Dear Friends of Haitian Roots,
We had a wonderful group of volunteers accompany us to Haiti a couple of weeks ago. Haiti is full of heart-bursting joy and heart-rending sadness. We saw and experienced a lot of both.
Our volunteers were fantastic. Everybody contributed and had great attitudes! We were able to spend time at the orphanage playing with the kids, doing an art project (which will hopefully raise some funds through some cards that one of our supporters is willing to make), and painting tires to get the kids started on their first agriculture project–their own tire gardens. Martha is a wealth of knowledge and we left her in Haiti as our first long-term, in-country volunteer. We know that she will help do wonderful things at the orphanage (and eventually on the land) as she teaches and helps empower our Haitian families through agriculture.
We were able to spend some time out on the land helping to dig holes (with machetes!), plant posts and cement them in. The posts are now all up! We still need the funds raised to put up the actual chainlink and the gate. But we are off to a good start out there! Isson spent the most time out on the land. We hired about 6 workers to help with the project, as well as received some volunteer help from villagers who are excited about what Haitian Roots hopes to accomplish in their area.
We held the distribution/parties for the kids in 3 groups on Friday and Saturday. One of our volunteers is a professional photographer, Kami Clark. If you are sponsoring a child, you have some amazing photos to look forward to. Clear a space on your fridge! Things went fairly smoothly with the various distributions/parties. The volunteers and children all enjoyed themselves! Isson stayed in Haiti an extra week to make sure that the fence posts were completed, as well as to take care of many other responsibilities. He also held a distribution last Saturday for those parents who were unable to make it the previous week or who had not had the necessary paperwork to receive the scholarship during our first go-round.
Due to Hurricane Isaac, some of the families were still unable to meet with Isson but we hope that we will have new photos and letters for each of you in the next while.
We also visited some beautiful areas of Haiti. It was refreshing and nice to see the physical beauty that still lies hidden in Haiti and inspires us to hope for Haiti to once again become the “Pearl of the Antilles”.
Stay tuned for some highlights of the trip from us and the volunteers in the next week!
Sincerely,
The Haitian Roots Team