We woke up at 7 and headed to the port, which was basically a dock with a small fairy, a few motor boats, and some vendors selling street food. We were headed to the small island of La Gonave. It is one of the poorest areas of Haiti and many refugees from the 2010 earthquake relocated there. At the port there's no such thing as a boat schedule. As soon as the driver packs his boat to max capacity (think sardines), he heads out. So if you want to get to the island at a decent hour, you have to hit the first or second boat out. Otherwise, you may be floating in the boat as it sits at the dock waiting to fill up for several hours. Hence our early arrival. We sat, dripping with sweat, floating in the boat for about 30 minutes before we finally left. So I was already feeling a little whoozy, and for quite a while, the boat would start and stop as we drove through currents of trash in the ocean in attempt not to suck it into the engine. We crossed 14 miles of open ocean in this little boat.
We pulled into dock at La Gonave island and were met by about thirty men standing shoulder to shoulder. They helped pull all of us up to the dock only to bombard us in Creole. I had no idea what they were selling me, but I couldn't help but notice the only thing around aside from a bunch of trees and beach was a plot of open dirt filled with "motos" (motorcycles). These were their taxis, and the only way to get into town. So after a flurry of grabbing hands urging me to ride their taxi, our Haitian missionary friend directed me to one. There I sat on the back of a moto, behind some random Haitian man that held my life in his hands. I considered hanging on to his waist b/c that seemed safer, but after clinging to him for a few seconds I decided to hold on to the less stable bar behind me. And this is how we drove into town on the short stretch of paved, but far from smooth or flat, road (and the only stretch of paved road on the entire island). "Surely these motos never wreck, these guys are experts," I told myself. With the authenticity of the whole experience all I could do was smile the entire ride. We were in the thick of the real Haiti. This was too legit! .
We arrived at the Wesleyan mission guest house. It was attached to the Wesleyan hospital, the only hospital on the island. We checked in, half sea sick, half dehydrated and I was feeling a headache coming on.We decided to give the Haiti World Vision director a try. And guess what! His phone actually rang today.
He answered and I told him who I was. I told explained that we were on the island of La Gonave. "Oh ____!" OMG! OMG! OMG! (He actually said the words) was the first response I got. "I have been sick and out of the office! OMG! OMG!! When did you get to Haiti?!?" He asked as if seeing his job flashing before his eyes. "We got here two days ago and took the boat over with our friends to La Gonave island." "OMG! OMG!! I've been sick!! I just got back to the office! OMG! Ok, how long will you be on La Gonave? I can have her there early tomorrow morning." I knew that was probably not a good idea b/c we had to head out early to get back for our friends to make a Dr's appointment. But what was I supposed to say? "Ok, sure, as long as it is very early. We have to leave early." "Ok, I will call you back," he responded." Our missionary friend motioned to her husband (the Haitian) to get on and tell him tomorrow would not work (she knows early in the morning means it wont happen til like noon). In Creole, he basically tells the guy he needs to make it happen today, it was early enough in the day and we came all the way from the US to see her." So the World Vision director says he will makes some calls and get back with us.
We ate a delicious Haitian lunch (fried chicken and lots of carbs) and heard back. They would be there with our sponsor child this evening. We had been told she lived 3 hours down a very rugged dirt road on the other side of the island so I was expecting it would take a while. So I drank some Gatorade (the only thing that kept my dehydration headache manageable, I couldn't drink enough water we were sweating so much......we said goodbye to air conditioning at the end of day 2 and never saw it again until we were in the airport leaving Haiti!). Then we took a tour of the Weslayan Hospital and took a hot nap.
At dinner time we had more carbs and got the call that she was in the town we were in. So we waited in anticipation.
When she walked in, it was so weird b/c I felt in an odd way almost like I was seeing my long lost child. In that moment I had a flashback to when I was at a Women of Faith conference and they encouraged us to sponsor a child. I prayed God would show me which child to pick, saw her sweet nine year old face and that was it. Here we were just shy of 9 years later and in walks this beautiful 17 year old girl. It was her, no doubt about it. We talked for a while and I was glad to hear she only has two years left of school (which is ahead of schedule for Haiti) and is hoping to go into nursing when she is done. As we talked some more, things started to look a little shady.
