Latest in Haiti...

Me and Michael Jeune at the 'new' guest house at grace. Mike's in charge of the missionaries at Grace.

my mommy in the camp- she is sewing purses through our program..she's great- in fact

today when i left i went to tell her bye and i bawled--every morning i say "BONJOUR

MOMMY" she says "OH BONJOUR PETITE MWEN" (hi mommy- oh hi child of mine)

my friend and security guard BOB at his movie cinema..he's got my friend Michael's cd poster on his door in the camp.

What a week!  Many people came to our committee with heavy hearts asking what they should do about the approaching cyclone. We tried to speak but nothing would come out of our mouths. What do you tell someone that was

1. Already living in a povern nation the past umpteen years 2. Got displaced from their home, family, workplace and life. What could you say?  I told them to pray?  I told them Kembe Fem Pa Lage. (Hold firm don't let go). But that lump in my throat was from thoughts of why do they have to keep holding on? Why do they have to hold firm? Haven't they held on enough?` 

We need to trust that something good comes out of everything, God's plan. We need to know that we are working as hard as we can, and have to be encouraged by little items of success. We need the Haitian people to know that they can trust us and come to us at any time. Not for handouts though, for encouragement, education and empowerment.

Yesterday during the cyclone I purchased many big sacks of water for people in the camp. 

Thanks to some donors off of the blog we were able to do this. The people were very encouraged that we were trying to help them in a weak time.  

The cyclone caused a great amount of mud in the camp, no tents came down in the process. It is over and for the most part it was not as powerful as it could have been.

On a side note we are starting our courses Monday at the stadium. History is first. We are still looking for teachers for this, each course pays $150 to a teacher. We will have 60 adult students the first course then plan to add the next course. If you'd like to donate and help these courses click the donate now button to the right.

Thanks SO MUCH in advance for ANY size donation you make.

Katie

Pep La

For those newcomers- Pep La in Creole stands for THE PEOPLE.  That is exactly who we are working for, 6 individuals working toward the same goal- Haitian empowerment, Haitian Success. 

Recently a few of the team members travelled to the USA to work on fund raising.  Friday night we will be attending the Red Carpet Celebration of Latinos in the Media in New Mexico.  Check it out at http://www.redcarpetnm.com/  This will be a great evening to raise awareness on the situation in Haiti along with our goals for the future of Haiti. 

I have (Katie) been involved with Haiti the past seven years, making trips yearly back and forth taking mission teams to do work.  I love the people, I love the country, I love the culture and I want them to have everything that I have here in Kansas- comfort, organization, clean communities and enhanced lives.  For this to happen the people have to be educated- it is imperative for any nation to succeed for them to be educated.  Project Pep la is working toward this goal one step at a time.  At the moment we are managing a refugee camp of 20,000 individuals that lost their home in the January 12, 2010 earthquake.  In this camp we are teaching Organization, Responsibility, and communication.  We want to work on adult education courses as soon as possible-covering issues such as Haitian/African History, Leadership, Business, English, Health, Family Planning, ect.  If you are interested in coming to Haiti and helping with any projects we have going on- our doors are open and you are welcome.  If you cannot come to Haiti- but would like to help- please consider helping with a financial gift.  For one course of 1,000 adults for a month- it will cost $450.  This is simply to pay three teachers to work five days a week.  Consider sponsoring a teacher, a course, or the entire coursework of 9 months!  To the right there is a donation tab- click there to make a donation directly. 

Keep posted as we head back to Haiti October 16 to continue our work of Haitian Empowerment. 

Sept. 29 Catching up

A few of the pictures above are of The Housing for Sam.Purse...The older lady with Tennis Shoes on- she was intense- she told us she lived through slavery days..and before PAP was there..which wasnt true but she was cute and driven with her spark!..Then Michaella and Sophia from Celianie's orphanage with their milk we delivered to the orphanage.  The photo of the megaphone and crowd..that was a riot- they were mad because they THOUGHT we were getting money for the camp from the government and not giving it to them..which is false, we had to have IOM come convince them otherwise. Then an amputee child in the camp at a breakfast we put on thanks to the military food...and me with the NCV team the day we received the rice.


Forgive me- ive been TOO busy to get on the computer- the only reason i have even had time to do emails is because i thankfully still have my blackberry.(rasberry as grandma calls it) I got in lastnight to Kansas- it was FREEZING- my blood is thinner than it was when i lived in Arizona! Everything is beautiful here though- its funny how you have to open your eyes wider sometimes to see beauty--just mom and dads backyard today while i was talking to dad was amazing.

