tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2038400071033999372024-02-19T03:46:10.795-08:00Many Parts, One BodyLiving in Haiti as an Episcopal Volunteer in MissionAlan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-35764322128169732142016-05-28T13:58:00.003-07:002016-05-28T14:06:25.127-07:00Remodeling of Mission<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Last week, the Global Episcopal Mission Network held their annual conference in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and Mission Personnel invited all of the Episcopal missionaries from Latin America and the Caribbean to attend. The fellowship time among the missionaries and the awesome staff that supports us was the most fulfilling part of the conference (Lynette Wilson captured the essence of this great community in this article <a href="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/05/26/being-people-of-god-together-in-mutual-relationship/">here</a>). </div>
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But all of the talk among ourselves about our experiences, and the questions from other conference attendees about what we do as missionaries, makes me ask myself this simple question: what in the world have I been doing all this time for three years in Haiti? </div>
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<a name='more'></a>In her article, Lynette succinctly describes the remodeling of mission that the conference explored:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 22px;">Increasingly, the old way of being a missionary, and of mission trips focused on projects and doing things for others, is being replaced by a model centered in mutual respect and accompaniment, and developing a deeper understanding of one another’s context."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">When flying back from the conference, the plane from Miami to Port-au-Prince was mostly full of white Americans coming to Haiti, wearing matching t-shirts that outwardly stated that they are coming, they're bringing Jesus with them, and they're going to do. That's the old model. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The shirts say <i>we </i>have and you don't. <i>We're </i>free, you're not, and <i>we </i>alone have the key to your liberation. <i>We're </i>ready to work, you better be too. This is <i>the </i>way, buy into it. Look at <i>us</i>, see what <i>we </i>do and hear the message <i>we </i>bring.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The new model looks more like the words of Henri Nouwen, which I take as instructions on how to do mission:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(1)</span> Help us discover our own riches; don't judge us poor because we lack what you have.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(2)</span> Help us discover our own chains; don't judge us slaves by the type of shackles you wear.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(3)</span> Be patient with our pace; don't judge us lazy simply because we can't follow your tempo.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(4)</span> Be patient with our symbols; don't judge us ignorant because we can't read your signs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(5)</span> Be with us and proclaim the richness of your life which you can share with us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(6)</span> Be with us and be open to what we can give.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(7)</span> Be with us as a companion who walks with us--neither behind nor in front--in our search for life and ultimately for God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The old model of doing mission is like the 22 year-old white American girl beside me on the plane last week, on her way to Port-au-Prince for 6 months of a service program. She couldn't name the town she was going to be living in, much less describe where it was in relationship to Port-au-Prince ("a town in the mountains" describes almost everywhere in Haiti), but she didn't hesitate to be the Haiti expat-expert to the inquisitive American nurse sitting on the other side of her. When the nurse asked her what food she'll be eating while in Haiti, she kindly responded with a big smile, "oh this is great, all of the people working for my organization bring down suitcases of canned and dry food from the U.S. as a part of their contribution to the organization, so we eat that." At least her people aren't bringing down surplus peanuts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The new model of doing mission is educating yourself on history, culture and context before you even arrive. It's way more than being able to properly pronounce the name of the towns you visit, or even recognizing that the place you know is not necessarily representative of the region or country as a whole any more than New York City indicates the U.S. is blanketed in skyscrapers. The new model may even involve being a tourist and enjoying what the host country/region has to offer, spending money on local food, goods and services along the way, as Jamie McGee and Larry McCormack argue in <i>The Tennessean: </i></span><span style="line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2016/05/21/want-help-haiti-act-like-tourist/32607391/">http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2016/05/21/want-help-haiti-act-like-tourist/32607391/</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Nouwen speaks about a mission of relationship, of balanced and equally valuable presence with one another, through which we acknowledge and celebrate our different backgrounds and rejoice in the journey we are on together.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Doing is still a part of the remodeled mission. But the new model says DON'T if the doing compromises the instructions presented by Nouwen. DON'T if through the doing the humanity of one another isn't fully explored, acknowledged, and celebrated. DON'T if your approach is one of superiority while viewing the other as in a helpless state of dependency. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16px;">North Carolina contingent at GEMN</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">What have I done all this time in Haiti? Among other things, I have translated for medical clinics, shoveled cow manure into a biodigester latrine bag (twice), and guided marketplace development during my time in Cange. I managed a project to build a new plant nursery, negotiated a contract to plant 10 hectares of sisal, and arranged composting toilet installation during my time with CASB. That is doing.</span></div>
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But I've also learned about and then embodied (hopefully) what Nouwen describes. Mission is accomplished through of a state-of-mind of constant learning, constant humility, and a constant acknowledgement of responsibility and accountability. Mission is done through a mindset of the acknowledging our commonality, our source from God, and of our unique value as humans. From within that mindset, we have so much more potential together to break the shackles we all wear.</div>
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So what have I "done" all this time in Haiti? I maintained every project document in English and Creole so that they are immediately accessible to my Haitian and American colleagues. I asked more questions than I gave advice. I graciously received the incredible hospitality of Haitians, and then tried to offer hospitality in return. I shared stories of where I grew up, of my family, and my U.S. friends. I learned about Vodou and Haitian history and their present day politics. I laughed when I made mistakes in Creole and others corrected me. I went to the 57th of 100 most beautiful beaches in the world (<a href="http://hcnn.ht/en/2013_05/Tourism/128/Haiti's-Abaka-Bay-Beach-make-CNN%E2%80%99s-World%E2%80%99s-100-best-beaches.htm">according to CNN</a>), and sometimes I just sat with people on their porch while it rained. That is doing. </div>
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To take the perspective of having to do and fix is to simplify the lives of those with which we are building relationships and it is to deny our true selves. The director of mission personnel David Copley shared in Lynette's article, <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">I think it’s allowing ourselves the understanding that we can justify a deepening [of] relationship in some ways as a more meaningful way of engaging in mission." </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">I anxiously await moving back to the U.S. on June 25th, carrying with me relationships, stories and ideas from Haiti to take back to the U.S.-side of the relationship. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Being able to live in Haiti for three years has been a great honor and privilege, and has been possible only with the support of a massive network of donors, pray-ers, friends, mentors, colleagues, and my family. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">It is also a privilege for me to have the knowledge I now have about Haiti as a result of this opportunity. When I started this journey with the Young Adult Service Corps and the Episcopal Church, I didn't know how to describe Cange, or why 1804 is important, or that the U.S. occupied Haiti in the early 20th century. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The deficiency in the old model of mission isn't necessarily in the lack of knowledge--it's in the ignorance that we don't need to be learning more and that we come with the answers, and it is in the blind position we often take coming from a great place of privilege. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">That's why I view this remodeling of mission as the development a mindset. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Early in my Haiti stint, my Haitian friends didn't turn their nose at me if I couldn't say something in Creole. What mattered is my drive to learn it. It didn't matter that I didn't know the difference between Toussaint and Dessalines. What mattered is that I was willing to sit for an hour during a local soccer match while a student proudly explained to me the history of the Haitian revolution. And after those experiences, we're all the richer. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">When I move back to the States, I hope to continue to live into this remodeling of mission and help others do so</span> as well, because this mission isn't something that only happens abroad. As Heidi Schmidt shared during the missionary panel we did, "that's the real mission, bringing it back." </span></div>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-18066549483716686652016-02-23T05:19:00.000-08:002016-02-23T13:41:05.567-08:00Episcopal News Service Article on CASBI've been through quite a blogging drought, but I think that just means things are advancing even faster at work with CASB.<br />
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Check out the following Episcopal News Service article and video by Lynette Wilson on the revitalization program of the Centre d'Agriculture St. Barnabas where I work.<br />
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<a href="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/02/22/haiti-episcopal-college-prepares-students-for-agriculture-agri-business/" target="_blank">http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/02/22/haiti-episcopal-college-prepares-students-for-agriculture-agri-business/ </a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Teacher Georges Gabriel Etienne, who teaches botanics and vegetable crops, leads students on a lesson outside in the test plot. Photo: Lynette Wilson/Episcopal News Service " src="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/files/2016/02/ens_021815_teachertestplot-500x373.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: Lynette Wilson/Episcopal News Service</td></tr>
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<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-36245668841333861842015-12-08T05:35:00.001-08:002015-12-08T05:35:35.744-08:00Picking up Momentum<div class="MsoNormal">
The past two weeks, I've felt the momentum of my work in Haiti pick up. Things are moving forward. So, I’d like to share a basic update of
what’s going on.</div>
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Stabilization projects at the Centre d’Agriculture St.
