Mass Grave Site, Grace Village and Elder Visits

This blog is from Marni and Ward -

Today was an awesome day, very uplifting.....a welcome change from the past 2 days which were more difficult emotionally.  We started our day at the Mass Grave Site.  Our interpreter Emmanuel shared the history of the earthquake which occurred on January 12, 2010....it was afternoon and they began to feel the earth shake.  Because it had been many years (he believes since the 1940's) since they last had an earthquake (and certainly nothing as massive), overall the Haitian population was uneducated about earthquakes.  They didn't know what was happening or what to do.  Emmanuel said that many people thought that Jesus was coming.  It lasted about 37 seconds, then it sounded as if there were many aftershocks.  Many people ran inside to take shelter and unfortunately the buildings crumbled and many people were killed.  The epicenter was in downtown Port-Au-Prince (population estimated to be about 1,000,000).  Emmanuel believes that the estimate of lives lost was 300,000, however he says it is probably higher as some people were able to be buried in the mausoleum or took their loved ones to the countryside to bury.  But because the devastation was so enormous, they had no room to properly bury all of those who perished.  The government decided to create an area - a "mass grave" and took everyone there.  It was quiet and peaceful today.  Something that is different from my August trip is that there is now a fence and brink wall surrounding the memorial.  We were unable to enter today.  Today's experience for me (personally) was very different from the walk up the mountainside I as able to take just 8 short months ago.....still so happy to be there again.

This is just outside the Mass Grace site - neighborhood kids joined us for our prayer.

From there we traveled to Grace Village - sure a wonderful place to be.  I am writing from Ward's journal entry from the day....

Grace Village is the best, nicest stop yet.  They have about 50 orphans.  And school about 300 children from the orphanage and area.  Some medical services and an area much more like what we would think of as medical.  They are building a bakery on site to train Haitians and plan to build another in the town at the bottom of the hill.  This is the first spot I've seen that I've felt a sincere hope for the future that could really happen for most there.  From the hills of Grace Village we could see the beautiful Caribbean Sea.  With an electric generator and a well I think I could live here.  The day was very hot, drank a lot of water.  Grace Village, north of Port-Au-Prince, as my mom would say, "What a beautiful country we live in".  Grace Village has an aquaponics system (which is basically a fish farm).  There are 4 tanks that each grow 300 Talapia.  The waste from the Talapia is used to fertilize their gardens.  The gardens, in turn, help to provide nutrients to the fish.  I takes 8 months for the fish to grow to harvest.  When Ward's wife passed away, he donated memorial gifts to God's Global Barnyard.  He requested some of the funds be designated toward a fish pond (aquaponics), so today it was pretty awesome for him to see how this happens, and that experience was very personal for him.  Our team appreciated his willingness to share this with us....

Bread Oven at Grace Village

A worker in the Aquaponics Program

The group at Grace Village

We visited 5 Elders in their homes.  Washing, using lotion, singing and praying for each.  One lady was 104 years old, which doubles the life expectancy in Haiti.  When we stopped at one of the Elder's homes, Brad had a guitar, a Haitian boy of about 12 was plucking the strings.  A young adult lady took Brad's guitar and started playing and sang Amazing Grace and a song in Creole to our group - what a treat.

Me and a neighborhood girl or relative of one of the Elders.

Cassie working with one of the Elders.

Katie playing with one of the neighbors or relatives of the Elders.

The Haitian gal who took Brad's guitar from him and played and sang for us.

Rachel and me working with one of the Elders.

We saw Edmund who is 81.  He is blind and partially deaf.  We saw Marie who is 104 (can you believe that???).  She is the oldest elder in the program.  Out of 14 children, she only has 1 daughter remaining.  Meme is 74 and blind.  Maricia is 74 and cares for some of her grandchildren.  Finally, Antchola is 64.  This is my favorite area to serve.  Like my August trip, it takes me back to my love for the elderly and my work in hospice.  It is an emotional day, but good and happy tears.  They are joyful and love Christ.  They allowed us to share in that love.  One of my favorite parts is the singing we do - Emmanuel plays the keyboard and our teammate Brad played the guitar.  Aside from the human touch, it is the most beautiful part of the experience.  Another thing that is very touching is seeing the respect that our Haitian interpreters have for the Elders....I also love listening to them pray in Creole as they interpret what we are saying in English.

On the way back we stopped at a couple metal markets, most bought a variety of items.  This is one of our shopping days and it is always so much fun.