What an absolutely incredible day!!! So many great stories, so many great people that we met, and 20 filters were installed. We woke up at 6:30, had a quick breakfast and got our butts in the truck. I literally cannot explain the road situation here, we went up to the mountains and village of Mapou. This trip was an hour and a half in the truck on winding "roads", full of volcanic lava formations, dusty, up hill both ways. We were in the back of the truck sitting on 2x8 - there were 10 of us in there. Needless to say we held on tightly to each other and enjoyed the time laughing and looking at the scenery around us. Every time we went by children or a different village the haitians called out "blanc" (white). There was one time in particular that we were about a mile away from the village, where Dada (pronounced Day day) suggested that we get out of the truck and walk because the road was really down hill and really rocky. The end of this story will answer the question "how many haitians does it take to get a Land Crusier up a hill?
When we got to the village many people were really excited to see us - they knew what we were bringing. We quickly split into two groups (tomorrow we are splitting into 3). Kelsey was with Mark, John Theresa and Sam. I was with the girl Sam, Jim, Tamara and her daughter Miriam. We headed down the hill and walked to a place where cars could not go, motorcycles could not go and we just had to walk. The helpers carried many of the aggregate, we carried filters to the homes and off we went to our first installation. We did 4 before lunch, we could've done more but the houses were so spread out and we had to walk far to get to the places. The second house that we went to Dada pointed out some Voodoo in the corner of the house. There were some bottles Dada said that they used it for lotions to keep the evil spirits away. I was amazed at it all. The process of the filter installation went smoothly, and at the end the practice was to pray for the family when we were finished. The lady of that particular house allowed us to pray and said that the items in the corner were her husbands. Im not sure we believed that.
We went to the next few houses and didn't see any children....I was needing my under 10 year old Haitian fix!! We trekked up back the steep hill through rocky terrain and had a quick lunch. I spoke to Steve and Pastor Benny and Benny told me about the fact that we had a voodoo leader amongst us and pointed out who he was. Fascinating!!
And then after lunch, we met the most amazing kid! Holding my hand, jumping up and down, just smiling with everything I said. He was hilarious!!!! I took many selfies with him that I will post and Sam gave him a tennis ball and we began playing with him and some of his friends (or brothers or cousins). I loved it, to bring a little bit of joy to these families with laughter and a little game is way better for me than anything else. Yes the families appreciated the filters, and understood everything we were telling them but the fun with the kids is what melts my heart. Every home we went into, no one had had diarrhea or cholera but all of them did experience someone in the house with a headache and a fever. The headaches are typically from dehydration and the water makes them sick, so our filters installation is that much more important. Where we were they collect rain water in a cistern but it is still not necessarily clean water.
We were done with our installation and headed back to the church to meet up with the other group (where Kelsey was). I was really excited to see her and here about her experience when she came up to the church door with Theresa. I looked at Kelsey who had the biggest smile on her face "This is Ricky" and the cutest boy was hanging on to her hand. Ricky pointed at kelsey and said "Kelsey" and smiled. Obviously a connection had been made. She loved it! We piled back in the truck (same seats) and began the 2 hour trek back to the guest house. A total of 20 filters were installed and we will go back there tomorrow to finish the village (about 30 more need to be installed).
We were in the Chevy truck and Jim, Mark and Sam (guy Sam) were in the Land Cruiser. We were coming down the BIG hill heading up the other BIG hill and the Land Cruiser was in front of us. We had Big John (who was our driver) stop and let us out so we could walk up the hill (it was too dangerous to let us stay in). The Land Cruiser gunned it to go up the hill....nothing..apparently the driver was shifting but the 4wheel did not engage. We video taped, we walked up the hill, we watched the land cruiser make at least 15 attempts and still that truck was never going to make it. And then the Haitians came literally from the hills to help. There were at least 15 Haitians that came to help. We sat on top of the mountain making bets to see how long it would take for the truck to get unstuck. Finally, 15 Haitians pushing, 10 Americans Cheering, one pastor driving one Land Cruiser up the hill. the video is classic!!
The drive back was FULL of laughter of us ducking from these trees that we were told if we touched them it was a sticky substance and we would go blind if we touched it. Without explaining too much, this explanation and John's comments made us laugh for many minutes.
Love to all and thanks for reading....
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