Finally I was able to go to the jungle again. With
my good friends Curtis, Kimloon and Jediah we hit the mud and water. God knows
where Curtis’s old KTM need to break. We had a flat tire at a small house where
I only passed once. It was great to meet the 2 families there and could give
them meds and tell them about our mission. The bike broke again later when we
reach another small place where about 6 families dig for gold. All of them were
eager to receive meds as nobody ever get out there. The bike fixed, we were off
again just for it to conke-up at another few houses. The old anti there asked
for meds but I had to save some for the rest of the places we were to visit.
With a promise that we will come again we continued.
We made it to Rum Jopon with Curtis’s bike not doing
well. It was so nice to see these boys from WOL helping out. I know them when
they were still small boys in an orphanage. Now, under the watchful eye of
Curtis, they shared the love of Christ to the people. As usual there were a few
sick once and we could help with that. They even got Solar Bibles as well as
mozzie nets. We visited Som Poom as well but now it was late already. We got
lost in a rice field, trying to do a shortcut but finally before dark we found
the road. What an adventure.
Our outreach in Thor Piang Rosey was very good as
well. Great to see old friends again and talk with our good friends Heang and
his family. He is busy now with teaching English as well as Khmer in several
places. We pray that we can get all the wood back from another friend, who
stole it, but will return it, hahaha, borrow on permanent basis, sound like
Africa….We reached out to him in love and he is working on it. We want to use
this wood to fix the church in Kabal Domrey, where I always stay.
The visa saga still goes on and I had to go to Phnom
Pehn again to get Twan’s papers for her to exit the country. With 10 min to
spare I finally got the papers signed, sjoe what a mess. She will leave the
country for Malaysia now on the 21st October and come back on the 24th.
Then we need to apply again for the NGO visa. While in Phnom Pehn, I got fined
for having a dirty car. Your car need to be clean in the city and the road I
took was apparently a VIP road, well never heard about that. We settled for
coffee money. Just today I was out at the Motor inspection place to tesxt the
car for the road tax. I was told to take off my wooden rack on the back of the
truck and then I was given a bucket of water to clean my car. Hmmm being the
only white person there and your car are dirty and you need to wash it is kinda
humiliating!!! When finish the guy lift up the hood and told me to clean my
engine, o my!!! Needless to say, I need to go back again after I fixed a couple
of things. Life in Cambodia has it perks hahaha
Please pray for us as we hid the road again tomorrow
to Stung Treng and Ratanakiri for an outreach. Pray for safety on the roads and
that the truck be ok.
Please pray for the following people:
Annerina started her Chemo therapy this week. Pray
for her as she continues on this journey.
Continue to pray for Quinton and Andrea for complete
healing and restoration.
Continue to pray for Pami Gregorio as she continues
her chemo as well.
Gideon really struggles with sinuses and it affects
his ability to study in the morning. Toinette is also under the weather with
some stomach issues.
Just a really nice testimony of a real good friend
Sarah Wallace, working in Haiti. She is doing a positive thing in a real
negative world. Reaching out with Love to people in desperate need in order to
see change. Read this and be inspired.
I’m
finishing up my 11th year in Haiti. 11 years of trying to make life a little
less difficult for some people. And here we are. The country is worse than ever
with no hope in sight of it improving.
Bear
with me here. This post does have a happy ending. Please keep reading.
The
protests in the streets and gas shortages are taking a physical toll on
everyone. Produce isn’t regularly coming from the countryside to the city
because of barricades blocking the roads. What does come is being sold at an
inflated rate because of the high cost of transportation due to the fuel
shortages. Imported goods cannot be distributed around the country for the same
reasons.
Perhaps
more difficult than the physical stress this is putting on everyone is the
emotional discouragement. “The country is finished” and “the country is totally
broken” are commonly heard phrases these days.
Last
week I was both depressed and anxious about the way the country had been until
I started working with a couple agronomists on a project called “ACTION”. The
idea was to rally people together to plant trees, then to post pictures online
as a peaceful protest to let people know that we believe in the future of
Haiti.
Since
first sharing the “ACTION” poster on Facebook last week, without even asking
for help, I had 4 women send a total of $530USD for me to buy trees with.
We
were able to get a couple dozen people to join our ACTION WhatsApp group where
we were collectively making plans to plant trees on the 11th. Some on the group
had plots of land that they wanted to plant trees on, some just wanted one or
two trees, and some just wanted to help others plant trees on their land.
Yesterday
morning we opened the gates to my yard, with a truck full of seedlings waiting
and hoping that some of those people on our group chat would come pick up their
trees. Before we knew it, people from all over the neighbourhood were flooding
into the yard asking for trees. None of us had expected that kind of response.
Everyone was so grateful but also said they would love to have more. A few said
they have lots of land that they would like to reforest. Within no time, our
seedlings were gone but there were still so many people more who wanted some.
One
man said to me “Sarah, this is important. It will rebuild the country.” One of
the agronomists involved in organizing it said to me “they were thirsty for
this.”
I
was blown away by the response. I never could have imagined that people would
be so enthusiastic about receiving trees. Over the years here, I have experienced
my share of frustrating moments when people have not been appreciative, and
often critical, of the ways others or I have tried to help them. While handing
out trees, not once did I hear anyone say “well why aren’t you giving us this?”
Or “can’t you do that for us instead?” - not once. All I heard was “thank you”,
“I needed this”, “the country needs this”, “our neighbourhood will be green”.
Freely
giving things away from the back of a truck is not typically something I agree
with. I’m certain, however, that this is the exception. The worst-case scenario
is that some of the trees don’t make it - they become goat snacks. Each tree
costs no more than $2, but in my mind, even those trees that don’t survive are
not money lost. It’s money paid to a tree nursery. It’s money encouraging those
tree nursery businesses to keep going and keep growing more trees.
In
a time when there is so much uncertainty about all that is happening here, it
seems that planting trees is the most productive thing to do. Reforestation is
integral to the future of Haiti from a food security perspective and from an
environmental and erosion control perspective. More importantly, when
everything is so up in the air, people need to participate in things that give
them hope so that they don't fall into despair.
Yesterday
after we gave out the first truckload of trees, the agronomists went back to
the nursery and loaded up more trees. The nursery accepted an IOU and allowed
us to take more trees than we had money for. We have an outstanding bill of
$250USD. We also have soooooooo many people still wanting trees.
For
this month only, Olive Tree Projects will accept donations to go towards buying
trees. All funds given with a comment “trees” will go directly to purchasing
trees that will be handed out to those still waiting on trees. It seems there
will be no limit on how much demand there is for trees. In one day we gave away
890 trees in my neighbourhood alone. People here still want more and we know
people in other communities hoping to get seedlings as well.
This
project has given me so much joy, and hope, and has taken my mind off of the
discouraging state of this country. It seemed to have quickly done the same
thing for the people receiving the trees.
Please
consider giving. <$2/tree will actually help give someone hope, which seems
rare to come by here these days. It plants trees which is good for the world.
And last but not least, it may be the only thing that is currently within our
power to do that will set Haiti up for a brighter future.
Thank you very much for praying for us. Sorry I am a
bit sporadic with my Monday writings, its due to the fact that I can only work
on weekends now. I am trying to do better.
God speed
Rossouw-clan
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