Ozira

May 19, 2010
This morning I boarded Pastor Pierre’s “tap tap” (mini-bus) for a day of reporting out at the Chambron site. There are tap taps everywhere here—small colorful buses that are generally packed with people—and more highly decorated with pain, pictures, slogans, Bible verses, and family names than you can imagine. Some people even turn pickup trucks into tap taps—and people sometimes even hang on the back and sides to ride along. (You tap the truck or bus to get the driver to stop for you.) Pastor Pierre’s tap tap is a very normal looking blue.
I joined the medical and construction teams from Nehemiah’s Vision (Indiana). I learned quickly that nothing happens quickly here. We piled into the sweltering navy blue bus and sat there. And sat there. Sometime later we wound up at a local gas station—a Texaco. And sat there. And sat there. Moved a bit. Sat there. A pile of Gourdes later (Haitian money), I think we had a full tank. I hope so.
The drive to Chambrun is about 45 minutes of close calls, UN trucks, tight intersections, dump truck obstacle courses, and spine cracking pot holes. But the sights are like nothing I have seen before—sugar cane sticks for sale, tent communities, rubble still in the streets, signs of flooding, water vendors selling small plastic baggies of water, women carrying huge baskets on their heads, make shift stores—even a make shift bank, and so much more. Too much to take in at 65 miles an hour inside a city while dodging people.
But then civilization died down and we kept driving into the Haitian wilderness. I started to see tall cactus—a bit of a surprise for me.( Maybe not as big a surprise as the amount of burros running around with no humans.) Gravel roads had varying degrees of stability. Some had filled up with water and mud, others had washed out somewhat. A couple of new drainage ditches have helped, but we still had to swerve a bit.
Then we arrived! It was a flat plain surrounded by mountains and scrub trees. I saw a white GAiN truck, a makeshift warehouse with a roof and fence walls, two cement buildings, two tents, and a couple hundred children in school uniform blue.
Many people moved to the Chambrun area after the earthquake due to the loss of their homes and the fact that the city was not safe—many buildings were still capable of falling down with the slightest tremor. Tents are now homes. We did not see the village since it was behind the trees, but the families had come that day for the open clinic and for school.
Nehemiah’s Vision (a ministry form Indiana) started working with Pastor Pierre in 2008. They built the school first. Originally it had 80 students—now they are over 300 students. They recently built a clinic at the same site to treat the children and their families in the Chambrun area. The medical team moved into the clinic to set up and get ready to see patients. The construction team met up with two GAiN team members and started to work on three new projects—a kitchen area for Mercy Chefs to cook for future volunteers and for the people of Chambrun, a warehouse to store aid, and a tent area with showers for the volunteers coming in to minister in the region.
I wandered over to a makeshift tent made from tarps and bed sheets. I could smell hot food. It was the makeshift kitchen for the school. A lady named Ozira was stirring a huge pot of the rice-soy meals that GAiN shipped over. Each day they cook food for the children. Ozira has been cooking for the children for a few years now. She loves her job so much she hopes she does not have a single sick day so she can keep helping the children.
“When a student is sick or has some trouble at home and cannot come to school, they may not get a meal that day,” Ozira said.
In front of the medical clinic, around 60 people waited to see the doctor and nurses. I broke the ice with them by taking photos of the children and showing them the photo on the view screen of the camera. The children just giggled at seeing themselves. I spoke to a few of them as they waited.
One lady was so grateful for the clinic. “If there was no clinic here, I would have to walk to Port-au-Prince for medical help,” she said. (Port-au-Prince was a 45 minute drive away.)
Other mothers were grateful for the school. “Our children learn good skills,” one mother said. Another said, “The kids really understand their teachers and work very hard—and they have fun too!”
“I appreciate the food they give my two children,” Marica S. said. “Thank you!”
Another mom said, “I appreciate everything about the school!”
I went back in the clinic and sat near the pharmacy. Many of the visitors to the clinic get a hygiene pack to take home in addition to medical care and medicines. One small boy was holding his new “present” with great pride. It was a real gift to him!