It seems we have a team in Haiti once again. This team is much smaller than the previous one, but this time they are mostly interested in gathering information and getting to know the people of Gonaives.
After some research, I discovered that Gonaives lies in the western part of Haiti and due to the geography of the area, is very prone to severe flooding. The city is surrounded by mountains and hills on three sides, with the Caribbean Sea on the fourth. Floods resulting from two deadly tropical storms within the past six years killed more than 3,000 people in Gonaives. Many people fled the city, primarily to Port-au-Prince, after the catastrophic floods. When the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in January, many of them returned to Gonaives with only the clothes on their back. Gonaives is now home to 40,000 earthquake refugees.
I found the story of a family from Gonaives who lost a daughter in the floods during Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004. Devastated, they packed up and headed to a place with better schools and "better fortune". They had been living in Port-au-Prince for only a few years when the earthquake hit and their son was crushed in their rented house in the downtown area. Now they have gone back to Gonaives. The mother said, "Living in Port-au-Prince is a problem. Going to Gonaives is another problem. Everywhere you go is a problem. If I could, I would have left this country and been somewhere else by now. But I have no way to do that".
We all know that Haiti is an extremely impoverished country. These devastating natural disasters have wreaked havoc on the already desperate situation in which these people live and despite many of them giving their best effort, there seems to be no way out.
One of the goals that our team in Haiti is trying to accomplish is to get some of the locals set up with microloans. I do not know all the details, but Jeremy has been in contact with an organization in Haiti called Fonkoze, which deals with these loans.
Another goal is to get some medical training for some of the locals, perhaps students from the school where they are working this week. If there are people in the community who can take care of medical issues when they arise, as well as handle some preventative care, they will not have to rely on outside doctors and nurses to come in and do it for them.
Self-sufficiency is the ultimate goal and we would like to come alongside them and help where we can. We are learning as we go and want to help the situation rather than make it worse. This does not appear to be an easy task, but with God's guidance we believe we can make the right decisions. And if we make the wrong ones we will learn from our mistakes and try something different.
Jeremy has put together an extensive document about the purpose of these Haiti missions and I think he plans to put it on the blog. It explains all of this in much more detail, but I hope this gives you a preview of what is going on.
Later tonight I plan to post an update about their experiences in Gonaives over the past few days.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Haiti Bound
I'm heading for Haiti in the morning with Richard Bradley and Hal Heiss. Hal actually runs the stateside fundraising for the school that Elise runs in Haiti outside of Gonaives. We are going to be meeting Elise tomorrow and picking up a pallet of water filters to take to the school. The purpose of this trip is to meet several people at the Ministry of Health, Fonkoze(a micro-finance institution), and look at the church roof and determine how we can get clean water to the school reliably. We'll be back Tuesday and hopefully I'll have more info then. Kandy will provide any updated information if I can call her. We would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers while we are there.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Nicaragua 2010
I know this blog is supposed to be about the work in Haiti, but there have been a few people who wanted me to post updates about the Nicaragua trip.
Jeremy is currently with a team from our church (Gardendale First Baptist), as well as a few people from other churches, in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. They flew out of Atlanta early this morning and, after a layover in Miami, arrived in Puerto Cabezas late this afternoon. I don't know all the details of this trip and I don't even have all the team members' names, so I apologize for that. Although I will probably contintue to refer to them as "Jeremy and the team", I'm pretty sure that Richard Bradley is the leader of this trip. He has been to Nicaragua many times over the last several years and knows the local missionaries well. He's done a lot of construction in the area, but again, I don't have many details.
The people group they will be working with are the Miskito Indians, who speak Miskito and for the most part don't speak or understand Spanish. So the team will be breaking up into several groups which will include two Americans, an English to Spanish interpreter, and a Spanish to Miskito interpreter. Each team will go to a village tomorrow morning and stay there for the remainder of the week. They will be teaching, preaching, and discipling local believers. On Friday, they will be reunited with the rest of the group from the U.S. and begin the journey back home.
I spoke with Jeremy a little while ago and he said that, having been up for two days now, they are all exhausted. They attended a church service at the mission compound tonight and one local man became a believer! To God be the glory! I'm sure the exhaustion they feel doesn't compare to the joy of seeing a person come to faith in Christ.
I will have communication with Jeremy in the morning, but that will probably be the last time until Friday. The team will be in a very remote area without much communication. In case of emergency there is a sat. phone but no cell coverage. We were told to abide by the policy "no news is good news", so I probably won't have much to report after tomorrow. Thank you all for praying for the team as they attempt to live out the gospel for the sake of glorifying God among the nations.
