St. Andrew's School- Haiti- 2014

Monday, March 3rd

Dear family and friends,

If I could find one word to describe the entire day that started with

popcorn and hot chocolate for breakfast, the words "enlightenment" and

"discovery" immediately come to mind. Today, we began our three

service projects. One group is working on wiring solar panels in

twelve homes. Another group is working to level out the hilly soccer

field. The last group is spending time with the children of the Lafond

Primary School--teaching, playing games, and singing.

Down at the school and soccer field, our St. Andrew's group was joined

by nearly one hundred children in the village. Ignited by curiosity,

enthusiasm, and a genuine desire to help, kids sprinted to grab a

shovel and a bucket to help dig the dirt. The kids were either

barefoot or wearing torn, muddy shoes. This filled me with a sense of

despair, but when I looked to their smiling and grateful faces, their

joy was nearly contagious. In a matter of minutes, we overcame the

initial Creole-English language barrier and produced an efficent team

system. One group, at one side of the soccer field, dug out the dirt

into buckets. Another group carried the buckets to the other end of

the field and another group filled the uneven terrain with dirt and

planted sod. Before today, I had no idea that it was possible for

pieces of grass and sod, planted in other parts of the field, to grow

again with time and rain. You may be wondering: why are we spending so

much time on leveling a soccer field? Why aren't we spending more time

feeding the people and providing the people here with "real

necessities?" However, if you could see the love and passion that the

Haitian people here have for soccer, you would agree with me that by

fixing their field, we are making the children here beyond happy.

There is nothing more rewarding than to work with the children, in

union, rather than simply work for the people here.

Later that afternoon, we gathered and listened to Bear's discussion on

Haitian History and what we could to resolve the bigger problems of

Haiti, like the poverty levels, class warfare, and political

corruption. Bear identified the main problem of Haiti as the small,

elite group that controls almost all the wealth in the nation. This

group holds many monopolies on goods, lands, and businesses that make

it is nearly impossible for the middle and lower class to climb the

social ladder. Hearing this, I initially felt hopeless. Questions

like, "How do we fix corruption? How do we break the strict class

structure?" flooded my mind. Bear appeased my worries by showing that

there is always a possibility for resolution and there is no such

thing as, "there is nothing that we can do." He shared his vision of

an ideal nation, where students would be educated to a

university-level, and would return to their village and city to

utilize their education for the benefit of Haiti. The cycle, that

currently takes place, is that students that attain a great education,

move to places with more opportunities, like the U.S, and become

employed there. Thus, they invest the fruit of the education they

recieved in Haiti to other countries, enriching them while leaving

Haiti in the dust. We must strive to break this cycle and encourage

students to return and invest their skills into Haiti in order to

build a source of wealth. On listening to Bear's envisionment and plan

of a restored Haiti, I was again empowered to realize our potential to

create change.

Here, I am doing more than simply "service." Many people told me,

before I left for this trip, "You don't need to go all the way to

Haiti to help people. Besides, the nation would probably benefit more

from sending them money." Before this trip, I did not know exactly how

to address this. I wasn't even completely sure why I wanted to go,

except to serve and learn. But, as I sit here now, I know that I will

leave this place with a relationship with the country and its people.

There is a special bond and connection that I have found with this

place that cannot be achieved without first-hand experiencing the

Haitian life.

I hope you all are doing well back at home. We miss you and will see

you in a few days!

Love,

Michelle Kim

March 4, 2014

Today, we began to install the solar panels. We installed the solar

panels on the top of the school building. Once the panels were

installed, we went up the hill to install wires, lights, and sockets

into two houses. Izzy, Bear, members of the community, and I went to

two of the houses behind the school. We took out any of the appliances

that were in the house before, and began our process. The group then

fed the wire into the house so we could figure out where to place the

new appliances. Once we had the wire fed in and the places measured

out, we began the process of putting in the lights and plugs. We then

put a light bulb inside the house and just outside the doorway. Once

we placed these in, we fed the wire across the way to another, where

we followed the same process for this house. Once we finished,

according to Haitian culture, we were offered coffee. This was grown,

hand crushed, and brewed. After this, we came back up to camp for

dinner. -Liam Batson '15

People, food, and goats....The Market!!!!! the place was jammed packed

with people, which wasn't the most comfortable, but even

J. Farmer

With all the things going on it was an exciting day. As we moved

passed the craziness of the market, and onto the various service

projects the day ended with great successes. We worked rapidly to

level the soccer field. The St. Andrew's students and the local kids

really combined their efforts to get the job done. The most impressive

feat I witnessed was one of the boys taking a pick-ax to a giant piece

of stone in the soil. Back and forth, back and forth was the pace of

the day carrying loads of rocks and sod. When we all regrouped  each

team shared what they accomplished on their individual projects.

Before we knew it night was upon us and the bands for Carnaval were

coming through the mist to our campsite. As we rushed over to the

commotion we were greeted by a dancing man in a skull mask. We were

immersed in Haitian culture, dancing along with the people swinging

branches, and listening to the beautiful sounds of their music through

the night. As our group settled down for the night, the distant music

serenaded us to sleep.

Caleigh '17