The Sheppard Family~Living and Loving Haiti

We're back in Haiti and getting settled!  Boy, are we glad to be back too. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful to spend so much time in the States especially for the holidays. Still, Haiti is home now and Dorothy was right; "There's no place like home". True, we got back almost two months ago...but we're still a lot of people so getting back into the groove takes some time.  

While we were gone, the rodent invasion kicked into high gear! We've always had pest problems to deal with in Haiti. Roaches and rats, the occasional Tarantula, and more lizards than I'd ever seen before (exercising lizards always doing their morning push-ups on the ceiling, haha).  The lizards are harmless apart from distracting the dogs sometimes. We have the vehicles running, now we need to renew papers for some. Gymnastics is up and going, as schools begin opening here.  There is a lot of planning going for Sonis/Novell Terraine.  Everything is a process here, but life in Haiti is getting back to normal (at least Haiti normal).  

 

Regardless of all that, the rat king noticed our absence and unguarded palace. He sent in his troops to pilfer and pillage...to even set up camp ! Maybe he When we got back to Haiti, most of our food had been eaten by rats.  The plastic bins had been chewed through.  Mice and rats in almost every room.   We ordered some poison that is supposed to be safe for dogs, let's hope it works. We have been placing traps in almost every room. We mostly have the rats under control now--meaning they are staying outside in the yard. They have either moved outside or been caught. So many rats have been caught, that Naomi asks every morning to see the catch before it is taken away.

Linda has been very busy with Counseling, Gymnastics, and Training.  She continues to amaze me with the amount of energy she has.  Linda has met with the Haitian Olympic committee to discuss the possibility of training Haiti's first Olympic gymnast.  This could help to improve the perception of Haiti abroad. 

She has taken on a new project, with the same goal in mind.  She has been working with a US military contractor to setup training for search and rescue dogs for the Caribbean.  Being able to send help to other Caribbean nations during a crisis.  This is a long term and expensive process.  The expected cost to train a search and rescue dog is $25,000 plus, but the benefits could be saving a life. 

 

 

It is hurricane season, so that makes getting to Sonis more difficult. We are planning for when it is ok to walk in again.  We are planning a latrine project and some health training.  They are beginning school up there and we are hoping to provide some materials for the school.  The road is not completed to the village yet, we are hoping that it survives the hurricane season.  Some of you might remember that Hurricane Mathew washed out the road we were working on at that time.  It was not repairable and a new route was selected through the mountains.  

The current situation in Haiti is very tentative.  There has been some protesting and violence, but not all over the country every day.  You can still feel everyone on edge. A few business owners and some politicians (a very prominent attorney) have been executed on the street.  This violence is mostly political.

Covid 19 has affected life here, but not as much as in the US.  A lot of people here believe they have had Covid, however they are not being tested en mass.  The Haitian Department of Health has given guidelines for the doctors to diagnose without a test.  People on the street will tell you that if you have a fever and a cough, you have Covid.  I pray this does not come back to bite Haiti.  

There seems to be a lot of jobs leaving Haiti.  I recently saw a string of Facebook posts from an expat group discussing the number of NGO's that have left Haiti in the last year.  There is a government estimate that claims 85% have left, without plans to return.  Most of the expats in the discussion group agreed.  This means the loss of thousands of jobs for the Haitian economy, and the loss of assistance they were providing.  The government is also messing with the economy to try to help with inflation.  Since the Haitian economy is tied very closely with the US dollar, the government injected US dollars into the economy to affect the exchange rate.  September 1st the exchange rate was 115 gourdes for 1 US dollar (at the bank you would get 113 gourdes), today October 2nd the exchange rate is 65 gourdes for 1 US dollar (at the bank you would get 60 gourdes).  This means that it takes almost twice as much US money to buy the same item as last month.  This would be good for the Haitian people, if it didn't have such a drastic affect on the businesses here.  The prices on the street are starting to come down, but not to the same extent.  I have only seen prices come down about 10% not 50%.  Many Haitians are paid in US dollars or the Gourde equivalent, so they are now receiving just over half as much as last month (if they still have a job).  Businesses are also leaving.  Many business people are saying they will close their businesses and move to a more stable country (then they joke that the US is not stable right now).  The NGO's and businesses that are not leaving are mostly putting projects on hold, due to costs, and waiting for the exchange rate change.

This chart is the international exchange rate, the exchange rate in Haiti dropped about 3 weeks ago.

 

Our hope does not rest in exchange rates, or politics, but in God and His sovereignty.  We do however, pray that God will heal this land.  Please consider signing up for our newsletter notifications on the right side of this page. We also ask that you prayerfully consider supporting us as we try to continue the work that God has before us.  God will provide.