There are still things in the works as far as Haiti is concerned, so I don't want anyone to think that we have forgotten about it. Jeremy and many others have been hard at work, researching and planning future Haiti trips, and more details about that will come later. We are praying that God will raise up locals to assist and eventually take over this work, which is the only feasible way to improve the long term situation in this poverty stricken country. We know that it will more than likely take quite a while for that to happen, but we are certainly not abandoning the Haitian people in their darkest hour. God will be glorified through this. We are praying for discernment as to the best course of action. Please pray with us and consider joining the effort in some way as you feel led.
Jeremy is currently with a team from our church (Gardendale First Baptist), as well as a few people from other churches, in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. They flew out of Atlanta early this morning and, after a layover in Miami, arrived in Puerto Cabezas late this afternoon. I don't know all the details of this trip and I don't even have all the team members' names, so I apologize for that. Although I will probably contintue to refer to them as "Jeremy and the team", I'm pretty sure that Richard Bradley is the leader of this trip. He has been to Nicaragua many times over the last several years and knows the local missionaries well. He's done a lot of construction in the area, but again, I don't have many details.
The people group they will be working with are the Miskito Indians, who speak Miskito and for the most part don't speak or understand Spanish. So the team will be breaking up into several groups which will include two Americans, an English to Spanish interpreter, and a Spanish to Miskito interpreter. Each team will go to a village tomorrow morning and stay there for the remainder of the week. They will be teaching, preaching, and discipling local believers. On Friday, they will be reunited with the rest of the group from the U.S. and begin the journey back home.
I spoke with Jeremy a little while ago and he said that, having been up for two days now, they are all exhausted. They attended a church service at the mission compound tonight and one local man became a believer! To God be the glory! I'm sure the exhaustion they feel doesn't compare to the joy of seeing a person come to faith in Christ.
I will have communication with Jeremy in the morning, but that will probably be the last time until Friday. The team will be in a very remote area without much communication. In case of emergency there is a sat. phone but no cell coverage. We were told to abide by the policy "no news is good news", so I probably won't have much to report after tomorrow. Thank you all for praying for the team as they attempt to live out the gospel for the sake of glorifying God among the nations.
There are still things in the works as far as Haiti is concerned, so I don't want anyone to think that we have forgotten about it. Jeremy and many others have been hard at work, researching and planning future Haiti trips, and more details about that will come later. We are praying that God will raise up locals to assist and eventually take over this work, which is the only feasible way to improve the long term situation in this poverty stricken country. We know that it will more than likely take quite a while for that to happen, but we are certainly not abandoning the Haitian people in their darkest hour. God will be glorified through this. We are praying for discernment as to the best course of action. Please pray with us and consider joining the effort in some way as you feel led.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Slideshows
Check out these two slideshows:
Elise Cadet was one of the pastors that we worked with in Haiti. He is in the US this week and came by my house this evening to plan our next trip to Haiti to work with his church and school. Here is a slideshow that they put together:
This second slideshow is one Josh made of our pictures that we used during our presentation at GFBC:
Elise Cadet was one of the pastors that we worked with in Haiti. He is in the US this week and came by my house this evening to plan our next trip to Haiti to work with his church and school. Here is a slideshow that they put together:
Elise Cadet's Slideshow from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.
This second slideshow is one Josh made of our pictures that we used during our presentation at GFBC:
GFBC Haiti 2010 Slideshow from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Update from Petion-Ville
I got a call from Josue’ this morning about 6:45. He had just gotten off the phone with Dickens. Dickens told him that since we left 43 people have become followers of Christ and joined the local church there. I thought that was pretty awesome.
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Tuesday - Day 3 - Journal
After waking up about six I took a shower and felt much better. I didn't have any clean clothes, but it didn't matter I was refreshed. Outside, the YWAM compound looks back across a range of foothills that were being lit up by the sun as it crested over the mountains on the other side. There were chickens roaming the yard and breakfast was waiting. I drank some instant Starbucks coffee that they had and ate a type of roll or biscuit that must be Haitian. We were waiting for Elise to get in so we could meet him at the port. I touched base with him at 7AM and he was just leaving his house in Port au Prince.