Barnabas are finally underway. Right now, Saint Ange is building a new nursery so we have plants for new land we’re preparing for
production. We’ve purchased seeds from <a href="http://seedprograms.org/">Seed Programs International</a>, based in
Asheville, NC, to try in our student practice plots. We’ve rented temporary
composting toilets from <a href="https://www.oursoil.org/">SOIL</a>, which safely compost human waste, and we are
purchasing compost from them to use until we have our own capacity to make it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJU_mAlkXTnBgMASIxMyLLV9rqniTDRz6kImZD3d-6Vd19QHBtow_Bsv_DprMcO06GZcLguiZH_cSlUFZJyjeXJYjMvToSsfhgqBKuGSpe6har9oFcLlDP-I5O6sfkr-12c3kpm9sLCexb/s640/blogger-image--1988575034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJU_mAlkXTnBgMASIxMyLLV9rqniTDRz6kImZD3d-6Vd19QHBtow_Bsv_DprMcO06GZcLguiZH_cSlUFZJyjeXJYjMvToSsfhgqBKuGSpe6har9oFcLlDP-I5O6sfkr-12c3kpm9sLCexb/s640/blogger-image--1988575034.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new CASB nursery nearing completion</td></tr>
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Throughout the month of December we’re installing temporary
classrooms that will serve the school until we are able to construct new
buildings hopefully by the end of 2016. We’re finalizing plans for a new pump,
reservoir and irrigation system to outfit a well. This will allow us to
increase farm production to support the center financially and to begin more
test plots of crops that local businesses are interested in growing. Three examples are jatrofa, used to make biodiesel, morenga, a leafy plant with high
concentrations of vitamins and protein, and sisal, a plant that was once a
significant crop in this region of Haiti before synthetic fibers replaced the
organic ropes made from the plant.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilS6fOISygTVO9halXhHwrCdrFEJzIPMZVEDcfdVCmVOZq8bKmbSXJ6ufoMPKFgzF5fqPiwG9uUwDnUs6PsD4sYYBg-kCbu35Ju0uo7FXaqPgS8xXFuaiiJv0TB06L4jAu0AjV-AWiBCgz/s640/blogger-image--2089649206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilS6fOISygTVO9halXhHwrCdrFEJzIPMZVEDcfdVCmVOZq8bKmbSXJ6ufoMPKFgzF5fqPiwG9uUwDnUs6PsD4sYYBg-kCbu35Ju0uo7FXaqPgS8xXFuaiiJv0TB06L4jAu0AjV-AWiBCgz/s640/blogger-image--2089649206.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SOIL EkoMobil composting toilets installed at the school</td></tr>
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We’re also preparing a preliminary scholarship program for
students in the agriculture technician program. So far, thanks to donors in the
<a href="http://www.diocal.org/welcome" target="_blank">Diocese of California</a>, CASB has granted 6 half scholarships. Remaining students
have filled out applications for scholarships, and we hope to find more
sponsors in the U.S. that can make it possible to grant additional
scholarships.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGsVWLwcnIEgXHkw686LyWJ9SEXC1J6VPeKos52IIO9XaAnsPqHjL1EKN9HOI7TKYzhYjonwAWWqNl_FAQ5DKyYEDSbYiplLyj6jVKPojySs6wSk4S4oOEhWfUMv7gFY_UEDq50QEoxaV/s640/blogger-image-586843011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGsVWLwcnIEgXHkw686LyWJ9SEXC1J6VPeKos52IIO9XaAnsPqHjL1EKN9HOI7TKYzhYjonwAWWqNl_FAQ5DKyYEDSbYiplLyj6jVKPojySs6wSk4S4oOEhWfUMv7gFY_UEDq50QEoxaV/s640/blogger-image-586843011.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://inwardspiritualgrace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Eliza Brinkley</a>, underway on a boat and underway teaching the new CASB English class</td></tr>
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A lot more is to come in 2016 as the Episcopal Church
together with partners like <a href="http://freshministries.org/" target="_blank">Fresh Ministries</a> out of Jacksonville, FL, continue
to seek the proper support needed to rebuild academic and administrative
buildings, install hydroponic units, and establish additional farming services
CASB can offer in the region.</div>
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In other happenings, I’m still supporting Earl Burch in
his mission with the <a href="http://www.edusc.org/mission-and-outreach/cange-haiti/" target="_blank">Diocese of Upper South Carolina</a> in Cange, as they work
with Ecole Bon Sauveur and many other ministries in the Central Plateau. I’m
moving forward with Chris Ciocchetti and Maegan Daigle from Centenary College
in Louisiana on conducting <i><a href="http://www.centenary.edu/clc/haiti" target="_blank">Partnership</a></i>, a pilot, week-long academic course in Haiti in May
2016 designed to <span style="border: none;">equip
communities and individuals interested in Haiti to promote effective engagement
and cooperation. Finally, I’m in the early planning stages with Reverend Carmel
Chery to design a program on racism and racial justice for the youth in each
parish in the Diocese of Haiti to use in their spring gatherings. This project
is an extension of the Episcopal Church Young Adult Pilgrimage to Ferguson,
Missouri, that happened in October.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: none;">As you can
see, there are a lot of partners in this work. I’m blessed and grateful to be
working with so many amazing people and to receive such amazing sustained
support from friends, family and church communities back in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-68257328641446235062015-11-09T12:59:00.002-08:002015-11-09T13:05:34.349-08:00Change but not Changing: A Ferguson Challenge<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
other day, I came across a two-frame comic. In the first frame is a politician
like figure standing at a podium in front of a happy crowd of people
each with one hand raised as the politician asks, "Who wants change?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the second frame, it's the same scene, but the politician asks, "Who wants to change?" No
hands are raised. No one looks at the politician or one another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone
wants change, but no one wants to change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
idea, the need, the desire for change was readily apparent during the recent Episcopal
Church Young Adult Pilgrimage to Ferguson, Missouri. Twenty-four other<span style="font-family: inherit;"> young adults and I, 6-8 staff, and countless guest
speakers, engaged in conversations about racial justice and reconciliation. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, during the pilgrimag</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">e we met with many inspiring agents of change. But
what was also apparent, especially in looking out from Ferguson, is a lack of
will to change. We want change, but we're not changing.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Michael
Brown's death was just one of many highly publicized incidents where a white
male police officer shot an unarmed black man. Wrapped up in that event, and in
the protesting and national discourse following it, is such a complicated web
of history and politics and people and perspectives. We dove into that
complicated web during the pilgrimage, exploring multiple aspects of the event
and the aftermath and movement that followed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Though the pilgrimage
focused on Ferguson as a single example of racial injustice, just one lens to explore
these vast issues, I do not believe the details are what we, as pilgrims, were
meant to take away and share. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After
reflecting for several weeks after the pilgrimage, I have clarified for myself
two primary lingering points from the weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, each
specific instance of racial injustice is incredibly complicated on a micro
level and in the macro environment. Though the details from Ferguson are
certainly important, it was more important that I gained an understanding of how
multidimensional racial injustice is. Local politics and economy, local
demographics, local churches and social groups unique to Ferguson and St. Louis
all played as much of a role as national trends, regional and national history,
and national politics. Each component is important to fully understanding the
problem, and thus each component is important for creating solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, Ferguson
could be anywhere. It could be your home town. There are just as unique circumstances creating
problematic situations there. Your town is not immune to these events. Ferguson
is not just a stagnant place that exists as pictured on TV. It is as dynamic and
as American as where you live.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To emphasize
the second take away from the pilgrimage, I have an activity for you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Below are
pictures I took from Ferguson, Missouri, specifically the neighborhood, street
and apartment complex where Michel Brown was shot and killed. We visited the
emotional and symbolic site twice. These pictures will show you what it looks
like.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 1: </span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before
looking at the pictures, try to recall what you can remember about the events
in Ferguson with Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. Think about what happened
there—the tragedy, the scuffle, the gun shots, the protests, the tear gas, the police. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 2: </span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Spend about one minute with each photograph, really looking at it and letting it become
familiar to you. Think about what each photograph reminds you of, and try to picture yourself in the photograph. What are you doing in the photograph?
Playing outside? Walking home? How does that moment feel? Do you feel the sun?
Is the air fresh?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 3: </span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 21.4px;">(After the photographs)</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For many of you, Ferguson itself is many miles away, separated by air and space. But I would bet, after spending time with these pictures, you might realize you do not have to look far outside your own window to see Ferguson. You may see it in the pavement running by outside, or in the yard between your home and the street, or even in the walls of your home itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ferguson can be any one of our communities. And we reside within our communities. Thus if we want them to change, we must seriously consider what it takes to change ourselves. </span></span><span style="line-height: 21.4px;">Think about your own neighborhood. Think about what you want to change in your community. Think about what you know and what you don't know about the people living in your community, or the history and local politics. Finally, think about what you can do to change yourself, and how that can in turn improve the world we share together.</span></div>
Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-59829193116807952792015-10-23T07:54:00.001-07:002015-10-23T07:54:53.731-07:00Trinity Asheville Sermon <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Below is the sermon I presented to my home parish, Trinity Episcopal Church, in Asheville, NC. I give great thanksgiving for the lives of Anyo and Tiyolen, two people who inspire me greatly and who have shaped my life significantly for the better. I love you both.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 17.1733px; white-space: pre-wrap;">----------</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trinity Episcopal Church, Asheville, NC, October 18th, 2015</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-fcef72f8-9049-f8cf-8aa0-67799eb221c2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gospel Reading: Mark 10:35-45 </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amen</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to share a story today, one from Haiti that happened to me about four months after I moved to Cange. Though I’m a character in the story, it’s about two other people, Anyo and Tiyolen. I’ve broken this story up into short chapters--each chapter with a brief fact at the beginning. This is a story that really challenges my understanding of what it means to serve.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter 1</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are now over 11 million internally and externally displaced people from Syria--more than half the pre-war population of the country. https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/turkey-iraq-jordan-lebanon-syria/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My relationship with Anyo, a Haitian boy who lives in Cange, began to strengthen several months into my first year. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me tell you a bit about him. Anyo is very small for his age, 14 years old at the time of this story. He is an orphan, and he is HIV positive, but receives world-class care from the Partners in Health hospital in Cange, which also happens to be in the same campus where I was living. Anyo is originally from a small coastal town six hours north, but over the years he moved his way from house to house, family to family as an orphan until he ended up in Cange.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He has his good days and his bad days, most like any other kid. But on his bad days, depression can really set in, causing concern for his well being, and he can become really manipulative. But on his good days, his smile brightens up the world around him--he often dances to music if it’s playing nearby, but doesn’t like having his picture taken. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And he’s so inquisitive and insightful, picking up on social and cultural nuances that many people, including myself, are often oblivious too. He reads the Bible pretty regularly, and asks provocative questions about the passages. And he also has some of the best manners of any person I know. Pretty remarkable for someone without a consistent home or consistent schooling throughout his young life.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This story, though, is about one of those bad days. Perhaps the worst day, at least as I first experienced it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter 2</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Five years ago, due to a failure to follow health screening procedures and a failure to follow proper human waste disposal at one of their facilities, the United Nations introduced cholera into Haiti’s most prominent river. Up to today, over 9,000 people have died and more than 760,000 people have become ill. http://www.thenation.com/article/haitis-earthquake-was-devastating-the-cholera-epidemic-was-worse/</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyo came to me one evening as I was leaving a place we call the Friendship House, where the Americans living in the complex take their meals. He needed to talk to me. It was an emergency, he said. I could feel his energy--he was afraid. So I sat down with him on a bench outside, under the rich green trees that provide wonderful shade all around the campus. