School & Village For The Deaf

'Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
 but whoever is kind to the needy honors God'.

Proverbs 14:31

School and Village for the Deaf
Upon returning to Haiti, Gail and I stopped off for a couple days to stay at the New Life Children’s Home in Port au Prince. It’s a guesthouse alongside an orphanage that takes care of primarily handicapped children. The love and care the children receive there is amazing.

Visiting the school for the deaf
 

While there, we were told of a village for the deaf that is on our way back to the Northwest. We got a contact name and directions and

headed out to see what we would find. We arrived to the area and noticed rows of small but nice block houses. The area was green and for the most part extremely clean! We had a few ‘hit and miss’ attempts at getting to the school, so we parked the car and walked up the hill to where we thought the school was at.  We found our contact person who could speak English very well. He gave us a tour of the school, church, houses, etc. Let me tell you, this place is something else! I will try to explain, as best my memory will permit, about this village.

Walking the streets in the village for the deaf
 

After the earthquake in 2010, there were a large number of deaf children living on the streets. They (not sure of who ‘they’ are) got them together and moved them across the street from a town called City Soleil. It is part of Port au Prince. These children received a lot of aid and help due to their unique situation and the people across the street got very jealous. So much so, that it became dangerous for the children to remain.

In steps a ministry called Mission of Hope. They are a very large ministry and do fantastic work. From what I understand, they were notified of the situation with these children and devised a plan to move them to a large house/orphanage about 45 minutes outside of Port au Prince. Then, they came up with the village concept.

Not far from the orphanage, they built houses, a church and school. The houses are in rows with a lot of vegetation between them. One row of houses have families with deaf children, the next row has hearing families, and so on. This goes on throughout the village. The school consists of two wings, one for the deaf children and one for the hearing children. They eat and play together. The hearing children also learn sign language so that they all can communicate. It’s really something!

Rows of houses. One for deaf, one for hearing, etc.

There are about 500 houses in this program which again is run by Mission of Hope. Hearing neighbors help their deaf neighbors and it seems to be working well. One problem that they have is that they have no electricity and no lights. There were solar panels put in but for some reason they no longer work.  They stated this is a big problem, and something I would have never realized. Not being able to see at night is a huge obstacle. For example; not being able to hear your baby crying and it’s too dark to see them. We pray that somewhere, people will step up and find a solution.

Water and Garden

Water from our faucet

Gail and I got back to the Northwest last Thursday to all the unexpected events that come along with living here. Pastor Etienne arrived with two 20 ft trucks loaded with Feed My Starving Children food a few hours before us. He had pumped water for a couple hours which was a blessing. We had water, but it was not potable. Wow, I never knew there could be so much algae, slime and other indescribable things that could exist in water. The cisterns were dry and the pipes got filled with, well, ‘stuff’. I spent the day trying to get relatively clean water. It was a lengthy process. Three days later, we are still trying to get the water right. It is getting better but not potable yet.

Being gone for 6 weeks posed a bigger problem – the garden. We were counting on others to pump water as needed while we were gone (we not only supply water for what is an expanding garden, we also provide water for a nearby village. They count on it). Anyway, a request was made that the large, 40,000 gallon cistern be filled before they left. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. If that wasn’t bad enough, the valve that controls all the water to the garden had been turned off. It was saddening to see.  About ½ to 2/3 of the garden died. What makes it so frustrating is that after 6 months of working that garden we finally had locals take ownership of it. There were 5 men working in it before it dried up. We ask ourselves why did this happen? We can only speculate, but it takes time, energy, and money to run the pump and maintain a good water level. As far as who turned off the water to the garden? Was it to conserve water? Only God knows. It just adds to the frustration in a place that’s already overflowing with frustration.

The first picture of the garden was taken the day before we left. The picture below was taken of the same area the day we got back.

I met with one of the leaders of the village of Ti Anse, where we supply water, and apologized for the lack of water for them. They were very gracious and waited yet another day so we could get the water level up in the cistern to provide enough water for their village and the campus. Today I met about 30 people walking to the cistern carrying pails and buckets. They were soooo excited to have water again! We give thanks to God for his power and mercy.

The Haitians that have been working in the garden say that they will continue on! Praise God! They haven’t lost the vision that they saw when the garden was lush. As one stated, “you can kill the garden, but you can’t kill our spirit”! They have already begun to replant where needed. If this garden was a hobby, no big deal. But the people of the village started to see the possibilities of growing their own food. With the desert environment and the ever rising cost of food, what a relief that garden will be. We intend to keep the water flowing as long as God provides.

Gail and I ask that you keep us in your prayers as we move forward in the work God has laid out for us.

In His Service,
Chuck & Gail Guerber
Ti Lagon, Haiti