By the Grace of God

It's only Friday, yet having seen what we've seen these past four days, Monday seems so long ago. Today began at 5:30 am for some of us who attended the local Haitian church service at 6am on the grounds of the American School. It was like no other service I have ever been to. They worship in a most kinetic way, on their feet for most of the time, walking, praising, and lifting hands heavenward. Fanfan interpreted the words whenever he could and we were most fortunate to hear several songs in English, among them, "How great is our God." There is a point in the service where the people bless or pray over one another and it was a powerful, strident supplication to God to bless the individual in a very personal way. Following breakfast, we left for Tityanen, where a visit to Grace village, and Yvonne's Orphanage was the plan for the day. Friday is market day there and we were able to walk through the market place and see all the goods they had

to sell including bananas, yams,okra, breadfruit/lam,peppers, corn, beans, rice,grains,lemons,limes,all manner of clothing, accessories, chickens, and goats bound at the hoof. There were many cooked, prepared foods, but none of us ready to risk the possible outcome.......

Grace Village is located above Tityanen on a lovely vista overlooking a panorama of the ocean to the front and mountaintops to the back of it. There is a wonderful, steady wind that blows through the property continuously. The entire complex is walled in by 12 foot walls and has 2 secure gates to the front and back sides. This amazing village is soon to house the children from Yvonne and Guillame's orphanages, about 70 children in all.The area inside is about 5 acres of land and they own a total of 15 acres in the area. We toured the eating and kitchen areas where the cabinets are being built onsite, employing only Haitians for these jobs. They have 2 large cisterns to store water and pumps to provide water for the entire complex. There are houses both for the girls and boys with 2 rooms for the childrens' guardians in each house. Outside there is an area in which they will be able to enjoy a wonderful playground which was recently donated.

There are carefully prepared plans for a guesthouse, school, elderly care,Restavek home,and medical clinic.They are also planning to work with the community in establishing Tilapia farms and hydroponic farming both to feed the children and staff and to set up food sources and income for Tityanen. It was said that it will take about $1500 to set up a hydroponic pond for one family.

"Grace Village", what an appropriate name for this place- by the grace of God it has been built and it will make such an incredible difference in the lives of not only these children, but for the community and people of Haiti.

We finished the rest of the day first with a visit to Jude John Paul who is doing so much better having a wheelchair to be up in during the day and then on to Yvonne's orphanage where about 40 children are cared for with the help of Healing Haiti. It was absolutely heart warming to hear them sing Christian songs to us for about the first 45 minutes of our visit including "How Great Thou Art"followed by prayers of blessings, as well as solos or small groups singing.The children were interested and excited to read the bilingual books provided to them by so many generous book donations to this organization. Thank you!! Merci anpil!!!! You are making a difference!!!!!!

Posted by, Marge Iaizzo

Healing Haiti Team Member