Tuesday, November 12 Greetings all, it has been difficult to keep up with our post. We are doing our best, but real third world problems have demanded all of our attention. Thank you for taking the time to share this experience with us. This morning Emanuel comes to check on me as the compound awakes. He has heard about my moto accident and is concerned. I am fine, just a few surface abrasions and minor bruising. It could have been much worse. Denise arises just as Jeanette brings breakfast to the table. We expect to see John Louie, but there is no sign of him. We are surprised. We hurry through breakfast; we need to leave at 8:30 to meet with Fr. Gracia, Sr. Pat, and Ourselves, about and with John Louie. It is not until we are in the school yard ready to leave before John Louie shows up. He is dressed very neatly in a freshly ironed shirt. He is cheerful, but the atmosphere is slightly subdued. Denise and I are aware of what is at stake. We hope he does as well. We are prepared to sever our business relationship with him. As we are all loading up, he stops and asks if I have the keys to the tool room. I do not; they are hanging on a hook in the dining room upstairs in the apartment. He runs and retrieves the key, and I follow him into the tool room to see what he needs. He grabs a heavy digging bar. He tells me he wants to take it to Gros Morne, I ask why. Using sign language, he shows me he wants to modify the digging end. I know that to do this he wants to take it to someone who has a forge. I don’t want him to do this. I see no purpose and do not intend on spending any extra money. I also am not in any mood for him making changes on his own. Just to make sure he understands me, we go outside and because Denise’s Creole is better than mine, I ask her to tell him no as well. He returns the bar to the tool room and we are ready to go. It is a beautiful morning, the air is fresh and the sun is making everything sparkle. The heat of the day has not descended, it is a refreshing trip. Along the way we pick up a woman on the way to the market. Just as we get to town, Denise calls and checks to see if Sr. Pat needs a ride, she is on her way already, so we go directly to the rectory. This is where we are having a second meeting immediately following this one. Even though we are a few minutes late, we are the first ones there. It is 9:30 before we begin. With Sr. Pat to translate, I summarize the problems. There are a string of events that have led up to this most recent incident with the sayes. It is not just that John Louie took it upon himself to do work we had not authorized; there have been several task that he has not completed. One is that there is a section of fence on the back of the property where we need more chain link fence wire. When we installed the fence we were short one roll of chain link fence, so we used another type of fencing temporarily. We shipped this in March and it arrived in July. When we left Haiti in the spring, we had told John Louie that the chain link fence was coming and that it needed to be installed while we were gone. He told us how much money it would cost for the workers so we left him with the money. We understood that it would be completed when we returned in September. When we returned, the chain link fence was not installed. John Louie gave us excuses, but I told him that they were unsound and it needed to be done as soon as possible. He has delayed and still it is not accomplished. The second task is the thinning of the mango trees. After we first enclosed the property, Fr. Jadotte planted too many trees. This has been discussed in depth, the work has been scheduled and yet nothing has been done. John Louie has delayed to the point where there is little hope of the trees surviving transplant. At this point in our meeting, Sr. Pat gets very angry. She herself has walked the property with Guy Mari, John Louie, and ourselves, marking the trees to be removed and given away. She has a deep love for trees and she is very hurt by this waste. She is a very sweet and patient person. I caused me pain to see her get so hurt and angry. I do not see an outcome favorable to John Louie from this meeting. When it is John Louie’s turn to explain his self, he makes excuses for each event, they are not valid. Even if they were, he did not discuss any of his decisions or subsequent actions with us. Then he blamed it all on misunderstanding because of Denise’s and mine lack of Creole. This is insulting; all of the things that are at issue were discussed with Sr. Pat, who is fluent in Creole, or with Guy Marie, who is Haitian. At his comment, I question him, “Are you saying that you cannot work with Denise and me because of our language skills?” At first he refuses to answer, making excuses and trying to change the subject. I force the issue with “This is a yes or no answer”. Finally he says “no”. I tell him, “I never want you to throw that up in my face again”. Both Denise and I know the importance of learning Creole. I admit that Denise is much more diligent in her studies than me. We all have different talents and skills, and I believe that we need to fully use what we do have, and be patient developing the ones we don’t. If we waited to be fluent in Creole, nothing would be accomplished. This principle