Winter
In the winter of 1998, we took our first small group to Haiti.
Rather than driving the 250 miles from Port-au-Prince, we took a
small plane to Cap-Haitien. What an experience that was –
gliding only a few hundred feet across the tops of the mountains
of Haiti. Many people do not know that the word “Haiti”
was originally spelled “Ayiti” and means “mountainous
land.” You don’t have to travel far anywhere in Haiti
to come to the mountainous parts. Rather than the normal 7-hour
drive through the mountains, it is only a 30-minute flight from
Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien by plane. When we arrived in Cap,
we boarded a medium sized open-backed truck for the remaining 45
miles to Ouanaminthe. The road was unpaved and at times seemed impassable.
Averaging 10 mile per hour, it took us over four hours before we
arrived in Ouanaminthe!
 This
winter trip helped acquaint us with many new things. We were able
to see schools in full session. It was an overwhelming experience
to stand in the middle of literally hundreds of young children –
all clamoring to touch the “blanc.” In Haiti, a Caucasian
is called “blanc” which, of course, means “white.”
At first we all thought this was a derogatory term, but we soon
came to see that it is nearly always just a friendly way of recognizing
that you are obviously a visitor. Particularly outside the city
of Ouanaminthe, there are still many children who have rarely, if
ever, seen a white person. One interesting thing we learned on our
early trips to Haiti is that the Haitian people rarely see interracial
groups come to their country. Most missionary groups are white,
so Aslan has always been interesting to the people of Ouanaminthe.
For our first few trips to Haiti, it was always assumed that the
young people we brought from America were themselves Haitian. The
Haitian children were particularly amused to begin speaking Creole
to our Aslan kids and hear them answer in English!
This first winter trip to Haiti gave us the opportunity to branch
out a little and visit some outlying villages. In the village of
Capotitle, we saw schools and conditions that were even worse than
conditions in Ouanaminthe. Rather than concrete walls and floors,
many schools in outlying villages had dirt floors with bamboo walls
and thatched leaves for roofs.
Summer
In August we once again flew through Port-au-Prince and took the
long drive to Ouanaminthe. The beauty of the coastline sometimes
makes you forget you’re in one of the poorest countries on
earth. After stopping along the coast for a few minutes, however,
we returned to the reality of the overwhelming poverty and problems
throughout Haiti. As we began our trek along the high mountain roads,
we were once again in for an “incredible ride.” The
road before Cap-Haitien is one hairpin turn after another. As we
rounded one of these very sharp corners, we came to a sudden stop
behind a large, colorfully painted school bus straddled across the
road. The entire back axle of the bus was sitting next to it! Just
past the bus was another truck stalled in the middle of the road.
On the right side was a cliff, but on the left side was also a very
steep incline. As our bus squeaked through on the left, we were
all afraid it might tip over to the side any minute. Fortunately
we made it through okay!
 Upon
arriving in Ouanaminthe, we continued our medical clinic and other
projects from prior years. Our nurses saw hundreds of individuals,
dressed serious wounds, and dispensed a good deal of basic medications.
Our Aslan youth from New Jersey once again helped distribute hundreds
of pairs of eyeglasses. Aslan also continued construction of the
basketball court we had begun at a school in Ouanaminthe.
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