Visit to Haiti District of the M.C.C.A. May 1st-9th 2011

In the short time I was in Haiti I was able to experience the pace and problems of post-earthquake reconstruction as well as sharing the life of people in the Haitian Methodist Church. Rev. Paul the President of the Church kindly hosted me throughout in his home in Port au Prince (Haiti's capital). It was valuable to look behind the headlines of Haiti's slow recovery from the disaster and witness people's resilience, the strength of their communities and their strongly felt sense of independence. This was clear even from the sky prior to landing. Patchworks of small-holdings cover every inch of the hills behind the capital. The same pattern was evident in the zinc roofs of Citie de Soliel (Port au Prince's poorest area) and again in the tarpaulined and tented camps of displaced people scattered all over the city and beyond.

Relief Work and re-construction

Rev. Jim Gulley of the United Methodist Church in the U.S.A. said still over ½ million people were living in camps. This is a third of the original numbers immediately after the quake. He believes many people were too afraid of aftershocks to return home initially but now have. Also that the conditions in the camps mean that people who have somewhere else to live have resettled themselves. So the communities of displaced people Tom Quennet (Partnership Co-ordinator for the Caribbean and South America) reported on in the City centre and near the airport 6 months ago are still largely as they were. Access to clean water, sanitation and humanitarian aid in them seems to vary depending on the ability and experience the N.G.O. the Government of Haiti has allocated each area to.

I requested a chance to visit outside of Port au Prince and was able to visit Petit Goave, an area near to the epicentre of the earthquake. Here the destruction was less visibly evident except in the road surface. Yet it was more pervasive. As the houses had been destroyed within the rural landscape of trees and plantain bushes they were less apparent but the people's suffering was the same. I was told that some people had built a camp by the roadside to attract attention to their difficulties. The church had been able to redevelop some infrastructure in the main town and outlying areas with help from partner churches especially the United Methodist Church (U.S.A.). I met a team from there who had for two weeks been laying church foundations and installing a wireless broadband network in the main town.

Church Life

On my first Sunday I attended Church in Carrefore a poorer area of the capital where the vibrancy of the service and excellence of the choir were really inspired. They had enduring memories of an ordained British Mission Partner who had served at Carrefore in the past. The service was the highlight of my visit. As people queued for communion a church steward gave each member some hand sanitiser because of the risk of cholera. The next Sunday I attended the quiet confirmation service of 3 brothers and sisters from the Domiville family at a small Church in Thomasin, a more affluent suburban area. Here the members served themselves from the communion plate a different solution to the problem of the epidemic. The church meets in a house and hopes to build a new church on the land there soon.

Mid-week I joined a prayer meeting at Nouveau College Bird led by Rev. Paul and visited the Girl's and Boy's Brigade there. As well as that I saw the current site for the college which is now functioning under semi-temporary shelters. The original site is cleared and ready. A U.S. team hoping to start re-building are waiting until the end of the school semester when it will be safe for the children for them to start work. One of the Methodist's other flagship schools College de Friere in Petionville (a separate area but effectively part of Port au Prince) was only partially affected by the quake. Here over 1700 children are educated including over 200 from the poorest families who receive free education.

Partnership with U.M.C. and British and Irish Churches

The Irish Church's Team's visit last year was deeply appreciated. I was there as the offices they had helped reconstruct were handed over to their new tenants (United Methodist Committee On Relief (U.M.C.O.R.)) which will generate much needed revenue. The Haitian Methodist Church has received over 160 short-term mission teams from the United Methodist Church in the last year. They initially helped with clearing of rubble and increasingly now with re-construction and improving of infrastructure in line with the medium and long-term goals identified with the church. They bring capital and sometimes unavailable skills to the situation which might not otherwise be available. The church runs a guest house to accommodate up to 60 of them at a time.

While I was there a box of knitted clothes from Northallerton Methodist Church arrived which helped underline the varied links between our churches. It also showed some of the logistic problems of the post-earthquake situation, as it had been posted nearly a year ago! I spent a little time at UMCOR’s office, and attended a 3 day seminar focussing on their health strategy. There were a wide range of presentations from N.G.O.'s and a few local organisations. UMCOR are engaged in funding and implementing a number of useful projects for Haitian people around the island including farming and development and a wide range of health care programmes.

Conclusion

Rev. Paul took me for a final Sunday lunch with his relatives in the family home in the hills above Port au Prince which was wonderful and a chance to relax after a busy programme. Much of the food on the table had come from the small holdings surrounding the house and their own garden. As we ate together it reminded me of the importance of physically expressing the solidarity between our churches. It had been humbling to see people's capacity to get on with life in immensely difficult times. I was inspired to see the reconstruction work being carried out by the church in Haiti. Whenever I met Methodist people they had memories of British Mission Partners who had served in Haiti in the past and the more recent visits by British Methodist Church representatives. It was a privilege to continue these links in a small way and bear witness to the challenges faced by the Haitian people and their capacity to face them, with support from their friends around the world.

David Furnival

Mission Partner