PC(USA) - Mission Connections - Letter

Mission Connections

PC (USA) Seal


	A letter from Mark Hare in Haiti

	January 18, 2006 Friends, I spent a very low-key Christmas and New Year’s here in Papay. On January 2, which is also a holiday here in Haiti, I went up the mountain with some friends to the waterfall called Bassen Zim. It is a gorgeous area. One of our friends and crew members, Wilson Paul, lives near the falls and pool, and we collected some money and gave it to his wife to cook a simple lunch for us. Then Wilson, who knows the area like the back of his hand, took us a little farther up the mountain to an area where the river flows under a natural bridge. It is a beautiful little gorge.

	Mark's friends climbing up the edge of the waterfall, which is a series of four pools.				I have been busy trying to finish our work plan for 2006 and the evaluation for our project to submit to the MPP—the Farmer’s Movement of Papay. On January 5 and 6, all of MPP’s team members met to do the annual evaluation and to listen to each sector’s plans for the first quarter of 2006. In some ways, the meetings can be tedious, especially for me, because my language skills are still not good enough to capture all that is going on.

	I lose track of what’s happening, and then it’s hard to get back into it. But the meetings are exciting because I get to see all of the agronomists, technicians, and community promoters who are the heart of MPP’s work talking about what’s going on in the organization, in the country, and in the world. If the situation in Haiti permits, in 2006 I’ll continue to work with the Road to Life Yard and Moringa Project. I also expect to continue to work at one of the cooperatives associated with MPP in moringa production and processing. The goal of that project is to produce moringa powder, a natural nutritional supplement that has had excellent results helping young children and pregnant mothers recover from malnutrition in West Africa, here in Haiti on the island of La Gonâve, and in many other places.

	We are already producing moringa powder on a small scale. Some of that powder has made it to the clinic run by MPP. Recently, though, most of it has gone to members of the project crew. Four crew members have had typhoid fever and one has had malaria. I don’t have any clear way to measure the exact results, but I believe that moringa powder helped all of them recover quickly from their illnesses. Our project is working on a drying shed that will allow us to produce much more powder. We hope that will be operational sometime in February. The next problem will be finding enough moringa leaves to fill it. Now we are at the height of the dry season, and only where we are watering the moringa trees will we be able to harvest.				Wilson Paul, our guide, above the gorge's natural bridge, with Samana River flowing underneath.

	In general, life is all right here. The problems in Port au Prince are not affecting us so far. Things may well get stickier before the elections, which are scheduled for February. May all of you also find many joys in 2006. In Christ. Mark The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 50

Mission Speakers

Mission Workers

Letters from Young Adult Volunteers

Mission Letters in RSS

Who We Are | Congregations | News and Events | Ministry and Vocations | Resources/Publications
Giving and Funding | US and World Mission | Search pcusa.org | Home