So much is happening- so much good! The housing project is still going on- we have so far built 149 homes, there is an attached photo of Gene the man in charge of the builders is standing in front of the first home we built. The people are lining up to get these- its like Gold ... although we make no money off of them. In fact we are doing the entire project with minimal funds. We are mainly doing it sweat equity- the builders invest 2 weeks and then get a home, ect ect. To our team, it is still a sad deal that almost 9 months out of the earthquake- we are JUST NOW building Temp.Shelters...just goes to show that the lack of organization in Haiti really makes things difficult. I know that if this type of disaster happened in my town things would be looking much different 9 months after.

We've been getting military food, milk, but the best received gift this month was a Rice distribution, but not just to GIVE- as thats not our philosophy at Pep La. We met an organization called Noble Compassionate Volunteers http://www.ncvg.org/ out of Myanmars. They are a volunteer group that is doing amazing things. They had a Cyclone in 2008, that destroyed millions of homes, nobody was able to respond, mainly because their country wouldnt allow aid in. People were making huts out of cocunut tree branches. After this, Kyinn Kyinn the lady in charge decided to make it an official group. When the quake hit haiti, they knew they had to respond. She and her organization gave Pep La 300 hundred pound sacks of white rice, for a WORK FOR FOOD program. We happily agreed. This project started last monday and will continue for 65 days, paying security, cleaners, and rubble removal for the camp and street of Lamentin 54.

I am in Kansas right now- one of our supporters- Robert Montoya asked Dan and I whom are working on Pep La to come to New Mexico and speak at a red carpet event for latinos. Im pretty excited about it... www.redcarpetnm.com Of course I havent even fixed my hair in over 4 months- and now i have to try to fit into a formal dress of some sort AND fix my hair...there will be problems!! They purchased our tickets and i asked if i could come home a few days before- to try to fund raise personally. I will be writing some letters- as if I do not get some personal support i will not be able to stay and continue the work in Haiti. We all live very simply in Haiti- we eat Military MRES for lunch and supper- and our fun consists of random trips to the Samaritins Purse headquarters to their beach.

We have had some issues in the camp- riots, people saying that we are receiving things and not giving them out- every day rumors- but all in all things are great, we are teaching and trying to work with 20,000 people daily on changing their mentality from Charity to Change. When I get back we will be implimenting a new Community Watch program- teaching people to watch out for their neighbors, not to expect cops to take care of neighbor hood watch. So much to do-

August 21 Military and Missionaries

Good Day!








Lots of pictures had to decide, some of the missionaries working, some of our history class prepration, and then from today's military pickup! I realized today that i need to give the camera to someone else so you guys can see my mug every so often..ill work on that mom!


So- what a good week- i have been so busy no time to blog. Lots has happened, seems like some days NOTHING happens and others..EVERYTHING happens. God is Good- all the time i keep reminding myself.

This week I was blessed to help host 24 missionaries from Oregon..they were great. Very helpful and came with a servants heart for sure! They helped do trash collection and toilet duty in the camp- learning a new appreciation for these tasks that are barely paid on a daily basis. THey donated the money we normally pay the workers back to us to purchase gloves, proper wheelbarrels, face masks, ect. Very needed equiptment for the workers. Over $600 worth of items. God is Good.

We made contact to train the builders for Samaritains purse TShelters- the training will be MONDAY & Tuesday- and we will build shelters starting Wednesday! WHOOHHHOOO!! We will give the majority of these temporary homes to people in our camp. THe tricky part is deciding whom to give these to, to reward the good people means they leave our camp- bummer to get rid of the good ones! The good thing is that these people will have homes after 7 months. God is Good.

Today we spent all day back and forth from the Port. My friend Lut. Col. Brian that I met at a Cluster meeting at the UN 2 months ago contacted me and he has to get rid of a TON of food items the next 2 weeks. He is really interested in our camp and project, and is willing to help us. Its been fun to work with him the past few weeks- he's done a lot with us- including networking us to possibly get solar panel lights from IOM. Today we spent hours and hours at the port..it was pretty fun. We took MRES, Juice, Breakfast packages, ect today..ill attach some pictures, its rediculous how much they have to give. We will be doing a distribution at the camp this week..along with going back to Seaport to get more. God is Good.

Tomorrow we will host something that I set up for a non violence conference. I met Max Paul back in March, he is the head of the national convention of non violence..he is going to come for a few hours tomorrow- and do the conference...then we will continue classes. This is important to do all over the country- as they are not..let me repeat are NOT violent people, but when people are hungry they will do anything. So Im very thankful for this network to Max Paul to teach the people. God is Good.

Im tired-and am going to eat an MRE for supper. (OH by the way we fired our cook, she now just does laundry...we decided we wanted to save money- and we have some MREs from brian..so now im a SOLDIER! haha)

I found this today doing some research- and find it encouraging. Take time to read it.

