Happy Houses, which replace small shacks made of cardboard, thatch and cloth, with clean, cement block houses.
A latrine building program that has provided hundreds of sanitary facilities.
Transportation of seriously ill children to the US, financed by benefactors.
And, finally,
Volunteers, such as our group, who comes to provide seriously needed dental extractions and to teach dental health and hygiene in the remote villages. Volunteers also provide maintenance and repair and take on special one-time projects. Jerry Lowney told me of one man who came for two weeks to build a donated play gym for the children who accompanied their mothers to the Center of Hope. He ended up staying for two years.
I am not a body, I am free. I am just as God created me.
At customs, an angry looking Haitian bureaucrat looked up from his worn, wooden table full of documents and a big rubber-stamp. "Jon Adam. That's you," the pretty young Haitian girl with the dyed, red hair said to me. I am the only "blan" (white) person to be seen. A glance, the heavy sound of the stamp hitting the paper and I am across the border.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Back on the bus, the first thing that struck me about Haiti were the villages of cinder block, concrete and color. Most of the forests have been decimated here and the wood that is left is used to make charcoal for cooking. All the buildings are constructed of cinder block and concrete, which, combined with the gray soil, gives the little country villages a white ash hue on a background of lush green. The doors and wood trims are painted bright colors. Then I saw my first "taptap" bus painted with lots of red, orange and yellow dominating the color scheme. Most of the colors came together in a spiritual message reminding everyone that, "Jesus is the answer."
The next thing I noticed was that, unlike the Dominican Republic, there is no trash along the roads. This is a country where everything is recycled due to necessity.
I was on my way to Port au Prince to meet up with Dr Jeremiah Lowney and his Haitian Health Foundation volunteers that were dubbed "Pilgrims." Three years ago, I discovered the Haitian Health Foundation, thanks to an article in The Day (New London) about its founder, Dr. Lowney, a dentist from Norwich, Connecticut. Up to this time, much of my charitable giving had been directed to organizations that were often distant and intangible. This was a chance for me to become involved more directly with a locally run charity focused on helping the poorest of the poor. I decided to sponsor a family in Haiti. Years later, I contributed to a "Happy House" for a mother and her four young children. But I had not met Dr. Lowney and his team of miracle workers until I arrived in Haiti.
JEREMIE
From the airport, it is a long drive on a very bumpy road to town. There are not a lot of vehicles on the road. There were some motorcycles, but mostly there were people
walking with loads balanced on their heads, or, if fortunate enough, leading a donkey. Life is in this land is primitive. Primitive, because we could have been riding down the same road two hundred years ago and the scene would have hardly changed at all. There are huts made of thatch with palm branch roofs, cooking is on outdoor charcoal stoves, water is hauled from a central community spigot, little stands sell the necessities and some small luxuries of life like dried rice and beans and greens, or Barbancourt
Rum and Prestiege Beer. There is an electric power plant there today, but it seldom works. Most facilities that can afford it have their own generators. The bathroom is wherever the need arises and sewage runs in open ditches along the roads in town.
WAITING FOR THE PILGRIMS
In Port au Prince, I stayed overnight at an over-priced lodge next to the airport where the rest of our Pilgrims would arrive the next afternoon. Their American Airlines flight from Miami was late, so I spent three-and-a-half hours hanging out at the airport. I was the only "blan" guy among hundreds of people waiting outside for flights. I did not feel uncomfortable or threatened. I met many beautiful people. Many needed money and asked for it in different ways.
By the time the plane landed, I had become just another member of the bored, waiting throng. The air became charged as passengers started to come through the arrival doors with their luggage. There was the excitement of those waiting to see their loved ones, but also a sense of desperation erupted as upwards of one hundred men of all ages positioned themselves for the opportunity to earn a couple of dollars to carry someone's bag.
THEY'RE HERE
Our group of seventeen travelers was the largest one. There were two suburban vans waiting. Angry, yelling men loaded luggage onto the roof racks. A man with one arm played upon our sympathies with his handicap. Another with wild electrified hair, stood outside the van windows, his hands by his face with fingers outstretched skyward, screaming for justice. For any first-time arrivals the scene must have been frightening. But, to me, spending the afternoon here had desensitized me to the spectacle that I viewed as if it was a stage performance.
