Michael Carlin

Nicole and I have found ourselves in Haiti for seven weeks as of this coming week. It has seemed like an extremely long time at points and yet such a short time at others. We are glad to be here and excited for the work that has come before, and we look forward to the work that is to come. Our expectations and hope for this time has been to learn as much as possible. My prayers would be that we would always find ourselves in that position. But we also look forward to getting past some of the initial barriers.

Language, as you can imagine has been probably the first and biggest barrier to overcome. We had spent time during our preparation to come to Haiti learning the language. We utilized two audio series and a couple of Haitians that were living in Pittsburgh. From there we spent two weeks with a Haitian teacher while in North Carolina. At times we felt good about what we had learned and at times we were nervous at what we didn’t know. Shortly after arriving in Haiti we realized that we were not as prepared as we had hoped. Since being here we have been able to connect with another teacher, who was able to assist us for the last two weeks. Between Kinston, our local teacher, and being immersed in Haitian culture we have continued to pick up the language. We hope over the next two months to continue to improve our ability to communicate, and we look forward to being able to communicate much more efficiently by the New Year. I don’t want to minimize the challenges that come with a limited ability to communicate, but we are overcoming this obstacle daily. The Haitians at large have been patient with us, and understand that language is our most pressing need currently.

Clement has been an enormous asset to me and the project. He has been a great help to me when I have talked with other Haitians. He has stood next to me through all of my conversations, and when I am either lost or confused he has been able to help me understand. I’m sure this is tiring at points, but he has not let on to this. Again, each of the staff here at CODEP has been patient and understanding with my ability or lack thereof to communicate. In addition, Clement has been a wealth of information about the project.

Shortly after I arrived, a surveillance committee was formed. This committee consists of Edvy, Jean Claude, Madame Inez, Clement and myself. Every few weeks we take a day and walk into the project to observe the work an animator is doing with his or her groups. This is extremely helpful on many levels. It is beginning to give me an understanding of the various localities of the project. It lets the groups, chef equips and animators know that I am interested in the project and it is also giving me insight into where the project currently exists and some of the changes that need to be made. This experience has been and will continue to be invaluable as I spend time with the project.

I am also scheduling meetings each week with the animators. My hope through these meetings is to see the project through their eyes, while giving them an opportunity to be candid about the history of the project, their thoughts on its current status and where they would like to see the project go. I really see the animators as my access to our project in the mountains. It also gives me a moment to meet our groups and the people in the mountains that we are trying to impact. I look forward to being able to share thoughts during these times and utilize them as an opportunity to continue to influence perspective.

Finally, I’ll close with a short story. During the week and a half that we distributed fertilizer in the project, I had the opportunity to meet many of the workers in CODEP. On one occasion, as we were unloading the truck alongside of the Cormier River, a worker wanted to talk about the impact CODEP was having. He talked about the size of the river. How the river used to be much wider and unpredictable. How so much of the rainfall would wash down the mountain sides, collect in the river and rush out to the ocean. He talked about how muddy it would be. He reflected on how much the river has changed since we have begun planting trees and ramping the hillsides. He really wanted to express his gratitude for the project through tangible observations in the countryside. What has been exciting is that he is not the only person I have spent time with who wants to communicate the significance of the project. I look forward to continuing to hear stories, meet people and talk about the impact of “our” project.

Nichole Carlin

When you ask a Haitian if they think it will rain, they look surprised. They look at the sky. They look at you. They shrug, and they may say, “Petet” (perhaps). I am learning that in Haiti, the idea that one would worry about the weather seems silly. As I repeatedly ask the weather question, I am learning many things (though not much about whether it will rain or not). I am learning about priorities in Haiti. Haitians, it seems, do not share our obsession with cold fronts, warm fronts, and the inability of the local weather anchor to get it right. They do of course have a bit more stability in their weather; no worries about snow or frosts, but with hurricanes and flooding you might think they’d pay a little attention. I am learning that our obsession with the weather is a luxury. A luxury like putting together jigsaw puzzles or having recipes (if you only make rice and beans what would you need a recipe for?).