“Hope and despair are not opposites. They are cut from the very same cloth, made from the very same material, shaped from the very same circumstances. Most of all, every life finds itself forced to choose one from the other, one day at a time, one circumstance after another. The only difference between the two is that despair shapes an attitude of mind; hope creates a quality of soul. Despair colors the way we look at things, makes us suspicious of the future, makes us negative about the present. Hope, on the other hand, takes life on its own terms, knows that whatever happens God lives in it, and expects that, whatever its twists and turns, it will ultimately yield its good to those who live it well. When tragedy strikes, when trouble comes, when life disappoints us, we stand at the crossroads between hope and despair, torn and hurting. Despair cements us in the present; hope sends us dancing around dark corners trusting in a tomorrow we cannot see. Despair says that there is no place to go but here. Hope says that God is waiting for us someplace else. Begin again.”
(unknown author)

AUGUST 2 SUNDAY

Sundays- Church & FUN @ The Beach





Above- Me and my friend Mardochee- he's on TEAM PEP LA- we were goofing off before we went to the beach- we were already ready- and waiting on everyone else- so we took a photo shoot.

So- we went to church yesterday- all of us. Dale (65 years old here to volunteer through us with the city/mayor)-Aimee (60 year old here to bring medical supplies) and Kelsey (24 year old from Egypt thats been with us for 6 weeks doing Research for American University of Cairo)

We went to a big church that the Mayor goes to- has an american pastor-he's been there for 28 years- so the language barrier wasnt there- which made it fulfilling! I believe it was definately a blessing to me to finally go to church- i was starting to miss church back home but hadnt gone because normally there is no translator.

He preached about how Haiti has failed because of people always having their hands OUT asking for handouts...instead of UP praising God. He made the point that when your hands are straight OUT they cannot be UP. Haitians do primarily just want given things- this is a huge problem, and it isnt all Haiti's fault..its also the countries faults that come and GIVE GIVE GIVE and dont ask them for any accountability. He spoke of Romans 12:1..."Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Throughout the past five years on my many adventures I find that whether i am skiing in Colorado/Montana, watching a baby calf be born at home, or even here at the beach----I dont understand how people can not believe in God our Creator..I dont understand how people really can see beauty and believe that a big bang happened and it just appeared..I dont understand how you can see such wonderful and amazing things- and not believe in God. Thats what that picture above at the beach was to show- God's creations.

Security Graduation JULY 18, 2010

JULY 18, 2010

So the past two weeks- thanks to David Lawrence- Canadian security- we were able to provide another two week training course for the Lamentin 54 Camp Security. It was fun to see throughout the two weeks and to see the end result of pride within the PEP LA security team.

The graduation was Saturday morning at 10 AM. Yvon Jerome- Mayor of Carrefour was present and provided the team with a great speech. After some hard work the graduation ceremony was a success and not only are those 75 men and women that are properly trained in security better off- the Camp of 20,000 refugees is better off because of this course. Our goal is to work with Yvon Jerome on trainings such as these throughout all the camps in Carrefour, and eventually with the entire city for security. You may think that security training and security guards means protect and serve in a secure way- domestic violence, gender violence, ect. But we believe these men and women when properly trained in the entire vision of moving forward will not only keep the citizens safe, but will make it a better place to live. They can tell the man on the corner to stop peeing on the street, they can enforce littering laws by positive reinforcement of proper disposal, simple things such as this will make Haiti a better place.

With the help of David Lawrence, yvon Jerome and the city of Carrefour, we hope to work through security along with many other issues to make Haiti better. I wanted to share those pictures with you- pictures from the ceremony- yvon speaking, the food we served after, Madam Benedette and Fabiola decorating with me, Ti Blanc getting her photo with the S.P. #1 team, ect. I hope you enjoy them.

If you have any interest in coming and teaching a course, or working with the security teams in training or on a daily / nightly basis please feel free to contact me. Also- something that is not real prevelant, but is happening is Gender Violence...there are a few cases of rape in the camp- much less than other camps due to our great security staff, but we are wanting to cut this number to zero. something that will greatly help stop Domestic Violence and gender violence is lighting. I leave the camp daily before it gets dark, but 20,000 people including children are obligated to stay as it is their home. Something I want to do is to get solar panels for street lights throughout the camp. 8 Acres is not easy to light- but if we start small, such as lighting just the restrooms so people feel comfortable to go to the restroom at night- this would be a great start. You may think its silly to do this- but people are fearful to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, therefore they go in their tent in a bucket, many people dont want to walk to the bathroom to dump the urine, so they dump it outside their tent, if there is a slope- it goes to the next tent, starts a fight with their neighbor (rightfully so) and one thing leading to the next, lack of lighting causes more fights than known.