Then, I spotted Dr. Lowney. I recognized him immediately by the red hair with gray streaks topped by a baseball cap. He was the one who had the money that attracted the wild throng.
"Dr. Lowney, I presume," I said to our famous doctor as I introduced myself.
"Good to meet you, John. Climb aboard a van." He answered with a big smile.
FLIGHT TO JEREMIE
Soon we were airborne, flying into the setting sun to Jeremie on a Cessna Sky Van. Our destination was at the end of Haiti's long southern arm. Jeremie was described in my Lonely Planet Guide as, "The most isolated town in Haiti." I did not know what to expect. The landscape we flew parallel to at 4,000 feet was engulfed in a smoky haze that was unfamiliar to my Caribbean experience. I would soon find out that the charcoal fires for cooking and the open burning kept the island surrounded in hazy smog.
Onboard I got to know some of our Pilgrims. Bruce Compton from Springfield, Illinois, sat behind me. He was a big guy that had spent two years in Jeremie with his wife and daughter working with the HHF.
Phil Guidice, who would become my roommate, was from Massachusetts. His father and he had been involved with HHF for twenty years. He was here to paint chairs, clean out septic systems or do whatever needed to be done. He alluded to the fact that his experience consulting large corporations on their business model and organizational planning was invaluable to HHF.
Father Frank, a Catholic priest, had been traveling to Jeremie almost since the inception of HHF in 1983. He was to become our spiritual leader, a housemate and friend.
In the back were Dr. Mitch Quintner, his wife, Janet, and son, Alex. Mitch has a large dental practice in Milford, Connecticut. Janet is a realtor there. Alex is in his senior year at Tufts and looking for guidance as to what is next for him. This was Mitch's fourteenth trip here.
Dr. Phil Doyle has a dental practice in Norwich, Connecticut. He would become another housemate. He amazed me by being able to work extracting teeth in the remote villages all day long and still be able to get up before the 5:00 a.m. church bell rang up the hill. Then he would run up the steep hill before the rest of us were ready for our 6:00 a.m. walk with Jerry. This was his sixth visit here because he said, "My faith batteries get recharged."
Marilyn Lowney, Virginia and Jerry's daughter and Executive Director of HHF, sat in the co-pilot's seat. Marilyn learned how to drive in Jeremie when she was 14. She joked that maybe learning to fly here was next.
Ellen Witsch from the Philadelphia area, sat across from me. She is a dental hygienist with a husband and four children who venture here to help the Haitian children learn good dental hygiene. Ellen is a delightfully loving breath of fresh air, with a smile and laugh that captivated me.
WELCOME TO THE HHF CLINIC
The big gate at HHF opened to a clean, landscaped, well-organized paradise of health care in a country in economic, political and social poverty and turmoil.
Sister Mary Ann and Sister Sophie, both from the order of Hospital Sisters at St. Francis based in Springfield, Illinois, were two of our drivers. The rugged Toyota trucks were set up like the local taptaps with bench seating facing one another in the covered truck bed. A snorkel attachment from the engine ran up the side to each truck enabling the vehicles to cross shallow rivers. On the cab doors were plaques recognizing the donor of the vehicle.
Sister Mary Immaculate, affectionately known as Sister Mary Mac , met us at the clinic. Sister MaryAnn has been with HHF since its inception and Sister Mary Mac followed a year later. Sister Sophie is a relative newcomer as is Sister Anna, who was in the US and runs the Child Feeding Program. The sisters are assisted by a staff of well-trained Haitian medical professionals and support workers.
FINDING HOPE IN HAITI
By John A. Adams
[excerpts]
The big air-conditioned Mercedes bus came to a stop in a little dusty village. I got out to stretch my legs and was met by a barrage of questions, "What's your name? Where you from? Where you go? Give me money!" I could have been in Johannesburg, South Africa, Cairo, Egypt or any other impoverished country. These are the same questions asked around the world by poor children struggling for survival.
I did not realize it but we were already at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It was Saturday, January 30, 2004, less than a week before the recent Haitian uprising began.
