Looking back at 2019, it has been a year of hope and promise, but also of challenges and obstacles. It was another year of endless learning opportunities for us that we’ve tried to capitalize on. We’ve learned so much more about the Haitian people and culture, yet we know there’s still so much more. The history and heritage of the Haitian people is rich and yet challenging. The year ended with health challenges that sent us to Florida for resolution.
How were your Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday? Can you believe tomorrow has yet another special name? It’s Giving Tuesday! And Christmas is coming soon! (If you’re not familiar with Giving Tuesday, you can find information about it here.)
A warm hello and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from the Caribbean!
We try to take time here and there to remind ourselves of the beauty in Haiti and not to just take it for granted. As the USA has dealt with some very cold weather already, we are thankful for a little break from the heat and not seeing many temperatures above 90 F. In this season of Thanksgiving, we want to reflect on other things that we’re thankful for….and it starts with the amazing donors, supporters and friends that are all essential to making this journey possible! Thanks for all your prayers, financial assistance, encouragement, conversations, care packages, and sharing our social media posts. We can’t do this without you and really appreciate each and every one of you.
We’re thankful for the wonderful Thanksgiving dinner we had with local friends old and new. It was great to get together and enjoy a turkey dinner with a variety of other foods and people! There was an amazing spread of dinner and dessert items!
We’re thankful for power! As I sit and write, we are enjoying power from the local electric company. We have endured 14 weeks of ongoing protests about government corruption and the many side effects of money not being spent where it would best help the people and the country. Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2019 Update”
September is always a very busy month in Haiti. The final preparations for school usually fill the first week, including delivery of new school uniforms, finalizing school shoes for everyone, getting haircuts, purchasing and laminating the last of the school books, loading and distributing school backpacks, and planning routes to get all the kids to their various schools on time. By the time September rolls around, the kids are often ready to return to school…and so are the staff!!
Celebrating character and growth with all of our Hands and Feet Project kids and staff from our Jacmel and Thozin campuses
Every year in the late summer, Hands and Feet Project wraps up the summer with a celebration we call Village Values Weekend. It’s a time when everyone comes together in one location to have a little end of summer party. We celebrate the kids and staff who exemplify love, responsibility, honesty and obedience throughout the year. We also have some great Christian musicians come to entertain, challenge and even teach us and our kids. This year the event is on our campus in Jacmel, and Christian rap / hip hop artists Derek Minor and Canon were here. Derek has been to HAFP in the past, and many of the kids really like his music.
This weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate the first high school graduation from one of our kids within the Hands and Feet Project (HAFP) organization! Congratulations to Marvensky for making it through 13th grade (Filo) and we pray that he will continue with his educational success and fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor! He is currently looking at universities in Port au Prince where he can continue his education.
As we approach the end of our 2nd year in Haiti, there are some successes that bring us a great deal of joy. Our relationships with the kids continue to grow as they see that we’re not packing up our belongings and leaving Haiti. That’s been a topic of conversation with some of our kids as many of our predecessors left before the 18-month mark. It’s also exciting to see 12-15 of our older kids wanting to go with us to church and wanting to also attend church youth group Continue reading “Campus Life Spring Update”
Some exciting news is that some of our kids young adults have moved! Social Services in Haiti has a policy that kids can only stay within an orphan care facility until the age of 18. Considering the challenges that kids face here in Haiti, on top of the effects of trauma from abandonment or possible abuse that kids in our care may have dealt with, the age of 18 comes too quickly. Therefore, Hands and Feet Project has transition housing outside of our facility where our kids can live for a few years to help them transition into living in the community. They have a resident assistant to help them navigate living independently without all the benefits of those living on our campus.
Every time we write a new post, it seems like we talk about how fast the time goes by. This is no exception. Summer is sizzling away here with temperatures at least in the 90s every day and the heat index into triple digits. We visited our old hometown of Rochester, New York in the last part of June and into July. Soon after our return to Haiti, there was a period of unrest and some rioting over a proposed significant increase in fuel prices. You can read more about this and the impact on the Hands and Feet Project in a post from Mark Stuart by clicking here.
The period of unrest resulted in an increase in the travel advisory level from the US embassy / state department that caused us to cancel 2 teams that were supposed to visit us this summer. Continue reading “Summer Sizzles and School Starts”
A few people have asked what a typical day in Haiti looks like, and we’ve put off trying to answer that because there’s not much of a pattern to a typical day! We’ve tried logging our time a few different days, but that gets put aside when the first urgent need of the day comes up. We never get bored of the routine, and there’s always something else to learn!