children of haiti

Below are a few pictures and some brief information about our recent site-visit to Anse-a-Pitres, if you'd like to see...

The organization that we visited is called Ayitimoun Yo (translation: Children of Haiti). You can click on this link to view their website and watch a more detailed video of what their organization is all about. They currently have an orphanage with a little less than 30 boys, most of them between the ages of 10 and 15. They also run a school during the school year, where they host 60 students from the orphanage and from the surrounding community.

     

A church has given this school (pictured above) to Aytimoun Yo to use for about 2 years, this being their second year. For this school year, they have the funds to host the students in this building and give them supplies, but they are looking for money to fund 2 teachers for the year. Previously, they required the students' parents to work in the school (cleaning, cooking, etc.) in exchange for their education. They had some issues with parents not being willing to do this, but do not want to deny students for this reason, so are redeveloping these ideas and structure.

This is their current building (pictured above). They are in the process of looking for more land in the area so that they can begin constructing a larger building to be able to host more children. There are currently two girls a part of the orphanage, but since they don't have space for them at this facility, they stay down the street with a friend. They also would like to build their own school on the new property. 

 

The little guy on Andrew's shoulders is not a part of the orphanage. He lives down the street and spends a lot of time there, however, because he has a very unstable family life. On a totally random note, one of the interesting things about Anse-a-Pitres is that because it is so close to the Dominican border, it's actually rare to find people who speak French- most speak Creole and Spanish. It was fun to finally use my years of studying Spanish and to be the translator for Andrew at times (He is better than me with Creole, so it was fun to be on the other side!) ;)

We stayed in a hostel in Pedernales, on the Domincan Republic side of the border. We had a private room and bathroom, and our room even had A/C! It was actually a very nice place to stay, and at a great price. So each day we crossed the border to Haiti for work, and had to cross again before it closes at 7pm. It's fairly easy to cross if you are not Haitian. On Mondays, they have a market on the Dominican side, right by the fence, and open the border at 8am for any Haitians to enter and participate in the market. These photos are from during that time, as they were letting the Haitians into the DR for the market.

Another random fact, the UN has been occupying Haiti, under the operation titled MINUSTAH, since 2004. This basically means that representatives from countries all over the world work in Haiti as a "free police," though what they actually do is still unclear to us, besides ride around in big giant trucks all day... I will make no further comments. For now. Anyways, they have a proposed plan to be completely out of Haiti by 2016. The first city they are leaving is Anse-a-Pitres, which started last Friday! So here's a picture (below) of them pulling out of Haiti and into the DR. 

We were really surprised by the stark differences between the two cities (Anse-a-Pitres and Pedernales), even though they are right next to and within a 1 mile radius of each other. As soon as you cross the border to the DR, the roads turn from gravel to pavement, the trash on the side seems to diminish, not a single person speaks Creole, and walking the streets at night is no longer really an issue. It's amazing that two countries on the same exact island, with such a similar history, can be so different.

The town is right on the coast, so we had a beautiful view of the Caribbean Sea. We really liked this little town, and loved the organization. We spent the weekend with the single 32-year-old French man who founded it (along with his Spanish co-partner who is currently in Spain after getting married a few weeks ago), and him and Andrew really got along. They have created a trust-worthy organization founded on integrity and deep compassion for the children. We are still unsure which direction OEF is headed, but personally we are grateful for this new relationship and hope to continue being a part of the amazing things they are doing.