Covant trip D10

Our final day with Love a Child went by all to quickly. The total count of people seen that week was 1,231.

Our team, my new friends

We started the day out with unpacking the medical supplies and washing everything.

We got everything restocked and ready for the next group coming in.

After we got done getting everything cleaned up and organized Sherry asked if we wanted to help hand out some donations. We were happy to help wherever needed so we loaded up the truck and headed off to a village close by.

The entire village came out.

We brought baby clothes and girls dresses on this trip but everybody wanted to see.

Heidi helping a little girl try on a dress

Sherry unpacked the boxes and the team helped the girls try the dresses on. We were very happy to be able to reach out to the people in Haiti our last day instead of just "hanging out" and taking it easy.

Showing off their pretty new dresses

It was sad saying good-bye, but I had no doubt I'd be back. I love Haiti.

Me with some of our interpreters

Saying good-bye to Sherry

I've set up a website where you can give if you feel led to help me get back to the people in Haiti http://youcansend.me/missions4love

Covant trip D9

I think our day started at 4am. It was dark and cold out. We had a long walk ahead of us and we needed to get started before it started warming up.

I tried to take a picture of the stars, but it didn't show up

It was a beautiful morning :)

Breath taking sunrise

The people in Covant carried all our supplies back up the mountain. They had started way after we left and still had no problem passing us up.

Even while carrying our supplies they had no problem passing us

It was a long way up the mountain.

We had to climb to the top, can you see the people on the trail?

After our long climb up the mountain we still had many hours of driving ahead of us. So we said our good-byes,

 and started the long journey back to Fond Parisien.

We saw many interesting sites along the way. There were two little girls that chased after us for a long time, one was carrying a bundle of sticks the other a basket of laundry.

There was a school in the middle of nowhere that was packed with kids. Our passing caravan disrupted school.

A village school

Our drivers had been working on finding an alternate route for us to take back. The hope was that it'd be shorter with easier roads to manage.

We went along a coastline and got to see some fishing villages.

The view was beautiful but it smelled like rotten fish

The road took us thru the Pine Forest, the only area in Haiti that still has trees.

Road going into the Pine Forest

Along the way we ran out of gas, thankfully we had a "gas truck" that had joined our caravan.

Our mobile gas station, notice the hand pump.

Water fall down the side of the mountain

It was late in the evening when we got back to LAC, sore and tired but thankful.

Covant trip D8

Our last full day in Covant, thus our last day of clinic.

People waited in front of the school until there was room in the church

We started the day out with the mindset that we would not stop working til every person was seen.

14 yr old boy taking care of his sisters

With this being our third day we already had the system down to a science and was able to jump right to work. It seemed like we saw the more urgent cases the first two days and this day we were able to get the people through quicker.

Faces that I'll never forget

As soon as we finished, the people in Covant stepped up and helped us pack up.

Part of our clean-up crew

 However, as we were getting everything cleaned up a village showed up. Yes an entire village! They had come from FIVE mountain ranges over. Sherry called for a quick meeting to see how we wanted to handle this. We didn't want to turn anybody away and they had come from so far so we cleared out the church had them sit in there.

Many people either didn't have shoes or the ones they had were worn out

We had family packs which is essentially everything needed to fill a medicine cabinet. Sherry explained the medicine to them and then passed out 100 packs.

Erica made a jump rope.

We got done earlier than expected so we spent the day playing with the kids.

Heather brought a hula hoop.

Everybody came out to watch.

I brought beach balls

I love that we were able to spend so much time with the people in Covant. We may not speak the same language but you don't have to speak the same language to play.

Covant trip D7

Our second full day in Covant was another busy day of clinic. We saw more malnourished children and it seemed like the sick were sicker and the injuries were more severe.

Sherry holding a weak malnourished baby

One of our drivers, Maurice, had brought dresses and treats donated from his church.

Maurice with some girls showing off their new dresses

We tried to make sure that everybody that came through the clinic left with a gift. We even had little booklets in Creole that Joyce Meyer Ministries had donated.

The crowds are large but everyone patiently waits their turn

That day we saw 537 people!!
One of the things to point out about this place is that they don't have running water or electricity. So there is no watching tv in the evenings or even listening to the radio. So socialization is a very important part of their lives. LAC had brought a generator so we could have lights at night and this night we went to church.

Everybody shows up for church

The church was packed and some of the girls were wearing the dresses they had gotten from Maurice.

One of the most heart touching moments happened in that church service. The pastor got up and was thanking us for coming and told us that they had gifts for us. I remember thinking at the time, "these people don't own anything. What can they possibly give?".

Some of the women came in singing and carrying baskets of fruit, vegetables, and eggs. They brought the baskets to the front of the church and set them in front of us. All I could do was say thank-you while tears ran down my face. These beautiful people who had so little gave so much.

Bob holding one of the roosters they gave us

It was a very humbling night.

Covant trip D6

Day six of our trip actually marked the first full day in Covant. Once again we got up early in the morning, we had to set up the clinic area and get it organized.

Pastor Mark talking to the Haitian nurses

It was decided that we would have the people come into the church to wait and the 'clinic' was set up behind it. The guys put benches around us to mark the area and help with the flow of traffic.

Philemon, our head of security

It took us a little bit to get in the flow of things but once we did things went really good.

This is a man that brought both his wives and children

We saw 367 people the first day. I was amazed at how large some of the family's were and the men that would bring their wives and girlfriends along with all the children. It is totally a different mind set.

Being so far out in the mountains many of the people have no access to healthcare. Malnutrition was a common sight there, however there were some severe cases.

Mackenson is six but looks like he's maybe three

Covant trip D5

This was the last gas station we saw on the trip, literally

Day 5 we left Jacmel early in the morning and started the day with looking for a gas station. Things that are just a simple task at home becomes a big ordeal in Haiti and always seems to take three times longer. Once to leave the cities gas stations are few and far between so it's important for us to do this before anything else. As a matter of fact this is the last one we see on this trip. I had to laugh because people were coming out and staring at us, our large caravan drew lots of attention.

We still had hours of driving ahead of us. The roads were very steep and dangerous in some areas.

And when we got closer to Covant it was more like trails instead of roads. Most of the people here don't own vehicles and as hard as it is to comprehend some had never rode in one. There were some villages we would drive through and the boys and men would hang onto the back so they could "ride".

Some kids coming out to watch us

It didn't matter how remote the area was people would come running out to stare at our line of vehicles. We laughed and made the comment "the circus has come to town". We had large all terrain vehicles and I'm sure it did look funny to the natives.

When we finally got to the place where our vehicles couldn't go any further the people from Covant was there to greet us. The people were singing and clapping and some of the women were crying. They were so excited that we had come to see them. Later on they told us that they feel like a forgotten people that the government doesn't even remember.

We were sore and tired from our long ride but there was still a long walk ahead of us. The people from Covant were amazing and carried all of our supplies down the mountain and over the ridge for us. The walk took some of us four hours and I personally fell twice.

There were a couple of people from our group that they had to get mules for.

This is Covant's town square, the church and school

Once we reached Covant it was time to unpack and get our supplies organized before it got dark. This is an area that doesn't have running water or electricity. The original plan was to set up tents but there was no place to put tents. The ground was very uneven and rocky. Thankfully Covant's pastor worked it out so we could sleep in the school.

So we gathered our bags and cots and set up our living quarters. :)