About 9AM Elise called and said he was almost to the port, so we loaded up and headed that way. The road in front of the port was busy with activity this time of day, but we managed to find a spot to park. Elise wasn't there yet so we had to wait another 15 minutes. Once he got there he ran into Alex first and we made our introductions. He called Wally and he met us at the entrance to the port and got us through security. Wally is a big guy every bit as big as Willy Wyatt my neighbor who was a pro nose guard in the NFL. He also had a badge on a chain around his neck and everyone was calling him hefe or chief. I thought, wow, this guy is really going to be able to get our stuff out of here. We had to leave them our passports and headed out to the dock. The boat our food was on was the only one at the port. It was just sitting their idle with the loading door open, but no activity going on. I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of the ship, but one of the guards saw me and shouted something in Creole or French. Elise said, “no pictures!” Wally showed us the manifest of the ship with our names by the seven pallets. He said that he had permission to unload all of the containers from the ship. The problem was that the food was designated for us and not for a local mission. While we were standing out there Wally was talking on his cell phone trying to figure out what we could do. In the meantime, our buddy Roy, was walking across the dock. We waved at him and he walked over. We introduced him to Wally. Wally doesn't speak English, so Elise had to translate for him. Roy started to launch into one of his tirades on injustice in the world, more specifically Haiti, and how the people in front of him were part of the problem. I elbowed him and whispered to him, “Wally has the paperwork to get your stuff off the ship, don't ruin it.” Then Alex told Elise, “I don't know this guy, so whatever he says, doesn't apply to us!” Luckily Roy got the hint and quit before he got himself in a hole with someone who could help. After Roy walked off, Wally said that the agency was coming to talk to us. We weren't real sure who this was, but we said OK. A few minutes later he arrived, his name was Sonny. Sonny told us we had to go to an office down the road and pay for the bill of lading and get them to file paper work with another government office to release our food from customs. Alex and I both could tell this guy was just after money and we got rid of him. Elise and one of his friends walked Alex, Dickens, and I over to the office for the bill of lading. The lady there found the bill of lading, but wanted to charge us around $170 US to get it. They also needed a copy of my license. Alex asked to see the bill of lading, she showed us a copy but wouldn't hand us the original. Alex then asked her who her boss was, she said it was Sonny. So Sonny had sent us to his office to pay money for a document that came over with our stuff on the ship that we had already paid the shipping on. We weren't asking them to file any paperwork for us or do anything really. We just wanted the piece of paper that was ours to start with. Alex demanded the paper and Sonny said he would cut the taxes in half and give it to us for $100 US. Alex said, “I'm not paying you anything, I just want my paper.” Then Sonny asked to speak with the lady. His call dropped the first time, but then we got him back on the phone and he told her to give it to us. Then we headed over to see the customs principal in St Marc. With Elise and his friend we walked straight up to his office and explained our situation. He said that we would have to take our bill of lading to Port au Prince and talk to Jean Baptiste to try to get our food released. We called Jean Baptiste and were told that we would in fact have to come up there in person to the finance ministry. So we headed that way, bill of lading in hand.
Before we left we got the rest of the crew headed back to Petion-Ville and Michel took them to a warehouse where they could buy rice and beans to start cooking at the church. The guys told us later, that this warehouse was stacked to the ceiling with donated US rice. It was guarded by some pretty rough looking characters with big guns. They bought 5 big bags of rice and 2 big bags of beans. Elise was going to go get the stove he was buying with the $900 that Dennis Gamble sent him and needed another $400 US or so because the guy had gone up on the price. I told Elise to get with us the next morning and one of us would help him go get it.
Alex, Dickens, and I finally found the correct finance building. We initially were downtown by the palace, but had to go back up the hill of the city a bit to find the finance building. These people there said that we had to go to the IGF (Inspector General of Finance) which was a different building. We finally found it, and had to park across the street, then climb through a gate that had concrete pylons from the office beside it which had collapsed lying across it as well as power lines that were hanging within reach. We followed Dickens through the hole in the gate and found ourselves in a parking lot with a big sign on a small building that said “IGF”. We went inside and were immediately taken to a mid-level manager named Ronald December. He talked to us, and made a few phone calls. His secretary told us we had to consign the food over to the Protection Civil(another name for the Ministry of Interior) in order to get it passed through customs. She gave us an example written in French which Dickens wrote on the bill of lading and then Alex and I both signed it. Ronald said that there was a lady at the ministry of interior that was waiting on us to get there and we should go talk to her. Then she would meet us at his office the next morning at 9AM to get the paperwork to release the food finalized. We couldn't come back today because it was already 3PM and they closed at 3PM. So we headed out for the address of the Ministry of the Interior. Their office must have fallen because they have taken over a house to use as their office. They have several computers out front in the driveway running under a tarp, and desks and computers crammed in various rooms. We had to circle the block a few times and by the time we got there she was already gone. We talked to one of her associates and he said we would just have to come back in the morning. She wasn't answering her cell phone, so we resigned ourselves to try again the next day.
We headed back up to Petion-Ville and the church. They were cooking beans and rice in the church’s kitchen and were finishing up the medical clinic. We hung around and ate some dinner and talked to the other guys about what had been going on. The clinic was very successful and everyone was in pretty good spirits. We did find out from the guys that the rice that they bought was donated US rice. No one was especially thrilled about that, but we didn’t figure there was much that we could do about it at the time. After everyone ate dinner, we headed down the road to where a gathering of Christian's were about to have a service. Scott had been asked to preach. The worship was amazing. Completely a cappella they praised God for a solid hour. Raymond translated for us, and they wanted us to sit in chairs at the front. Scott brought the word in a powerful way. He told the story of creation and how Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with their own devices, but God had to provide a sacrifice to cover their sin. It was a very clear Gospel presentation.