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He explained to me that the family that he was staying with--one that the Partners in Health campus director assigned him to--was abusing him. They would withhold food from him, he said, and they would make him stay up late at night until he finished work around the house. Then they would sometimes keep him from going to school, such that Anyo didn’t feel like going any more because he was behind. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As he was telling me all of this, a flood of emotions and ideas came upon me. I immediately felt sympathy for him, whether what he was saying was true or not. But I also felt alone and afraid myself. Here I was with this young kid, who has no family I can reach out to, and who is claiming his closest guardian is abusing him. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I immediately recalled missioner training and how they explained we might come across cultural situations that we disagree with, but that it will likely not be our place to call it out or change it. In this instance, I remembered the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">restavek</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> system in Haiti--where families will send their children off, when they can’t afford to take care of them, to stay with a wealthier family to work in exchange for education and other benefits. It’s a hotly contested practice, with some calling it child slavery and others saying it’s a legitimate chance at a better life for some kids. I imagine it’s a bit of both. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is that what was going on here? Would it be right for me to challenge that? What if Anyo was just being manipulative? Ultimately I had no idea what the best thing to do was.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I settled on the idea that his host family might have a more legitimate reason to punish Anyo if he didn’t come home that night. I also knew this particular family had a very positive track record hosting many other orphans in the past. So I explained this to Anyo and offered to walk him back to the house.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He rejected this quite strongly. Then he suggested, “I know! I remember the door of the room next to yours is open. I can go stay there!” I told him that wasn’t my permission to give, and that if he did so, that would be his own decision. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I got up to leave, he followed me. And sure enough, downstairs in my building, the room next to mine was unlocked. He went inside and closed the door for the night.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter 3</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17.1% of people in Buncombe County live below the poverty level. That’s roughly 41,000 people. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37021.html</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next morning, I woke up and didn’t see Anyo in his room. I went on up to the Friendship House for breakfast, expecting to see him there. But I didn’t. I figured I would see him at some point throughout the day.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was one of those days that became so busy for me, I ran from meeting to meeting and didn’t make it back to my room until into the evening, at which point, I admittedly had forgotten about Anyo.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But when I opened my bedroom door that evening, I heard a noise behind me. It was Anyo. I asked him how he was. “I’m fine,” he said. He hadn’t eaten all day, or even left the building, he said, because he was afraid his host family might punish him. I told him I warned him about that, then invited him up to the Friendship House with me for a snack I was already planning on fixing.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had a quiet meal, chatting a bit about life in town. Then I brought up his plan for the night--suggesting he should go back to his host family. I could even walk him there and explain things to them. But this made him angry, and he left the building yelling at me and with an expression of great distrust. I tried to call him back in, but he left too quickly. I figured he would either come back or I would see him on my way down to my room.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sure enough, when I left a few minutes later, I found him along the path. He was in tears, but more contained. And he started off by apologizing for being so angry with me. He just didn’t know what to do. I suggested we call Marie Flore, the director of the complex to ask her what to do. But I couldn’t get her on the phone. So we called another lady who I relied on often, Madam Jeje. She picked up, and told me the to tell Anyo the same thing I had already told him. He needed to get back to his house. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Anyo wouldn’t accept this--so he asked if HE could call Marie Flore one last time. She picked up, and he talked to her. When he hung up, he exclaimed, “She said I can go stay with Tiyolen!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who is Tiyolen?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter 4</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurenbrooke-eisen/next-president-should-sup_b_8288458.html</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I knew exactly who Tiyolen was as soon as I saw her, but when Anyo started out toward where she lives, I didn’t know who we were going to see.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tiyolen is a beautiful soul. She is also tall. One of the tallest people in Cange. She is thin with long arms and legs, and she has short grey hair that is often put in short braids that are sometimes a bit frizzy and stick out in various directions. She usually wears long dresses with simple patterns on them that make her look taller. At first glance, she always seemed to me like someone who frequently experiences moments outside of reality, but she is actually acutely aware of everything that is going on. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s the lady who always lays down on the concrete ledge in front of the school with her flat woven basket filled with candies and cookies that she sells to students. She can’t make more than a couple of dollars a day, and that’s before having to buy more stock. I also remember her as the lady that everyone in church turns and looks at when she walks up for communion on Sundays. Otherwise, I didn’t know much about her.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So here I am, not knowing who we’re going to see, following Anyo down a dark staircase that leads to where the campus kitchen is. And still nervous and scared, nervous because I have had no idea how to improve Anyo’s situation and scared because have not fully processed that a solution may be minutes away. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then Anyo walks into the kitchen, and through it, which almost has the feeling of walking back into a concrete bunker. And sure enough behind the kitchen is a small concrete room lit by a single dim bulb. And there’s staticy music playing on a radio, and Tiyolen laying down on one of two beds in the tiny room, greeting us as Anyo asks permission to enter. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Chita piti mwen,” she says. “Sit my children.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I immediately recognize Tiyolen, and have so many questions about why she’s staying here. Instead, I explain to Tiyolen what has happened over the past 24 hours. And I tell her about our calls with Madam Jeje and Marie Flore. And I start to explain what I think he should do going back to his host family...</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then she turns her attention away from me and stands up, towering over little Anyo. And she opens her arms wide, embracing Anyo in a hug while saying, “Of course you can stay here with me.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned later that Tiyolen was once homeless herself. And she would walk between towns 10-20 miles apart searching for families to take her in for a few days at a time. Until she ended up in this complex, in this little room that is now her home. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyo, by the way, lived with Tiyolen for over a year. He is now in the larger room with about 6 other orphans that Marie Flore’s family takes care of. He’s also back in school, and hasn’t had a breakdown, at least that I have seen or heard of, since that night.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;">--------</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Episcopal Church participates in something called the United Thank Offering every year. I’m sure you remember it. Those blue boxes asking for donations for what is essentially a grant making program that sends money to places around the world like Haiti, Panama, and right here in the U.S. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few months after this episode, it was the Sunday for the United Thank Offering at the parish in Cange. And in that church, they conduct the offering by bringing out a small table and placing a plate on it at the altar steps. Then people come up to place their offering in. Except this Sunday, they sat out an abnormally large blue box with UTO written on the side. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the box was placed out, the music started and people began to come up and give offering. The music, as the Trinity youth heard during their mission experience, is a bit like a rock band--drums, guitar, loud lively music. And as it seemed the offerings had come in, the music began to slow down and wrap up, until in the back was a stir.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tiyolen stood up in her seat--now I don’t know if you know this, but Episcopalians in Haiti are just like here--they have their seat in church and won’t sit anywhere else. Tiyolen sits right back here.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And she moves her way out into the aisle--the musicians dragging on a little bit more unsure of what is going on… and she begins to dance, her tall body and outstretched arms towering over everyone in their chairs.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And she dances, all eyes in the church turn towards her. And she moves with grace. And the music picks back up, carrying her forward toward the altar. And it seems as if she is entranced by the music, having her own moment in her own space.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And just at the moment she reaches the UTO box and places an envelope inside, she stops dancing. And she turns toward the congregation. And she looks around at everyone very carefully, not as if checking on people to make sure they’re noticing her altruism, but rather as a passionate challenge to them to serve. </span></div>
Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-64321615350406498502015-10-05T13:43:00.001-07:002015-10-05T13:43:26.164-07:00What is poverty? How can community over come it?Natalie Finstad, former Episcopal missionary in Africa, started the organization <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TatuaKenya">Tatua Kenya</a> after her experience working in Kenya. Check out her terrific TED Talk, posted this past January, on her decision to take action, how she thinks we should define poverty, and what community can do to better our world.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Some of you may have seen me share this video before. Watch it again. It's good.</span></div>
Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-84090385256389328192015-09-17T18:12:00.000-07:002015-09-22T13:24:55.289-07:00Why I Post About Haitian FoodThe causes of food insecurity in Haiti are large and complicated, and the impact is real, individual and personal. But some Americans simplify this reality to an idea that Haiti cannot feed itself due to problems with the culture and the people. Put simply, this is misguided and narrow thinking.<br>
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Those who are friends with me on Facebook might notice I post about the Haitian food I consume A LOT.<br>
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I do this first and for most because it's delicious, and it will increase your desire to suddenly go on <a href="http://www.experiencehaiti.org/">vacation in Haiti</a> and even <a href="http://www.tahomey.com/">buy Haitian products</a>. (Most significant is peanut butter. I used to be a choosy mom, but no longer. Natural, spicy Haitian peanut butter even beats creamy JIF.)<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSV-RaOO8qBQAEurMX_VOTi71jKRvUSYiK2U634aF-3P5J4EA6LLzGuI8OD1AQrzDmERuv6qiWPK3d0AlBcJGwwp6fgxjlYo4nXFh78qQy_PAPjDitfaze4HPRym-BzrRS6BMuzJvzimKF/s1600/jif.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSV-RaOO8qBQAEurMX_VOTi71jKRvUSYiK2U634aF-3P5J4EA6LLzGuI8OD1AQrzDmERuv6qiWPK3d0AlBcJGwwp6fgxjlYo4nXFh78qQy_PAPjDitfaze4HPRym-BzrRS6BMuzJvzimKF/s400/jif.png" width="337"></a></div>
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<a name="more"></a>The second reason I do this is to shift perceptions about Haiti. Though sharing what I eat on Facebook isn't academic or fully representative, hopefully these posts publicize raw, value added and even branded products that are grown, produced and refined right here in Haiti.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLYSo_r484VMPZXQIjjturzxQxT9gLbNNhdCp3E8RErHMrHyUk0IWQJu427jG6Tk2mEFrhKwR7YWEa47Og5LBU3_-j79ll-AOvZaIbDP11gLqZojymJDEBAbBXf311dFDMcyC93RRyC4A/s640/blogger-image--1555082088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLYSo_r484VMPZXQIjjturzxQxT9gLbNNhdCp3E8RErHMrHyUk0IWQJu427jG6Tk2mEFrhKwR7YWEa47Og5LBU3_-j79ll-AOvZaIbDP11gLqZojymJDEBAbBXf311dFDMcyC93RRyC4A/s640/blogger-image--1555082088.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My friend Loosakimg, in Cange, at his high school graduation dinner. His mom, on the left, went to culinary school. In the foreground is a goat, cooked perhaps like Americans prepare turkey on Thanksgiving.</td></tr>
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There's significant room to grow agriculture related production and business in Haiti. That is a big motivator behind the revitalization of the St. Barnabas Agriculture Center that I'm involved in with the <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/">Episcopal Church</a>. As I've shared before, the long term plan, together with <a href="http://freshministries.org/">Fresh Ministries</a>, is to expand the capacity of that center in improving agriculture production around northern Haiti, equipping farmers and entrepreneurs with the training and tools necessary to begin and grow small businesses, and providing services to nearby farmers using the best available techniques for production and environmental protection.</div>
