Report of Trip to St. Michel Parish and the community of Saltadere, Haiti

March 7 to 14, 2020

Overview

 

Our twinning parishes have been visiting St. Michel Parish in Saltadere, Haiti for more than 30 years.  Initially sporadic,  there have been yearly visits since about 2005.  During that time we have had yearly visits from the pastor of St. Michel.  The three pastors have been Fathers Rene Blot, Ilric Louis Jeune, and currently Eulorge Petina.

Many advances have been made over that time, at parish and school.  Village health access and clean water access has improved.

Our trip began on the island of Hispaniola in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  We took a charter bus from there to St. Francis Mission in Banica, a town close to the border with Haiti.  Father Petina came from Saltadere to pick us up.  From the border crossing, the trip is over dirt roads with many ruts due to erosion.  The trip of five to six miles takes about one hour.

As soon as we arrived at the rectory, we were made to feel at home with a wonderful meal, signage to designate room assignments, and cheerful interaction with the rectory cooks and maintenance staff.  The rectory’s three dogs rushed up to check us out.  On hand also at the rectory was the school secretary who is also the computer teacher.

The rectory building and compound was originally built by Belgian priests who served the area until the arrival in 2000-01 of Father Blot, the first Haitian priest assigned to the parish.  The rectory and the church have had some upgrades in electricity and plumbing over the years.  We are comfortable there.

Father Petina has improved the church interior and altar space and added an iron railing at the edge of the raised area for the altar.  This is an attractive safety feature.   Sound amplification assures that all in the church and outside can hear the Mass clearly.

Daily Mass has about twenty to thirty attendees.  There were about thirty people for the Rosary on Saturday morning at 5:30 am.  Close to 100 attended Stations of the Cross on Friday evening. 

St. Michel school comprises 3 preschool classes (3, 4, and 5 year-old) and 13 grades up to Philo (school leaving year).   The preschool has its own building.  St. Michel School built in 2007 through the generous support of our twinning parishes, has classrooms for all except the 3rd and 4th grades in an older building (the old school structure) and 5th and 6th grades in an adjacent warehouse building converted to classrooms.

On this trip, we brought computers for the school.  Monica Walker provided consultation and education to help the students use them for learning and skill development.  We obtained some individual students photos from preschool I and second grade.  The note card design project was carried out by Sophie and Jim Daniero with the 7th grade class.

At the clinic, Dr. St. Fleur Bodson is the new medical director.  He finished is medical school in Port au Prince in 2016 and his social medicine (internship) year in 2017.  The head nurse is Bernadotte Michelle and she has been with the clinic from the beginning.  She is assisted by two assistant nurses one of whom is a skilled birth attendant.  A dentist comes from Port au Prince once a month, situation permitting, and stays to see patients for 3 to 4 Days. 

The clinic sees about 10 patients a day.  Community health workers visit patients at home.  The big day at the clinic is Thursday for the prenatal clinic.  Over 28 patients attended when we were there.  An equivalent number attend each Thursday so more than 100 prenatal visits per month. 

The “water committee” is constituted of local men who are responsible for the clean water system which supplies the community.  We saw evidence of recent repairs and learned of other repairs planned.  We brought 20 Madi Drop “tablets”  for this committee to give to those families who cannot access the clean water system and get their water from the river.

Caritas is Catholic Charities for countries outside the US.  Each diocese in Haiti has a Caritas office and this office instructs and advises the local (parish) caritas committee on projects which help the community.  Currently Saltadere is benefitting from a project funded by Spain which provides cows, goats and seed for farmers in the area along the border Haiti and Dominican Republic.  The local caritas committee also supports meals for the poor and visits the sick at their homes to pray with them.

There is evidence of improvement in the village.  There is new home construction, wattle houses being replaced by concrete block construction.  There is now partial government electricity –available some during the night.  Children from Saltadere are attending University and this year 3 graduates of the Normal School have returned to teach in their home town school of St. Michel.  Signs on buildings indicate a business is operating at that house and have increased in number since 2005 and even since the last visit in Fall 2019.