After he finished, we slipped off and headed back to the church. I slipped out to the street and called Kandy. After talking to her about the day, Mark was just sitting on the road a few feet over from me. While we were talking a couple of local guys walked up and talked to us. One of them was Michee who lives in the neighborhood. After talking to them and sharing the Gospel with them, both professed to believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven and to be followers of Christ. These guys were so humble and friendly. It's very hard to get an accurate read on their intentions though. Sometimes, I just think they want to practice their English on you. Michee is 35, single, no children. He doesn't have a job and just hangs out every day. I understand that it is very hard to get a job, but these guys don't even try. There are people who work around the city. There are taxi drivers, street sellers, laborers of various types, government jobs, and shipping jobs. They just don't even see the possibility to get a job so they don't try. Neither one of them stayed around for too long. Alex and Brett eventually walked out and joined the conversation as well. While we were hanging out in the street talking in the middle of the biggest natural disaster in our hemisphere with dozens of people either sleeping or just hanging out around us in the street we tried to come up with something else we'd rather be doing. There wasn't anything else. This was it. To be doing something for God's kingdom that had eternal ramifications. Both in our lives and the lives of the people we were ministering too.
As the conversation went on, we heard a string of gun shots. At first we were a little concerned, but we decided that if the people around us weren't worried about it, it must not be too close. There were a few more shots and that was it, no big deal. The next day we found out the police were shooting at some looters at a grocery store...
After that we went to bed. The church was slam full because all of us were in Petion-Ville tonight. Brett, Mark Turner, and Richard Bradley all slept in the cars. The rest of us were crammed in the church. Air mattresses were pretty much touching each other. There were several roosters in the neighborhood that would crow every once in a while, and a couple of dogs that like to wake up and fight for a bit each morning.
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
About 9AM Elise called and said he was almost to the port, so we loaded up and headed that way. The road in front of the port was busy with activity this time of day, but we managed to find a spot to park. Elise wasn't there yet so we had to wait another 15 minutes. Once he got there he ran into Alex first and we made our introductions. He called Wally and he met us at the entrance to the port and got us through security. Wally is a big guy every bit as big as Willy Wyatt my neighbor who was a pro nose guard in the NFL. He also had a badge on a chain around his neck and everyone was calling him hefe or chief. I thought, wow, this guy is really going to be able to get our stuff out of here. We had to leave them our passports and headed out to the dock. The boat our food was on was the only one at the port. It was just sitting their idle with the loading door open, but no activity going on. I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of the ship, but one of the guards saw me and shouted something in Creole or French. Elise said, “no pictures!” Wally showed us the manifest of the ship with our names by the seven pallets. He said that he had permission to unload all of the containers from the ship. The problem was that the food was designated for us and not for a local mission. While we were standing out there Wally was talking on his cell phone trying to figure out what we could do. In the meantime, our buddy Roy, was walking across the dock. We waved at him and he walked over. We introduced him to Wally. Wally doesn't speak English, so Elise had to translate for him. Roy started to launch into one of his tirades on injustice in the world, more specifically Haiti, and how the people in front of him were part of the problem. I elbowed him and whispered to him, “Wally has the paperwork to get your stuff off the ship, don't ruin it.” Then Alex told Elise, “I don't know this guy, so whatever he says, doesn't apply to us!” Luckily Roy got the hint and quit before he got himself in a hole with someone who could help. After Roy walked off, Wally said that the agency was coming to talk to us. We weren't real sure who this was, but we said OK. A few minutes later he arrived, his name was Sonny. Sonny told us we had to go to an office down the road and pay for the bill of lading and get them to file paper work with another government office to release our food from customs. Alex and I both could tell this guy was just after money and we got rid of him. Elise and one of his friends walked Alex, Dickens, and I over to the office for the bill of lading. The lady there found the bill of lading, but wanted to charge us around $170 US to get it. They also needed a copy of my license. Alex asked to see the bill of lading, she showed us a copy but wouldn't hand us the original. Alex then asked her who her boss was, she said it was Sonny. So Sonny had sent us to his office to pay money for a document that came over with our stuff on the ship that we had already paid the shipping on. We weren't asking them to file any paperwork for us or do anything really. We just wanted the piece of paper that was ours to start with. Alex demanded the paper and Sonny said he would cut the taxes in half and give it to us for $100 US. Alex said, “I'm not paying you anything, I just want my paper.” Then Sonny asked to speak with the lady. His call dropped the first time, but then we got him back on the phone and he told her to give it to us. Then we headed over to see the customs principal in St Marc. With Elise and his friend we walked straight up to his office and explained our situation. He said that we would have to take our bill of lading to Port au Prince and talk to Jean Baptiste to try to get our food released. We called Jean Baptiste and were told that we would in fact have to come up there in person to the finance ministry. So we headed that way, bill of lading in hand.
