Mizak, Haiti 2-18-09 to 3-2-09

Our team leaves 2-18-09 for Mizak, Haiti. We had a difficult time finding a project this year. The changes in the Methodist Guest House (MGH) and the Methodist Church d'Haiti seem to have made coordination almost impossible. The MGH is very expensive too. Since there are no longer VIM missionaries at the MGH, the help getting projects has dissappeared. Communication is very bad too. However, the Church won't support any team that doesn't stay at the MGH. So, this time, we found an organization that helps artisans in the Jacmel area,
Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI) . They are an advanced special of the US United Methodist Church. (UMC). The community we will go to is Mizak. It is up the mountain over Jacmel. 350 homes have been identified there which have been damaged or destroyed by hurrricaine Gustav. We will be working on the home of a paraplegic there named Ti Pierre.

"Ti Pierre
When greeting Haitians and you ask how they are, most will always answer that they're fine, not so bad. But every once in a while, you get a really honest answer from a human that is really suffering. That was the case with Ti Pierre.
He is a 32-year-old man who is vibrant and full of life from the heart up, but seven years ago he was in a severe car accident while he was chauffeuring his tap-tap pick-up and he has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. Now all he can do is lay in this bed that has old clothing as a mattress. He has an old strip of fabric tied to a rotten wooden beam above his head for him to pull himself up when he needs to sit upright.
The house where he lives is a tiny shack constructed of rocks stuck together and palm branches laid on top for a roof. The weak walls are crumbling severely from the hurricane winds and everything inside smells of mold because it gets wet every time it rains and never has a chance to dry out. He shares this little life box with his aunt and a younger cousin. His parents died long ago and he has no siblings.
Ti Pierre has recently regained some mobility as a friend of the family gave him a wheelchair, but it has its own handicaps as well with the left armrest and part of the back broken off. The back has been pieced back together with sticks and scraps of cloth. Nonetheless, Ti Pierre still manages to drive that thing with remarkable agility along the rocky paths between his house and the neighbors, the same paths that I usually can't even handle on my feet without tripping all the time. But he does it, and he's surviving day after day, somehow. "

We will be out of phone and computer communication while in Mizak. There is no electricity, water, phone, or any of the "necessities". I will add pictures and more when we get back.

Michael Windover

Traverse Bay UMC

Traverse City, Mi 49684