The airport at Jeremie
Photo by John A. Adams
HHF programs include:
HHF medical clinic and satellite clinics focusing on wellness for mothers and children but no one is turned away. Men are cared for as well as diabetics, and all x-rays for the area are done here.
The Center for Hope, which works to overcome infant malnutrition and to prevent maternal death.
Field programs enlisting many medical and staff volunteers as well as health agents and nurses to teach and promote child, mother and family health and wellness in 104 remote villages surrounding Jeremie.
The Creole Pig Replacement Program that has replaced over 7,000 sows in Jeremie.
Feed a Child and Save a Family programs helping to care for over 2,400 children a year.
"Dick's Kids" Goat Project that has distributed over 2,000 goats to needy families.
"Dick's Kids"
Goat Project
Photo by John A. Adams
THE FIRST VILLAGE
After our briefing, it was time to visit our first village in nearby Carre Four Prince. It was only a short distance west of the airport, but any drive here is a bone-rattling, hold-on-to- your-hats, four-wheel drive experience. We were in for a show by the HHF staff and the medical volunteers of the village.
The two portable dental chairs were unloaded and Drs. Phil and Mitch setup to pull teeth. They pulled more teeth in one day here than they normally would do in five years back home (40-50). There is no equipment to fill the teeth that have deteriorated to painful agonies for patients ranging from childhood to the elderly. For the dental team, the day is filled with needles to numb the jaw and calls for, "I'll need an 88, a probe and a cow horn."
At first, it sounded like they were going into battle and they were. Drs. Phil and Mitch both were slim and strong with muscular arms and shoulders. They have to be in order to do this work. This is dangerous work. One slip of a needle or splattering of the enormous amount of blood in the wrong direction could expose them or their assistants to HIV Aids, TB or any number of infectious diseases that run rampant in Haiti.
THE CHILDREN
The children are so beautiful here. Dark black skin, big brown eyes and a curiosity and innocence that is enchanting. Andthere are so many..........
When we came into a village in the morning, the children were very shy and apprehensive of these "blan" folks in the white vans. By lunchtime, they became more comfortable with us and moved closer. By the time we were ready to leave, they surrounded us and were in our arms.
The little girls were so pretty all decked out in their Sunday best. The whole village was dressed in their finest. I was immediately taken by this little one who probably was two, but could have been older malnutrition stunts many of the children's growth. She had a white and lime green, laced dress on with red Christmas ribbons in her hair and her feet were bare. I couldn't help but go over to say, "Hello," but she turned and ran behind her mother. When I tried to take her picture, she hid.
All the girls had their hair nicely done up with colorful barrettes or bows and the boys were neat, clean and well groomed. They put on a show for us and the villagers, underneath the thatched roof of a small outdoors arena, which looked as if it was supposed to be permanent someday. The long, bench-style desks from the school next door served as bleachers. Young girls performed a song and dance to emphasize good hygiene. One young girl had on an oversized pair of high heels. She wobbled as though it was her first time in heels. Our Pilgrims became part of the song and dance, as each one of us was presented with a basket of fruit. We received howls of laughter as, one by one, we wiggled and shook our way to the improvised stage to accept our gifts. And there was that little girl in the white and lime-green dress with red Christmas bows in her hair.
Dr. Mitch Quintner and Family
make another tooth extraction
Photo by John A. Adams
Photo by Tony Bacewicz
Ellen set up a group to do fluoride treatments and dental hygiene for the kids. "I'm the sideshow," she said, referring to the main show being the dentists, nurses and doctors seeing patients. The kids chomped down on Styrofoam dental forms filled with a fluoride cream. They had to hold the yucky mixture in their mouth for a drooling, face contorting and sometimes crying four minutes. Then they were given a new toothbrush and toothpaste.
A MIRACLE
I took a break to walk down the village path and snap a couple of pictures of the thatched huts and a very unusually designed outhouse. As I walked along, my hands hanging by my sides, I felt a tiny hand slip between my fingers. It was the little girl in the
Ellen Witsch giving a toothbrush to a willing participant
Photo by John A. Adams
white and lime-green dress and Christmas bows in her hair. The miracles we had brought along with us medicine, hope and care had changed her fear to love.
