|
May 2002
Snapshots
Dear Friends,
Our greetings to you at this first opportunity to share with
many of you what God is doing in our lives these days. A warm
"thank you" for your prayers and thoughts that have
enabled us to be where we are, and for the support that you continue
to give to us in the work of Christ’s church in Mombin Crochu,
Haiti.
How to describe Mombin Crochu? First, what does the name mean?
"Crooked Tree" is the literal translation, referring
to a type of tree, the Mombin, that typically is gnarled in growth,
and the broad leaves of which were traditionally used in embalming.
Mombin Crochu is a town large enough to make most maps of Haiti,
which means about 1,500–2,500, but the community involves
outlying villages and includes about 10,000 people. It is in the
rugged northeast of Haiti, nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains
that have a stark, angular beauty not unlike those of the Columbia
and Yakima valleys of our eastern Washington home.
Moving to Mombin was like passing through a time warp. Here is
a place that in many ways is untouched by the last hundred years.
Distances are measured not in miles or kilometers, but in the
number of hours required to make a journey on foot, horse, or
in the rare Land Rover or truck traversing narrow, rocky, rutted
lanes that scarcely qualify as roads. Family residences both in
town and scattered through the mountains are of mud and thatch
for the most part, with occasional block and tin as an upgrade.
Family farms are small patches of rocky, sloped, unyielding earth
that struggle to yield beans, corn, tomatoes, squash, yams, and
manioc in small quantities for eating, or if rain favors, for
production of a few extra for selling at the twice-weekly market
in Mombin. Hillsides are spotted with mango and avocado trees
which yield the favorite "fast foods" of kids who walk
the dusty tracks a couple of hours to and from school each day.
Cactus fences form the borders of family homes and neighborhoods
and grow thick and unyielding to free-wandering goats and pigs.
Men in straw hats work a short lifetime on the stubborn ground
with machetes and hoes, and women old before their time carry
baskets of produce or wash on their heads on the way to market
or the river. Barefoot girls sing the songs of jump-ropes braided
of straw or weeds and giggle at a game of jacks that features
goat’s knuckles. Boys in tattered U.S. logo T-shirts (with
or without pants) spin hand-carved wooden tops in the dust and
challenge one another to knock small smooth pebbles out of a circle
using their single cherished glass marble. Here each Sunday morning
gather families freshly scrubbed, combed, pigtailed, and garbed
in the best they have—this day only in shirts, dresses, and
their only pair of oversized shoes—to a breezy lean-to or
a block-enclosed hut that is sanctuary, and praise the God that
made them and Jesus who saves them, and give thanks for their
many blessings. Here is praise raised in songs with a Caribbean
lilt—songs memorized early in childhood for lack of song
books or ability to read—here is thanks given in humble prayer
and Scripture treasured from the congregation’s single Creole
Bible. Here is beauty of location and of people that has a quaint,
almost storybook quality.
But here also is harsh reality. Life in Haiti, even in the countryside
of Mombin Crochu, is difficult. Their deforested soil is rocky,
infertile, and moisture is unpredictable. The same geographical
features and lack of roads and communication that keep our region
removed from most of the chronic national political unrest also
assures that lives here are similarly untouched by improvements
in water supply and quality, sanitation, food delivery, and health
care. Here the life expectancy at birth is under 60 years, and
infant and under-5 mortality is the highest in the Western hemisphere.
Here most illness and death in children and young adults occurs
from preventable disease related to contaminated water supplies,
chronic malnutrition from dietary imbalance, and inadequate vaccination
levels. Though the region lacks the slums of the larger cities,
the people even of Mombin Crochu are impoverished, and at most
circumstances in their lives, overwhelmingly needy.
Here is what we’ve come to—Mombin Crochu and Covenant
Hospital, which serves the health needs of the town and outlying
villages. Operated by the mission partnership of the Episcopal
Diocese of Haiti and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and with faithful
and strong support by the Medical Benevolence Foundation, the
hospital is a labor of Christian love—a facility with a legacy
and vision of caring and empowerment for the hard lives of rural
Haitians. Support for the mission of Covenant Hospital also comes
from visiting teams of medical and other workers who choose to
reach out in service here in the name and Spirit of Jesus Christ.
During our time in Mombin Crochu, we hope to provide you with
glimpses into our lives and the lives of those with whom we live
and serve. As there is so much to see and tell, we can give only
impressions, images, and ideas to stimulate thought and prayer.
We will title our newsletters "Snapshots." We hope you’ll
look forward to reading them, joining us in spirit and prayer,
and learning more. Please continue to lift up in prayer the mission
of Covenant Hospital, the warm and welcoming people of rural Haiti,
and their steadfast hope in the promises of God through our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
Yours in Faith and Friendship,
Joan and Paul McLain
|
