The Family on the Hill

On our first home visit, you may remember we went to see a woman named Mary.  Unlike Mary's family, the next home we visited was to an intact family - father, mother, and four children all living together.  

What was not intact was their home.

 I say it was not intact, not because the walls are only partly built (most buildings in Haiti seem to be in some state of construction) but because their roof blew away in Hurricane Issac in August of 2012.  Papa told us, "After the storm, I could not find our roof".  I shudder to imagine what it was like for that family during the hurricane -- to have the roof blown off from over their heads.  Then after it was over, going out to hunt for pieces of metal?  They had a small pile of short pieces of metal roofing which you can see in the corner above.  They were probably pieces that no one else wanted.  You can also see they had built a smaller, temporary roof inside the one room of their home that actually had 4 walls.  By the way, this was described as a "2 room house".  All six family members lived here, along with 2 chicks that were running around inside!

When we arrived, the papa brought the few chairs and stools they had out into the sunshine (into room #2) and brushed the dust off them so some of us could sit down.

Here is Jeannot, in the light-colored tee-shirt in the background, translating for us.

This home visit was not quite as heart breaking as our visit to Mary, because at least the family was together.  Two of the children are in the Compassion Child Sponsor Program.  Typically, Compassion registers only one child per family unless the need is great.  We asked if the children get letters from their sponsors.  The answer was "yes, but they got ruined in the hurricane".  

Papa obviously loved his children and wanted to provide for the family.  When asked what we should pray for them, he said, "Pray that he could get work, and to be able to get a new roof."

When I pray for this family, I pray for "the family on the hill" because they truly were.  Their house is perched high above most of the other houses in the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful view from up there.

But a long way to go to the river for water - you can see it in the distance in the next photo.

And it's probably not a great place to be in a hurricane.  Although some of the homes in the village below them also did not have roofs.

Several things surprised me about Haiti.  One was the number of trees.  In many places, hill sides were rather bare of trees, but in this community there were quite a few nice green trees.

Another thing that surprised me about Haiti was, for the most part, the cleanliness.  Along the roads there would be trash, but in most places it was obvious that the people tried to keep their homes clean.  The people kept their clothes and themselves clean, too, mostly without indoor plumbing or an easy way to wash their clothes.  There were no bad odors at either of our home visits.  At least not that I noticed and I think I probably would have!

When we were done our visit, it was time to climb back down the hill to our bus.  You can get an idea of how steep it was from the next photo.  If you look closely, you can see their house at the top of the hill, behind the man in the red shirt.

I pray often for this family on the hill in Haiti.  I pray that the father has found work and been able to get a new roof and that the sponsors of the children have written letters to encourage them.  

Look again at the second photo above.  In case you did not notice it before.... scroll back up and look for the tall shadow on the ground of the young boy who is standing on the right side.  I pray that when that boy becomes a man, as tall as his shadow in the photo, he will have a brighter future, as Compassion's mission statement says as "a responsible and fulfilled Christian adult".  His sponsors will have a part in that, thru their giving and their letters.  Here's a link if you'd like to learn more about how you, too, can sponsor a child.