March 1, 2014

2/1/14

   It is hard to really put into words what we've seen so far in our
trip. Traveling through the capitol of Port-au-Prince, it was quite
prevalent of the size of the need that Haiti has. There are buildings
that are not complete, trash left in the streets, people in need in
the streets, and roads that had little to no pavement. We traveled 2-3
hours each day through these roads in order to reach LaFond. These
roads to LaFond were really just dirt paths wide enough for a car to
pass through. Once we got to LaFond, we settled in and began our
orientation to the area. Emma Brown '16 said that being in Lafond is
literally like being on cloud 9 because of the clouds that constantly
are present around us.  All of the people in LaFond live in one room
houses where that one room is their living room, bedroom, and dinning
room. These houses are barely larger than a common living or dinning
room in an American house. Despite this, the appreciation for us being
here is immense. Madame Venante, who lived in town, was so
appreciative of the idea alone that she continually gave us hugs and
thank you's for what we will do. "I thought it was sad that kids were
wearing ripped shirts and shorts. And when they told me that they were
cold, I just didn't know what to do, " Michelle '15 said. It is hard
to see these people, especially the children, from things that would
never happen in America or any other 1st world country. These children
often begged us to give them clothes that we had on us. Berthin, who
will be helping us on the trip, even left his home and family in Lakai
so that he could find work in Port-au-Prince. Tomorrow, we will start
the preparation for our project of installing the solar panels.
               -Liam Batson '15