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So what can you do? From in the U.S., in addition to seeking out and buying <a href="http://www.singingrooster.org/">Haitian made products</a>, you can support this sector of the Haitian economy by communicating with your representatives in the U.S. government to encourage legislation that is more fair to the Haitian producers. Let me explain.</div>
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The political actions of the U.S. are one reason food insecurity is an issue in Haiti. This is just one element adding to the complexity of this problem. Here are two examples: </div>
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In the mid 1990s, President Bill Clinton essentially forced Haiti into lowering their tariffs on imported (read: U.S. made) food stuffs, including rice. Haiti at one point in history exported rice, and now it imports much of what it consumes. In 2010, President Clinton made the following statement, seen in the following excerpt from Fran Quigley's book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Human-Rights-Build-Haiti/dp/0826519938">How Human Rights Can Build Haiti</a></i>:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKRbg6s7SM0Ac_RTSi9WYdionKyTnvAnV_LkMmLArY6bxnZMMTqHx0rMH_xRM_kgSlOgNZ0sDNsSWYsYXvDtK-M47Q3qfzcWkh66RXhxfgG2xQQ5LzoOAJC56tpvqeD0ucx11aTQo8I_v/s640/blogger-image--1261553486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKRbg6s7SM0Ac_RTSi9WYdionKyTnvAnV_LkMmLArY6bxnZMMTqHx0rMH_xRM_kgSlOgNZ0sDNsSWYsYXvDtK-M47Q3qfzcWkh66RXhxfgG2xQQ5LzoOAJC56tpvqeD0ucx11aTQo8I_v/s640/blogger-image--1261553486.jpg"></a></div>
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A second example, from the 1980s, is the <a href="http://www.haitiobserver.com/blog/creole-pig-the-bank-account-of-the-haitian-peasant.html">extermination of the Creole pig</a> by USAID and other international actors. Because of a fever identified in a pig population in the Dominican Republic, fear grew that it would spread into Haiti and then the U.S., effecting the businesses in the U.S. So the solution acted out was to simply eliminate the pig population in Haiti.</div>
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This pig was a significant staple of the rural economy in Haiti, not only as a source of food but as a source of income that, among other uses, provided stability in times of unexpected expenses. It also supported the presence of royal palm trees, whose seed was the principal feed for the pigs. Now, without the pigs, those trees have been cut down at higher rates, contributing to the already serious deforestation problem.</div>
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By staying engaged with the political activities in the U.S., and contacting representatives to tell them how to act on these issues, you can support fairer treatment of Haitian agriculture and improvements in the economy here.</div>
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So, what have I been eating? Take a look below:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKopFkSy1pO0pDf79SE41NIHgVIfJb6j5jaxgzaLp5xrHbdyJvByEbF-0Q7pUNHPsh_5dKmOCBOYPbF-Qitb8U1zSPseXJhTneFfcFX45d0qb1yd-quHhl9uH4pe-Xr-kmSoCAFxcRXYJQ/s1600/11215805_884076621667658_6741016703745123380_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKopFkSy1pO0pDf79SE41NIHgVIfJb6j5jaxgzaLp5xrHbdyJvByEbF-0Q7pUNHPsh_5dKmOCBOYPbF-Qitb8U1zSPseXJhTneFfcFX45d0qb1yd-quHhl9uH4pe-Xr-kmSoCAFxcRXYJQ/s400/11215805_884076621667658_6741016703745123380_n.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tahomey.com/">Tahomey chocolate</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMo-NPbUPO45TqErUJFGRPVugGwYjRBgSkkmEBb78SIEJVLrysgblsX7XrlL-H5IKw9fhrP1VuIKHHSRZb_md5mAAfoyq2Rd36Ye6bZRTIR4TQG-tdjqX4rGqThWHABSUapL0A6szysVU/s640/blogger-image--344716649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMo-NPbUPO45TqErUJFGRPVugGwYjRBgSkkmEBb78SIEJVLrysgblsX7XrlL-H5IKw9fhrP1VuIKHHSRZb_md5mAAfoyq2Rd36Ye6bZRTIR4TQG-tdjqX4rGqThWHABSUapL0A6szysVU/s400/blogger-image--344716649.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.veterimed.org.ht/new/">Let Agogo</a> yogurt, local bananas and peanut butter on local bread,<a href="http://selectohaiti.com/home/"> Selecto brand</a> coffee</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnbG7oIyO4UKEY5J7Q9UC5mbupbxW5J30TTDqlHOlqlO9hrxXadZRHW8YsRAefiVwcWKcWlpbbSpEZ7nryWky2LvJqkCtiTSioHAlXOHcysQIbgTYrCdIVdI5fVsfxC-t7EdBh8V8voWQT/s640/blogger-image--1301115341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnbG7oIyO4UKEY5J7Q9UC5mbupbxW5J30TTDqlHOlqlO9hrxXadZRHW8YsRAefiVwcWKcWlpbbSpEZ7nryWky2LvJqkCtiTSioHAlXOHcysQIbgTYrCdIVdI5fVsfxC-t7EdBh8V8voWQT/s400/blogger-image--1301115341.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frozen cubes of mango two dous and passion fruit juices with Haitian cane sugar</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-r6aqJwJB5Su0NNi0J-OW2j_VFD2ceVYoIp7kFnbKMclqF8EAPCDqbp1HOYdyQTS9baJnDX-pbjHt9zL1G2niA4TwLjge5of8sQegBEx5hW_MprZsCPsP8yBSB5LyW2tVw2mvmgjzlO6j/s640/blogger-image--474236423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-r6aqJwJB5Su0NNi0J-OW2j_VFD2ceVYoIp7kFnbKMclqF8EAPCDqbp1HOYdyQTS9baJnDX-pbjHt9zL1G2niA4TwLjge5of8sQegBEx5hW_MprZsCPsP8yBSB5LyW2tVw2mvmgjzlO6j/s400/blogger-image--474236423.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All local yogurt, peanut butter, bread, sugar, coffee, and passion fruit juice</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHDVatuwQX5ziKkdI9YQSnXfy0WAScpyZxjsD5TtjzWYwluiYpUZ4no2Qo2d7mYoCuX67gKMWE6Esq6IKgA3nKlO9HJyKxlZ-xeE5FsZI54SmlyDlktceCVkEPb5GH8ATHPDACXB_LT2fg/s640/blogger-image--1342135101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHDVatuwQX5ziKkdI9YQSnXfy0WAScpyZxjsD5TtjzWYwluiYpUZ4no2Qo2d7mYoCuX67gKMWE6Esq6IKgA3nKlO9HJyKxlZ-xeE5FsZI54SmlyDlktceCVkEPb5GH8ATHPDACXB_LT2fg/s400/blogger-image--1342135101.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rebo.ht/products_en.php">Rebo brand coffee</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-g38e9wMpf-I2_6Zqwwh5fxadHddZMN38BDKpJnsexn5mfVWHkFq6_SnU2j1KyjmPmu8piu2G1ufWqoIpv8NHIg2QbmP2-qvJp3QHSMnGLiis_J1-2MDQ2NpzJA5tB-6L0s3d5L5zWmL-/s640/blogger-image-1147802781.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-g38e9wMpf-I2_6Zqwwh5fxadHddZMN38BDKpJnsexn5mfVWHkFq6_SnU2j1KyjmPmu8piu2G1ufWqoIpv8NHIg2QbmP2-qvJp3QHSMnGLiis_J1-2MDQ2NpzJA5tB-6L0s3d5L5zWmL-/s400/blogger-image-1147802781.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grapefruit jam</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQsSwXJvtayv5ep9W3QVmefPWp3pu3HTD94WSJ-_N5mBZDTaQyNrqxrk634kzhsgciK0lllsbRED2pBWKPRP__-E9jXI07kjpbVMaev69cXW5EDPhRbUP8w10xM_pcnKByDv0XvUK3oqK/s640/blogger-image-1889217134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQsSwXJvtayv5ep9W3QVmefPWp3pu3HTD94WSJ-_N5mBZDTaQyNrqxrk634kzhsgciK0lllsbRED2pBWKPRP__-E9jXI07kjpbVMaev69cXW5EDPhRbUP8w10xM_pcnKByDv0XvUK3oqK/s400/blogger-image-1889217134.jpg" width="333"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot sauce</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedli7ILzcL1c_v3OKybLpQ5fB3G1OFch_jheI3WEy90qFKiu-ZsXSwKGjsvhipVhE8QAfL_2s-ElGT_wnLcARI7LQzVAyTMN-_6F7OFtlGr8gSsMUMcP6CBNG68yEISZjYk_bxQEllSHG/s640/blogger-image--800858350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedli7ILzcL1c_v3OKybLpQ5fB3G1OFch_jheI3WEy90qFKiu-ZsXSwKGjsvhipVhE8QAfL_2s-ElGT_wnLcARI7LQzVAyTMN-_6F7OFtlGr8gSsMUMcP6CBNG68yEISZjYk_bxQEllSHG/s1600/blogger-image--800858350.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vanilla extract</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKioxTbHdfXuIuKGu0LstOr3aB6MAbydjSaFdmcPq-M9enaTAnrtVOnIdHrQnlM2V6POuRKCSF14zhIlC-ysDsMEcdrV7h1MRrpUum9K5uWfzQlzI_DZL72-s4sIkjJb5lhL1YRztJgDe8/s640/blogger-image--233343205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKioxTbHdfXuIuKGu0LstOr3aB6MAbydjSaFdmcPq-M9enaTAnrtVOnIdHrQnlM2V6POuRKCSF14zhIlC-ysDsMEcdrV7h1MRrpUum9K5uWfzQlzI_DZL72-s4sIkjJb5lhL1YRztJgDe8/s400/blogger-image--233343205.jpg" width="351"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/melangehaiti?fref=ts">Mel'ange brand</a> all natural tea</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bon apeti!</span></h3>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-8554471489170411822015-08-29T07:55:00.000-07:002015-08-29T08:09:38.899-07:00Three Lessons I've Learned<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ou met jwenn atik sa an Kreyol pi ba la.</span></div>
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While making the decision to move to Cap Haitien, I considered
two things. First, I considered that the move from Cange to Cap Haitien might
be as different as was the move from Clemson, South Carolina to Cange. Second,
moving to Cap would mean a chance to experience Haiti from a completely
different vantage point, helping me understand the Haitian context more deeply.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVD7Qx74e5YGmqNvrZMqDS1ZepiOxxgvvp8vEcuGjaYLvNfAexBZGoSGxHuriaDrcVNU7VaH005OPYgRfgahuDW4TrouR4J5o3llTejYUy32JV8vZLs-EfCdLy07es3Cwvk_a2DShIXEk/s640/blogger-image-1854189820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVD7Qx74e5YGmqNvrZMqDS1ZepiOxxgvvp8vEcuGjaYLvNfAexBZGoSGxHuriaDrcVNU7VaH005OPYgRfgahuDW4TrouR4J5o3llTejYUy32JV8vZLs-EfCdLy07es3Cwvk_a2DShIXEk/s640/blogger-image-1854189820.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos are textures from around the house in Cap Haitien</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To the first point, two months after moving to Cap Haitien,
I can already say that yes, the move here has been just as different as was the
move to Cange. I’m now living independently, I’m more mobile, and I’m living in
a city where every single person doesn’t know me. All of this makes for a
pretty unfamiliar environment and figuring out entirely new ways of doing things.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To the second point, after two months in Cap, I’m already
learning many new things. All of this new learning has made me reflect on what
I learned the previous two years in Cange. So, since I’m feeling a bit of a
personal reflection post, I want to share the three most significant lessons
I’ve learned since moving to Haiti.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a name='more'></a></div>
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The first lesson, which has really been a strong affirmation
of something already present in my life, is to constantly learn and educate
myself whenever given the chance. The challenges that face Haiti and our world
today are incredibly complicated. The more I learn, the better equipped I am to
identify the challenges and contribute to solutions. Often, the solutions will
have to be just as complicated as the history leading up to the present day
problem. I've learned that all of this learning requires great humility and the ability to admit
fault. And it requires grace and forgiveness. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrTHoXMujhUbMLRWQSBGnSXqz1Y4RTX6YPVnN8sa-N9Z7l34Dy481LUlp5ZcS7NhyXHmbyaohBzTd6_eVAIB_JpLaHQDdY6EM9qIm8VxRKDO9tGsvY-mV06GiGCzq1gDjCDSsBjp0eAhW/s640/blogger-image--494270676.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrTHoXMujhUbMLRWQSBGnSXqz1Y4RTX6YPVnN8sa-N9Z7l34Dy481LUlp5ZcS7NhyXHmbyaohBzTd6_eVAIB_JpLaHQDdY6EM9qIm8VxRKDO9tGsvY-mV06GiGCzq1gDjCDSsBjp0eAhW/s640/blogger-image--494270676.jpg" /></a></div>
In my quest for learning, I recently read a book about Alan
Mulally’s leadership at Ford Motor Company several years ago. Mulally arrived
at Ford to a senior management that had a culture of presenting their
operations as functioning without issue, despite the fact that the company
clearly had massive problems. The management was afraid to present what they
knew was going wrong, in case they were to be fired for being the problem
themselves. But Mulally wanted everyone on the team to learn all that was going
wrong. He reiterated over and over to his staff that they were not the problem,
but rather they had a problem to fix, and that once they could see and
understand the problems, the entire team could work together to solve them. He
created a culture perpetual of learning, and Mulally’s team accomplished huge
feats within that company.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sometimes when we are ignorant, we act in detrimental ways. That
means in our ignorance, we can often be part of the problem. Admitting fault or
ignorance is not weakness. Weakness is choosing to not acknowledge what is
wrong, not admitting we do not understand, refusing to learn, and refusing to
act. But when we constantly question and learn, we can change our behavior into
something more productive. Through learning, we can become a stronger part of
the solution.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The second lesson I’ve learned? Go! This is a compliment to
the first lesson, not a contradiction, because learning often happens by doing.
Situations often call for more immediate action, while the more long term and
complicated nuances are worked out over time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks-SSjFL6Q9JhHpfh4iK9D3ofMqxIGHsG-v9HV5odO1FtKDQDaZ_cGPG6M3g8NcObla1f13Zkv8D3AlJhjC0C8ABzrVeDeGivjva68mqK5yQBXViJhOJnKkk3mHfSgJ0pXUq4dP2Vlk-X/s640/blogger-image-910145743.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks-SSjFL6Q9JhHpfh4iK9D3ofMqxIGHsG-v9HV5odO1FtKDQDaZ_cGPG6M3g8NcObla1f13Zkv8D3AlJhjC0C8ABzrVeDeGivjva68mqK5yQBXViJhOJnKkk3mHfSgJ0pXUq4dP2Vlk-X/s640/blogger-image-910145743.jpg" /></a></div>
The Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Elect Michael Curry
said in a sermon at General Convention, “GO!” We are supposed to GO! We have
talents. They might not yet be fully formed, but we must use those talents and not
allow them to go to waste. Ultimately, nothing can change without action, and
if one waits around too long, trying to learn everything there is to know before
taking action, we can miss great opportunities.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I am inspired by Paul Farmer and Partners in Health (Zanmi
Lasante) and their drive for action. They have learned, and adapted, and
improved, and fought to be a part of solutions in health care in Haiti and
around the world. They owe much of what they have accomplished to what they
have learned by going and doing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This is not to say take action recklessly and rewards and
solutions will manifest. That is not what PIH/ZL does. PIH/ZL learns by doing,
calculating the next move with the best information available. They employ
talents of diverse backgrounds and learn from each other through the process.