When we packed up at the end of the day, dusty, sweaty, and exhausted, the children were all around us and Dr. Phil sang songs in Creole to them. We started to drive away down the rocky dirt road, and a little barefooted boy and the little girl in a lime-green dress with red Christmas bows flowing from her hair ran after us until they couldn't keep up any more. Then they disappeared in the cloud of dust we left behind.
MORNING WALKS WITH JERRY
Our early morning walks through town with Jerry and Virginia were an important daily occurrence. They signaled our openness and communion with the townspeople. They introduced our Pilgrims to different neighborhoods and their people and gave us a chance to see, touch and feel what we were working to improve. Dr. Lowney was a wise man leading at the head of our tribe. His actions reconfirmed his calling as the visionary and chief proponent of the Center and the Foundation. He, Virginia and Marilyn tirelessly pursue their passion for the work here. Jerry is the constant target of outreached hands of
Dr. & Mrs. Lowney with Owen Bacewicz (BG)
Photo by Tony Bacewicz
villagers or those seeking help or answers about where to fit it or what to do or, "Please help me or my baby or my mother." He is also the one we went to for help and answers and he always patiently listens and responds.
NELSON
Dr. Lowney was taking us to see Nelson, a young man who is completely paralyzed from the neck down. A blow to the head presumably caused his condition, but the real cause and cure if there is any is a mystery. In the clean little house with three tiny rooms, Nelson lay on a bed in the darkened center room that is used as a bedroom, kitchen and living room. A new battery-powered radio sat on the kitchen table and a wheelchair in the back storage room both gifts from Jerry and Virginia. They had brought a bag of food for the family and even included a new can opener. The boy's mother takes care of him day and night. An old, frail lady that I assumed to be his grandmother, stood out on the front porch quivering with what I thought was the initial stages of Parkinson's Disease.
On the way back to the Center, Jerry explained to me that we must approach one individual situation at a time in the midst of this overwhelming need. He told me about an 86 year-old grandmother who works every day in the market to care for ten children. They live in a tiny shack in deplorable condition. "If we can provide a better home for them, that would be a real accomplishment," he said. Later on in the trip he showed us the home purchased for Grandmom as a gift from his daughter, Jennifer, who set up the "Gingee Fund" to honor her mother, who helps with her four daughters.
Grandmom and part of her family with Marilyn Lowney
Photo by Tony Bacewicz
PIERRE
As we approach the HHF gate, a fellow in a wheelchair met us. Pierre's chest looked like it was connected to his legs, which were on backwards. He wore sunglasses and had a big pumpkin- toothed grin. He showed Jerry his watch, which was not working. Jerry took it and said, "I'll get you a new battery." I joked, "You'll never see that watch again."
Pierre works at the Center of Hope. Jerry calls him his "Hero," because Pierre does not allow his disability to overwhelm him. Jerry told us that he moves around on his stomach cutting the grass with hedge clippers. Sister Maryann was telling us how proud he is of having a job. The HHF truck passed by but Pierre always refuses a ride either to work or back. You could feel the love and admiration for Jerry in this unfortunate man's eyes.
Lines at the Front Gate of HHF
Photo by John A. Adams
TROUBLE BREWING
The U.S. Department of State had issued a warning on Monday that only essential US diplomats should remain in Haiti and that travel by other Americans was not recommended. Someone quipped that we must be essential "diplomats." I was starting to feel uneasy about the return trip through Port au Prince.
DECIDE (pronounced dessa.day)
This was going to be our third village to visit and it was proving to be a real physical challenge. Decide is a long ride west and then north along the river. As we climbed the mountain road I looked back at the smoke hanging over Jeremie like a morning fog. We parked the caravan along the road and went off on foot down the steep embankment to the edge of the shallow river. When we got to the river, Dr. Phil jumped right into the water boots and all. The scene of us crossing the river reminded me of a safari deep in the African jungles.
A DAY AT THE CLINIC
The lines form at the clinic gate early in the morning. The focus is on wellness for mothers and children, but no one is turned away for help. There is also an eye clinic, located in the "Cluck, Cluck" building. Sister Mary Mac told me it got its name because it used to be a chicken house used for a poultry program HHF has since discontinued. It is a large, one-story building with a well-insulated open-beamed ceiling. When Dr. Dan Poth did not go with the medical team to the villages, this is where he and Sister Mary Mac saw eye patients. Dr. Poth is an optometrist, from the Washington, D.C. area. He owns a group of eye clinics.
