Haiti has been locked for 20 some years now. Elections have continued to be post-ponned. Today is the long awaited re-election day, we can only hope that this will result in a positive response allowing the country to begin to move forward again without the current devestation it has been experiencing for so long.

Most everything is shut down, cars and motorcycles are not allowed to be driven, airplanes are not flying, schools are shut down etc. all in hopes that this will lessen the chances of danger, violence, and protests resulting in deaths.

There is an internet cafe that is actually open today, fortunatly I was able to get here, as I have much that I want to share.

Yesterday was maybe one of my favorite days in Haiti. A couple of boy s, Ralph and Mackendy took my down to the Cyber Cafe where I emailed from yesterday. On the way home I noticed a boat being rowed into shore from a distance. I vaguely mentioned that I would lov to go out on a boat someday. Ralph, who was on a bicycle quickly rode over to a man a few hundred yards away on the beach and was away abuot 5 minutes. When he returned, despite my request was not ment to be taken literally, Ralph, and 11 year old boy, had arranged a trip out on the boat for me. Because he had done this and of course thrilled the Haitian boat owner with an opportunity to make some money, I could not back away. Out on the boat we went. Though it wasn't that quick.

It is not a quick process to launch the boat, nor prepare the boat to be launched. First, the outboard had to be hand carried a half mile away by two men, they had to find some fuel, and they had to mount the outboard, jury-rigged style. To launch the boat, it took over ten men, five on each side, two in the back to puch the boat over some plywood planks into the water, starting and stopping 5 times before the boat was launched. The boat was about 28-30 feet long, appromimetly 5 feet long wood canoe style. THogh the paint was very old and chipped, it was painted brightly with colors of yellow, orange, green, red and blue. I have many photos of this trip. As soon as I learn how to transfer them from my computer to the internet cafe's computer, I will be able to share them with you.

The ride across the bay out to the mountain villiage that we visited was beautiful. The colors of the water ranged from dark crystal clear blue to hues of baby blue and cloudy green (fresh river water). It took about 40 minutes to get where we were going, as a 35 yamaha does not propell a 30 some foot boat through the water very quickly.

The first sight I saw as we arrived at the small fishing villiage was of six young, very black, sand speckled, naked Haitian children learning against an upside turned boat awaiting our greetings. This is what you see on the discovery channel, not in real life! My heart was a pile of liquid wax...melted. This was how I felt the entire four and a half hours of this journey.

After greeting the small children and they ran back into the ocean to play, Ralph, Mackendy and another very young local boy guided me around this small villiage. The, "roads" between the houses, the small chuch, the tiny school and the 'market,' were literally rocky paths ascending and descending up and down the mountain, through rivers and waterfalls and of course always making way for the cows, chickens, pigs, donkeys and manure. The paths up and down the mountain are very steep and very narrow. The view from the top of the mountain was what you see on the cover of a travel brochure for a Caribbean destination. Palm trees, blue ocean, tropical birds, and the view of the island of Haiti in the distance. Hopefull soon I will be able to download these photos as well!

A man from Haiti who has lived in Maimi for over 20 years accompanied us on this adventure. Ironically he is a commercial fisherman who is back in Haiti to pre-plan and prepare for expanding his business here in Haiti to create more jobs for the fisherman. This man, (who's name I forgot) is approx. 60 years old has 9 children and is quite accomplished. He grew up in this small fishing villiage that we were visiting. This made the random adventure extra special as I recieved first hand information from a man who grew up there as well as spoke pretty good english. This man was visiting the villiage to tell the men that he would be purchasing 10 more boats, (he currently only has two that he hires men to fish for him - in order to provide work for the Haitians) and was there to assess the needs of equipment etc. Eventually he plans to package, freeze and ship out the fish to appropriate places.

With that explained, it was very intresting to hear stories of what fishing was like for him as a child, compared to now. Comparatively speaking, fishing is very difficult now, as there are few fish in the close waters, you have to go out very far to find them anymore. This is the primary source of food for these people, other then the coconuts. I got to watch the fisherman unload their catch of fish on the beach from their nets. Everything is done by hand, and all men must work together to accomplish anything.

This man from Miami owns two houses here in Haiti, one he rents out over on the mountain, one he owns in Jacmel where he spends half the year. We went near his house during hike across the mountain, he introduced to us some of his very close friends. One family was absolutely beyond fun and generous. This husband and wife have nine children, five girls and four boys. Oh my goodness, beautiful! This family lives in a very basic wood hut, with the kitchen area under a straw covered frame where the fire pit is located. When I arrived they welcome me warmly. After talking for a few minutes (mostly through sign language!) I was offered some coffee. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to engage in cultural experiences I simply prayed a quick prayer of protection from Ameboas and agreed. A cultural experience I recieved!

This was not your typical, 'flip the switch,' coffe pot. No, this process took over an hour. Unfortunatly I have not enough time to explain in detail the many steps it took to prepare this sugary coffee flavored syrup, called, Kafe' (coffee) but the simple mention of it being an hour long ought to provide enough for you to use your imagination. During this time I help to fry some freshly caught fish, hold a beautiful naked black baby boy, teach the children how to use the digital camera my friend Victor so generously offered to loan me (the LOVED that because they could view themselves and the photo after the picture was taken, they'd never seen this before!) as well as observe the amazingly talented 9 year old boy make his fathers lobster traps from straw. Indeed this was an adventure I would not have taded for anything, even though the entire time my belly was talking to me, letting me know revenge was still taking place!

On the walk back up the mountain to our boat, it was one reason afte ranother that we had to stop and do something, one Haitian had to give his HAitian friend another drink of Rum, one Haitian man had to help his friend put some straw on his broken roof, another man had to climb a coconut tree and throw down 12 cocunuts, cut them in such a way that we could first drink the juice and then crack them open to eat the meat, and lastely, the driver of our boat decided that he was too drunk to drive the boat home and had to find another driver!! Yes, adventures, I wouldn't have it any other way!

My time is up. I will write again as soon as I can. Especially because I have some very pressing things on my heart to share with you, but as I said, my time is up.
Please pray that the neccessary changes that need to be made at the Trinity Home can have some obvious solutions.

OK - I love you all!

Rebekah