A letter from Mark Hare in Haiti
January 21, 2009
It is a pleasure to be writing you now, as the New Year begins. I hope these first weeks have offered signs of hope and promise in your lives, despite the very difficult times, in the States and throughout the world.
Here in Haiti, water is always a sign of hope at this time of year, three months into the dry season. This morning, one of my crew members, Moccène Joachim, called me at 4:30 a.m. here in Port-au-Prince at St. Joseph Home for Boys where Jenny and I are staying. He let me know that the rain had been falling all night in Papaye. It was well-appreciated news, even — and maybe especially — at that time of morning. After weeks of dust and more dust billowing every time a truck or even a motor scooter passes, waking up to a well-rinsed world is a real pleasure. It was nice to feel like I was in on the action.
Four hurricanes in four weeks
It may seem incredible that less than five months after Haiti was hit by the fourth hurricane in as many weeks, we are already praying for the next rainy season to start, but that is the nature of farming, especially in the tropics and subtropics, where rainfall is highly seasonal and often unpredictable. Too much rain is often followed by too little — one crop can be washed out by flooding and the next lost to drought.
Like the rains, support for the recovery from the hurricane season has been “seasonal,” often too little and not always where it is most needed. Right after the worst of the flooding the United Nations mission serving in Haiti helped set up emergency food centers and tents for displaced families. A number of other organizations helped some of the folks with funds or supplies to clean out the mud and move back into their homes. Some of those affected received funds to help get their children back in school — money to buy uniforms and school supplies and pay tuition. Despite these initial efforts, most people have not been able to recuperate much of what they lost, and many remain essentially homeless, continuing to depend on the graciousness of family, friends and neighbors.
After the initial rush of funds for immediate assistance, funds for long-term recovery have been more limited. While all of the major routes are now at least passable, funds for repairs to the infrastructure have not been sufficient to restore the major roads to their previous (inadequate) levels. For example, in the Central Plateau, one major bridge that connected the city of Mirebelais (Mee be lay) to the western coast was washed out by Ike. That bridge has been replaced by a temporary structure that will only function until the first of the heavy rainfalls washes it down the river.
Road to Life
Agame Elfraïs, a member of the Road to Life Yard crew, showing his rainwater catchment system which he and his family and friends constructed in their own yard. Four-inch drainage PVC is used for the gutters (left), sending the water into the simple open cistern (right) which can hold over 1,200 gallons of water.
In MPP’s Road to Life Yard project, we continue to work with farmers to help create new sources of water for dry times. We have supported Moccène in the project his community group is carrying out, building rainwater collection systems for eight different households. In the homes of the Road to Life Yard crew members, we have finished one rainwater collection system and are in the process of constructing four others. In the Association for Planters of Bassin Zim (APB), we are working on five different cisterns, all of which will be built with help from funds gived by White Memorial Church, a PC(USA) church in Raleigh, North Carolina. God willing, by the time rains come, there will a total of at least 21 families ready to reap the abundance of rain that our amazing Creator sends on the roofs of everyone, both the good and the bad.
Recovery and MPP
Octave, Wozlen and Joe (left to right), working on APB member Daniel Joachim’s cistern. Octave and Wozlen are also members of APB. Joe is a college student at Gordon College in Massachusetts, one of 10 students who spent four days with us last week participating in work activities of APB.
With respect to MPP’s recovery efforts, MPP (“Mouvman Peyizan Papay,” or “Farmer’s Movement of Papaye”) is waiting for a response from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) to a request for funds (1) to help replace animals lost to the floods and (2) to work with reforestation and improved agricultural practices using techniques that would reduce flooding impact in the future. In the meantime, MPP is continuing a long-term agricultural project in Haiti’s northwest, where Hurricane Ike (the fourth that affected Haiti) hit the hardest, helping to build cisterns and train farmers in vegetable production. This project will help reduce the farmers’ need to turn trees into charcoal in order to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine and schooling. MPP has also been able to channel some sources of seeds (corn, beans, sorghum) to farmers who lost their supplies in the floods.
Pregnancy
God has shed Her abundance on Jenny and myself as well. Since moving to Haiti after our wedding in Nicaragua last March, Jenny has become the godmother for two children of two different friends, Tiga and Louity, and their wives. Jenny has also succeeded in opening up a small medical lab in MPP’s Integrated Health Clinic. And now, most surprisingly, Jenny is entering her fourth month of pregnancy. The pregnancy has not been easy so far, but Jenny is holding her own, even as I struggle to figure out how I can support her through the rough moments, absolutely clueless, for the most part. If I ever thought I understood the human body, watching Jenny go through so many changes has utterly humbled me, forcing me to come face to face with mystery.
As this new year continues to unfold, may you also be confronted by mystery and continue to be sustained by hope, the same hope that many of you have shared with us through your prayers, your cards and letters and your emails as well as through your financial support for MPP and the Road to Life Yard.
In Christ,
Mark and Jenny
Contributions for the crisis in Haiti may be sent to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Please write on the check “DR-000064 Haiti Emergency” Mail it to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 286