is one that has guided our work here in Haiti. Several years ago, Sr. Pat told me she objected to Haiti being addressed as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. She said that as long as people said this about Haiti, this is what Haiti will be. She said that she sees Haiti as a developing country. She sees it through the eyes of hope. After the 16 years she has worked here, Ican see that it has developed,maybe not in ways that others from the first world notice, but definitely in ways that the peasants here can appreciate. This has taught me to see what Haiti has, not to see what it does not. In life when we focus on what we lack, we become dissatisfied and discouraged, we lose hope. When we focus on what we have, we begin to see possibilities, and with possibilities, hope. Fr. Gracia has patiently listening to all of this. He has interjected some comments, but mostly he has just listened. He asks me what we want to do. I tell him that Denise and I feel we have failed with John Louie and we do not see how we can continue to work with him. This project is too important to allow it to fail. I also tell him that we do not know how to proceed, either with John Louie or without. I tell him that although The Fr. Jim Bretl Agriculture Center is a Salvatorian project, it is in his parish and the purpose of the Center is to serve the parish, and we need his leadership and assistance. After reflecting, Fr. Gracia suggest that we write up a three month contract with John Louie, being very specific about what he is to do, and what he is not to do. I tell him that is too long, that it should only be until we return in January. He suggests that it run until one week after we return. Denise and I agree. Fr. Gracia then tells John Louie that he should not sign this contract unless he is sure that he can keep it. He says he will. We have an agreement in principle. We have run past our time, we must close and move on to our next meeting, people are waiting on us. We close with prayer. The purpose of this meeting is to reflect on the conference we attended in the Dominican Republic. We want to share what we learned, and how we will disseminate the information. In attendance is Fr. Gracia, Sr. Pat, Marcel, Sr. Victoria, Denise and myself. Fr. Wilner has not arrived yet and Corinne has returned to the States to interview for grad school. We are also joined by Guy Marie, the agronomist that works for Sr. Pat, Fr. Gracia and The Fr. Jim Agriculture Center. He was not able to attend the conference with us, but he is a key player in our team. Each of us brought a slightly different take on the conference. It was helpful to see the large picture emerge. The one thing that we all share in common is that we received a solid foundation for the hope we have for the future. Our eyes were opened to possibilities far beyond what we imagined. We discussed ways to move forward. The principle structure we will be using is to form local community groups and put in community gardens. In this way we will be able to teach sustainable and more productive agriculture practices. The group members will profit not only from a portion of the food produced, but also seeds and knowledge. We plan on doing centrally located formations and demonstrations. This is one way that the Fr. Jim Agriculture Center will fulfill its purpose. We also discussed how much of a collaborative work this is. Our core eight person team is represented by four different religious orders. Our trip was made possible by many, many donors. There were many obstacles we had to overcome to make it to the conference. Working through these together formed us into a working team. And we had a miracle thrown in to boot. Due to political problems between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the border crossing was closed until just before we traveled there, and closed right after we returned. How about that? When we finished our meeting, it was time for a trip to our favorite restaurant, Phelius’s egg sandwiches. We were ready; it had been about three hours of pretty intense meetings. We dawdled over lunch and then prepared to head to the market for bread and Fonkoze for changing money. Phelius’s restaurant is across the street from the Gros Morne hospital. As we were loading up to leave, someone from the hospital saw Sr.Pat. They came over and told us that the lady that Denise had sent down earlier in the week had tested positive for TB. They had sent a car to Garcin for her and had admitted her to the hospital for treatment. She will be required to stay in the hospital for a month’s treatment. The expenses for this treatment are paid for by the government. We will discover later that it does not include food or any other expenses. Denise and Sr. Pat decided to go visit her, so John Louie and I went to the market for bread. When we returned they were finished and so we all went to Fonkoze. After getting our money changed we dropped off Sr. Pat and headed back up the mountain to Garcin. It was late afternoon by the time we returned to our apartment. The events of the last few days have been emotionally and physically draining. We are thankful for a quiet evening.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 22:17:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015