We Can Build An Orphanage

Wednesday morning we had the pleasure of meeting with a man named Jonas, the Haiti representative for Hollywood Unites for Haiti, Jimmy Jean-louis’ new Haiti program. He was such a nice man. Not only did he take the time to meet with us, but he also arranged for us to visit Father Rick’s organization called “Our Little Brothers and Sisters,” in Tabarre. This place was an amazing compound. They have a Hospital and special ed school, plus they have another facility off site with an orphanage. It was clean and well built, and by Haitian standards it is extremely nice. After our visit with Phadoul, the hospital director we were off to Jacmel.

From Port-au-Price the drive to Jacmel is 2½ – 3½ hours, depending on traffic and road conditions. It was absolutely beautiful once you got out of the city. There were “Mountain People” (country people who live in the mountains) poverty all along the way, but the typography looked like Tahiti. In areas along the roadside you could see the ocean and lush mountains, the beauty was absolutely breathtaking. The road that takes you over the mountain to get to Jacmel was build by the French and is known as “Friendship Road.” There were fruit stands along the way where people sell their crops, avocado larger than I have ever seen, mangos, bananas, mandarins and much more. The sad thing is so much of the produce grown is just wasted to rot because they have no means of preserving things. Whole Foods would love to get their hands on this stuff, it truly is organic.:)

We arrived in Jacmel around 5:30pm or so and decided to visit our kids first before they ate dinner. They were extremely excited to see us, and were clearly very well taken care of. Our kids go to school and have games like any normal American kid. They eat well by Haitian standards, a lot of beans and rice, noodles, and a thing called soya that helps with protein.

We eventually checked into the Loving Light Hotel, I felt like I was in true luxury with AC, and internet. The electricity in Jacmel only stays on from 1:00pm to 12:00am so the AC cuts off at 12:00am. But they had a generator that runs the fan all night, so sleeping was not be a problem. After we checked into the hotel Martin and I decided to go to Hotel Florita and have a Prestige (beer). This place was awesome! The bar is an old brick building and the Hotel looks identical to an old New Orleans French Quarter house, the main difference is, it’s on the beach. After a few beers and Martin running into an old friend it was time for bed.

Be sure to stay tuned to learn more about our adventures and discoveries in Haiti, you can also read part 1 here. And as always if you would like to donate to WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com feel free to do so by clicking the donate button on the right.