Yesterday was our first full day here and we took it a little slow. After a leisurely get-up, we worked in the clinic for a few hours sorting medicines and supplies and pre-packaging some gastro-intestinal packs of pepto/antibiotics and other things to fight off the GI bug that's endemic here.
After lunch we got to walk around the village- Terre Blanche is a poor place, even by Haitian standards. I can't imagine what life was like here before the Pastor Delamy and others began some improvements.
The houses are small one and two room cinderblock deals- no electricity, no running water. Those too poor to have built out their houses yet have made do with large sticks and thatched roofs. No crop has come in in 3 years- there's a drought on, and the river is dry, partially because of lack of rain, and partially because it's been diverted by others upstream to water their crops. Many of the children under the age of seven have little to no clothes...
But everyone here, though life is hard, seems happy. A whole different feel than in Port au Prince where we were surrounded by beggars immediately. Here, we walked around the village all afternoon, and the only thing anyone asked us for was to have their picture taken. Some, over and over.
The water comes from a single well in the village- put there by Living Water International. The water filtration units Evergreen has been paying for/providing for the last few years are what help made the well water potable. The only school around is run by Pastor Delamy and paid for largely by the Haiti Foundation for Hope. My sense is that with the lack of crops, people are dependent on the rice and beans we'll be providing. It's amazing the concrete difference that followers of Jesus are making here. Our money and efforts are what God is using to bring health and education to a place sorely in need of both.
In just a bit we're going to load up and head to another village/town where I'll get to preach a short message. Guess I don't get the Sunday off! :) Thinking of our Evergreen family back home, praying that their worship of Jesus is heartfelt and their hearts are glad for all the ways that God has blessed them.
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