I kept hearing her say she doesn't live with her mom, only when she is on vacation and not in school. Of course all of this was through a not so great translator. So it was hard to tell when the translator (who happened to be the World Vision director for the island) just couldn't quite convey what was being said or if he really didn't know the answers to some of our logistical questions about World Vision. I asked her about her trip over to the town we were in (thinking of a terribly bumpy 3 hour car ride they had mentioned to us previously) and she said it was fine. I asked if it was bumpy. She said it was smooth. I asked if she had ever been to the main island of Haiti (where we were) and she said she had, that is where her school is. She said her school was in Cabaret. SAY WHAT?!? "Did you say the town of Cabaret? As in her school is in the town of Cabaret on the main island which is 20 minutes down the road from our resort last night? That Cabaret And you live there????" I asked. "Yes, that is where I go to school and live with my cousin." "So you mean to tell me you took the boat ride over to see us too when we literally were staying a few minutes down the road from you on the main island???" We all had a laugh about it but....yeah....shady. Especially after I had asked the translator (and island director of World Vision) what the money we send her goes to. His response was that it goes to all of the children in the community that are part of the program. "BUT SHE:S NOT LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY!!" was my first thought. That's weird.
I failed to mention her entourage. When she came in she had her cousin with her (a family member must be present at sponsor meetings), the director of all the World Vision programs on the island of La Gonave (the translator), and a young man with Beats (look alikes) hanging around his neck. This guy was the case worker that lives in her community (or the community we were told she lived in). We asked him what is the criteria for them determining a child needs to be sponsored. He said, rather vaguely, that all of the children in the community need sponsorship. And the stipulations were that the parents have to be willing to move to the area of the development program and a few other things. "So the parents have to move to where the program is, but she doesn't have to live there year round? " was my thought. Things got a little weird, especially when our missionary friends were talking to him and he said he didn't know where the town of Cabaret was. Everyone knows that town, they said. Not to mention one would hope he knows the town she is now living in......
We took a bunch of pictures, gave hugs and that was the end of it. Even though things got shady (we also discovered the devopment program is not connected to a church), we really enjoyed meeting her. She has a sweet spirit and I do feel like God was in the meeting. I wish we would have been able to pray for her but there was a lot of weirdness in the air and we felt like the director was kind of stand offish. They are also very protective of the children, which I totally respect. So we didn't ask to pray for her but I know she was encouraged and felt loved. We also got her a bunch of gifts that she seemed to like. So despite the weirdness, we really enjoyed meeting her.
We went to bed super early that night, only to not fall asleep for like 2-3 hours, because of the heat and the bed springs jabbing into my bones.
We will definitely be calling World Vision. I'm not sure who dropped the ball. Of course it started with the Haiti World Vision director in Port Au Prince (the OMG guy that had been sick and out of the office). He is the one I had contacted weeks earlier from the US and he gave me his email address and told me to email him directly from then on. He says he never got our emails after that. And maybe he didn't. But he did have the dates we had given him. Maybe people start this process and never actually carry through with the visit part? Maybe he really was sick (it better have been malaria or typhoid, something that had him out for weeks for that to be justifiable. Just sayin'.). He really was a nice guy but I don't know how he just forgot we were coming or didn't get the messages.
I tend to think the ball was dropped by the beats guy, the one that lives in her community, the case worker. He is the one that probably knew she was not living in the community during the school year. I'm not sure if that is ok for them to move out of the community and still be sponsored, though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense if our money goes collectively to all the kids in the community because how is she benefitting from that if she's not living in the community? Not to mention that in order for a child to be able to be sponsored the parent has to be willing to relocate to the community where the development program is. So I do think something went awry there.
Are we going to stop sponsoring her? And do I think sponsoring children is a ploy? No way! I was so glad to see she seems happy, is focused in school, and has goals for after school. I can say that we will no longer be sponsoring children through World Vision. We have 3 other sponsor kids through Compassion International and we get letters from them and the pastors of the community programs all the time. Those kids are getting the Gospel and have a tight connection to the church. We get letters from the pastors of the Compassion kids often, telling us the spiritual needs of the area and giving us a lot of insight into the area and the children. I am a HUGE fan of Compassion. But that is part of the reason we went to see our child sponsored through World Vision. I don't feel as connected to her b/c we hear from her much less often and because of her age. I was afraid she would be aging out soon (come to find out in Haiti it's not until 21 years old). So this is not to discourage child sponsorship. One cool side note about child sponsorship effectiveness. Remember the hospital we toured, the only one on the island? Well, the director of that hospital was a Compassion sponsored child on that island growing up. You never would have guessed that from seeing him now. And I have heard many stories of Compassion kids growing up and now making a huge impact on their countries. Just wanted to pass that along b/c I firmly believe in child sponsorship still. Just so long as they are sharing Jesus with them and not just padding one hell hole for the next eternal one. That is my only disappointment with World Vision, but I was very happy that our sponsor child was doing well despite that beef.
And after tomorrow's blog, I'm going to introduce you to an incredible opportunity to sponsor a child through our friends. Remember those pictures I posted of those children? Those kids need help and the ministry that is in the works to help them down there is some of the most effective and amazing work I have seen in a while. Can't wait to introduce you to it and tell you about the rest of our trip!
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