This is his second visit to Jeremie conducting what would be routine eye exams back home. But here, they are a stopgap to sight loss. "Not a bad way to spend the day," Dan excludes, "preventing blindness. Today was worth my 8 years of medical school." Theresa Monnerat, a registered nurse from Waterbury, Connecticut, is doing the glaucoma tests using a simple, but expensive, hand-held instrument that Dan had his company donate to HHF. Mary Christinat, secretary for The Catholic Mission Aid Society, is assisting with another eye test.
It was a steep one-hour climb to this village in the sky. The Haitian medical lady-staffers who accompanied us climbed in sandals, dresses and skirts. One beautiful young lady, who I helped forearm on forearm up a steep section, had on a gray tweed, wool skirt and a dark burgundy nylon blouse. One other had on a turquoise dress and wore a pull-down violet colored hat that balanced a fifty-pound Tupperware box of dental instruments on her head.
Two pack donkeys passed us on their way down as we climbed up the mountain. That was part of the transportation for our other supplies. When we arrived at the village, we were soaked in sweat, but the cool, dry breeze quickly dried us out.
Crossing the river enroute to Decide
Photo by John A. Adams
GOOD-BYES
Before the church bells chimed, we were up on Saturday morning. Dr. Dan said, "Don't use up all the hot water," as I got in the shower. The inside joke was that there was NO hot water.
The political unrest in Haiti was becoming more serious. The third largest city in the country, Gonaives, had been taken over by a lawless rebel gang. Haiti has a small 5,000-person police force and no army. I wondered how would they be able to control anarchy?
I drove to the Jeremie airport with my new friends. I would be staying a few more days. The dirt runway was congested with people balancing a variety of things on their heads baskets filled with pineapples, bananas or banana fronds, or burlap bags of charcoal. There were cows and chickens and a man riding a horse across the runway as he led another steed. The runway was a busy thoroughfare for everything but airplanes.
Then a man yelled, blew a whistle and the runway magically cleared for "the plane." The Sky Van with the funny pregnant-belly luggage compartment landed and came to a noisy stop by reversing its three-bladed propeller engine. The official-looking part-time ground crew surrounded the plane, luggage was unloaded, then loaded, and pictures were taken. There were hugs and some kisses. A young girl, Marie Joseph, from the remote village of Jourdain was there with her mother. Mary Joseph had lived with a golf ball-sized hemangioma bursting from her lip. She is returning to Norwich, Connecticut to have it removed at Backus Hospital by Dr. Rick Martin, Jerry Lowney's son-in-law.
After one of our last dinners and spending a week of service in what some might well consider a dangerous land doing risky work, we received one more request from our benefactor Dr. Lowney. "Father Frank will be handing out bills for your transportation and stay in Jeremie."
Yes, that's right! We all paid an average of $1,000 to come where most others would not dare go even if paid, to work, sweat and give to a cause in which we deeply believed. We could have stayed at a resort on the beach or played golf at a southern country club. But, instead, we were climbing mountains mountains of hope where, at first glance, there did not seem to be a prayer. In a week, we changed the world, not just in Haiti or Jeremie, but the world within. Damn, what a bargain it was.
PRELUDE
Several days ago I received word from Jeremie that guns were being distributed to chimeres (Aristide- supported Vigilantes) and they were shooting them off at night just for "show." Yesterday, February 27th, I read online that rebels were poised to take over Port au Prince and crowds were desperately trying to leave from the airport. At the end of the news article it was reported that rebels were active in parts of Jeremie.
If there is any hope for a better life for the people of Haiti, it will be due to miracles like the Haitian Health Foundation. It is important that these centers of hope are protected from harm and that supply lines are continually open to allow provisions of their desperately needed aid.
A fond Pilgrim "Farewell"
Photo by Tony Bacewicz
The international community, with the leadership of the UN, may be the stabilizing force the country needs to begin to peacefully put its house in order. Failure to take immediate action to protect and support resources such as HHF and other humanitarian centers could lead to the destruction of the little hope the people of Haiti have left.
