Archive for May, 2009
190kms, and 8 hours later
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009A long walk
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Eriberto walked for hours to meet with us. We don’t know how long it took him; time is not really a relevant detail to the highland Quechewa people. Neither is distance. What is important is community. And we got to see first-hand in Peru how the organization ATEK is helping communities to build and grow and become strong.
Standing in a field by the elementary school, Eriberto wears a Stetson-style black hat with a strip of brown leather stretched around the band. His blue checkered shirt is done up neatly underneath his bright red jacket. It’s fairly cool in the morning at 11,000 feet. We’re higher than Machu Picchu right now, surrounded on all sides by green mountains.
Eriberto was a leader in his church, and helped minister to another nine churches in other communities. The church leaders got together about five or six years ago, acknowledging that they needed proper training to help lead their congregations. None of the leaders of these churches had ever had formal training, and financially they could simply not afford to go to school. It was “impossible,” Eriberto shares.
That’s when Eriberto heard about ATEK, a Quechewa-run ministry that works with Quechewa communities to train leaders. Leaders who can teach, who can preach, who can minister to husbands and wives and children. Training that is simply not accessible to these remote communities otherwise.
ATEK came in to Corribumba and helped Eriberto’s community. In the last five years, Eriberto has seen enormous change in his community of Corribumba and in the other nine churches in his network.
In his town of Corribumba, ATEK-trained teachers are now leading marriage counseling, literacy training and alcohol education as well as pastoral teaching. He has seen his church strengthened where before it seemed ready to die. It grew the faith of the Christians in his community, and he says they are now aware of their responsibilities as Christians.
But more than that, Eriberto has seen change in his own life. He and his wife took ATEK’s marriage counselling. The sessions opened his eyes to what a marriage could be, such as praying together and making decisions as a couple, something they never did before. Even though he was a minister and was teaching and was baptizing, he never fully understood what marriage was about. Now it makes it more meaningful when he helps to counsel other couples, as he now does in various communities including the village of Perrca, where we were staying when he made his trek to share with us what God is doing.
Summing it up, Eriberto says this about the training he and his community received through ATEK.
“It’s a blessing from God. ATEK is like a medicine for the problems in our villages.”
Try the chicken goulash
Thursday, May 21st, 2009After 60 hours, a delayed flight, and a subsequent missed connection, we finally arrived in Cusco.
Being a day behind schedule, we had to hit the ground running. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the ATEK compound we were re-packed and ready to head to a remote village buried deep in the mountains of Peru. We knew this was going to be the plan, although we had hoped for a few days to acclimatize ourselves to being at nearly 11,000 feet. The village we were traveling to was at roughly the same elevation, but some of the mountain passes surpassed 16,000 feet. We started taking our high altitude pills the night before and were hoping for the best.
The Toyota Land Cruiser was packed full of food and supplies for the five of us taking the trip. Up front was Pastor Freddi our driver and his trusty co-pilot Peter, a Swiss missionary here to teach English and on this particular trek, to be our translator. On our way out of town we picked up Yoni, a young girl we would later find out is in charge of children’s ministries for ATEK.
Eager to get out and see what God is doing here in Peru, we were excited and ready, but nothing could have prepared us for the roads that lie ahead. If you’ve ever driven a logging road to a primo hiking spot in the Canadian Rockies, you’ll have some idea. Just add a 5,000 foot vertical drop, triple the amount of switchbacks, remove the guardrails and let loose dozens of roaming sheep, donkeys and cows.
About a half hour in to the trip I realized that the supermarket chicken goulash was not the best choice for lunch. The combination of traveling for the past 2-1/2 days, the windy, bumpy roads, and what the doctor would later tell me is altitude sickness made for a rather unpleasant drive and resulted in three unscheduled stops to “take in the view”.
190 kms and 7-1/2 hours later we arrived at our final destination, Perrca. In the end the trip up was definitely worth it. The views were incredible, the people were welcoming and the knowledge that God is working here was encouraging.
It was amazing to see the distances that the members of ATEK go to minister to the forgotten Quechua people. Check back as Lorene will continue to share specific stories of what God is doing here over the next week as we move back in to areas with reliable internet.
Getting there is half the fun?
Saturday, May 16th, 2009I want you all to know. Travel is not glamorous.
I share that because many people we have talked to about the Pockets of Change project have remarked at ‘what a grand adventure we will have ‘, and ‘aren’t we lucky to have this opportunity’ and so on.