We need more of that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w4SLIO7nhv3gEmhUMDaLikpZB_nRQi9zYDL8ZnWjWdLRGPzS1_CtoYI0HhRO-DXONA3mKv2xVFgzkPfpfr1197tIAvqRcFiVkt3W-no_siR6E20YiEtOqEjm3XKtyGSllJ2oJNhf0hWB/s640/blogger-image-2144105728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w4SLIO7nhv3gEmhUMDaLikpZB_nRQi9zYDL8ZnWjWdLRGPzS1_CtoYI0HhRO-DXONA3mKv2xVFgzkPfpfr1197tIAvqRcFiVkt3W-no_siR6E20YiEtOqEjm3XKtyGSllJ2oJNhf0hWB/s640/blogger-image-2144105728.jpg" /></a></div>
The third lesson is to have an absolutely crazy level of
hope. The world is full of suffering, with people in situations seemingly
without resolution. There are countless examples just in Haitian history of the
evil that humans can inflict on one another. And each day in Haiti, people
living in poverty are visible all around—victims of prolonged injustice.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But that’s not the entire story. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Over hundreds of years, European powers enslaved millions of
people from Africa, exploiting them through forced labor. Then one day, a
movement began in the French colony on Hispaniola, and in a relatively small
period of time Haiti became the world’s first (and still only) nation created
through a successful slave revolt. I can think of few things as inspiring and
hopeful as that. One doesn’t even have to imagine, one can look at history, to
see the profound ways that this event loosened chains around the world,
cracked the structures of injustice, and began to build a new world of freedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The world today is full of people that push my level of hope
to even crazier heights. I am incredibly proud to be a part of the Episcopal
Church, so I’ll take the Episcopal Church international missionaries as one example. I work with
colleagues who are living around the world doing work like supporting
organizations amending gang relations in El Salvador, providing pastoral care in
Italy to people fleeing parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa,
counseling abused female migrant workers in Hong Kong, and assisting post-Apartheid
racial reconciliation efforts in South Africa. That is crazy hopeful!</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have crazy hope, too, from Jesus Christ. I relate to Jesus
first and foremost as an example. He is to me in many ways the example of how
one is supposed to be in the world. His example is the path to justice and
reconciliation. And it is with his example that I see the goodness of God alive
in others. Both Christians and non-Christians are living in the world, across
the street from where I live and thousands of miles away, embodying this
goodness every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEXlTCPLGneW0oAAugw3YulMSXmMCuO8UNxdN6htufqNtJQ6jTv2PUhiHDHdZwRqdAh1LW9fCKJgGORla1QNtOGS0bMWFJKbZu6fiAEcCPJfQiDRlknsp5n2-NO7KfREMSoc_9ImaaJj_/s640/blogger-image--614851551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEXlTCPLGneW0oAAugw3YulMSXmMCuO8UNxdN6htufqNtJQ6jTv2PUhiHDHdZwRqdAh1LW9fCKJgGORla1QNtOGS0bMWFJKbZu6fiAEcCPJfQiDRlknsp5n2-NO7KfREMSoc_9ImaaJj_/s640/blogger-image--614851551.jpg" /></a></div>
So as I’m now feeling settled in Cap Haitien, I give thanks
for what I have learned, the things I have done and the examples of hope I have
witnessed. I pray for guidance in my life to constantly improve who I am and to
learn as much as possible. I pray for the courage to go and do. And I continue
to rely on the profound hope rooted in my faith, in my family and friends, and
in the community in which I live.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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________</div>
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Twa Leson Mwen Te Aprann<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Pandan mwen
te deside pou’m rete Cap Haitien, mwen te konsidere de bagay. </span>Primye
bagay la, mwen te konsidere ke delojman Cange pou Cap Haitien ka santi two
diferan menm jan delojman Clemson, South Carolina a Cange te ye. Dezyem bagay
la, yon chans pou rete Okap se yon chans pou mwen we Ayiti avek yon lot
pespektif, pou ede’m komprann konteks Ayisyen pi byen toujou.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Pou primye
pwen la, de mwa apre mwen te antre Cap Haitien, mwen ka di deja ke wi, delojman
sa te diferan menm jan delojman a Cange te ye. Kounyea map viv pou kont mwen,
mwen pi mobil, epi mwen rete nan yon gwo vil kote tout moun pa konnen kiyes
mwen ye. Tout sa fe yon anviwonman kote’m pa abitye epi ki fe’m cheche nouvo
metod pou pra swen lavi’m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Pou dezyem
pwen la, apre de mwa Okap, mwen deja ap aprann nouvo bagay la. Tout edikasyon
sa fe’m reflechi sou sa mwen gen tan aprann pandan de an mwen te rete Cange.
Donk, paske mwen santi mwen vle ekri yon pawol pesonel, mwen vle pataje twa
leson pi impotan ki mwen te aprann depi mwen te rive Ayiti.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="FR-HT"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdLokRsKpH72vlYHOitvW9gNbqB3pPAumSjCh7g5JEE6nw4WKSzgi0bcncJd27_RP6KwGGMTuPn6tB-aTMCwfP3wo6MhIMUBrXMOYZx6r2FpzQCkaFETt9UkkHF_igqhCi3ubKf5a2ZD1/s640/blogger-image-84325978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdLokRsKpH72vlYHOitvW9gNbqB3pPAumSjCh7g5JEE6nw4WKSzgi0bcncJd27_RP6KwGGMTuPn6tB-aTMCwfP3wo6MhIMUBrXMOYZx6r2FpzQCkaFETt9UkkHF_igqhCi3ubKf5a2ZD1/s640/blogger-image-84325978.jpg" /></a></span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Primye
leson a, ki se plis yon afimasyon de yon bagay ki deja nan lavi’m, se pou
cheche aprann e cheche edikasyon nen pot jan ki posib. Difikilte yo ki devan
nou Ayiti e nan tout mond lan vreman komplike. Le’m aprann plis, mwen gen plis
kapasite pou idantifye difikilte yo e kontribye a solisyon yo. </span>Souvan,
solisyon yo ap komplike menm jan ak istwa kit e kreye pwoblem yo jounnen
joudia. Mwen aprann ke t<span lang="FR-HT">out edikasyon sa
mande anpil imilite, epi fos pou admet fault. Epi li mande fave e padon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Nan demand
pou aprann, mwen te li yon liv sou Alan Mulally’s gesyon nan Ford Motor
Company. </span>Mulally te rive Ford pou we yon administrasyon ki gen yon kilti
pou presante tout operasyon tankou yo pa gen pwoblem, malgre ke konpayi te gen
gwo gwo pwoblem. Administrasyon an te pe pou presante sa ki yo konnen pat mache
byen, pase yo pe bos la ka revoke yo paske li ka we se yo ki pwoblem nan. Men
Mulally te vle tout manb ekip la pou aprann tout sa ki pa bon nan konpayi a. Li
di plizye fwa ke se pa moun andan staf la ki pwoblem nan, se yo menm ki gen yon
pwoblem pou resoud, e le yo ka we e komprann pwoblem yo, tout ekip ap travay
tet ansanm pou rezoud yo. Mulally te kreye yon kilti jan moun toujou ap aprann,
epi ekip li te fe gwo travay nan konpayi.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Pa fwa, le
nou inyoran, nou fe bagay ki detwi nou. Sa vle di, nan inyorans nou, souvan nou
fe pati de pwoblem yo. Pou admet fot ou inyorans se pa yon febles. Yon febles
se pou chwazi pa rekonet sa ki pa bon, pou pa admet ke nou pa komprann, pou
refize aprann, epi pou refize pran aksyon. Men le nou kontinye kesyone e
aprann, nou ka chanje jan nou ye pou vinn pi pwodiktif. Avek edikasyon kon sa,
nou vin yon pi fo pati se solisyon yo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="FR-HT"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAanpk49mpsOPjM-RKRaE7RAT9Rl4wBlruZv0i86ZMD0jPAIn8X8KAH7_p3dKU2wURaayB_UkZcIO9CdVGzyacUJoa-rQaXcslC2Pg0oYVhyphenhyphenrkJ5-NsAEIu5GFZAyQeCRkMluiOpMlucY0/s640/blogger-image-2014223499.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAanpk49mpsOPjM-RKRaE7RAT9Rl4wBlruZv0i86ZMD0jPAIn8X8KAH7_p3dKU2wURaayB_UkZcIO9CdVGzyacUJoa-rQaXcslC2Pg0oYVhyphenhyphenrkJ5-NsAEIu5GFZAyQeCRkMluiOpMlucY0/s640/blogger-image-2014223499.jpg" /></a></span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Dezyem
leson mwen te aprann? Ale ! Sa se yon konpliman pou primye leson a, li pa
kontredi li, paske souvan nou aprann le nou fe. Souvan, sitiyasyon yo mande pou
nou prann aksyon imedyatman, pandan nou jere sa ki plis konplike nan long tem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Evek pou Legliz
Episcopal Michael Curry te preche nan gran reyinyon, “ALE!” </span>Nou ta
sipoze ALE! Nou gen talan. Petet yo poko finn fome, men nou dwe itilize talan nou
yo pou pa pemet yon gaspiye. Finalman, anyen pa ka chanje san aksyon, epi si
nou pran twop tan pou ale, pou aprann tout sa ki la pou aprann anvan nou pran aksyon,
nou kapab pedi yon gwo opotinite. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Paul Farmer e Zanmi Lasante enspire anpil paske yon deside
ale. Yo aprann, yo adapte, yo amelyore, epi yo goumen pou yo ka fomen solisyon sante an Ayiti e lot kote. Se jan yo aprann pandan yo ale ki fe yo akonpli
tout sa yo fe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mwen pa vle di pou nou fe aksyon san pridans epi nap jwenn
sikse. Se pa konn sa Zanmi Lasante travay. Zanmi Lasante aprann pandan yo
travay, men yo kalkile chak nouvo bagay ki yo fe avek tout infomasyon ki disponib.
Yo itilize talan plizye moun avek plizye konnesans jan yon ka aprann lot pandan
tout pwosesis. Nou bezwen sa anpil. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT">Twazyem
leson a se pou gen yon nivo espwa ki fou. Mond lan plen moun kap soufri, avek
moun ki nan sitiyasyon ki sanble pa gen solisyon. </span>Gen plizye egzanp selman
nan istwa Ayiti pou move bagay ki yon moun kap fe sou lot. Epi chak jou an
Ayiti, moun ki viv an povrete ap visib—viktim de injistis pwolonje.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Men pawol
la pa fini la.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Pou plizye
syek, Ewopeyen yo te mete milyon de moun Afriken nan esklavaj, pou eksplwate yo
pou travay. Men yon jou, yon mouvman te komanse nan ti koloni Franse nan il
Ispanyola, epi apre yon ti tan, Haiti te vin primye (e toujou le sel) peyi ki
te fet apre yon revolt esklav. </span>Mwen pa ka jwenn lot bagay ki bay men plis
enspirasyon e espwa ke sa. <span lang="FR-HT">Ou
pa bezwen imajine, ou ka gade istwa, pou we ke revolisyon sa te dekole esklavaj,
te fisi estrikti injisitis, e te komanse konstrwi yon nouvo mond ki lib. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Mond la
joudia li plen moun ki mete nivo espwa mwen pi wo toujou. Mwen se yon fye manb
nan Legliz Episkopal, donk map prann misyone entenasyonal nan legliz la pou yon egzanp. Mwen travay avek
koleg kap rete nan plizye peyi epi yap fe travay tankou sipote oganizasyon an
El Salvador kap amelyore relasyon yo antre gang yo, bay konsey pastoral an Italy
pou moun kap kite Lafrik ak Mwayen Oryan, konsey pou fi ki te abize ki te imigre
a Hong Kong pou travay, epi asiste rekonsilyasyon rasyal an Sud Afrik apre
Aparteid. </span>Se sa ki bay espwa ki fou !<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Mwen gen
yon espwa fou tou nan Jezi Kris. </span>Mwen we Jesi tankou yon
egzanp. Li menm nan plizye fason se yon egzanp jan yon sipoze viv nan mond lan.
Egzanp pa’l se yon wout pou jistis e rekonsilyasyon. Epi se avek egzanp pa’l ke
mwen we bonte Bondye ap viv nan ke lot moun nan. <span lang="FR-HT">Gen moun ki Kretyen e pa Kretyen, sa ki bo kote
e sa ki rete lwen anpil, ki enkopore bonte sa chak jou.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR-HT">Donk
kounyea, jan mwen santi map vin stab Cap Haitien, mwen di Bondye mesi pou tout
sa ki mwen te apran, tout bagay ki mwen te fe, epi tout egzanp pou espwa ki
mwen te we. Mwen priye pou direksyon nan lavi’m pou kontinye amelyore kiyes
mwen ye epi pou aprann tout sa ki posib. Mwen priye pou kouraj pou ale !
