1. This is a young couple in their 20's named Franquet Miro and Elaine Ticharle. Their children are pictured. One is Franguelson Miro who is three years old. The other sweet baby is Lovemica Miro who is only 6 months old. There are other family members that live in the home as well. It's more like a community home with at least eight others that are living there as well. Please keep the family in prayer!
 |
| Family gathering the remains of their home |
Nouvelle Terrain.
The house has completely come down. Much of the pieces are broken.
 |
| Franguelson Miro- 3 years old |
 |
| Lovemica Miro- 6 months old |
The picture below shows the cleared area where the house used to be. The house seen still standing in the background is a different family home. The families are pitching in together to help each other out, but there are many people already crammed in their stick and mud homes. They simply do not have room to add a family of another ten or more people to their already crammed mud homes.
Our son Billy is standing in the middle of where the house used to be (pictured below). The mat in front of his feet is one of their beds. On a different trip where we did medical, I actually was down for the count for two days. I couldn't even lift my head up without throwing up. The villagers were amazing to plop me on one of their grass mats when I was sick. But I will say those mats are generally filled with bedbugs. It's a very difficult life in the remote areas. Poverty is extreme already without these kinds of natural disasters added on top of an already challenging existence.
Ron, Kyle, and Billy really struggled to get to this home. The trail was difficult and there were small waterfalls they had to jump over on slippery rocks. Ron said they couldn't pack their packs in or they wouldn't have made it, but then they saw a little three year old girl skipping along in a church dress and dress shoes having no problem on the trail. They are survivors and accustomed to the terrain.
2. This is the home of Alianna Cherise and Alteran Lictor. Their children are Jean Frise who is 20 years old, Margarite who is 18 years old, and Jean Claude who is nine years old. Much of their home was destroyed by the high winds in the hurricane. Their grass roof has been mostly torn off which exposed all the people and items inside to flooding. The side of it has fallen down.
 |
| grass roof of family home |
 |
| much of the protection of mud has blown off ... |
This family is still living in the home. The children help to farm the land. They have no other family in the area and nowhere else to go.
The house is exposed. Ron did go inside the home. The back third of the house is exposed. All the clothes are piled over by the door to protect them from the rain that is currently pouring in.
You can see through the walls because the mud has come off. We will have to develop a plan to help repair this home. Please keep the family in prayer!!
 |
| damage from mudslide and wind |
3. This is the home of Jonell Louisy and Nadej Louis. Their children are Jonnellson age nine and Celo age six. Part of their home was damaged by mud and wind. This home is right next to the church that collapsed.
This picture shows the damage of the roof on their home.
This shows some of how the home is constructed. The primary issue though is that the kitchen (which was separate) was entirely destroyed. People make their kitchens separate from their home for safety in case of fire and also due to smoke inhalation.
The picture below shoes the wife Nadej Louis. She is helping to distribute the cooking oil that we brought to the village along with the rice and beans. She is an active member of the church and has helped us with medical and educational training when we have hiked previously to the village. She also cooks for our teams when we go in.
The picture below shows the pieces of the kitchen that they have salvaged to make a temporary kitchen. The husband's mom is in the yard. There are always other extended family that lives in the homes as well as the ones listed.
4. This the home of Elisa Francois. She has two children, Denise age twelve and Naptan age ten. Much of her home was destroyed in the hurricane. Mostly the whole porch roof flew off. This would be the area that they previously cooked so that they were separated from the smoke in their home. The family wasn't actually there when we visited. They were out in the fields trying to salvage their crops. This house is not near the church. It is a very long walk from the main village and is extremely remote.
6. This is the home of Cheristil Mortel. The family has two girls ages ten and eight and three boys ages fourteen, twelve, and six years old. Ron said they were trying to rebuild when they were there. They are working on reconstructing the frame. The children were in the fields working the pastor showed up with our small scouting group.
7. This is the home of Elise Pierre and Felisia Gala. Their children are Estanile (20), Geda (18), Tonya (17), Elleva (15), Yanik (12), Maxi (9), Dalina (5), Marielov (3), and Lona (2). This home is very remote, but it is on the way to the main village. It is on a hill and there is a little trail, but it is difficult to get to. The family is actively trying to do repairs.
8. This is the home of Jacqueline Exil and Derino Deresil. The mud walls are broken and a pole is keeping the house from falling over. Multiple people live in this home, but we didn't get all the names. Their children are Kisnel age twenty-five, Krispison age nine, Manez age seven, Azia age four, and Modeline who is twenty months old.
Apparently these are called Kay Pay houses. They are basically mud and stick homes with grass roofs. As you can see, high winds would easily take these homes down or significantly damage them.
10. This is the home of Tifanm and children Maybrizan (20), Madila (18), Janiciera (14), and Islande (12). This home is closer to the main road. This is probably why you see different kind of construction because the other homes really have an inability to get building material into the location. The roof is gone and most of the walls are down.
11. This is the home of Rosemen Orasil and Marizlov Renald. Their children are Rosemita (28), Sonja (25), Ellfie (18), and Jennette (16). Much of the roof has flown off. Some of the material is salvageable, but much of it is completely destroyed. This home is also closer to the road which is why it is made of different material. Even though I say "closer to the road" the road is not an easy trek. We could not drive our truck all the way to the "road" because much of it is washed out. The people in the villages are working on fixing the road because it is how they get their vegetables to market, but this road has never been much of a road.
As you can see, some of the roof has blown off and the material is damaged for some of the walls. The material they used to build with is not made to get wet, so the house is not safe the way it is standing now.
12. This is the home of Aristan Johnfrit. Him and his wife have two boys. The house is under the landslide. They have done the best they can to salvage the sticks that were originally holding up their home. They are very poor and remote farmers in the village. This is the family where the dad heard the mud starting to move, so he took his family and got out of the house.
It is difficult to tell, but if you look carefully on the top right of the picture below, you can see the door of the home peeking out of the mud.
This is the church. There are additional pictures on facebook of the church, but haven't trouble loading them now. Please feel free to friend me Linda Shine Sheppard to have access to what I post on FB. I will say that Pastor Saint Pierre is an amazing man of God. He lives near the road and drives a motto (motorcyle) for a living basically packing supplies in and out for the villagers. He then also with his own time and resources hikes into Nouvelle Terrain to help this village- which is a good four hour hike one way. We have been assisting him for a while now and find him to be very honorable. He is very deliberate in everything that he does. We have given him rice and beans, jugs to hold water for the community, and a range of other necessary items for the community after we have done educational training. He calculates out and gives us exact lists of the distribution of the food (who it went to, where they were located, names, etc) without us even asking for that much detail.
We would like to add that the destruction of crops and livestock is probably one of the most damaging aspects to this village. I will work on posting pictures of that as well. At this point, this is just the building damage. Please keep the village in prayer. Any and all funds that you can donate would be greatly appreciated. We are working on estimates and will add more details as we have them. For a tax deductible donation you can go to: www.thechancetodream.com and click on the donate link. Please specify Haiti relief and send me a message if you have specific requests for the donation such as this specific village, building, medical, etc. Or you can mail to Sheppard, 160 NW Merle Drive, Hillsboro OR 97124 with a check addressed to The Chance to Dream and Haiti in the memo line. Some of our adult children are depositing the checks into the non-profit account for us and letting us know what they are specifically designated for. You can add a post it note with specific details. That information will be forwarded to us here in Haiti as well as the funds.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions: HaitiMissionaries@gmail.com
Thank you for all of your love, your prayers, and your continued support for the people of Haiti.
~Linda, Ron, and family
No comments:
Post a Comment