Hatte Perat

All this week, I have had the pleasure of accompanying a team up into the mountains south of where we are staying in Petionville to gather information and take pictures of the children for child sponsorship packets. Number one, I have to tell you that the road is unlike anything I've ever experienced. It steep and rocky with big crevaces...bumpy doesn't even begin to describe it. We went Tuesday to an area a little ways up the mountain road, then Wednesday, we went further up to an area called Aux Cadet. Well, yesterday took the cake. We hear of a new community where there has been minimal work done, so we decide to visit to see if FH can help out. We go past Aux Cadet by another hour. As we go, the road turns into a two-person walking path. Yes, we are trying to get a 4-runner down a two-person walking path with bushes and cacti on either side. Multiple times, the passengers had to get out and walk in front of the car, moving rocks to the side to allow it to pass through. The whole way there, the pastor of the church there, who we had picked up on the road when we first entered the Aux Cadet area, is telling us about his community, called Hatte Perat. They are a community of about 3000 people. There is one school and one church, but the closest water source is a 2-hour walk. The closest clinic is about 2 hours driving. I cannot imagine how long it would take to walk it, especially if you are sick. There is no good road to get in/out of the community, so it is very difficult for the members to get their produce to market to sell. The ones that do, walk all the way down the mountain to Petionville (where we live-a 2.5 hour drive) to sell their produce once a week. This place was seriously out in the boonies. But I wish you could've experienced the heart this pastor had for his community. He was young, maybe early 30s, and he had such a great vision for what his community could be and things that FH could do to help the community grow and prosper. We arrive there and there are more than 200 people standing inside this tent so intently looking at us and excited that we're there, but wondering what we are doing there also. The pastor had told them we were coming to take their picture, so we had the awesome opportunity to tell them what FH will be doing to help their community. You could just see everyone's eyes light up. They could help them get a better road? maybe a well? It was such a neat thing to experience. We took a ton of pictures of the kids, and the FH staff that speaks Creole talked with each child, and found out all about them, what their life is like and what they want to be when they grow up. I'm not even sure they know what they SHOULD want to be. They're so removed from the city that I'm not even sure they know what's out there past the farm labor that their parents do. Hopefully FH can bring hope to their community and help them grow. Then, on the way down the mountain, our brakes overheated and we slid about 10 yards down this rocky/gravely hill. Praise the Lord everyone was safe. We cooled them off with water, and sat for a while and they seemed to work again. I"m just glad we made it down the mountain safely! I will post some pictures I've taken in the past week so you can get an idea of what we've seen here.