We were there in 1981 as part of a team serving with a mission called Emmanuel International. That is how my wife and I met.
That first year our team lived in tents. We had a common dining area made with a wall of living posts and woven coconut leaves. We put a tin roof on, but there was no electricity or refrigeration. No oven. Only a counter top gas burner. We fetched water from a spring down the road to use in our camp.
After that year, I eventually ended up in Alabama working for the USDA-Soil Conservation Service (Now the Natural Resources Conservation Service). It was during this time that we got married. We returned to Haiti in January 1986—one week before Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) was driven out of the country. This time we were working with the Baptist Haiti Mission.
The mission had its headquarters in the mountains above (south of) Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capitol city. We, however, lived in an area called Letan, on the north shore of Letan Somat (L’Etang Saumatre), about 20 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, at the end of a road (a generous term), that didn't go anywhere in particular. We were there for 7 years, during which time Haiti had 9 governments. Photo below shows the lake. We lived on the near shore of the lake as viewed in the photo.
(The Lake was subject fluctuating levels, and causing the shoreline to vary quite drastically over periods of several years. However, after the earthquake of 2010, something changed in the regional geology and whatever underground drain the lake must have had to the ocean became plugged.
Imagery taken after the earthquake visible on Google Earth (r) already shows some of the buildings on our property underwater. From recent reports, the property is no longer accessible by road because the lake has come up over the road.)
 |
| l'Etang Saumatre as viewed from Trou d'Eau |
We did many things while we were there. Looking after the property, medical work, agricultural work, spring development, Bible studies and working with churches and schools.
Medical Ministry
My wife’s main responsibility was running a clinic. The clinic was open 3 days a week and operated under the direction of Haiti’s health ministry. She also went into the community to give vaccinations and do teaching.
 |
| Mom with baby in the clinic |
 |
| Community vaccination clinic |
 |
| Community vaccination clinic |
One of the major sources of medical problems is poor quality water. To this end, I installed three spring developments so that people could get clean water rather than contaminated water from springs. For more about spring caps see the Trou Do page, or my blog post Mardi Gras Memories.
A lot of interesting things happened regarding the medical ministry. Some of them can be found on our posts of stories about Trou Do and stories about Challenges facing newborn children.
Agricultural Ministry
My job was quite varied. We lived on a 60-acre parcel of land that had several buildings, which I had the responsibility for keeping up. There was a church/school building, a classroom building and a camp dorm as well as our house, the clinic and several residence quarters.
 |
| The windmill that pumped our water from a spring on the edge of the lake. This is all under water now. |
Most of the land was originally tropical dry forest—mesquite and such—but was severely degraded from deforestation and overgrazing. There was some flatter ground where we had some gardens. Most of that area is now underwater, following massive massive geologic changes due to the 2010 earthquake. I grew some things myself there and we also share cropped some of it. Some of the thing we grew were variety trials, others for commercial or home consumption. We also had a tree nursery for anyone who wanted trees for reforestation. For notes about what we grew on site visit Plants and Gardens.
To read specifically about coffee and sugar cane, see the post: Coffee and Cane.
I also did work off site. I helped install soil conservation practices in the hills and I helped growers deal with pest problems. I ended up writing a book in Haitian Creole about garden insects: Ensek nan Jaden Nou.
Church and School Ministries
In Haiti, pastors usually serve over districts with individual churches often having only lay leaders. We attended the church that met in the multipurpose church/school building on the property we lived on. The pastor lived about 5 miles away in the town of Tomazo. We led Bible studies, helped with church camps and with Vacation Bible School. We helped organize school boards to run the schools that our mission had in the area. We also coordinated delivery of food for the schools
 |
| Baptism in the lagoon |
Wildlife
There was not a lot of wildlife left in Haiti. With the decimation of the forest habitats and aggressive hunting, most of the wildlife had disappeared.
As for wild mammals all that was left were rats, mice and mongoose.
I only saw one mongoose the whole time I was there. They had been brought in from Africa to control the snakes. Rats and mice were plentiful, in part due to their nocturnal nature. There are only three main nocturnal predators—snakes, cats and owls. The voodoo followers make a link between snakes and owls and evil spirits. So they kill just about all of those they find. Haitians also have a taste for cats (we think one of ours ended up in a stew pot) and so there are not a lot of cats running around. Consequently, rats and mice have this luxurious tropical paradise to live in.
So most of Haiti’s wildlife falls into the category of reptile, amphibian and birds. Of course there was no shortage of spiders, insects and other small creatures. You can learn more about these by looking at the Critters post.
 |
| Yellow Crowned Night Heron |
 |
| Flamingos |
 |
| Burrowing Owl |
No comments:
Post a Comment