In preparing to come and serve here we participated in Mission Service Orientation in July. It was a valuable time of training and we learned a lot about cross-cultural service, but I am still surprised pretty much every day. Living among abundance creates a particular mindset, living amid need and hardship has a different impact. Abundance allows us to wonder about all sorts of things, hardship devours our sense of wonder. This is not news to any of you on the board, but living here full time, the information I knew and the things I am now learning to be true are two different things.

Our first month and a half have been disorienting and difficult. It has also been an opportunity to check and see how closely our ideals and our reality are matching up. This is both uncomfortable and good. We arrived on September 8th with a lot more luggage than we’d hoped to bring. We spent twenty days orienting with Rick and Kathy. Mike had ample opportunity to view the work Rick had been doing and meet the key people in the project. Kathy introduced me to the compound and the various projects she led. Our children attempted to catch lizards. We had the privilege of hosting a Building Goodness Team September 19-26th. We enjoyed working with the team that helped build animator Rene’s house in the mountains. After September 28th, when the Lands and April Leese left and headed to the States, we took a few days to collect ourselves as a family and re-paint and move into the director’s quarters.

After a week of “down time”, John Winnings, Jim Sylivant, and Amy Lewis arrived for the audit of the compound. We all worked very hard for the week of October 2-9th evaluating the infrastructure and equipment here at L’Acul. We repaired many problems (Amy even fixed the compound cats), discovered a multitude of new problems, and began to create a manual and maintenance schedule for the compound. Jim was a tremendous asset to the work with his experience and expertise. Amy acted as Jim’s able assistant (and performed rapid battlefield-style surgeries on 7 kitties). John was hard at work also though he did not perform surgery on anyone.

One of the most helpful results of the visit was the contact with Jim’s friend Wesley to a teacher (Kinston) who is helping us with our Kreyol. This is our number one difficulty, we don’t speak Kreyol. All our experience and desire to serve are affected by this one grave deficiency. We have made great progress but we are not yet comprehending or speaking well enough to skillfully administrate such a large project. There are so many nuances in the language and culture that are simply beyond our skill. Mr. Kinston is coming daily for 2-5 hours to continue to tutor us in the language. It has been a tremendous help, but we still need time to be able to hear and truly understand. We often know every word someone is saying and still don’t understand what they mean.

The community surrounding the compound has been friendly and welcoming. It has been a challenge to understand people’s questions and requests. We are in the process of determining how best to re-shape the work along the beach to most accurately reflect our mission statement and conform to the structure utilized in the rest of the project. The people of the community were prepared by Kathy for impending change, though the kids on the beach seem to be hoping that those changes will not be too significant. We have in essence communicated to folks that we need time to learn the language and thus far they are respecting that request. We are also meeting regularly with Pastor Gabrielle to help us with Kreyol and also to get a better sense of the community’s needs. I am continuing to meet with the youngest group of Kathy’s kids and my children participate. It has been a fun opportunity to get to know them and for my kids to interact with structure. We have also initiated intentional conversations with the older kids to begin to build a framework for development.

Mike has spent considerable time listening to the animators, walking in the project to attend meetings, and delivering fertilizer. These have provided him with a chance to get a better sense of the projects strengths and weaknesses. Many people in the project have approached Mike about issues and problems that need to be addressed. It is a challenge to discover the best way to respond.

Our family is adjusting. Our kids are enjoying life here. They are desperately missing “home” and frequently request that we leave, but also concede that living on the beach is pretty neat and there are no lizards worth mentioning in Pittsburgh. We long to be fluent, to be able to ignore the tarantulas, to be impervious to mosquito’s, when it really will rain, and to know what is most pleasing to God for our time here in Haiti. Pray for us as we move forward. We are learning so much. We also ask that you listen attentively as we process and (for a season) wait before offering too many suggestions about how to fix things.