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
Before we left we got the rest of the crew headed back to Petion-Ville and Michel took them to a warehouse where they could buy rice and beans to start cooking at the church. The guys told us later, that this warehouse was stacked to the ceiling with donated US rice. It was guarded by some pretty rough looking characters with big guns. They bought 5 big bags of rice and 2 big bags of beans. Elise was going to go get the stove he was buying with the $900 that Dennis Gamble sent him and needed another $400 US or so because the guy had gone up on the price. I told Elise to get with us the next morning and one of us would help him go get it.
Alex, Dickens, and I finally found the correct finance building. We initially were downtown by the palace, but had to go back up the hill of the city a bit to find the finance building. These people there said that we had to go to the IGF (Inspector General of Finance) which was a different building. We finally found it, and had to park across the street, then climb through a gate that had concrete pylons from the office beside it which had collapsed lying across it as well as power lines that were hanging within reach. We followed Dickens through the hole in the gate and found ourselves in a parking lot with a big sign on a small building that said “IGF”. We went inside and were immediately taken to a mid-level manager named Ronald December. He talked to us, and made a few phone calls. His secretary told us we had to consign the food over to the Protection Civil(another name for the Ministry of Interior) in order to get it passed through customs. She gave us an example written in French which Dickens wrote on the bill of lading and then Alex and I both signed it. Ronald said that there was a lady at the ministry of interior that was waiting on us to get there and we should go talk to her. Then she would meet us at his office the next morning at 9AM to get the paperwork to release the food finalized. We couldn't come back today because it was already 3PM and they closed at 3PM. So we headed out for the address of the Ministry of the Interior. Their office must have fallen because they have taken over a house to use as their office. They have several computers out front in the driveway running under a tarp, and desks and computers crammed in various rooms. We had to circle the block a few times and by the time we got there she was already gone. We talked to one of her associates and he said we would just have to come back in the morning. She wasn't answering her cell phone, so we resigned ourselves to try again the next day.
We headed back up to Petion-Ville and the church. They were cooking beans and rice in the church’s kitchen and were finishing up the medical clinic. We hung around and ate some dinner and talked to the other guys about what had been going on. The clinic was very successful and everyone was in pretty good spirits. We did find out from the guys that the rice that they bought was donated US rice. No one was especially thrilled about that, but we didn’t figure there was much that we could do about it at the time. After everyone ate dinner, we headed down the road to where a gathering of Christian's were about to have a service. Scott had been asked to preach. The worship was amazing. Completely a cappella they praised God for a solid hour. Raymond translated for us, and they wanted us to sit in chairs at the front. Scott brought the word in a powerful way. He told the story of creation and how Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with their own devices, but God had to provide a sacrifice to cover their sin. It was a very clear Gospel presentation.
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
After he finished, we slipped off and headed back to the church. I slipped out to the street and called Kandy. After talking to her about the day, Mark was just sitting on the road a few feet over from me. While we were talking a couple of local guys walked up and talked to us. One of them was Michee who lives in the neighborhood. After talking to them and sharing the Gospel with them, both professed to believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven and to be followers of Christ. These guys were so humble and friendly. It's very hard to get an accurate read on their intentions though. Sometimes, I just think they want to practice their English on you. Michee is 35, single, no children. He doesn't have a job and just hangs out every day. I understand that it is very hard to get a job, but these guys don't even try. There are people who work around the city. There are taxi drivers, street sellers, laborers of various types, government jobs, and shipping jobs. They just don't even see the possibility to get a job so they don't try. Neither one of them stayed around for too long. Alex and Brett eventually walked out and joined the conversation as well. While we were hanging out in the street talking in the middle of the biggest natural disaster in our hemisphere with dozens of people either sleeping or just hanging out around us in the street we tried to come up with something else we'd rather be doing. There wasn't anything else. This was it. To be doing something for God's kingdom that had eternal ramifications. Both in our lives and the lives of the people we were ministering too.
As the conversation went on, we heard a string of gun shots. At first we were a little concerned, but we decided that if the people around us weren't worried about it, it must not be too close. There were a few more shots and that was it, no big deal. The next day we found out the police were shooting at some looters at a grocery store...
