friday in Jacmel

Eric, Francois and I (megan) left downtown PAP this morning on a van heading for Jacmel. Traffic was horrible, it took us over a good hour just to get out of PAP traffic. Once we did though, it was a smooth easy drive. When our van came to it's final stop, we hopped on three motto taxis in search of the Isaiah 61 guesthouse. It's a very nice (and fairly new) guesthouse run by Community Coalition for Haiti. After settling in and eating lunch... we were ready to house hunt!! We had three houses on our list, all of them in Cayes Jacmel, just a little east of here. The first two are houses that Francois found when he came here in December. Then when the director of Isaiah 61 heard that we were house hunting, she hooked us up with another connection for a house available to rent.  However, after much waiting and many phone calls back and forth... we were told that there was a demonstration going on in the streets, blocking the route to Cayes Jacmel. Apparently, the news of Aristide coming back to Haiti in March was announced today, so his supporters were celebrating/demonstrating in the streets. Though we were disappointed we didn't make it to Cayes Jacmel, we got to look at a house for rent here in Jacmel. It was in the process of being remodeled, and though it looks like a nice house... the asking price was way too high. We didn't bother trying to negotiate yet, although it was nice, there was nothing super impressive about it. It just didn't strike us. I think we're holding out and hoping that the house Francois has told us about will work out!! Our plan is to go check out the houses in Cayes Jacmel tomorrow, si dye vle (God willing).

Thursday

Today Eric, Francois and I (megan) met with Carine, director of Fonkoze. It was a great meeting! We were able to get some answers, fill in some blanks and share our vision of our partnership. We really seem to be on the same page as far as what we want to see happen. Leve Project will be a Ti Kredi center. Our center will have 50 (they will be put into small groups of 5) women enrolled that will all go through the cycle of the program together. Usually, a Ti Kredi program consists of several "centers", adding up to 200 women. We'll be starting with the one center, piggy backing with a larger Ti Kredi program in the area. This is a great opportunity to kick-off our partnership with Fonkoze!!

Once our center is fully funded, we will be able to start enrollment. The cost of the program is $140 per women, making the total cost for our initial center $7,000. Be on the look-out, we'll be sharing more about Family Sponsorships and how you can be a part of empowering Haitian families!

we're in Haiti!

Just a quick update from Haiti:

Eric and Megan met up with Francois at the airport... and of course spent time waiting around the airport, cause that's just the way things go. We're staying at the Methodist Guest House in Petionville. Lots of other people here and while it's not quite as fun to be in a crowded room and not be able to spread out... it's always nice to meet other people and make new connections.

Eric was able to meet Sebastian's (his son from Three Angels) dad for the first time. Sebastian's mother died in the earthquake, so it was especially special to be able to make contact with his dad. Eric was able to show him pictures and tell him how Sebastian is doing.

We are meeting with Carine, the director of Fonkoze first thing tomorrow morning. We made a list of questions and made sure we were ready for that meeting! We are excited to finally meet Carine and discuss what our partnership will look like.  After our meeting, I'm sure we'll have lots of planning to do! We also hope to swing by Three Angels and say hi to some friends other there.

Friday morning, we'll head to Jacmel. This is the part we're really looking forward to!! We're looking forward to seeing a new place, meeting new people, staying at a new guest house.... and FINDING A HOUSE TO RENT!!   We'll stay in Jacmel Friday and Saturday night and head back to PAP on Sunday. There are a few other things we'd like to do-- price check a few items, meet some new contacts, etc. After our meeting with Fonkoze and trip to Jacmel, we'll have a lot to discuss and decisions to make!