On the last day of July, 2010 nine tanned, tired, but happy saints from Windy Cove Presbyterian Church in Millboro, VA loaded their luggage on the Port-au-Prince-headed bus, said their goodbyes and left after a week of hard work, laughter, and fun at CODEP. Two teenagers learned a bit of Creole, corn-rowed their hair, and found new friends on the beach. Others, visiting for the first time, found their hearts drawn to Haiti. Still others, Haiti veterans renewed old friendships, fell once again into the pace of life on the island, and everyone rubbed sore muscles from the hard work they had done.

A lot of this work related to things needed to be completed that related to earthquake-caused problems. A split in the grey-water lines needed to be fixed, and the lines had silted in without full pressure. (We have a separate, gray-water system installed so dishwater and sink drains do not put an extra burden on the septic system. Digging new receiving areas was needed too, so this backbreaking work was done by John and Corey. Sorting through a pile of fallen fittings, fixtures, and other stuff was a major task – and everyone pitched in. Several people helped fix the reverse osmosis water system, so that we’d once again have potable water in the faucets. One member even had time to design a unique schematic of CODEP and integrate it into a map of Haiti and the Haitian Flag.

But, perhaps the most fun was assisting in the delivery of Stop Hunger Now boxes of food. We made three trips up the mountain with a ‘baskil’ (dump) truck filled with up to 175 boxes of food. Some went to CODEP workers, who had collected at various stop points – who calmly and in an orderly fashion; one could say decently and in order (That’s a Presbyterian joke about how their church polity is viewed and practiced) – lined up to get their boxes and marched away balancing them on their heads. Other times, we delivered food to non-CODEP people, each of whom had a ticket representing one household. Each box of food contains up to 36 packets of food, ready to cook, which will feed 6 people, so each box contains 216 meals. During the delivery period, we took all 1188 boxes to people both at the beach and in the mountains – a total of 256,608 meals! We all are indebted to the work and support of Stop Hunger Now. (www.stophungernow.org).

It is important to note that Haiti is not urgently dependant on food being supplied in this manner – as the market places are filled with the normal variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and sundry other articles from hairpieces to cell phone chargers. But, in the sense of fairness that marks the Haiti culture, people in the mountain areas did not receive food distributions earlier, largely because of the difficulty in getting food to them. This is where the experience, trust and knowledge of CODP people made huge steps to restore the feelings that everyone is treated fairly. They were gracious and appreciative of the gifts of food – especially as CODEP people who played the lead roles in delivering the boxes explained what was in it, and how to prepare it. (Answer: use a ‘gwo maggi’ or large bullion cube).

It is having the opportunity to intermix with the culture in Haiti that brings understanding and rich memories to each mission visitor. CODEP and Haiti Fund are all about enriching the partnership with the people of CODEP and their support units from the United States.