After that we went to bed. The church was slam full because all of us were in Petion-Ville tonight. Brett, Mark Turner, and Richard Bradley all slept in the cars. The rest of us were crammed in the church. Air mattresses were pretty much touching each other. There were several roosters in the neighborhood that would crow every once in a while, and a couple of dogs that like to wake up and fight for a bit each morning.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday - Day 2 - Journal
We met downstairs at 4AM, arranged all of the luggage and supplies, some on roofs. Brett's Isuzu had a flat tire, so we changed that with the help of one of the valets at the hotel. Josh led devotion and we prayed before we left at 5AM. It was still dark as we made our way across the city, but uneventful. We had Motorola radios that made vehicle to vehicle communication possible. The trip across the DR took about 6 hours, and 3 flat tires. Luckily there are plenty of places to get a tire fixed around here. In one little town while waiting for a tire to get fixed we bought 7 ham, cheese, and slaw pannini's being cooked by a lady street vendor. It cost about $3.50 for all of them, and they were pretty good. The scenery in the DR is gorgeous. Rolling mountains are almost always visible. We bought gas in Jimani and headed for the border crossing.
Before you watch these videos a few disclaimers. Go ahead and make fun of our unintentional fake Dominican and later Creole/French accents. They get better as the week goes on. Also, these videos were mostly shot from a moving SUV in crazy traffic so they aren't very steady and the conversation in the background reacts to the traffic. The videos are in 720p and streaming from Vimeo.com so you should be able to make them full screen and it be very crisp.
The crossing was packed with vehicles and people. There was a market right at the border and people were buying and selling food to take into Haiti. It took about 45 minutes to get across the border, but we weren't stopped or questioned at all. We didn't even get our passports stamped, they just waived us through. There was also a big UN troop carrier with a 50 cal mounted on the front that was a little intimidating, but all of the military we ran into just let us move forward without question. The road on the other side of the crossing was a very bumpy gravel road that was cut out of the side of the limestone cliffs by a river. Once free of traffic we stopped to wait for the other vehicles to catch up as it was impossible to stay together in that mass of people and trucks at the crossing.
This one is a little long, but is all my footage of the border crossing into Haiti which was quite an experience.
One notable image was that of a single man in a canoe with outriggers loaded down with probably 10-15 50lb bags of rice paddling it down the river towards Haiti. He wasn't making much progress, but I guess he was determined. Maybe a sign of things yet to come…
We thought that we were seeing poverty in the DR. Poverty in Haiti is so much worse that it is not even comparable. As soon as you reach the first town the smell of the third world greets you strongly. There are tent cities everywhere. I asked Dickens if those were earthquake refugees? He said that they lived like that before the earthquake. Another thing we noticed was that the gas we bought in Jamini must have been pretty low quality. All of the vehicles reported a loss of power and rattling valve trains. The trip from the border into Petion-Ville was about 3 hours which only covers 35 miles. The images of poverty and earthquake damage were striking as we rode into town. I think they speak for themselves.
We made it to the church about 2:00 I think. The "street" that the church is located on is a very steep dirt, gravel, and sometimes concrete road. When we got out of the cars and looked around, I was amazed that this was what these people were living in. They were very happy to have us there. We quickly unloaded and assembled a team to go to St Marc to get the food. The medical team was going to sort the medical supplies and get ready to open the clinic the next day. I left Jeff in charge of the rest of the group to get our other supplies and gear situated and to start talking to the people of the neighborhood. We met Chasnel Raymond (referred to as Raymond), Josue's brother, as well. Dickens got a guy named Michel to drive our lead vehicle and the others followed. He is a professional driver and it was a fast ride into St Marc trying to keep up. Richard had his second flat tire on the way. I stayed back with him and we worked on getting it fixed. We had a jack, jack handle and four-way, but couldn't get the jack high enough to lift the tire. While he was under the truck, a water truck came by spraying the road and soaked him while he was laying in the dirt. After that we discovered from some local guys that there was a tire fixing stand about 100 yards down the road. It had just enough air in it to drive it that far and we were able to let them fix it.
Alex and crew proceeded to the port. When he got there about 5:15PM, the guards said it was closed, but took him to the ship. The guys on the ship took him to a room and said to wait there while they talked to the captain. The room they left him in was full of other guys from the ship. They asked him if he was new on the boat, and he said "pretty new!" One of the guys he met was Roy Dixon. He is from England and runs a non-profit getting aid into countries. He had an ambulance full of medical supplies that he was trying to get to a team of doctors, but couldn't get it through customs. They customs people told him he needed an NGO (non-government organization) to consign it over to in order to get them to release it. Through that search he met the guys at YWAM, Youth with a Mission. They have a large base in Saint Marc headed up by a guy named Terry Snow who has been in Haiti for 17 years. Tom was his contact there and after Alex told Roy what we were trying to do, Roy said he would try to get us connected with them as well to see if they could help us get the food off of the boat.
