Returned from Haiti yesterday. Great trip, great team, fabulous Haitian food, lots of dirt and hot sun. Friends to greet us, new friends who let their kids play with us after school.
School: Great place to start but not our mission focus, but because the block building is badly broken and children walk through doorways and sit under loose concrete blocks that fall to the floor (?) and break apart. Teachers, including the principle not paid salary for 3 years...yes, not a typo. The principle has repaired one dangerous entryway with his own resources. Pastor is also a great community leader. There is one doorway that won't wait much longer and needs only four bricks and some concrete and three boards. Hope they have some left from the church almost built.

 Situation: Lagonave has had no rain, except in the mountains for 3 years. There have been no corn, melons or peanuts for that long so nothing for market except to cut down every tiny sapling for charcoal so they have a bit of food each day. One photo is a young malnourished woman who, like her mother has severe edema in the legs and fluid on the lungs. With all the foliage going to charcoal, nothing to attract rain, and the well broken and the cistern is dry. The Episcopalian's are doing an emergency food distribution soon and one for Non Zeb would be very appropriate.Won't solve the problem but for about 4,000 US the local families in need could eat until some charcoal is sold.
Community Meal: From some extra funds we had a loaves and fishes experience. Our cooks managed to feed all the workers, about 150 children, 30 plus adults wandering by AND all of us (16) a huge meal.  Well behaved tiny tots to older kids had one FULL meal one day.  Cost us a bit over 100 US.
The Mission Focus: Three team members were there in 2014 and with funds raised by their church managed to begin an 18,000 project to build a church to serve 3 communities.

The badly broken school was used for church. Not many came because it looked bad and had a "history" of voodoo rituals. A "real" church that would be a sanctuary for hungry people needed a foundation, walls, floor and roof. And, by golly and the grace of God AND an additional grant from Mercy and Justice, when we left the foundation had block walls nearly completed and they were still madly working with enough "stuff" to finish maybe  the floor.

In our many years of VIMing...there was more work accomplished in 4 days than we have ever seen on one project. The Circuit Superintendent stayed with us the entire time, managed the money and met with community leaders, stewards and talked to workers and all who stopped by. It was a week of laughter, reunion, sadness and frustration with Mother Nature, human nature and appreciation for workers intent on building quickly a place for God to be in a hurting community.            

Costs of materials have risen since the estimate was made for the building but with the ingenuity we saw that roof is not far from raising.  

We came home happy and sad. Happy because the project had gone well with material all on site, workers intent on doing things right, unnecessary people staying out of the way; yet there are very hungry families praying for rain and cutting down the trees; there is a well that needs simple repair; a church almost complete; teachers in need of a bit of pay; and there is a God, who, I believe wants a community fed, a thirst quenched and some generous folks          

to "find a way." Suggestions  welcome. sje