haiti update - october 8, 2011

“Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning”. Proverbs 9:9

Hi! The Haitian school year officially started on October 3rd. It was good to see children in their uniforms heading to school. The school year was delayed from its original start date of September 5th due to the process of selecting a prime minister and also for the education plan that President Martelly was setting up. The extra time paid off for the government. Through the taxation of calls to Haiti and wire transfer remittances mainly from the diaspora, millions of dollars have been raised to fund an education plan. Other countries, and organizations are helping the Haitian government with their desire to provide education as a basic right for all children. Over 700,000 children have been sponsored for school this year. Their parents do not have to pay tuition. Many students are going to school for the first time, who in the past could only watch other children go to school.

Our school program has also grown for this year as well. We have an additional teacher and our classes are now from Kindergarten to Grade 5. As part of Martelly’s push to educate children who have missed several years of schooling he is encouraging schools to “fast track” students to help them catch up with their age level peers. The children in our Grade 5 class will also be completing Grade 6 and then they will write their state exams at the end of the school year. Manu is in Grade 6 this year and he will be writing the state exams. He attends Christian Light School. Yvens Cherisier is a student that we sponsor who attends Adoration Christian School. He is in Grade 5 there and we will be fast tracking him here outside of his school hours at Adoration to complete Grade 6. His older brother will be tutoring both Manu and Yvens to help prepare them for the state exams. Coram Deo is proud to participate in President Martelly’s vision of providing a free education.

We also provide the children in our program with the textbooks that they need. Martelly has also subsidized some of the textbooks at 70% so we were able to take advantage of this special rate when we purchased school books through Henri Deschamps. Finding school books in Haiti is a challenge, especially when everyone is looking for books at the same time! Some days there were large line-ups outside Henri Deschamps as people patiently waited to be let inside the store to purchase books. It is good that Henri Deschamps has a special policy for schools. We don’t have to wait in the lines and can go directly to the administration office for help. The other day we were over at the Henri Deschamps in Petionville and there were several policemen out front and a closed sign on the door. We had an appointment to come at that time but the security told us to come back tomorrow. We were curious why the store was closed in the middle of the day but the guard wouldn’t explain. We found out from another business in the neighbourhood that thieves had broken into the store the prior evening and broke into the safe, stealing a large sum of money. The thieves were not interested in reading. Not one book was stolen from the store! They didn’t even steal the guns that were in the administration office for the security guards. The next day we went back and were able to get the books that we needed.

Not all the books are subsidized. For the rest, we bought at the outside “photocopy book market” downtown. The prices are cheaper and we need to be thrifty. The only thing is that the downtown can be quite the place sometimes. There is more crime downtown and Jn. Eddy and Fedner didn’t take their cell phones with them because they were worried that pickpockets might steal their cell phone. The disadvantage was that we couldn’t keep contact with them. When it was getting dark we were starting to get concerned but they made it back to the house alright. They had to run from a couple of guys who were shooting in the Mdm. Colo area of Delmas 2. They were shooting in the air and not at people but Fedner and Jn. Eddy had to abandon what they purchased to find a safer spot. When they returned the books were still there. I think that books are the only thing here in Haiti that thieves in Haiti don’t want! At the end of the day they couldn’t find a tap-tap to go home and had to walk up to main Delmas, each of them carrying a large sac of books on their heads. They were tired when they arrived back home. I am proud of the older guys here at Coram Deo. They take education seriously and do their best to help out in our efforts to help the community. The kitchen has been full with the older students covering all the school books with sheets of plastic to help them last longer. Pray for the school program this year, for the health of the students and for safety on their walk to and from school, and also pray for Martelly’s vision of sending all children to school. An education is essential for the development of a country.

Len Harsevoort and Dan Vis came for a short visit last weekend. There were a lot of last minute changes to make mainly because Kimosabee was having trouble overheating. I was stranded with Amos in Petionville when the truck overheated and Ysmaille saved the day when he went to the airport instead to pick them up. We tried an “ancient Dutch secret” of putting pepper in the radiator and that helped a bit but the truck still overheated again the next day. It all worked out well though because they were able to have a walking/tap-tap visit through Port-au-Prince with Johnny and Amos.

We have been trying for years to get help for Pastor Pierre by contacting a couple of different organizations and we kept hitting a wall in getting help for him, but on Friday evening we had a meeting with Howard and Ruth Van Dam about what programs that Christian Reformed World Missions has in Haiti. Pastor Pierre and 8 other pastors who are part of the Committee that Pastor Pierre has formed attended a special seminar organized at the Christian Reformed Ministry Center. Mario who is a Haitian living in the Dominican Republic and Jenny hosted the seminar. It was about working with people in at risk communities. Far too often churches close their doors to the world, yet the Lord tells us to go out and seek the lost. The seminar was about seeking, reaching out and building community. It was informative for the pastors who attended, and Pastor Pierre was encouraged with this assistance. He is eager to learn and so are the large amount of pastors he has contact with. Pastor Pierre and the other pastors will also have the opportunity of participating in a couple of other programs at the Christian Reformed Ministry Center. On October 19 to 21, there is a 3 day seminar called the Timothy Leadership Training. This seminar helps to build leaders in the churches. On November 18 and 19 there is a seminar called Strategies of Transformation. Pastor Pierre and a select group of pastors from his contacts will be eagerly attending these programs. Pray for the efforts of Christian Reformed Missions here in Haiti and also keep praying that we can continue to find even more help for Pastor Pierre and the group of pastors and churches that are interested becoming/learning more about the reformed faith. Currently there are 3 churches who consider themselves reformed (2 of the churches in the mountains of Kenscoff that Pastor Pierre is responsible for and 1 church in Belladere). Pray for the work of missions around the world.

I would also like to make a special prayer request. Please pray for reconciliation between Coram Deo and Adoration Christian School/CDIA/Word and Deed. We both work in the Delmas 31 community with connections of family at the board, committee and Haitian level. Pray that we as missions can be agents of transformation for ourselves and for the Haitian community in which we serve.

That’s all the news for today. Have a blessed Canadian Thanksgiving!

Karen Bultje
Coram Deo