Once Richard, Mark Turner, Josh, and I caught up with Alex at the port, Roy jumped in the SUV with Josh and me and we rode the few blocks to the YWAM compound. St Marc is like the Wild West. All of the roads are dirt, and there are motorcycles zipping by everywhere. The dust just hangs in the air. When we got to the YWAM compound, a guard opened the gate (more like metal blast doors) and let us through. We waited around for a while for Terry or Tom to become available. While we were waiting I called Elise to see what he thought we could do. He said that we could go see his cousin Wally at customs tomorrow and we could probably pay a little bit to get the food released. When I relayed this to Roy, he was pretty adamant that we not pay tariffs or bribes to get the food released. He said that once one organization does that it sets a precedent that harms all of the other Christian organizations trying to get aid into a country. Tom from YWAM was able to talk to us at 8PM. He went through the process of getting a shipping broker to handle the paperwork and file it with the government in Port au Prince to get your supplies released. We explained that we did not have time to deal with all of that, that we were only going to be there for a week and had to get the food so that we could distribute it. I talked to Elise and he said that we could go see his cousin Wally the next morning at the port and see what we could do. He was going to drive up and be there by 7AM. Then we went with some of the YWAM staff to a local restaurant to get some dinner. The place we went had hamburgers, pizza, and other various American foods, so I ordered a Royale Cheeseburger with Bacon. It has to be the nastiest hamburger I have ever put into my mouth. I only ate two bites of it and couldn't eat anymore. The patty was about one eighth of an inch thick and was burned to a crisp. The bacon even tasted bad. I think that this has to be the first burger in my life that I have ever not finished. I went ahead and ate the fries.
After dinner we were going to drop Roy back off at the port since he was staying on the boat. He jumped out of the car and walked over to the guards to try to get in. Well, the guards evidently had decided to give him a hard time and wouldn't let him back through the gate. Roy is kind of a hot head so he just kept getting more and more wound up. He was going on and on about how the problem with Haiti was the government and how they hold up everyone trying to help their people. He then threatened to call Fox News, CNN, the BBC, and anyone else who was listening and tell them that they were responsible for suffering in Haiti. Of course the guards didn't understand a word of English and he might as well have been yelling at a brick wall. After a few minutes of this, one of the Haitian YWAM guys that was with us jumped out of the other vehicle and ran over there to see if he could help. Once he started translating what Roy was saying that just made the guards madder. Evidently the Haitian word for the f-bomb is the same as it is in English. Somehow through all of this Roy convinced the guards to let him back to the ship, and we headed back to YWAM. YWAM lined up some bunks for us to sleep on and had some towels and stuff for us to use in the morning. I talked to Alex for a few minutes and then headed up to bed with some Ibuprofen. My neck was pretty tight from all the car riding and stress of the day and I had a raging headache. As I laid on the bunk on a thin air mattress with a sheet over it, I prayed that God would release the food, but that I also would be content with His will if it did not get released. I prayed for the safety of our team and the success of our mission to show the love of Christ to those in desperate physical and spiritual need.
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
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| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
Before you watch these videos a few disclaimers. Go ahead and make fun of our unintentional fake Dominican and later Creole/French accents. They get better as the week goes on. Also, these videos were mostly shot from a moving SUV in crazy traffic so they aren't very steady and the conversation in the background reacts to the traffic. The videos are in 720p and streaming from Vimeo.com so you should be able to make them full screen and it be very crisp.
Bani from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.
Vincinte Noble from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.
The crossing was packed with vehicles and people. There was a market right at the border and people were buying and selling food to take into Haiti. It took about 45 minutes to get across the border, but we weren't stopped or questioned at all. We didn't even get our passports stamped, they just waived us through. There was also a big UN troop carrier with a 50 cal mounted on the front that was a little intimidating, but all of the military we ran into just let us move forward without question. The road on the other side of the crossing was a very bumpy gravel road that was cut out of the side of the limestone cliffs by a river. Once free of traffic we stopped to wait for the other vehicles to catch up as it was impossible to stay together in that mass of people and trucks at the crossing.
This one is a little long, but is all my footage of the border crossing into Haiti which was quite an experience.
Border Crossing from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.
One notable image was that of a single man in a canoe with outriggers loaded down with probably 10-15 50lb bags of rice paddling it down the river towards Haiti. He wasn't making much progress, but I guess he was determined. Maybe a sign of things yet to come…
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
We thought that we were seeing poverty in the DR. Poverty in Haiti is so much worse that it is not even comparable. As soon as you reach the first town the smell of the third world greets you strongly. There are tent cities everywhere. I asked Dickens if those were earthquake refugees? He said that they lived like that before the earthquake. Another thing we noticed was that the gas we bought in Jamini must have been pretty low quality. All of the vehicles reported a loss of power and rattling valve trains. The trip from the border into Petion-Ville was about 3 hours which only covers 35 miles. The images of poverty and earthquake damage were striking as we rode into town. I think they speak for themselves.
