St. Joseph's Song

We have been back stateside for over a week now, but I still feel disconnected and not settled back into the American lifestyle. It was much easier to adjust to Haitian time and way of life;(if you have been to Haiti you understand what I mean), it has it's own rhythm. Since electricity is not as reliable as in other parts of the developed world, Haiti runs on the sun. I remember getting up early when the roosters started crowing, and the people across the valley started singing and working the fields. I also went to bed earlier as we didn't know how long electricity was going to be on. So a watch was not necessary and I packed mine after the first day. Today I discovered what was missing and why I feel out of sorts. When we got to St. Joseph's I had an opportunity to be alone upstairs in the meditation area. I listened to the people all around, radios, children and intermixed with all of this was the chime you see in the image. It was like no other chime I have heard. John, a musician who was at St. Joseph's at the same time we were, and I agreed later it had a song of its own. Most chimes have a random sound and can be sometimes quite annoying, but this one had a lilting melody of its own which complimented the surrounding sounds of life in Port au Prince. Since I have been back to the States, I noticed Americans tend to live very isolated lives. We are in our cars, our houses, our jobs, etc and everything is quiet. Even when we go outside things tend to be quiet, even in the city. We are in the middle of our town, and yet we can go outside in the backyard and hear very little, save the occasional siren or the birds chirping . I miss the sounds of life happening and the energy it produces. I miss the sense of connection with the people and the city around me. I miss the St. Joseph's Song that made me feel at home and alive. Fortunately, when I return to the choir loft of First Presbyterian Church in Reidsville, I will get to fell a glimmer of that same connection. As I will look out and smile at the people we have gotten so close to, and have them smile back; it will generate the same warmth I felt while in Haiti.

http://www.heirloomcrafters.com/gallery/stjosephssong.html

An Angel Goes Home

Since our return I have been spending my evenings going through images and assigning titles. I had left this one until later, but received an email that put a name to the print. I had taken this at St. Joseph's, but the name comes from Wings of Hope. I received an email this afternoon from Renee concerning a young man we did not get to meet. Job was very ill and KC and the nurse had been spending countless hours working toward getting him well. While we were at Wings the food riots were reaching their peak. Tap-Taps were not running, gas stations were closed, and the area surrounding Port au Prince had pretty much shut down. KC lives at Wings and would come to dinner late every evening after doing what was needed for Job. She would let Peter, Renee and I know how he was and if she had been able to get him to eat. The nurse that works at Wings is a Haitian nurse and lived in Port au Prince. The day we were supposed to leave Wings was when even the driver did not feel safe enough to leave his home. We saw the nurse and heard of her dedication. She had gotten a ride on the back of a motorcycle as high up the mountain as she could. I believe I heard she paid $40 for the ride, then after she had ridden as far as she could, she walked the rest of the way. This walk is not your walk to the corner and back. This is a hike that was not only physically grueling, but mentally as well. She worked that day and the staff at Wings encouraged her to stay the night, to which she replied, "I have a mother at home I need to get back to..." There are so many amazing things in this story. One is how Haitian's view disabled children; part of their culture has ties to voodoo. In voodoo, we were told, disabled children are viewed as being possessed by the devil. A fact I personally encountered while being given a tour of Wings by David.(more on this later) So for a Haitian nurse to show such compassion for a disabled child not only speaks volumes about her, but also for the staff in the St. Joseph's family. I am sad to say we learned this evening that Job has lost his fight to recover, but he will not be forgotten. Our thoughts are with KC, the nurse, Renee and all the members of the St. Joseph's family as one of their angels goes home.

http://www.heirloomcrafters.com/gallery/anangelgoeshome.htmol

Haitian Hope

This last week I have been culling through the 1,000 plus images I took and trying to sort out everything we saw and experienced while in Haiti. As any photographer will tell you, there are some images that when you see them you say, "this is the one", this is that one for me. When I first saw it my immediate thought was, Haitian hope. Lulu is his name, and in our time in Haiti he spent a great deal of time with us, studying us, playing with us and teaching us. Don't get me wrong, he is still quite the character and those big brown eyes conceal a boy who is quite the instigator. But, you couldn't help to fall in love with him and the other children at Wings. Despite all the unrest, we were cocooned in this home for disabled children in the mountains. We were given the opportunity to learn about them and for our beginnings, work to find others to share in their hope. Haitians do not want a hand out, but a hand up. They want to be able to find their own way. In the meantime, it is children such as these who are outcasts in Haitian society that can benefit from our hand up. 300US per year sponsors one of these children, and I would dare to say 90% or more of the money goes to the care of these children. The staff we got to meet donate their time and fund raise their money from others so the money for Wings of Hope goes to the children. If you would like more information on Wings of Hope, email me at cmatthews@heirloomcrafters.com and I can get you in touch with Renee to see how you can help.

http://www.heirloomcrafters.com/gallery/haitianhope.html

Amazing things still happen

We are winding down the preparations for our trip to Haiti next week. The tickets and reservations are all made and now we just have to wait. During this waiting we have been asked to speak with a young man in Haiti, named Polo, about potential for him to be educated in the US. In our emails getting to know him, Peter asked him what we could bring to him or his family. He had the courage to ask for a laptop. We were both discouraged as I did not know of any of my clients who may have one they were retiring from service. Then the next day while I was going to Mt. Airy I got a call from one of my clients with an issue. Before I took the call I remembered they had replaced a laptop a few months ago and still had not sold it. After speaking with them we were able to come to an agreement and amazingly he now has a laptop for school, whether it be here in the US or anywhere. A big thank you to my friends at Fine Furniture Design and Marketing. Who says miracles don't happen! Here is a picture of Polo and his older brother provided to us by one of those involved in making a difference in this young man's life.

UPDATE:

Our journey to deliver this and the other generous gifts to Haiti was arduous. We packed everything and had one carry on each and then a total of 3 suitcases with basic need items for St. Joseph's Family. Our trip to the airport was uneventful, but the flight was not. Our bags were checked and we were in line to board the plane when SkyBus went bankrupt. I watched the cockpit go black while people were running around yelling at flight attendants and other airline workers about the delay. Since there was going to be no flight, we got our bags back and started to think of how we were going to make our reservations and connecting flights in Ft. Lauderdale. Fortunately, we had a couple of days to make the connecting flight. We went home and looked at alternate flights, trains, etc. All were way to expensive. Our final decision was to either drive or not go. We decided to plug on and drive to Florida bright and early the following morning.

Our journey in the morning itself was not without incident. We started south on I85 to make our way to FL. As we approached Charlotte, NC we saw 2 accidents. There is a sharp corner on 85/77 as you approach uptown. I told Peter to slow down as the roads were wet. As we rounded the corner we saw two cards partially out of the road which we narrowly missed. Then as went further down the highway, we just missed another accident. The car had it's front end caved in and no sign of the other driver. We made sure the person was ok and proceeded on.

We were glad to make it through all the accidents unscathed and continue on our journey. The weather was bad and we were running into patches of heavy thunderstorms and rain. We heard of hail and tornadoes as we were driving through SC. Peter said if we heard of anymore tornadoes we were turning around, but I persuaded him to continue. We got through the bad weather and into GA. Once in the sunshine again we talked to his mother. She told us it was amazing we made it through SC and didn't see any of the tornadoes reported in the area we were driving in.

We continued on and made it to they Keys and enjoyed ourselves and prepared for our flight with Spirit Air into Port au Prince. It was an adventure indeed, but one we stuck through and were glad we did.