Just for reference, Cap Haitien is in the Northern part of Haiti and was the original capital of the country. For many years it was considered the resort area for wealthy Haitians to vacation. I can't tell you what the population of the area is now because it increased somewhere between 200 and 300 thousand after the earthquake. Some folks returned to PAP others remained here. It is now the second largest city next to Port au Prince, but because of the difficulty of road transportation, it does not have the same resources for supplies and employment that PAP has.
I am staying at Dorothy Frederickson's Mission House for "Soaring Unlimited". Dorothy is currently 71 years old and has been in Haiti as a missionary somewhere around 20 years. She manages many projects and partners with a variety of Haitian Nationals to provide a variety of important and life changing services including schools, English classes, and the medical clinic where I will be working. We met last year when I was in Cap Haitien. The "well drillers" have helped her with numerous tasks through out the years. Hanania and Edrick are both married, have young children and are in their late 20's. Hanania has worked for Dorothy since she was 12 years old and helped her with housekeeping. She is very talented in organizing and assisting Dorothy to get her projects up and going with in the Haitian culture. Hanania has a 5 month old daughter and her husband is a police officer in PAP. He comes home one weekend a month to be with the family. Edrick and his wife have a darling 3 year old boy. Edrick does all the driving for Dorothy and for the staff of the clinic. He is also an amazing maintenance man and can can repair virtually anything! This is a HIGHLY VALUED SKILL here in Haiti where parts and resources are limited! Edrick's wife is in school for social development, so their child lives with his Grandparents and they see him most weekends. This is a couple who are already saving and planning for their child to be able to attend college in Canada. Both Hanania and Edrick represent the best of Haitian culture, strong Christian faith, dedicated, full of integrity and they take responsibility for their lives and their families.
Dorothy is in Michigan this month doing support raising for her work but she is allowing me to stay in her very large house just outside of Cap Haitien. Hanania and Edrick are helping me to keep everything going and working!
After being picked up at the airport, Hanania and Edrick took me to Dorothy's and showed me the basics. Where the clean water was, where the solar power switch was, how to work the stove, and all the locks. We planned to meet the next morning at 7:30am to head to the clinic. My first night here was quite interesting. I was tired so after I got settled in, I decided to go to bed early. At 2:30am there was this loud and I mean LOUD music playing from the neighbors house. It was all in French of course, but I did recognize Celine Dion! I couldn't believe how loud it was... I thought, this is going to be a long month if this happens every night! I attempted to plug my ears and tried to sleep as much as possible until the roosters, dogs, people etc . started getting up as well! I prayed God would give me strength to get through the day and prepared for my first day at the clinic.
No comments:
Post a Comment