Summary of Haiti Trip

The High School youth of NPC went to Haiti from July 28 to Aug 3rd. Our group was almost 30 people, with 6 Adult leaders, 5 Foundation for Peace staff and 19 youth. But you also have to add our head cook and 2 bus drivers to our group.

Our main task was to help finish a school on the 2nd story of a church in Anse-a-Pete, Haiti and start a water tower. We also had a very important medical clinic which saw about 700 people. To reach the smaller children, we did two Bible school events. Of course, we also had fun with a soccer game in Haiti and one in Pedemales, DR. Lastly, we were apart of three worship services (two in Pedernales and one in Haiti) and spent the afternoon at a fantastic beach.

Anse-a-Pitre Haiti is a small town of about 30,000 people in the southwest part of Haiti. It is isolated from most of the world, because of really bad roads and transportation system. Even though the city is on the Caribbean Sea, the roads are so bad, it takes over 8 hours of travel on the ground to get to a major airport. The roads in Haiti are difficult and dangerous. The roads in the DR take you along the coast and eventually to Santo Domingo, but only after 8 hours of grueling travel.

Our two partners were the Foundation for Peace, which provided the logistical support, planning and resources in Haiti and the DR. Our local church partner in Anse-a-Pitre was headed by Pastor Andre. Both partners were key in our trip.



Our major task was construction. Because we were doing the foundation of the building, we had to dig the holes for the supports. We then spent about 5 days mixing cement, moving sand and gravel and helping clean up the construction site. All of the work was manual labor and very little construction equipment was available. We had shovels, picks and buckets. To mix the cement, we mixed by shovel several wheelbarrows of sand, gravel (sometimes) and cement bags. After adding several buckets of water and much work, we had cement mix! The mix was put into buckets and set to the correct location to be thrown in the holes. We had cement for the foundation of the water towers, cement for the concrete blocks and some Haitian workers had cement for finishing the inside of the school.



Bucket lines were required often to move the material to the correct location. We moved a large amount of sand and other material to the correct location. We also made and put into place 8 rebar pillars that were cemented in place. All of this activity was really hard in 90 heat and the strong summer Haitian sun. If you were in the shade and could catch a breeze, it was quite pleasant. But if you had to do hard manual labor in the sun, you quickly sweat out huge amounts of liquid.

Our medical clinic was one of the few free medical services offered in Anse-a-Pete. Anse-a-Pete has only one doctor and he cannot treat all the people. Many of the people cannot afford the medicine and do not see a doctor. The conditions included malaria, TB, dengue fever, crazy high blood pressure (200/100) and a host of other problems. For example, one 13 year old girl had NEVER been to a doctor before in her life. Clearly the medical clinic saved some lives and made others more bearable with medicine.


The soccer games were fun and helped bring a spirit of sport to both Haiti and the DR players. We did one game in the AM in Haiti and one in the late afternoon in the DR. From the pictures, you can see the economic differences between the two countries.


Both VBS events were helpful to the children. They got a short skit, a bible reading and some craft work. Both VBS events took about an hour.

The worship services were significantly different than the more traditional service at National. The youth got also to see worship services in two different cultures. It is always interesting to see the similarities in ideas and the differences in style. The Haiti style is different than the DR, even though the churches are very close in their theology.


Finally, when you visit a great tropical beach, it is a good time. We got to swim and just relax for an afternoon. What a treat!



Overall, the trip was very powerful. We had the honor to help the people of Anse-a-Pitre have a better school, better water, better health care and some fun. We also had the opportunity to learn from them many important lessons about life, faith and surviving in difficult circumstances.