Epi mwen kontinye konte sou gwo espwa ki gen baz nan lafwa mwen, nan fanmi e
zanmi mwen yo, epi nan kominote kote mwen rete.</span><br />
<span lang="FR-HT">____</span><br />
<span lang="FR-HT">I owe much of my passion for reading and continuously learning to my grandmother, Nana Doris, who passionately did both of those activities her entire life. I love you and miss you.</span><br />
<span lang="FR-HT"><br /></span>
<span lang="FR-HT">Mwen vin genyen pasyon pou lekti ak edikasyon kontinyel gras a grann mwen, Nana Doris, ki te fe de aktivite sa yo avek anpil pasyon pou tout lavi'l. Mwen renmen w e mwen sonje w.</span></div>
Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-55586072570410156322015-08-21T13:03:00.003-07:002015-08-21T16:38:41.604-07:00CASB Master PlanIn my new position, I'm working as a project manager for the stabilization and revitalization of the St. Barnabas Agriculture Center (CASB), which primarily features an agricultural technical school with a 2-year academic program. It is one of the higher education institutions in the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, but has recently suffered from various difficulties, prompting a push to reinvest in the center.<br />
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My work is just a part of what will take many more years to realize. I want to share a bit here from the CASB Capital Development Plan put together by Haitian Architect Herve Sabin and the <a href="http://www.studiodrumcollaborative.net/">Studio Drum Collaborative</a> to provide more context and motivation behind this project.<br />
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<h4>
<a name='more'></a>On CASB History</h4>
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"Founded in 1984, Saint Barnabas Agriculture Centre of Terrier-Rouge is a joint development of Haiti Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church USA. Our goal is to teach daughters and sons of peasants how from a small are of land, they can earn a living honorably. Our teaching focuses on practice, particularly the cultivation of vegetables, the environment, and animal production as well as the management of risks and disasters. From the opening to today, 30 classes have been graduated in this school..." -page 4<br />
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An excerpt from Haitian History</h4>
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"When Henry Christophe, Haiti's second ruler after the death of Dessalines established his monarchy in the North, he implemented crop production schemes similar to the colonial system. During this period the country was divided between the north (under King Henry Chrisophe) and the south under Alexandre Petion as a republic. As a direct result of Christophe's agricultural programs, north Haiti was economically more prosperous than south Haiti. At the time of Christophe's death in 1820, it is said that he had accumulated in the citadel 17,437,823 gourdes in silver and gold which was equivalent to six times the gross domestic product of the republic of Petion in the south and two thirds of the debt that Charles X demanded Haiti to pay to France in 1825 (out of a total sum of 150 Million francs). </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://haitist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/King_Henri_Christophe_I_of_Haiti.jpg" height="400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="337" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Christophe</td></tr>
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To this day, northern and southern Haiti have distinct cultural characteristics owing back to the fact that King Henry kept the land reforms to a minimum, keeping larger parcels intact for production. Whereas Petion, in the south, enacted land reforms that subdivided large parcels of land into small parcel ownerships...</div>
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Early Haitian leaders, Toussaint, Dessalines and Christophe, produced agricultural codes that prevented small plantations or small land ownerships. Small land ownership was discouraged because it was believed that it would not allow to pay debt of independence and create an economically prosperous Haiti. However, the psychological implications of slavery worked against this plan as slaves were averse to work collectively on large plantation in methods similar to the status quo before independence." -pages 11-12<br />
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Planned CASB Capabilities and Capacities</h4>
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<ul>
<li>Regional Center of Excellence for Academic and Agriculture Applications</li>
<li>Educator and Trainer of Fully Capable Agriculture and Veterinary Technicians</li>
<li>Agriculture Services Support Center for smallholders, farmers and agriculture operators</li>
<li>Center for exploration and implementation of high productivity for plant and animal husbandry</li>
<li>"Mother" of agriculture entrepreneurs through education, training, and facilitation</li>
<li>Place of pride and accomplishment for graduates, faculty, staff, and students in applied agriculture operations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h4>
On the community response to CASB changes</h4>
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Studio Drum surveyed local residents in a needs assessment associated with the creation of this plan. Following is the response to "How and why to you think these changes will improve the community?"</div>
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"Three responses were provided: there would be a reduction in typhoid and malaria; there will be an increase in the households' income that will be of benefit to the whole community, and will prevent the people living in the community from being humiliated in the Dominican Republic. Haiti has had a tumultuous relationship with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic. Despite this, many Haitians in the Northeast find economic opportunities in the Dominican Republic via the open border market held twice per week or by performing manual labor." -page 14</div>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-57725586772831668562015-08-09T07:10:00.001-07:002015-08-09T07:43:22.326-07:00New Home in Okap<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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I want to share a brief post and some pictures of my new home in Cap Haitien. The church is renting this house for the next year for missionary personnel to use (thanks David Copley!). Next month, I'll be joined by <a href="http://inwardspiritualgrace.blogspot.com/">Eliza Brinkley</a>, soon to be another full time missionary here. Of course Dan Tootle and Kyle Evans will be making their usual rounds from time to time every few months or so. </div>
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My favorite parts about the house are the outdoor spaces (two balconies and the courtyard), the location (close to the market, close to the boulevard, close to the movie theater, close to restaurants, close to church...), and the fact that it is not near a loud bar that plays music late into the night. </div>
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We'll have extra beds (when Dan and Kyle aren't here) so come over and visit!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The balcony off of my room, shade courtesy of the mango tree </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My room! I inherited these Budweiser sheets from those before me... no explanation as of yet.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's Dan.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting some compost for my future garden! I'll need plants that like shade.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cap Haitien</td></tr>
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<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-12997628589972372302015-07-27T07:16:00.002-07:002015-07-27T07:16:46.651-07:00An Explanation of Language/Yon Eksplikasyon Lang <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Ou met jwenn atik sa an Kreyol anba sa ki an angle a.</i></span><br />
Language matters, and language can be power. The language I choose to use at any moment in Haiti determines who will and will not understand what I say. Like any power, this can be used for good or for bad. When used to express superiority, manipulate, degrade, suppress or exclude it is unjust; likewise, when used to amplify the voices of the suppressed and outcast it is full of justice and goodness.<br />
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When I say language, I mean the particular language of choice, be it English, French, Haitian Creole or Elvish. The issue is not that speaking any one of these languages is a bad thing in and of itself. The issue is about awareness of the privilege being able to speak them, and wisely reflecting on when and how to appropriately use them and NOT exert unjust power over others.<br />
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It was to illustrate this point that I chose to write a brief post a couple of weeks ago on racism, the shooting at Charleston's <a href="http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/index.php#">Emmanuel AME Church</a>, and the parallels in Haiti, yet post it only in Haitian Creole (<a href="http://manypartsonebody.blogspot.com/2015/06/men-jan-mwen-we.html">Men jan mwen we'l</a>). #blacklivesmatter #lavinwaenpotan<br />
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Many of my non-Creole speaking readers asked for a translation, for which, to their frustration, I only offered Google Translate, which is not great with longer passages. That frustration, I believe, comes from a sense of powerlessness (and of course sadness for missing out on one of my thrilling blog posts). And that's just from one small written piece.<br />
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Meanwhile, I found out I have many more Haitian readers than I previously thought, when they shared their appreciation for that post. In that appreciation, I feel a sense of camaraderie, solidarity, and liberation. And that's just from one small written piece.<br />
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I do a lot of translating between English and Creole with my work, and I have encountered circumstances where English speakers in meetings speak to cut off my translation so the Haitians in the room cannot understand what is being said. I can understand the need for private conversations, but this manner is inappropriate.<br />
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American groups often speak about the desire and need for local engagement, local contribution and local control over things in Haiti. "Why can't Haitians just help themselves?" they say. Choosing to speak so that Haitians cannot understand is asserting ones own power, reminding others that they do not have the same power, thus undermining the "local leadership philosophy" and continuing the status quo of foreign control.<br />
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I cannot exclude myself in this critique, though. I am guilty of using my English to exclude someone in my presence from understanding me. Most were simple moments, and often in frustration (not an excuse)--a comment or complaint about someone persistently asking me for a favor, for example. I rightly regret each of these moments.<br />
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An important aside: I am not saying that using a language someone cannot understand is always a bad thing, nor is it always meant with bad intent. But the language of choice is connected to a history and context, and that history and context influences the present reality.<br />
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There is a big difference between using English around people who only speak Creole and using Creole around people who only speak English. In my experience, the former is almost always about secrecy, power and manipulation. It is using the fact that others cannot speak the same language in order to gain an advantage in the given situation. The latter, however--speaking Creole among those who only speak English--can also be about coping. Coping with the imbalance in power and context through jokes, clarification, and relating.<br />
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Fran Quigley reminds us in his book, <i><a href="http://manypartsonebody.blogspot.com/p/reading-list.html">How Human Rights Can Build Haiti</a></i>, that French is a language of privilege here as well, where the majority of the population only speaks Creole. This creates an imbalance of power just as between English and Creole speakers (Read this: <a href="https://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/3-questions-michel-degraff-haiti-teaching-kreyol-0720">Teaching In Kreyol</a>). For example, a Haitian may be arrested, rightly or wrongly, and given trial that they cannot understand. French is the language of the government and the more educated (and wealthy) in Haiti, so not knowing the language can be a barrier to justice, state services and even jobs.<br />
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Lawyers Brian Concannon (American) and Mario Joseph (Haitian), featured in Quigley's book, are working in Haiti through the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/">BAI and IJDH</a>) for better justice in Haiti. Quigley nicely presents the difficulties of navigating a French-based justice system as a Creole-only speaker, the lawsuit against the UN over cholera, and the trail of the 1994 Raboteau massacre. Worth the read if you want to know more about this.<br />
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In my personal work, when serving as a translator I strive to translate everything so that all can hear the same message, even if I must summarize or go back several moments to catch up. This is tedious, but I greatly value it's importance. I also now work all written documents and emails in English and Creole, when necessary, so that any audience can read them and have access to them. I keep in mind this simple fact: Creole is an official language in Haiti, English is not. I would be imposing if I only worked in English.<br />
