Sunday, April 23, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Earth Day Edition
Happy Earth Day EVERYONE !
We hope you are all out enjoying Springtime, working in your gardens, planting trees ?! (and reading e-mail from Haiti : -)
Tree-planting season is nearly here in Haiti. We’re so excited about planting and even more EXCITED about becoming parents. We wanted to share a little bit of planting and parenting with you. We believe both will be good for the future of this little island.
Adoptions aren’t free, so we thought about selling something Haitian like vanilla or handicrafts-- but you’re already probably trying to Spring-clean your house . . .
. . . so here’s our idea. For every dollar you donate to our adoption of a Haitian baby, we will plant or give out a tree seedling to our friends and neighbours for them to plant. Currently we need to raise around $1750 CAN ($1500 US) (There is no minimum or maximum to trees seedling we are ready to plant!)
The trees we plant and give out for planting in gardens, mountainsides, fresh water springs, and riverbeds on the island off Haiti will be part of the heritage of our little one and the other little ones of Haiti who are growing up and learning the great gift of trees.
If you have some money left over and do want to try something Haitian, check out your grocery store and you may have the chance to taste a bit of Haiti in a mango. Baskets and donkeys and trucks loaded with perfect mangoes travel through and from Dezam daily. That’s right, it’s mango season and Haitian mangoes are coming soon to a store near you. Not much is sweeter than a Haitian mango (see photo below for evidence)!
If you’re not ready to help out with money, thoughts, prayers and e-mails are just as welcome! Adopting feels like a daunting challenge, but with all of your love and support we already feel hopeful about where this adventure is going.
Here are the contacts for donations by cash or cheque:
Ted and Marge Van Geest
59 Simpson Rd.
St. Catharines, ON L2N 3Z5
OR
Thea and Art DeGroot
6090 Brigden Rd.
Sarnia, ON N7T 7H2
Mèsi !
Esther and Matt
(Here’s our e-mail: greatspirit@fastmail.fm)
DISCLAIMER: So you’ve probably noticed, we’re all about trees. Please note that the trees we plant and give out to raise money for our adoption are NOT in any way part of our reforestation work with MCC.
**Also, MCC is helping us out by paying the equivalent amount to childbirth costs in Haiti (~$2500 US). The total cost of adoption within Haiti is around $4000 US. If total donations exceed $1500 US, we will turn over the extra $ to MCC.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Motorcycle Diaries
Well, it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the famous motorcycle journey of Ché Guevara, but our recent motorbike trip was quite the adventure anyway. This past Sunday, myself and three other MCCers (James, Brian and Edwin) headed out on our motorbikes from Port-au-Prince. Destination: Jeremie and the Southern peninsula. James and Edwin are both leaving Haiti soon and neither had seen that part of the country yet, so we decided to check it out.
I ride my motorbike a lot for work in Dezam, but I’ve never been on it for more than an hour in a row, so even after the first few hours after leaving Port, my butt was pretty sore. This would become a theme of the trip.
I won’t get into all the details, just share a few highlights;
The road from Aux Cayes on the southern coast all around the western tip of the southern coast was quite good. We were expecting this road to be terrible and the road from Jeremie to Aux Cayes over the mountains to be much better. The coastal road was beautiful, winding it’s way in and out of the mountains and spending a lot of time along the beach. There are a few pictures here on the blog site of this road. The road of the mountains, which is a national highway, was, in fact, complete junk. It was rough, windy, rocky and not a lot of fun to drive on. We made it though!
We got a great (and free) lunch at a little guesthouse on the way to Aux Cayes, which even included chocolate cake for desert. Chocolate cake became another one of our themes, and it even made a welcome appearance a few days later! After lunch, we hit the beach and did some body boarding in the waves. Very fun.
There are some beautiful, clean, well kept towns on the south western coast, including Aristide’s hometown of Port Salud. We stopped once and tried to buy some beachfront property, but all the guy wanted to talk about was the need for a latrine project in his community. Since this wasn’t a work trip, we didn’t pursue that one and quickly gave up on the idea of buying his land. Maybe someday though!
When we got to Jeremie, we had no idea where we were going to stay so just started driving. Ed had heard of a place outside of town so we took a road we thought might go in that direction. We stopped at the local airport and started asking around about hotels and they pointed us to a place further up the road which was owned by a Haitian-Canadian couple. It was a little paradise at most end of the road place you can get. It was a beautiful place, quiet, good food and nice hammocks. We played cards, drank a few Prestige’s but didn’t brave the ocean because it was too cold. The rain came that night, which cooled things off, but made us a bit afraid of the roads the next day.
