Status in Nov 08

The situation in Haiti is getting more desperate if that is possible. Direct storm damage has created a situation where people are like refugees in their own towns. Some have been given tents. Some live on rooftops. Water sources are fewer. Crops wiped out. Gonniaive is especially bad. Cabaret, a community which we used to pass through on the way to Thomas was hit very hard. Yet Cap Haitien and IleLeVache were spared. But, all of Haiti is effected because of the loss of the rice crops in the Artibonite.

Efforts to help are too few, too slow, and too little. The Haiti government lacks the organization and discipline to help. The UN never attempts to do what it could do to really help. Even the churches are too inadequate to the task. Money is collected but not used. The Haiti Methodist Church wants to rebuild community by repairing schools and churches. The world size organizations have many millions of dollars they say they will give Haiti, yet, they wait for Haiti to pull itself up by their bootstraps to some "acceptable level" before they will disburse the money. This is like waiting for a drowning man to save himself before throwing him a lifeline. It seems that many have the attitude that they won't give at all if some material gets stolen or some money gets embezzeled. So people starve.

Sorry, I am mad and discouraged. Yet, our team will continue. We are trying to get from the Haiti Methodist Church an assignment that we can do to bring help to those that need it. For those who don't know our process, we only take on projects presented to us by the Haiti Methodist Church. This is the role of an UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteer in Mission) Haiti team under the convenant between the Michigan United Methodist Conferences and the Haiti Methodist Church. Our team's plan is to go back in Jan or Feb of 09.

We are currently making and selling our Christmas wreaths towards that goal.

For those interested. Step one is to cut greens from trees and haul them back to Jerry and Ann's house.

This year we had a treat. We saw this Northern Saw-whet owl. It sat in a tree next to where I was cutting branches. The brances fell within a meter of the owl. We could approach the owl to within 2 feet, and even take many pictures.



The first step is to cut the branches of greens off trees.












We haul them on a large truck with a box that sets down on the ground to load.









Enough! Time for lunch.

Hot soup or chili is often the fare of the day.
Now we get to inside work.
Branches are brought into the garage where they are sorted and short pieces are cut off. The short pieces are then gathered into fan shaped bundles. Next, a piece of white pine and cedar are added on top of the bundle, and the bundle is set aside. Then a wire ring with clamps is placed on a clamping device. Bundles are added one at a time using the device to clamp them onto the ring. It takes 10 bundles to fill the standard 22-24" ring. A separate operation in the mean time takes pine cones gathered in the Fall and binds them together in sets of three cones. Three of the 3-cone sets are wired to the wreath. The final step is to add a large red bow. These have been tied in yet another operation earlier.

Often it takes a second trip to the tree fields to gather more greens. I think we made about 350 wreaths in our project last year.

And you thought we were done? Now the wreaths have to be sold. We take orders and deliver most at church on Sunday. In addition to the standard 22" wreath, we make a 36" large wreath as well as centerpieces. Someone added the white dove to our large wreath which hangs in the sanctuary.

Our congregation at Traverse Bay United Methodist Church takes missions, especially Haiti, very seriously. This 3x4 ft. painting from Haiti greets all who come in the front door. In addition to the Grand Traverse District Haiti UMVIM team represented by this blog, we have a second Haiti Mission Team that supports an orphanage in Port au Prince.