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Language matters. The power that comes from speaking a language is intertwined with our economic status, race, nationality and gender. English speaking visitors to Haiti, or any other country, should be aware of the power they hold by virtue of the language they speak, and likewise be aware of the powerlessness that comes from not being able to speak it.<br />
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If you come to work in Haiti long term, learn Creole. You will be better for it, as will those you work and live with. (Secret: it's also fun to learn). If you are a short term visitor to Haiti, simply <i>try</i> to learn it. It can be hard without immersion, but that's okay. In my view, simply making an effort to speak the language is a big victory for justice and more balanced relationships.<br />
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Lang la enpotan, epi lang ka bay pouvwa. Lang ki mwen chwazi itilize a nenpot ki moman an Ayiti kapab detemine kiyes ka komprann e kiyes pap ka komprann sa map di a. Menm jan nenpot lot pouvwa, nou kapab itilize li pou fe sa ke byen oswa sa ke mal. Le nou chwazi lang pou eksprime siperyorite, manipile, degrade, siprime oubyen eskli li pa jis; pareyman, le nou chwazi lang pou anplifye vwa de moun ki siprime e deche li plen jistis e tout sa ki bon.<br />
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Le mwen di lang, mwen vle di lang patikile, tankou Angle, Franse, Kreyol Ayisyen oubyen Elvish. Pwoblem nan se pa pale lang sa yo yo menm. Pwoblem nan se pou konsyans de privilej le'w konn pale lang sa yo, epi pou reflechi avek sajes pou le ak ki jan ou itilize lang yo apwopriye epi pou PA egzesis pouvwa ki pa jis sou tet lot moun yo.<br />
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Se pou montre pwen sa ke mwen te deside ekri yon ti atik sou bagay rasis, sa ki tire nan legliz Charleston, epi sa li gen pou Ayiti, men pou ekri'l selman an Kreyol Ayisyen (<a href="http://manypartsonebody.blogspot.com/2015/06/men-jan-mwen-we.html">Men jan mwen we'l</a>). #blacklivesmatter #lavinwaenpotan<br />
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Gen plizye moun ki pa pale Kreyol ki te mande'm pou tradiksyon. Pou yo, mwen te ofri Google Translate selman, ki pa vreman bon avek pawol pi long. Sa fristre yo anpil. Fristrasyon sa, mwen kwe, soti nan sans enpwisans (epi tristes paske yo pap ka li yon lot atik mwen ki vreman interesan). Epi sa jus apre yon ti bagay ki ekri a.<br />
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Pandan se tan, mwen te jwenn plis Ayisyen ki li blog mwen a pase jan mwen konnen anvan, apre yo te pateje apresyasyon pou sa'm te ekri a. Nan apresyasyon sa, mwen santi kamaradri, solidarite, epi liberasyon. Epi sa jus apre yon ti bagay ki ekri a.<br />
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Nan travay mwen, mwen tradwi anpil antre Angle e Kreyol, epi pa fwa mwen jwenn moman le moun ki pale Angle nan reyinyon yo entewonp sa map tradwi a pou Ayisyen yo pa ka komprann sa yap di. Mwen ka komprann konvesasyon prive, men kon sa li pa apropriye.<br />
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An plis, gwoup etranje yo pale anpil de jan nou bezwen angajman lokal, kontribisyon lokal epi kontwol lokal an Ayiti. "Pou ki sa Ayisyen yo pa ka ede tet yo?" yo di. Depi nou chwazi pale jan Ayisyen pa ka komprann, nap montre pouvwa nou sou yo, nap fe lot moun yo sonje ke yo pap gen menm pouvwa, epi nap mine filosofi lokal epi nou selman kontinye sa kap fet la avek kontwol etranje yo.<br />
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Mwen pap ka eskli tet mwen nan kritik sa. Mwen koupab de itilize Angle mwen pou eskli lot moun pou komprann nan presans mwen. Le sa yo se sitiyasyon senp, epi se avek fristrasyon mwen dil (men se pa yon eskiz)--yon ti mo oubyen plent de yon moun ka mande'm yon bagay, pa egzanp. Mwen regret chak moman sa yo. Map fe efo pou pa fe sa anko.<br />
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Yon ti not enpotan: Mwen pap di ke le nou itilize yon lang ki yon lot moun pa ka komprann se yon bagay ke toujou mal chak fwa, epi li ka posib moun pa vle fe yon bagay ki mal l yo pale konn sa. Men lang nou chwazi li konekte avek yon istwa e konteks, epi istwa e konteks sa ap enfliyanse reyalite jounnen joudia.<br />
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Gen yon gran diferans antre le nou itilize Angle antre moun kap pale Kreyol selman epi le nou itilize Kreyol antre moun kap pale Angle selman. Nan eksperyans mwen an, primye a se pou kenbe sekre, pouvwa epi manipilasyon. Se pou itilize konesans ke lot moun pap ka komprann pou pwofi yon avantaj nan sitiyasyon an. Dezyem lan--pale Kreyol antre moun ki pale Angle selman--se pou ede nou kanpe an fas sitiyasyon an. Pou kanpe an fas dezekilib pouvwa e konteks avek blag, klarifikasyon epi rapo.<br />
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Fran Quigley fe nou sonje nan liv li, <i><a href="http://manypartsonebody.blogspot.com/p/reading-list.html">How Human Rights Can Build Haiti</a>, </i>ke Franse se yon lang nan privilej an Ayiti, kote majorite peyizan yo pale Kreyol selman. Sa ka kreye pouvwa dezekilibre menm jan antre moun kap pale Angle e moun kap pale Kreyol (Li sa: <a href="https://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/3-questions-michel-degraff-haiti-teaching-kreyol-0720">Teaching In Kreyol</a>). Pa egzanp, yon Aysiyen ka vin arete, avek oubyen san rezon, epi yo ka gen yon jijman yo pap ka komprann. Franse se lang gouvenman epi moun ki edike (e rich) an Ayiti, donk depi ou pa konn lang Franse a ou ka gen pwoblem pou travay, jistis, e akse nan sevis leta.<br />
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Avoka Brian Concannon (Ameriken) e Avoka Mario Joseph (Ayisyen), ki andan liv Quigley a, ap travay an Ayiti avek Bureau des Avocats Internationeax (<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/">BAI and IJDH</a>) pou pi bon jistis an Ayiti. Quigley presante travay yo byen avek difikilte pou navige yon sistem jistis ki an Franse si'w pale Kreyol selman, pwose kont UN pou Kolera, epi jijman pou masak Raboteau nan ane 1994.<br />
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Nan travay pam nan, le'm fe travay pou tradikte mwen eseye tradwi tout bagay net pou tout moun ka tande men pawol, menm si'm bezwen bay rezime oubyen retounnen pou kek moman pou trawui sa ki pase a. Li konn fatigan, men li vreman enpotan. Kounyea, mwen travay an Angle e Kreyol pou tout email e dokiman ki ekri a, jan ke nesese, pou nenpot moun kabap li travay mwen e jwenn akse a yo. Pa bliye: Kreyol se yon lang ofisyel an Ayiti, men pa Angle. Se yon inpozisyon si'm travay an Angle selman.<br />
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Lang la enpotan. Pouvwa ki lang yo bay nou li konekte avek ekonomi nou, ras nou, nasyonalite nou, epi seks nou. Moun ki pale Angle kap vizite Ayiti, ou nenpot lot peyi, dwe konnen pouvwa yo kenbe gras a lang ki yo pale, epi menm jan a tou enpwisans ki moun genyen ki pa ka pale'l.<br />
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Si'w vin travay Ayiti pou anpil tan, fok ou aprann Kreyol. Ou pral pi bon pou li, menm jan tout lot moun bo kote'w pral pi bon. (Yon ti sekre: li yon plezi pou aprann). Si'w pral vizite Ayiti pou yon ti tan, selman <i>eseye</i> aprann li. Li kapab difisil san imesyon, men sa pa anyen. Jan mwen we'l, selman yon efo pou pale lang la se yon gran viktwa pou jistis epi relasyon pi ekilibre.Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-48375302883372977572015-07-17T15:38:00.003-07:002015-07-20T10:48:48.212-07:00Trinity Youth Mission ExperienceThis past week, I was blessed to travel with the youth of <a href="http://www.trinityasheville.org/">Trinity Episcopal Church</a> Asheville, NC, on their trip to visit Cange and the Central Plateau. I really can't express how inspiring and meaningful this experience was.<br />
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Debbie, the youth director at Trinity who has been such a big part of my life, led the group of 8 youth along with the participation of Rev. Scott and his wife Missy, and Greg Hilderbran, a parishioner from Trinity who is involved with <a href="http://www.considerhaiti.org/">Consider Haiti</a>, an organization based in Montrouis, Haiti.<br />
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We were able to visit almost everywhere we planned for the week. One highlight was visiting Hermane in Chapoteau to assist in the first produce distribution from his community garden to some of the 25 primary school kids who are in an agriculture-education program he is leading (funded by St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Herndon, VA). I was very excited to be there for this, and I appreciate Hermane inviting the group across the lake. He even sent us back to Cange with a sample of the spinach for the staff in Cange to prepare for us. Delicious and nutritious!<br />
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We also were able to tour Cange, CFFL/Zanmi Agrikol, the University Hospital in Mirebalais, and Basin Zim. On Thursday, we stayed at a beach resort called <a href="http://www.wahoobaybeach.com/">Wahoo Bay Beach</a>, my first time staying at a beach resort in Haiti. It was a special, relaxing treat and even included a bit of snorkeling. Also during this overnight trip, we were able to visit one of the sites for Consider Haiti--glad I finally made it. I'm impressed by their multi-faceted approach to their work in health, nutrition and food security.<br />
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The youth also led a couple of English classes for Alix's and Victoria's afternoon English program for young kids in Cange, which all seemed to enjoy. And finally, Scott was able to lead the service at Bon Sauveur Parish, which has been without a permanent priest since August of last year. I was able to translate the sermon for him to the congregation, and he was able to lead Eucharist and a blessing of the children in the church (some adults still have a bit of a child in them too).<br />
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Beyond these great learning experiences, I am most impressed with the curiosity and compassion expressed throughout the week and of course all of the Haitian hospitality. The Trinity youth proved to me, once again, that high school groups coming to visit Haiti are some of the best to come through. The work that we were able to see, the people we met doing it, and the interest of those in the group give me great hope for the future. A big thank you to those from Trinity and elsewhere that contributed to making this possible.<br />
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-38330837449582327592015-07-03T15:08:00.000-07:002015-07-03T15:16:04.466-07:00Some Blog UpdatesSince I've now successfully arranged internet in my apartment, I've made some updates on my blog. Learning to be domestic on my own in Haiti is a challenging experience, but I'm having great interactions along the way.<br />
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Updates I'd like to call your attention to include:<br />
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1) New blog sites! On the right column, you will see the blog addresses for Episcopal Missionaries in Service (I'm still tracking down some of the other adult missionaries' blogs). Check them out to see what all they're up to. Many of the new YASCers are in the midst of their fundraising and preparations for moving to a new country.<br />
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2) How to Help! I'm not required to raise funds for this next year. However, check out the "How to Help." tab to see how you can get more engaged. Two things in particular: first, if you are interested in any of the work I mention on my blog, send me a message to discuss it further. Second, I do appreciate "mix-tapes"--it means a lot to me to have playlists from friends and family (I usually listen to music when I'm cooking). If you want to send me one, let me know! pa.yarbs@gmail.com<br />
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3) Reading List! I've updated my reading list (see "Reading List." tab) with more of the books I've read on economic development, human rights, and Haitian history and culture. I highly recommend some of the books on there, so go check them out!<br />
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Bondye beni ou.Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-72365755927979271872015-06-24T12:51:00.000-07:002015-06-25T05:45:47.329-07:00Good morning, Mr. Yarborough<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m late in sharing this, but I got this strange, corny
message a few weeks ago from the director of missions in the Episcopal Church: <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves a
new placement in the Episcopal Church as a volunteer in mission in Cape Haitian,
Haiti. You will be working as a project manager for the stabilization and
revitalization of the Centre d’Agriculture St. Barnabas in Terrier Rouge,
Haiti, an agriculture center run by the Diocese of Haiti.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What does this mean for you?<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, you’ve “graduated” from the Young Adult Service Corps.
Congratulations, we didn’t know you could do such a thing. #flexibility. You
will still have some responsibilities from Cange, and you will return almost
monthly to facilitate and translate meetings for Earl Burch, the Partnership
Cange Coordinator for the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Your continued involvement
in his work in Cange is vital to the success of the collaborative work going on
between Cange and EDUSC.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, you will be living on your own. You’ve spent the
last two years in a complex where they kindly prepared your meals, washed your
clothes, and took care of maintenance issues. Now you’re on your own. Go be
domestic in Haiti. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Third, you might be driving. You’ll need a car to get to the
school and back home, and you may be picking up visitors from the airport to
drive them around from time to time. Don’t worry. You’ll learn to drive in Haiti quickly. You’ll
have to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fourth, a new YASCer will be joining you. Eliza Brinkley.
