My last day in Haiti

I had an amazing morning. We had a 'party' for the children that were sponsored by the members of our group. I had the opportunity to meet the little girl that i sponsor through Compassion. Her name is Esther and she is seven years old. She lives with her mother father and two younger brothers. She must have been the quietest, most timid child there. She didn't speak or smile for a while, even while we made balloons and face painted the other children. It was the swings and slide that finally made her smile and laugh. We take so much for granted, these kids had never been on swings or a slide in their lives and had so much fun. Esther did so much laps on the slide and just loved it, she probably would have done it all day.

I had a very short conversation with her father about their life and family. He told me that the hurricane had damaged their home. He said that Compassion helps their family in so many ways. Although Esther is the only child supported the 'family' gifts that i send helped them to but a goat and a pig which then supports the whole family. Compassion also educate the famillies of their children in many aspects of life. He told me that Esther get medical help and schooling which he could not otherwise afford for her.

I am in absolutely no doubt that Compassion do amazing work. They do everything they can to help the children. They work along side the churches in the communities who help them to identify the children with the most need.

All the famillies that day left haven eaten a full meal, 2 food parcels to take home and presents brought by their sponsors. It was a day ill never forget!

Day 5 - Travelling Back to Port au Prince

Nothing really to report right now! Spent most of the day travelling!

Day 4 - Gonaive

Today we set off for the city of Gonaive. Gonaive was one of the worst places hit by the three consecutive hurricanes, Gustaff, Hanna and Ike. The devastation was still visual as we drove along. Cars and buses still lying smashed into trees or buried in mud. They were obvious cleaning up bit by bit as I saw two mean roll the front half of a car onto a flat bed wheel barrow/cart. There are children everywhere dirty and selling goods or begging. We stopped to get ice for our drinks cooler, which was a marquee which seemed to have some kind of grain only, but underneath the grain were huge blocks of ice. Which where washed off and then chipped into smaller pieces to keep the cooler cool. Beside the ice tent there was a little boy selling sugar cane we made him a balloon hat and one of the guys bought all of his cane (they only took a couple as we couldn’t eat them and that way he sell them.)

We took a little detour to another project so that they could show us another project where there had installed a reverse osmosis water pump for the surrounding area. This means that the area around the project can come and get clean water for their families to drink. We also had a look into some of the classrooms…

We then headed to the next project. On the way out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman sitting on the ground outside her house making mud cookies. These are made by mixing clay or mud with a little salt and drying in the sun to help with the hunger pains.

We eventually arrived at the project, due to its location it was devastated by the hurricanes. It is right beside the river and it is one that Compassion believes needs to relocate in order to survive As usual we where greeted by speeches, singing and dancing. They also presented us with some gifts to thank us for our support of compassion and how much it meant to them. We were told how Compassion supplied some families with vouchers for materials to rebuild their houses, gave out food parcels and as soon as they could get in brought a medical team down to treat the kids. Some of the families lived on roofs and lived without food for days and developed all types of illnesses. Some of the parents told us all their stories about how it had affected them. One man told us how he had to take his kids to the roof and us the water rose keep climbing until there was no where to go. He described how he knew how to swim a little but none of his family knew how so he put his kids in a fridge which was being washed down the street and tried to swim with his wife under his arm. He then described the sheer terror as the fridge tipped over and his kids fell into the water. One of his neighbour daughters tried to help his family but unfortunately his 13 year old daughter and the neighbours daughter where killed. My words can not describe the sheer pain and sorrow felt throughout the room, as we cried and other families recalled the pain that their family where put through.

They took us to see a man’s garden which Compassion had helped him restart after it was lost in the flood. They (Compassion) tried to identify the families who had businesses but lost them in the flood and tried to help them get back on their feet again in order to prove what little they can for the family.

We made some balloons and put on some tattoos but there where so many kids and they had never seen anything like it that it became impossible to do it. So throughout some balloons over the kids and just played with them.

Day 3 - Last day on La Gonave

Today we went to another project on the island, this one was only a ten minute walk away from our hotel. I just don’t know how to describe it. It was fantastic. During the day it is used as a Primary School which had 600 beautiful well behaved children. We met the local Pastor who had been working there for 27years. He had started to build a bigger church to hold his congregation ten years ago and has been gathering funds bit by bit but still hasn’t finished! It was a huge church. There was even a class being held in a small room even though it had no roof!

They brought us to see a computer lab which was one of Compassion CIV’s. It was very well done. It is the only computer lab on the island of La Gonave and the surrounding compassion projects bring children here to learn computer skills. One of the young boys in the class at the time sang a song while playing a guitar, he was fantastic.

We went on a tour around some of the classrooms and I just cannot describe how well behaved the kids where. We introduced ourselves to them and then asked a few questions and gave them the chance to do the same.

The pictures above show some of the kids at some of the play equipment. This is the only playground we have seen.

We headed back to the hotel to gather our things and head to get a speed boat back to mainland Haiti.

This is the other boat but ours was the same... Our boat won the race!

This is one of the ways the locals travel between the mainland and the island!

We are staying in a hotel which is in the most amazing location. It is right on the beach, I don’t think I could describe it so here are some pictures…

Day 2 - La Gonave

What a day!

We flew to the island of La Gonave, on a 17 seater airplane! Now that was an experience, there is no airport on La Goniave so we landed on the beach!

