Haiti - Day 5: La Judee Orphanage in Gonaives Another beautiful morning in Haiti saw me up before most of the others... around 5:30 am, so I had plenty of time to wander around the compound by myself. The beach was deserted, as was the compound, so I sat on a bench and watched the ocean through our security fence. Back in Canada I live a rather hectic life, with little time to reflect on things... in fact, I actively avoided reflection since it only leads to trouble. But in Haiti, with the beautiful landscapes combined with the abject poverty, it is hard not to think about the experiences of previous days. And cry. Every morning I would cry for longer than the previous morning.


Around 6:30am, the group of three older gentlemen walked by, followed by some loose goats and a couple of teenagers in shorts. One stops to stare at me for perhaps 10 minutes, but he never says a word and eventually moves on. I wasn't sure what he wanted, but his watching me felt like an accusation of some kind and left me feeling even more uncomfortable than I had already felt. The walls of the compound were there to protect me from the impoverished Haitians, but more and more the walls felt like they were keeping me in.


At 7:00 am people started stirring for the day. This was the last day for construction work, so the construction team was eager to get started. About 7:30 am, I wandered up to the eating area to hear if we were still going to the orphanage in Gonaives. Some members of the construction team were joining us (a nurse and an EMT), while several of our team elected to stay behind and help the construction team. Considering the risk of cholera, and the fact that this orphanage had several infected children (and one death), it was probably a wise choice. For myself, I was not going to miss this opportunity for anything, but I must admit that I was also dreading the experience.

When we did finally hit the road, we loaded into a van instead of the open truck. We drove back to the M.P.C.A. school and loaded up with supplies donated by Pastor Herve and Mission Possible. Our team from Canada also brought supplies with us, but Pastor Herve's generousity was unbelievable! After loading the van with all the water and foodstuffs it could hold, we headed north along National Road 1.

North of St. Marc, the land appears wetter and flatter than it did where we spent most of our time in Haiti. Below is a photo of a flooded rice field, with the ubiquitous smoke cloud in the distance. The photograph is not the best, as we were moving quickly over very rough roads and I needed to zoom to the limit of the camera.


We continued past additional rice fields, small villages, plantain fields, construction (lots of construction) and finally crossed the Artibonite river. This river was the main vector for the introduction of cholera into Haiti, and even though it was definitely contaminated there were people bathing and washing their clothing in its waters. The following video shows a roadside market that was on both sides of the Artibonite river. Traffic was slow, due to congestion at the bridge, so I was able to take relatively stable video.


Eventually, we reached Gonaives, and I was surprised to see that it looked exactly like every other Haitian community I had seen. In my ignorance, I was expecting to see a city devestated by cholera, perhaps even bodies on the road side... or some kind of outward evidence that the people were concerned about the cholera epidemic. But no, just as anywhere else, life goes on and people make the best of their situation.


Pastor Ismorin Noel met and led us to the La Judee orphanage. We parked in the alley right outside the main gate at about 10:30 am, and were given a quick tour of the facilities.


The lower level of the orphanage contained washing, sleeping, and eating areas. After experiencing a Haitian home in a small village, I was expecting rather dire conditions in the orphanage, but was pleasantly surprised! It appeared that every child had a bed!


The upper level was a church/sanctuary/school for the use of the children and the community around the orphanage. There we were formally introduced to the children by Pastor Ismorin, and they sang several songs for us.


The following short video clip is of the children singing to welcome us to their orphange. Despite the fact that they are orphans and at risk of cholera (four children were hospitalized, and one dead when we visited), these children seemed very healthy and happy! It was obvious that Pastor Ismorin loves the children and takes wonderful care of them!

After the singing was over, we gave the children some presents (soccer balls donated from Canada) and enjoyed them playing for nearly an hour! We also unloaded a bunch of supplies, including foodstuffs and water. Because the children were in good health, the health professionals we had with us were not really needed (which was a Blessing), but they were able to identify some potential problems with the well that might help prevent illness in the future.

Pastor Ismorin surrounded by the children, with our donated supplies. Photo by Stephen Hermer

We left the orphanage and headed south to St. Marc on National Road 1, passing everything we had seen on our way north. In St. Marc, Pastor Herve needed to stop downtown to pick up some supplies. While we waited, members of the construction team handed out Christian literature in the form of small pamphlets. After a wait of about half an hour, we continued south to Lanzac and the Mission Possible compound.

Those of us who had gone to the orphanage were able to partially because other members of all three teams stayed behind to work on the construction site. We ate a quick lunch before heading to M.P.C.A to relieve the workers and finish up for them. They had made great progress, so by the time we arrived there was only cleanup left. I washed walls in the clinic, then helped load and organize the tools and remaining supplies onto the truck. We took the truck over to the supply hut and offloaded them before heading back to the Mission Possible compound for the evening.

We spent some time on the beach, and I had found several nice shells (which I ended up taking home to Canada).

After we ate supper, all the teams got together for a prayer and some social time (plus to celebrate a birthday). This was the last night in Haiti for everyone, except those of us from Canada, so they wanted to celebrate a bit. Later in the evening, several artisans/salesmen were brought to the compound so that we could buy some souvenirs. I ended up buying two oil paintings, three painted tin gechos, a couple of touristy boxes, and a wooden tray... all for the cost of around $50 U.S. dollars.

After making my purchase, I retired to the eating area to socialize until around midnight.