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
We made it to the church about 2:00 I think. The "street" that the church is located on is a very steep dirt, gravel, and sometimes concrete road. When we got out of the cars and looked around, I was amazed that this was what these people were living in. They were very happy to have us there. We quickly unloaded and assembled a team to go to St Marc to get the food. The medical team was going to sort the medical supplies and get ready to open the clinic the next day. I left Jeff in charge of the rest of the group to get our other supplies and gear situated and to start talking to the people of the neighborhood. We met Chasnel Raymond (referred to as Raymond), Josue's brother, as well. Dickens got a guy named Michel to drive our lead vehicle and the others followed. He is a professional driver and it was a fast ride into St Marc trying to keep up. Richard had his second flat tire on the way. I stayed back with him and we worked on getting it fixed. We had a jack, jack handle and four-way, but couldn't get the jack high enough to lift the tire. While he was under the truck, a water truck came by spraying the road and soaked him while he was laying in the dirt. After that we discovered from some local guys that there was a tire fixing stand about 100 yards down the road. It had just enough air in it to drive it that far and we were able to let them fix it.
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
 |
| From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics |
Alex and crew proceeded to the port. When he got there about 5:15PM, the guards said it was closed, but took him to the ship. The guys on the ship took him to a room and said to wait there while they talked to the captain. The room they left him in was full of other guys from the ship. They asked him if he was new on the boat, and he said "pretty new!" One of the guys he met was Roy Dixon. He is from England and runs a non-profit getting aid into countries. He had an ambulance full of medical supplies that he was trying to get to a team of doctors, but couldn't get it through customs. They customs people told him he needed an NGO (non-government organization) to consign it over to in order to get them to release it. Through that search he met the guys at YWAM, Youth with a Mission. They have a large base in Saint Marc headed up by a guy named Terry Snow who has been in Haiti for 17 years. Tom was his contact there and after Alex told Roy what we were trying to do, Roy said he would try to get us connected with them as well to see if they could help us get the food off of the boat.
Once Richard, Mark Turner, Josh, and I caught up with Alex at the port, Roy jumped in the SUV with Josh and me and we rode the few blocks to the YWAM compound. St Marc is like the Wild West. All of the roads are dirt, and there are motorcycles zipping by everywhere. The dust just hangs in the air. When we got to the YWAM compound, a guard opened the gate (more like metal blast doors) and let us through. We waited around for a while for Terry or Tom to become available. While we were waiting I called Elise to see what he thought we could do. He said that we could go see his cousin Wally at customs tomorrow and we could probably pay a little bit to get the food released. When I relayed this to Roy, he was pretty adamant that we not pay tariffs or bribes to get the food released. He said that once one organization does that it sets a precedent that harms all of the other Christian organizations trying to get aid into a country. Tom from YWAM was able to talk to us at 8PM. He went through the process of getting a shipping broker to handle the paperwork and file it with the government in Port au Prince to get your supplies released. We explained that we did not have time to deal with all of that, that we were only going to be there for a week and had to get the food so that we could distribute it. I talked to Elise and he said that we could go see his cousin Wally the next morning at the port and see what we could do. He was going to drive up and be there by 7AM. Then we went with some of the YWAM staff to a local restaurant to get some dinner. The place we went had hamburgers, pizza, and other various American foods, so I ordered a Royale Cheeseburger with Bacon. It has to be the nastiest hamburger I have ever put into my mouth. I only ate two bites of it and couldn't eat anymore. The patty was about one eighth of an inch thick and was burned to a crisp. The bacon even tasted bad. I think that this has to be the first burger in my life that I have ever not finished. I went ahead and ate the fries.
After dinner we were going to drop Roy back off at the port since he was staying on the boat. He jumped out of the car and walked over to the guards to try to get in. Well, the guards evidently had decided to give him a hard time and wouldn't let him back through the gate. Roy is kind of a hot head so he just kept getting more and more wound up. He was going on and on about how the problem with Haiti was the government and how they hold up everyone trying to help their people. He then threatened to call Fox News, CNN, the BBC, and anyone else who was listening and tell them that they were responsible for suffering in Haiti. Of course the guards didn't understand a word of English and he might as well have been yelling at a brick wall. After a few minutes of this, one of the Haitian YWAM guys that was with us jumped out of the other vehicle and ran over there to see if he could help. Once he started translating what Roy was saying that just made the guards madder. Evidently the Haitian word for the f-bomb is the same as it is in English. Somehow through all of this Roy convinced the guards to let him back to the ship, and we headed back to YWAM. YWAM lined up some bunks for us to sleep on and had some towels and stuff for us to use in the morning. I talked to Alex for a few minutes and then headed up to bed with some Ibuprofen. My neck was pretty tight from all the car riding and stress of the day and I had a raging headache. As I laid on the bunk on a thin air mattress with a sheet over it, I prayed that God would release the food, but that I also would be content with His will if it did not get released. I prayed for the safety of our team and the success of our mission to show the love of Christ to those in desperate physical and spiritual need.
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