I agree. Wholeheartedly.
But. The getting to the adventures? Oh my.
I write this in my notebook at 3 a.m. in the Miami International Airport. I’m laying on a bench that reminds me of a doctor’s office bench. I’m listening to a mix of really bad jazz and security notices about watching your luggage, announced in English and Spanish.
We’ve been trying to get to Peru for more than a full day now. We left our hotel in Port Au Prince at a prompt 8:45 a.m. around 9:15 a.m. because our hotel staff couldn’t quite agree on just how it is we’re supposed to get to the airport in the free airport shuttle.
Ok. So we do get to the airport. And hurray, no problem with the famed ‘Red Hatters’ – men who try very forcefully to “help” you with your luggage for a fee. No thanks guys, we’re missionaries and not really flowing with extra dough!
Customs, check-in, and all the rigmarole. No problem.
Wait for 2.5 hours for our flight to depart. No problem.
About to take off on the runway when dog and hazardous materials are found to be in the same cargo container.
Shuttle back to terminal, move old Fido away from the liquids, and by then we’ve burned through 2,000 lbs of fuel. Captain, in his southern drawl, shares with us that he “hopes” the fuel tank is on its way.
No problem. We’re off again, about an hour past initial take-off time. Back to the runway, picking up speed, just about to lift off when lady two rows up has a very serious asthma attack due to the very hot and smelly cabin we’ve all been sitting in together getting cozy. Good Lord, this is starting to be a problem.
Ok. Back to the terminal, where five paramedics clamber aboard and take the woman off, and Captain says once her luggage is found we’ll be off.
We rumbled down that ol’ runway just over two hours after our scheduled time, headed for Miami.
Leg one done, and we’re feeling positive about it all.
We decide to hang it out at the airport for four or five hours before check-in. We pick up a few needed items, grab a bite to eat and wander for infinity a couple hours, then casually check the departures board again to confirm our gate. Bright yellow letters inform us that instead of leaving at 12:05 a.m., we are leaving at 5 a.m.
It’s a long walk down that corridor and back to the main terminal.
The good news is in Miami the airline company gives you a hotel stay for free. So we got to spend about three hours at a hotel complete with a voucher for the hotel restaurant. Since it was about midnight when we got to the hotel we ate two delicious pieces of pie (key lime and cheesecake) with two tall glasses of chocolate milk.
While the airline told us to get on the airport shuttle at 2:30, security wasn’t open until 3:30 a.m. And thus it is that I wrote this post, laying on a hard red bench in the Maimi International Airport, listening to really bad jazz.
I’m loving the project, and feel overwhelmingly grateful. And we’re excited to get to share our experiences with people through this blog. So, to come along on the ride, I wanted to share with you some of the bumps we face along the way so you’re truly a part of this.
This blog post was written in my notebook at the Miami airport. We’ve since landed and left our destination in Peru, and will hopefully post more soon. We had limited internet access this last week, and expect to have better access at our next stop. So check back soon!
Life in Grand Goave
Monday, May 11th, 2009Our time at HaitiARISE was amazing and it was so hard to narrow down the photos for this post. I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of life in Grand Goave.
Journey from Grand Goave
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Rumbling through the streets of Grand Goave in a15-passenger van, I contemplated my surroundings. We had a couple hours to reach Port Au Prince, with lots of time to observe.
The smell in the air was the most powerful: a mix of car exhaust, rotten mangos and something indescribable mixed in. It filled my head with each breath.
The sounds of Haiti if you are driving include a great deal of honking – it seems the biggest vehicle gets the right of way and everyone else scoots around whatever car they can in the opposite lane of traffic. Drivers honk at just about anything in their way. Pedestrians definitely don’t have the right of way here.
Our driver Juliom whipped past motorbikes carrying anywhere from one to four people, close enough you could reach out and high five them. He honked at ambling bikers to get off the road and slowed down as we caught up with Tap Taps full of people piled inside squished shoulder to shoulder. Some sat on top, the wind whipping at them as they hung onto metal railings. Delivery trucks also seem to be passenger vehicles here. We watched as one man leapt onto the back of a truck using a knotted rope as support, flipping his body at least four feet up to the bed of the truck as it bumped along the road. Not exactly Canadian standards of safety apply here.
