November 5th I began the shortest visit to Lagonave I have ever made. Reports of damage to gardens and communities along with struggles getting students back in school were a call I could not resist. We have delayed travel as it takes funds that we need to pay entry fees and tuition for students so it had been a 6 month separation. The longest since 2007.
I visited Delsie where a team from Kansas West / Andover is planning to work in March. Sandy had washed large slabs of road bed down the mountain and upended some big trees with shallow roots. The major issue was fruit trees stripped of their crops and sweet potatoes, critical to both people and goats, washed from the ground. AAPLAG was trying desperately to locate sweet potato seed and did by the end of the week.
When we moved home the last of 2009, we elected to keep 3 projects alive on the island. The Association for Peasants South Lagonave, or APG was designed to eventually become self-sustaining with help from AAPLAG providing training and eventually micro credit as needed. Progress has been very good with no help from the weather-man! The goat park has thrived with 13 new groups trained and receiving goats from the park. Several venders have been trained and financed and an agriculture program for peanuts did reasonably well, again, no help from weather.
I guess it is no wonder the students all chose technological education or service as agronomy just seemed a losing battle. Engineering, accounting and computer science and medicine were primary choices and they certainly have the skills and quick intelligence to do well. Now, they are just concerned there will be positions for them when they graduate. They are hoping the NGO;s do not get discouraged and leave too soon. Most indicate a desire to make a difference on their home island, Lagonave but will need employment before they can become independent.
Nov 8th I met with 7 of the 17 students at he Methodist Guest House and took new photos. Several are in the last year of 5 year programs and one nursing student graduates at the end of this current semester. Two engineering students graduate the next semester and one has been 1st in his class of 129 for the 4 and a half years he has been in school.
When the program began 5 years ago, entry fees ranged from $15.00 US to maximum of $25.00 for registration photo and entry exams. Today we are paying as high as $435.00 for entry fees and clinical experience for professional nursing students and $350.00 for engineers and science majors. tuition also has increased from $250.00 or $350.00 per semester to $400.00 to $500.00 per semester. As students advance there are tools and equipment they must supply and clinical experience at additional cost. The individual amounts seem small but the total cost has begun to max the amount of funding we have available.
I feel a bit silly typing these amounts sitting in Lawrence Kansas where university students pay $4000.00 a year OR semester just for board room!! I have lost track of the cost per collage hour but realize many graduate with debt that will take years to pay off.
For several years we have depended on funds from Kansas East Conference Roundup funds to pay student tuitions in university with left overs to pay educational funds for adult industrial training. A couple of our students have been assisted by congregations and special offerings at Annual Conference, various Church programs and projects have helped with educational project costs and training plus pay our travel to and from Haiti.
We began alternating trips nearly two years ago to cut expenses but living in the US and not being good at marketing our mission has decreased income, significantly.
We have committed to see these 17 students through their advance education. The fact that bright students from the island of Lagonave could attend university and manage to stay in the upper 5% of their class is a miracle made possible by our Kansas East Connections..
Actually, over 40 students have received funding for education with Mitchell South Dakota taking on 13 students, including a med student now studying in the Dominican Republic. The universities have welcomed the students and encouraged these young adults that would never have had the opportunity except for this mission.
Once again I serve a local congregation and my desk is covered with year end requests for donations for a myriad of worthy programs that provide service to children, frail old and people in need in America. I preach mission and generosity and believe strongly our Christian mission is that of Jesus' mission.
Living and working in Haiti, with no particular skills, was a matter of a growing faith in God. Believing that God cares about all people and offers liberation and salvation to those most in need was obvious in so many ways.
I'm not asking for anything, except prayers at this time; for wisdom to manage our resources to see this project through; that we might let go of other projects that have made no progress at great expense, such as water and wells, which others are addressing; prayer for APG, that from this 3 year "start" they now have the desire and skills to progress and grow without our support; and please pray for the students who have spent these last 5 years living with little food, sharing apartments with no electricity, sharing lap tops and what small resources they could find. The other prayer request would be for a few congregations to get excited about transforming the life of one Haitian young adult by sponsoring their education for one or two years.
'Tis the season I believe that creates many "thin places" where prayers are on express delivery to the one who opens doors. May Christ "occupy" your heart for a time, and give you peace. Pastor Shirley
