.  The other 2 volunteers are in the choir though, which is pretty cool, so at least that part will be fun.

Tomorrow, we will visit the Kay Pov which is a homeless shelter which the sisters support. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be doing besides bringing some food and singing some songs.  Don’t worry.  I’ll just mouth the words.  

We also plan to visit a young man in the hospital.  The sisters have been helping out Wilford since he was diagnosed with diabetes.  Unfortunately, it went uncontrolled for quite a while before he was diagnosed.

Then, it’s a turkey dinner with all the trimmings (well, most of them, anyway) and fresh baked apple pie.  It will be a good day.

Christmas blessings on all of you and yours.