The second we arrived the poverty just hits you! The children came running up to the plane dirty and curious to see who we were. We are all white and believe me that’s a novelty! In fact some of the kids throughout the day just looked at us and where saying the word for white in utter amusement! Words just cannot describe it; I think you really have to see it for yourself to really get it!

The kids looked at you with their big brown eyes and you could see that they were hoping you had something to give them! One of the group brought out some lollies and needless to say this caused some chaos as they fought over them. We are staying in the Sunshine Hotel which is the only hotel on the island. It really was the bare basics but you don’t need anymore than that… who are we to complain? We have everything we need and so much more… we are so spoiled!

We had our first project experience today. The journey to the project was an adventure in itself! We piled into two 4x4 trucks, one being an open back! The guys got to sit on a plank of wood nailed around the back.

The roads where incredible… if you can call them roads, they were more like a very rocky dusty track. Needless to say there was no way any normal car or bus would have made it! We even drove through a river bed, however because this is their dry season there was not a single drop of water! Everywhere was dry and very dusty! Vehicle had to go so slow, due to the condition of the road, that it took us about 10-15 minutes to pass a guy walking.

When we arrived at the centre the kids where so excited, screaming and jumping up and down! We were swamped from the moment we set food out of the trucks. They were beautiful, with huge smiles. They brought us into their church and we were greeting by all the children singing at the top of their lungs with great joy and pride! It was just breath taking! After a few speeches and presentations from different groups we headed outside again for our tour of the school. The classrooms were so humid and small. They had a few wooden desks and probably three children to each desk, the art classroom used a ping pong table as their desk.

They served us lunch in the art classroom, which consisted of rice, goat, chicken and salads. It’s not safe for us to eat salad so we tried our best to eat what we considered to be safe! Think ill have eaten enough rice to do me for a while by time I get home! J

I headed outside to some of the kids and within no time at all I was surrounded. We are truly a novelty. At one point I had four kids on each arm two hold my t-shirt at the back and 2 in front. It was really overwhelming. Everything interested them, from our sunglasses to our watches. Some hopefully point to our watched and then to their arms hoping that we would give them our watch. In fact the other Lynsey gave away a pair of her earrings.

After a while we took a walk up the street to visit some of the kids home.Eight people live in this little hut. The mother, father and their six children. Two of the children are sponsored through compassion, and when we asked if this causes any problems they replied that generally no as they share everything that they receive with the rest of the family, but these children receive medical help whereas the others don’t and that makes such a huge difference as they cannot afford it. There is only one hospital on the whole island which is at least 45 minutes by car and they just could not get there. Compassion are trying to help a child at a time and release them from poverty, and although to some people this may seem to be unfair, it does make a difference! With our help this can grow and more children can be touched, its only 60p a day to sponsor a child, just think what a difference you could make to one child’s life for such a small amount.

We had dinner at the hotel made by the owner’s wife. We later discovered that she had been a former sponsor child of compassion and told us how she was the youngest in her family and what a huge difference it made to her and her family. This trip has really made me believe in what compassion does!

Day 1 - Port Au Prince

I arrived in Haiti at about 11.30am this morning but I didn’t manage to catch up with the others till about lunch time. My first experience was one of Compassions Intervention Projects. (This means that it is not run by compassion but that they help out with the initial funds.) We headed to a school for Restevek children. Restevek children are children who have been given away by their own families in hope that they’ll have a better life. In reality, however, it is anything but. They live with another family and they clean the house, do the washing, and fetch water... Just think of all the jobs that kids at home complain about or that we would never get them to do and they do it! Generally these children are not given the opportunity to go to school as in Haiti you have to pay. It only works out as £1 a week but nearly every family struggle to afford it for their own kids, never mind paying it for these children.

This school happens later in the day to allow the children to do their ‘chores’ so that the people that they live with allow them to come. The school was incredible, the children were all beautiful, but there is a huge sadness when you think about what they have to cope with. The school teaches them vocational activities such as hair dressing, plumbing and cooking as well as basic subjects. The children ranged from the ages of 10-16 years old, a lot of the children tend to run away from their host families after that. We headed to the roof of the building as it gave you a view of the surrounding area. One thing that struck me was one little boy flying his kite on the roof of his house. This consisted of a paper plate and a piece of string, but he thought it was just wonderful!

That evening we had dinner with some children who had come up through Compassions child sponsorship programme and were now apart of “Leadership Development Program” (102) for kids who excel and at age 18 they are given a scholarship. Some of these children where studying economics, nursing and civil engineering with a hope of giving back to their country. We had one of these pupils at our table! His name was Max and he told us all how he was one of 14 children and that we had been sponsored by compassion since he was about 5years old. He really is one of the lucky ones! It is such a priviledge to be here and see the fantastic work that compassion is doing with children throughout their life! It is not just a one off aid… it’s full commitment to help them to understand that they can have dreams beyond when the next meal is coming from, and possibly even fulfil a few.

Oh we have body guards that accompany us everywhere we go. Three Haitian SAS.

Esther Palliant

I have been sponsoring Esther for just over a year through compassion. She is 7 years old and lives in Haiti with her father, no one knows whether or not her mother is still alive. I just found out that i am going to get to meet her when im in Haiti. Ill let you know how it goes... i have to say im really looking forward to it and giving her a few gifts.