From a corn field to the mountain side, the Lutheran Church of Hope team has spent the day working and walking with the Haitian people. After observing life in Pignon, Salvador shares his thoughts on how time has stood still for Haiti.
To read yesterday’s blog, click here.
Today started bright and early harvesting corn. Iowans in Haiti harvesting corn how funny is that. The only problem is everything is done by hand here. But many hands do make for lighter work and the field is not that big. Later in the morning we visit 2 houses that were built by Many Hands, plant some plantain trees and pray a blessing over each house. We also took a brief tour of the hospital and climbed to the Pignon sign that overlooks the town.
The new houses are simply 3 or 4 rooms of concrete with a tin roof and open air windows. There is no electricity, plumbing, bathroom or air conditioning. The kitchen is a little stick shack out back. The houses are nice for a country were most people live in poverty. Still it is hard for me to get my mind around this being “nice” and that an entire family will be living there. As a child I stayed in worse places as my parents would drag us kids far off the beaten path in Mexico. But that was over 30 years ago. Yet here we are not far from what is considered the richest country in the world. I find it mind boggling that somehow time has stood still here. Yet the people have a sense of community, faith and hope.
– Salvador
The family’s old house is left of their new house