Sunday

After deciding to have a “day of rest”, we decided to call our blog post for today “Skipping Church with Pastor Kendra”.  She was sure to tell us we could not use that as the title.  Even though she gave us the option to stay home or travel out with her, we all ended up going with her on all the adventures for the day.

We started out by going to pick up her friend Carter who is a humanitarian for Haiti.  He has been working with Project Hope, but has recently resigned.  Carter’s parents named him after the US President Jimmy Carter because he was born after Carter was out of office and his parents felt he was a good leader for the United States.  While Carter currently splits his time between Haiti and the Dominican, it was fun for us to spend time with him and get another perspective on Haiti and the current election.  He has been so gracious to now spend the rest of his time here with us to help our project.

First, Kendra wanted to have Carter help us find two families from within the Delmas 6 camp.  We, of course, were elated to travel back to Delmas and this very “friendly” camp.  He looked for both families and while he found one, Carter was able to better understand the current situation there.  While talking to a woman who we invited to just come see the land, she informed him that she needed to “ask the committee first”.  This further proves the corruption and fear the people have from doing what is actually best for them as opposed to going against leadership that doesn’t actually even live in the camp.

Even though no one from the two families were able to join us to see the land, we wanted Carter to see the progress we have made.  He was impressed with what we had accomplished and was able to give insight into how we can acquire more funding and more connections with his network.  Carter seemed very excited and hopeful for the project and how it could help Haitians to become successful.

Carter lives on top of the mountain behind the UN Base Camp.  We drove up and up the hills to find beautiful homes that looked like they should be placed in Florida on the ocean…or even in Beverly Hills.  We dropped him off and drove a little ways down the street to see Kendra’s friends from FOHO.  Russ, Sherry, and Jack.

During our time with Russ, Sherry and Jack, Kendra updated them on the happenings of the Delmas 6 Camp as well as our current project in Croix-des-Bouquets. After, we listened to Russ, Sherry and Jack give us a few details on the day of the earthquake and the few days that followed.  It was amazing to hear how it affected their lives, but with God’s assurance have come back to Haiti to live out His mission.

By this time it was 6:30pm and Kendra’s friend Amaudo from Mali in Western Africa called to invite us over.  He works as a UN police officer for the minustah and had some very interesting things to say.  First, in his country, he is allowed to have four wives even though he only has one right now. He seemed to be very interested in discussing this with Emily and Alonda, if you know what I mean. But all in all we had a great time and he served us chicken, fries, and a sauce that was delicious! We were all very grateful for his hospitality. After a long day we found ourselves looking for our beds and yet wondering what tomorrow would bring us.