They didn’t turn out to be too bad despite the rain, but it was a bit muddy at times. Nothing these intrepid motorbikers couldn’t handle though. We hit Jeremie, filled our tanks and headed for the mountain road that would complete our loop back to Aux Cayes. On our final day, we were going from Aux Cayes to Port in order to make it to a farewell lunch for James back at the MCC office. The day was going smoothly until an unfortunate accident where an old man crossed the road in front of Ed. Ed started to veer around him to the right thinking the man would keep going. The man froze, hesitated, then turned back, in the same direction Ed had just veered. He hit him head on. Both hit the pavement hard. James, Brian and I were a bit further back and didn’t see it happen and when we got there a large crowd had already formed. Ed waved us down and we stopped. The old guy was pretty hurt and we started figuring out what to do. We wanted to pay some money and get out of there. Accidents can be bad for the driver in that crowds can get angry and violent at times. We about had it settled and were going to take off when we realized that someone had taken Ed’s bike key. More talking and finally it was agreed that we would go to the hospital with the man to ensure he was ok and to pay all the necessary expenses. This was another adventure. Hospitals are notorious for exploitation and the fact that we were white didn’t help. We ended up spending about 3 hours there, including having to go ourselves to the pharmacy and to pick up the X-ray tech to get x-rays done. We paid for all the expenses and a handsome sum to the family on top of that. Ed decided to take off about half way through just in case there were more problems. The family started to ask where he was but we just said that he went to check something out and he would come back. We finally got it settled and hit the road again meeting up with Ed just outside of Port.
We finally made it back to the office around 5 where they still had a little food left over from the farewell party that we, including the guest of honour, missed. All told, we did almost 800 km’s from Port to Aux Cayes, Jeremie and back. Total riding time over the 5 days was probably 35 hours. I had a great time and was really happy I went. The pictures here show some more of the story. I don’t know if I need to do a trip like that in a while, but it sure is a great way to see a country!
I ride my motorbike a lot for work in Dezam, but I’ve never been on it for more than an hour in a row, so even after the first few hours after leaving Port, my butt was pretty sore. This would become a theme of the trip.
I won’t get into all the details, just share a few highlights;
The road from Aux Cayes on the southern coast all around the western tip of the southern coast was quite good. We were expecting this road to be terrible and the road from Jeremie to Aux Cayes over the mountains to be much better. The coastal road was beautiful, winding it’s way in and out of the mountains and spending a lot of time along the beach. There are a few pictures here on the blog site of this road. The road of the mountains, which is a national highway, was, in fact, complete junk. It was rough, windy, rocky and not a lot of fun to drive on. We made it though!
We got a great (and free) lunch at a little guesthouse on the way to Aux Cayes, which even included chocolate cake for desert. Chocolate cake became another one of our themes, and it even made a welcome appearance a few days later! After lunch, we hit the beach and did some body boarding in the waves. Very fun.
There are some beautiful, clean, well kept towns on the south western coast, including Aristide’s hometown of Port Salud. We stopped once and tried to buy some beachfront property, but all the guy wanted to talk about was the need for a latrine project in his community. Since this wasn’t a work trip, we didn’t pursue that one and quickly gave up on the idea of buying his land. Maybe someday though!
When we got to Jeremie, we had no idea where we were going to stay so just started driving. Ed had heard of a place outside of town so we took a road we thought might go in that direction. We stopped at the local airport and started asking around about hotels and they pointed us to a place further up the road which was owned by a Haitian-Canadian couple. It was a little paradise at most end of the road place you can get. It was a beautiful place, quiet, good food and nice hammocks. We played cards, drank a few Prestige’s but didn’t brave the ocean because it was too cold. The rain came that night, which cooled things off, but made us a bit afraid of the roads the next day.
They didn’t turn out to be too bad despite the rain, but it was a bit muddy at times. Nothing these intrepid motorbikers couldn’t handle though. We hit Jeremie, filled our tanks and headed for the mountain road that would complete our loop back to Aux Cayes. On our final day, we were going from Aux Cayes to Port in order to make it to a farewell lunch for James back at the MCC office. The day was going smoothly until an unfortunate accident where an old man crossed the road in front of Ed. Ed started to veer around him to the right thinking the man would keep going. The man froze, hesitated, then turned back, in the same direction Ed had just veered. He hit him head on. Both hit the pavement hard. James, Brian and I were a bit further back and didn’t see it happen and when we got there a large crowd had already formed. Ed waved us down and we stopped. The old guy was pretty hurt and we started figuring out what to do. We wanted to pay some money and get out of there. Accidents can be bad for the driver in that crowds can get angry and violent at times. We about had it settled and were going to take off when we realized that someone had taken Ed’s bike key. More talking and finally it was agreed that we would go to the hospital with the man to ensure he was ok and to pay all the necessary expenses. This was another adventure. Hospitals are notorious for exploitation and the fact that we were white didn’t help. We ended up spending about 3 hours there, including having to go ourselves to the pharmacy and to pick up the X-ray tech to get x-rays done. We paid for all the expenses and a handsome sum to the family on top of that. Ed decided to take off about half way through just in case there were more problems. The family started to ask where he was but we just said that he went to check something out and he would come back. We finally got it settled and hit the road again meeting up with Ed just outside of Port.
We finally made it back to the office around 5 where they still had a little food left over from the farewell party that we, including the guest of honour, missed. All told, we did almost 800 km’s from Port to Aux Cayes, Jeremie and back. Total riding time over the 5 days was probably 35 hours. I had a great time and was really happy I went. The pictures here show some more of the story. I don’t know if I need to do a trip like that in a while, but it sure is a great way to see a country!
Friday, April 14, 2006
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