February 26, 2013 — – Lebrun Village, Haiti.
Our fifth day in Haiti began with a big breakfast because we knew we had a long walk to the Larintrie Evangelic Community School to visit another school in another village. The walk took about 1.5 hours each way and was one hill after another. We had to walk along a very treacherous, rocky… trail in the hot sun, but we had plenty of water, full bellies and good hiking shoes. The school children ( even 4 -5 years old) walk the trail every day to and from school without any of the luxuries that we had. I really don’t know how they do it!As difficult as the walk to the school was, the condition of the school was even worse. The children are crowded into tiny spaces and it is dark and dingy. The kindergarten class was stuck in a dark depressing hole. All of us were pretty depressed on the walk home.The day took a wonderful turn when we returned to the Lebrun village and went to the HavServe library. The children were singing their lessons in the afternoon tutoring session led by a 6th grade teacher volunteer, Jean Franz Damuscat on the guitar and another volunteer named Pouchon teaching the class.On another front, Ezekiel, a local Haitian man built the fence for a vegetable garden in one of the school which will serve as a pilot for several other gardens. The plan is to have gardens tended to by each of the five schools so they can provide a lunch for the students, totally sustained by each school without outside donations.Finally, Cherline, a local woman teacher who does so much for the children, was able to make some real progress on rebuilding her dilapidated house. The expression on her face was truly priceless. She has worked hard and become a supervisor of the building. She even built her house per guidelines for earthquake design which we brought down with us (thanks again to Serge Bellegarde). She is now an empowered Haitian woman!
So, even though the day started off a bit depressing, in the end we were uplifted by the progress that is being made!