The other thing you hear a lot of is ‘Blanc, Blanc!’ People shouting ‘white, white’ as Justin and I sat in the second row of the van looking out. We’ve heard this phrase often since arriving. It’s a novelty having a group of white people. When we were in Mirebelais with the team from Chilliwack’s Southside Church, we heard this shout even more. Sometimes the team leader would smile and call back, ‘Yes, black!’ Many giggles from kids would quickly follow.
Along the sides of the road, there were always people. Some areas were teeming with people – women carrying buckets and baskets and bags on their head; children playing naked in the streams and along the roadsides, and men on their way to work, or sitting in the shade because there is not enough work for all. There is more than 80 per cent unemployment rate in this country, so there is a lot of sitting, and waiting, and wandering that seems to happen here.
Haiti has been an interesting country in which to start our Pockets of Change project. We had been warned of the dangers that exist in this country, and I believe there were angels protecting us as we walked and drove and slept in this country. Yet at the same time I saw such hope and such vision from the Christians here. They believe in a God that will save their land, and that’s encouraging to me. Yes, there’s poverty, spiritual darkness and many other problems. But God is bigger than all of that. And the Christians in this country know it. Praise God!
Under the mango tree
Saturday, May 9th, 2009Hey everyone, turns out we didn’t have internet for the last two days as we were in a remote village called Perrca. More on that later!
In Haiti’s Grand Goave, a coastal community about two hours west of the captial city of Port Au Prince, there sits a strip of land no more than four acres. The 15-foot walls surrounding this property encase a lush green space with dozens of palm trees, kid goats scampering below the boughs of giant mango trees and a host of other tropical plants.
Inside these walls, Haitian men and women are learning the Word of God and gaining technical skills to go and support their families.
There is a particular mango tree that sits in this property. It’s an area where people often gather to swap stories, to talk faith, to impart wisdom. During the hot and humid days, the shaded boughs offer a cool comfort and the vantage point is optimal to see all that goes on at the compound. The dirt driveway cuts the mango grove from the guesthouse where teams come to stay and a long-term missionary couple now live. To the left you can see the technical and Bible school compound. Behind the school you can see the edge of the outdoor church where more than 400 people fill the pews and spill out into the grass as hundreds kids pile into one room for Sunday school.
Bon appetit
Thursday, May 7th, 2009If you’ve ever been out for a rich and chocolatey dessert with me, you’ll know that I sometimes order more than I can chew. I am a big fan of decadent desserts; layers of silky smooth fudge and rich chocolate cheesecake, whipped cream on the side and a drizzle of syrup across a crisp white plate. That is my idea of a good evening out with a friend.
But most of the time, I order the most delectable dessert I see then about halfway through realize I should probably not finish it. A friend of mine once told me when we were out on such a treat night, “Lorene, you can’t let it conquer you.” Of course she was speaking in jest. But I still like to think of that. If I plan to do something, I can’t let it conquer me.
Pockets of Change is kind of like that enticing piece of pie. I know it will be great, I know I’ll enjoy it along the way, but it could conquer me before I conquer the project.
OK, enough about dessert. All that to say I feel I’ve bitten off a sizable chunk of interviews already and have yet to digest them for your enjoyment. (Do you like how I used digest there as a double meaning? Oh my, perhaps I need to get out more…)
We’re now finished our time in Haiti. In fact, we’re not even in the country anymore and I have yet to tell more about Mirebelais, all the excitement of Haiti Children’s Home and the people we worked with from Chilliwack’s Southside Church. I haven’t even mentioned Grand Goave, our meetings at HaitiARISE Ministries and the amazing things God is doing through this organization. I could write about a dozen more things too, such as the trip to Port Au Prince, our time with the very first project partner Hungry for Life every had, the antics we have had along the way and what we are learning from the experience.
Like I say, it’s a big piece of cake. I now realize I’m not going to get to share every bite with you along the way. But with one country down and three more to go, I’m going to focus on the most tasty morsels from now on to share on the Pockets of Change blog. For now, we’re going to give you a three-course meal in quick succession to fill you up. We’ll have a few posts here next time we have internet to give you a taste of Haiti, then the blog topics move to Peru.
Bon appetit.
A snapshot of Mirebalais
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009I can’t believe it’s only been 10 days since we stepped on to Haitian soil. Our first week was a busy one, taking part in the Southside Team activities in Mirebalais; visiting the Haiti Children’s Home, handing out bread at a local poor house (where Lorene had the opportunity to share her testimony) and seeing the school where the Southside Church will be setting up a sponsorship program.
I wanted to share with you some of what I have seen and experienced through the lens of my camera during our time in Mirebalais.
