News from La Tremblay

Floris UMC was the second team to follow us to La Tremblay last year. They produced a moving video about their mission presence and work at the church site.

Update on Progress at La Tremblay

The work at the church in La Tremblay is nearing the end of major construction. A team assigned there for April 14-21, 2012, will likely be working on the final stages of the roof and security wall. New photos and updates are available at the UMVIM Haiti Facebook page.

Information provided by Jon N. on March 26, 2012.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Another hot day, and less wind than on previous days made it seem especially hot.  We knocked down the cinder-block toilet in the back corner and moved out the last of the rubble today.  Tomorrow, building supplies are supposed to arrive, and we may begin to assemble concrete forms.  It will be nice to construct as opposed to deconstruct something.
At 10 tomorrow we will go visit the La Tremblay school.  It's about 100 yards down the road and across it from the church.  Don't know exactly what we'll do there, but God knows.  It sure is fun to watch them smile and laugh as they play with our team members.  The innocence of little children, laughing without reservation and genuinely jumping with glee - I don't think you can get too much of that.
We bought four bags of Hatian bread today, and brought a large jar of American peanut butter with us.  This we fed to the children at our lunchtime.  It was great to have something to give them.  Seems that they enjoy Travel Mix with peanuts and MM's even more. 
It's the school kids that make an impression on me.  They are so prim and proper in their uniforms, and the girls have braided hair (dozens of little braids) with a colorful ribbon or beads in each braided bundle.  It must take hours to do that! 
I got to talk to Nixon some more today.  He's the muscular young man who can swing a heavy sledge-hammer all darn day in gthe hot sun.  He is 24 years old, and is in his last year of secondary school.  He said that money problems prevented him from completing school on time, but he was finally in his last year.
At the La Tremblay school this afternoon, Paul and I asked two little boys if they spoke English.  They said "yes", and then one held out his hand and said "give me money".  There's a sad message in there somewhere, and it deserves some contemplation tonight.

Building--Relationships and a Church--Continues in La Tremblay

The mission team from Virginia finished up a memorable week in La Tremblay. See their updated blog and photos to learn more about their stay at the La Tremblay school, the Haitians they worked with and the progress they made on the church foundation.

Helena-based Team Members Reunite for Haitian Potluck Dinner

The Montana Haiti gang and spouses gathered for a reunion dinner and sharing of stories at Gregg and Wendy's last night. It was wonderful to be together again, and we missed each of the out-of-staters!! We all brought a Haitain dish (or two), and had a feast! It really did bring back memories of our trip and the fantastic food we had - but best of all, the friendships we gained, with each other as well as with our Haitain friends.

It was a lovely evening!! Gregg and Wendy, a thousand thanks for hosting us all in your lovely home!! It was great fun!!!

Here's the evening's menu, with links to some of the recipes:

• Ceviche (Marinated Fish)
• Kibbe (Meatballs Wrapped in Couscous)
• Sitwonad (Haitian Limeade)
• Red Beans and Rice
• Spicy Pork
• Shrimp Creole
• Pikliz (Spicy Pickled Coleslaw)
• Tropical Fruit Salad
• "Guest House" Dinner Rolls
• Haitian Coconut Pie
• Carrot Cake

Blog entry by Dee (with assistance from Gregg).

Where in the World is La Tremblay?

La Tremblay is located east of Croix-des-Bouquets, approximately 10 air miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.

In the Google Earth image above, the placemark to the right is the Methodist Church; the placemark to the left is the school. The image was taken before the church was damaged in the earthquake (and, obviously, before the mission team removed the entire church). View in Google Maps

On the Road to La Tremblay

Although the team was looking forward to staying near our work site, we instead ended up commuting daily from the Methodist Guest House to and from La Tremblay, which gave us a glimpse of Haitian life in Petionville, Port-au-Prince and along the highway.

As we passed through the heavy gate of the security wall surrounding the Guest House complex and entered a narrow alley men were repairing and recycling electronics and building wooden furniture. At the corner where we turned onto the road in Petionville, a women were baking and selling fried plantains and fried chicken. From that point on the sidewalks are packed with vendors selling food: fruits (including grapefruit, oranges, guava, watermelons, etc.), sugarcane, nuts, roasted corncobs, live chickens and rabbits, flavored drinks; clothing (some sent over from the States and resold) and shoes; furniture; fuel (generally watered down); pills (probably expired); mattresses; charcoal; ...

Behind the street vendors are small shops (many painted in bright pastel colors), such as beauty shops and barbers; lottery sales; food markets; construction materials stores; …

Both women and men balance loads of produce, buckets of water and other items on their heads atop a wrapped towel (chapeau).

There are a few gas stations, but most vehicle repairs take place out in the open with limited power tools.

People waiting for tap-taps (taxis) peered at us as we drove by. Some saw our wheelbarrows and other work gear loaded on the top of the van, smiled, pointed to the top of the van, and called out "Thank you!" (Maybe they were actually thanking us for the commode we also had strapped down atop the wheelbarrows!?) We felt very welcomed by all the Haitians we met and received much joy from the many smiles and waves we received.

In addition to passengers, many of the tap-taps were loaded down with products headed to market. On several occasions we saw live goats trussed to the tops of tap-taps.

Children walk to and from school along the shoulder of the busy highway. We also saw mothers carrying small infants bundled in a blanket as protection from the sun walking quite a distance to a hospital.

The traffic on the highway, which is the main route to the Dominican Republic, included armored UN vehicles, dump trucks hauling rubble, flatbed trucks loaded with rebar and bags of cement, inter-country buses, tap-taps, hand-pulled carts, tractors pulling multiple trailers loaded with harvested sugar cane and workers, and motorcycles. Sitting in the front of the van was quite an experience--sometimes there were four vehicles abreast coming at us on the two-lane highway. Virtually at the last moment, after much honking of horns, one of the vehicles would give way (or overtake) with everyone proceeding with very little room to spare between each vehicle. Motorcyclists frequently drove in both directions between oncoming traffic.

With the hot, dry weather we experienced, there was quite a bit of dust and haze (from cooking over charcoal fires and some smoldering trash). We saw agriculture, including plantain trees, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Mountains rise steeply from the flat valley floor.

People obtain filtered drinking water from a variety of sources, ranging from small, sealed plastic bags (not bottles) of packaged water sold by individual vendors to large Culligan jugs available at gas stations and other stores. A few community pumps provide unfiltered water.

At one point we made our way past a slow moving funeral procession with mourners walking behind the hearse. It was another reminder to us that life in Haiti, like elsewhere, comes to an end. Unfortunately, life can be particularly short for many Haitians, due to limited access to clean water, sufficient food and adequate medical care.