She’ll be teaching English at CASB. She’s pretty cool. You should check out her
blog: <a href="http://inwardspiritualgrace.blogspot.com/">http://inwardspiritualgrace.blogspot.com/<o:p></o:p></a></div>
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Fifth, don’t let those delicious restaurants, breathtaking
historic sites, fun dance clubs, picturesque beaches, and refreshing blue
waters get to your head. There’s lots of work to be done. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-62711087353224337952015-06-19T19:05:00.001-07:002015-06-19T19:05:31.678-07:00Men jan mwen we'l<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Apre nouvel South Carolina kote gen yon moun blan ki touye 9 moun nwa andan legliz yo, pemet mwen di yon pawol ki pa jwe. Men li:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mwen blan e se devwa mwen pou travay kont rasis yo. Kijan map fe sa? Nenpot jan ki posib. Siw konnen yon fason fe'm konnen, tanpri. Map swiv. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pou kounyea yon fason se pou mwen pi byen komprann reyalite moun nwa ni Etazini ni nan lot peyi.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yon lot fason: Mwen travay an Ayiti wi? Se yon peyi ki gen anpil nwa. Men gen blan ki kon visite la e yo pa konnen istwa Ayisyen byen. Se yon istwa ki vreman impotan pou nou komprann byen. Men yo rive isit pou "ede moun pov yo" men yo pa mande sa ki fe moun sa yo pov. Gen yon rezon ki rasis ki fe yo pov. Gen rezon esklavaj, dominasyon, jan Etazini trete peyi sa mal, jan UN pa fe anyen apre yo bay Ayiti cholera... Bagay sa yo se rasis yo ye. Mwen kwe sa. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Men pou yon blan pou antre Ayiti san yo konnen e komprann bagay say yo byen se yon enjistis pou Ayisyen yo. Se sa mwen panse. Sa montre'm ke istwa moun nwa yo pa impotan pou konnen. Yo nwa. Yo pov. E se jus jan li ye.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Non. Mwen pa aksepte sa. Plizye blan pa we sa. Se pa jus jan li ye. Gen yon istwa ki rasis. Gen yon jounnen joudia ki rasis e tout sa kontribye pou povrete nou we Ayiti, e vyolans nou we Etazini tou...</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mwen pa vle di mwen se yon moun ki pi bon pase lot, ki mwen menm mwen pat kon fe bagay rasis jan mwen pa konnen. Mwen koupab tou. Men mwen al cheche aprann. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Epi mwen vreman kwe, nan travay ki mwen genyen kounyea antre blan e Ayisyen, ki mwen gen obligasyon pou diskite istwa peyi sa avek tout blan yo. Mwen gen obligasyon pou montre yo se pa jus kon sa li ye. Mwen gen obligasyon pou fe blan yo sispann manje grenn je Ayisyen yo. E mwen espere ke efo ki map fe ap gen bon rezilta pou nou tout. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Map priye pou Bondye bay mwen fos sa la. Mwen mande tout zanmi Ayisyen e Ameriken pou ede'm komprann pi byen paske <a class="_5ayv" href="https://m.facebook.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatter?refid=52&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feed_comment&__tn__=%2As" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_5aw4">#</span><span class="_5ayu">blacklivesmatter</span></a> Paske deskriminasyon li menm li dezumanize ni moun ki dezumanize men moun kap fe dezumanizasyon tou.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Finalman, map priye pou Charleston.</span></p>Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-56777473141655928632015-05-10T09:19:00.001-07:002015-05-10T09:19:39.577-07:00U.S. Tour Part 2For most of April, I was back in the U.S. visiting churches around the Dioceses of Upper South Carolina and in Western North Carolina. The visits are going very well once again, and I thoroughly enjoy representing this relationship of the Episcopal Church between the Carolinas and Cange.<br />
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For this post I want to share photographs from some of my visits this month (and last fall) of the ways these churches create displays in their worship spaces and fellowship halls that serve as constant reminders of the relationship. Pictures are from my visits to St. Timothy's Episcopal in Herndon, VA, St. Matthew's Episcopal in Spartanburg, SC, Grace Episcopal in Anderson, SC, and Christ Church Episcopal in Greenville, SC.<br />
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<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-33086662089310280632015-04-20T08:54:00.000-07:002015-04-20T08:54:38.131-07:00Sermon From Grace Episcopal Anderson, SCAs a part of my responsibilities while back in the U.S., I visit churches around the Diocese of Upper South Carolina (and sometimes other places) to discuss the relationship and ministry with Bon Sauveur in Cange.<br />
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I was asked to do the sermon at Grace Episcopal Church in Anderson, SC, for their Global Missions Sunday yesterday. It was a wonderful event, complete with a food festival with samples from 13 different countries (including Haiti!). My sermon is below.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">4/19/2015
Sermon for Grace Episcopal Anderson, SC<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Good
morning! It’s wonderful to be here at Grace, another amazing parish in this diocese
that I get to visit while back in the U.S. this month. For most of you who
haven’t yet met me, my name is Alan Yarborough, and I am currently living and
working as a Young Adult Service Corps missionary for the Episcopal Church in Cange,
Haiti. Cange is a small town in the Central Plateau of Haiti about two hours
north of Port-au-Prince and about two hours from the nearest beach. It’s an
isolated community located on a mountaintop surrounded by clear evidence of
deforestation, lack of access to health care, and limited economic means. It’s
also where I have made my home for the past two years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some if not
all of you know that the Diocese of Upper South Carolina has had a relationship
with the small town of Cange for around 35 years. This parish has had a
significant role in the ministry, most recently in supporting the Cange parish
mission in a town called Bois Joly. Some of you may have even visited Cange and
have seen it for yourself. It is as a part of that relationship that I am here
today to discuss this ministry in this service, during the Sunday school time
at 10, and this evening with the youth group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But before I
get into the meat of my sermon, I want to begin with a disclaimer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a
great commercial on TV right now—it’s one of those Above the Influence
commercials. There are some teens sitting at a table in a diner, and one young
man gets asked a couple of questions on topics from partying to alcohol to
sharing private information via telephone. Each time he opens his mouth to
respond, there’s a second mouth inside of his own that speaks on his behalf
clearly in a different voice. It’s a bit of a grotesque, surreal image of
another mouth inside his own—two sets of teeth two sets of lips. But it’s the
one clearly not his own that does the speaking. The tag line of the commercial
is, “speak for yourself, live above the influence,” meaning, don’t give into
peer pressure and let others speak for you. It’s a great ad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This ad gives
me a visual for another instance where one may speak for another, except in
what I’m thinking, the primary speaker’s voice is being overshadowed by someone
else speaking for them—and it is beyond their control. In effect, though the
person is capable of speaking for themselves, unlike our character in the commercial,
their voice is nevertheless being robbed by others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am here
today in part to talk on behalf of Haitians. It could be very easy for me to
put words in the mouths of the Haitians that I know, and others who I do not,
in a sense diminishing their power over their own thoughts, words and actions.
But I pray, because I am aware of this risk, that I speak to you today in
conversation with our Haitian brothers and sisters rather than speaking for
them. I also pray that the words that you hear, the conversations that follow,
and the questions you may have of me, may be a part of a conversation with one
another, and not speaking in place of another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Last week,
the theme of this disclaimer actually came up in the Gospel reading from John. In that reading, we know
that most of the disciples have had a chance to see Jesus risen firsthand,
except Thomas. When Thomas, who was absent from the others, reunites with the
disciples, they all tell him the Lord is risen! But Thomas, speaking up for
himself, says, “wait wait wait, I know YOU are saying you have seen the risen
Lord, but I myself have not seen him and will not believe until I do with my
own eyes.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus then
comes along and shows Thomas the truth and the light. He shows Thomas the marks
in his body so he can proclaim the good news himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, in
the reading from Luke, we have another account, this time without special
mention of Thomas, of Jesus revealing himself to the disciples so that the
disciples can be witnesses themselves that the Lord is risen. Jesus does so not
simply by speaking, but by accepting their food and eating in their presence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I tend to
think the church’s objective, as an institution, is in part to carry forward
this witness, because you and I have not had the chance to see Jesus ourselves.
But I think we each can find Jesus in the relationships, the outreach, the
healing and the prayer. Through the work of the church, the work of other
Christians following the example of Jesus, we can see with our own eyes and
then speak with our own words that Jesus has risen among us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At least,
that’s what I can say about my experience in Cange. Let me tell you a bit about Cange. Almost 60 years ago, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a hydroelectric dam that flooded a valley
filled with agriculture and farming families that were forced to the mountain
tops and lost their means of living. Twenty years later, a Haitian-Episcopal
priest Father Fritz Lafontant began a mission in Cange called Parish Bon
Sauveur, and met Bishop Beckham of Upper South Carolina, beginning the 35 year
ministry that thrives today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Right now, I
live in Cange, which started as a squatter settlement of internally displace
refugees and is now a town of 3,400 people. In Cange is a hospital, the first
site of Partners in Health, now an international health organization. Bobby,
who was born and grew up in Cange, works in that hospital now as a certified
physician. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Cange is an Episcopal school that is currently providing an
education to 1,369 students from all across the Central Plateau. Lucien, who
graduated in the second graduating class at the school, is now the director of
the secondary school and instrumental in its future success. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Cange is a
high-class, treated water system designed, built and currently supported by the
Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries group led by David Vaughn, a
parishioner from Holy Trinity in Clemson. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Cange are young professionals,
graduates from the CFFL vocational school, working on new construction projects
including a sanitary biodigester toilet for the school and a new marketplace
for the community to spur economic development and improve safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe
Jesus has risen, because while translating for a rural medical clinic with
American and Haitian medical team members, I saw inspiring initiative of
doctors, support staff and community health workers like Dr. Harry Morse,
Victoria Jolibois, and Menius St. Jean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe
Jesus has risen, because while assisting the process for relocating the Cange
marketplace, I saw the relationship between Cange and the regional government
grow, developing the accountability between the town members and their
representatives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe
Jesus has risen, because I have sat in long and difficult meetings with leaders
here in EDUSC to discuss how we move forward with this ministry while facing
economic difficulties here and in Cange only to see a widening of the relationship
beyond where it has been before. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe
Jesus has risen, because I have watched high school age youth in Cange start
organizations to call for more female visibility and opportunity in education
and sports, to lead initiatives to fight deforestation, and to call for
increased attention to the formation of Haiti’s children so that tomorrow their
society will be stronger than today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But what
about you? I’m up here putting images and experiences in your mind about the
reality of Cange and the relationship with the Episcopal Church in Upper South
Carolina and why that is proof to me that Jesus has risen. You don’t have to
take my word for it, in fact some of you may already be wanting more proof for
yourself. I think you know how to find it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, it may
seem at first glance that I’m doing a broad call for you to travel to Cange,
which, if you’re now thinking about it, I strongly recommend you do. But what I’m
really asking of you is to simply get engaged—if you aren’t already—or to
deepen your engagement—if you already are—with the relationship between this
diocese and Cange.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are so
many different ways of being in relationship with each other here in South
Carolina and with those in Haiti. Jesus is shining his light through each one
of us so that we may illuminate his truth and the way forward toward a more
united kingdom. Much of that light can be shined simply by breaking bread, or
being present, with one another, as Jesus did with the disciples in today’s
Gospel. I truly believe, for it has been my experience, that if you become
engaged with this relationship, you will see for yourself that the Lord has
risen and you will eliminate your doubt. Don’t just take my word for it. Come
be a witness yourself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-43300380610435727132015-03-08T19:51:00.001-07:002015-03-08T19:51:22.216-07:00International Women's DayToday was Cange's first celebration of Jounen Mondyal Fanm, International Women's Day. Here are some pictures of the festivities. <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvJc_AeCfO-C11534A_bNIjjJDEOLxUT-3JfMAR5zOwf7dXRtVc_9Ml0rhvLGfGH3MLgcsg8npzkc_szfF60UxtPSAKC2_fpzzSRAtZehUQ0aOb09UgcYBQSZ5MriSfmItS_q0S-KY6od/s640/blogger-image-1090147687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvJc_AeCfO-C11534A_bNIjjJDEOLxUT-3JfMAR5zOwf7dXRtVc_9Ml0rhvLGfGH3MLgcsg8npzkc_szfF60UxtPSAKC2_fpzzSRAtZehUQ0aOb09UgcYBQSZ5MriSfmItS_q0S-KY6od/s640/blogger-image-1090147687.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOl5lFg0ZkApXNHKVk6-SbheOG-B05qqJRF4yA52U05hBh-TXMnQpMagVvAykNPh_OTeXAwuSQEwUVcCSgwhv1Vc_iN2ZIK-YjnMYHEPG0OuipopKCTNKB1A6XYdX3Z5bIEN2sn5WZCStQ/s640/blogger-image-449138112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOl5lFg0ZkApXNHKVk6-SbheOG-B05qqJRF4yA52U05hBh-TXMnQpMagVvAykNPh_OTeXAwuSQEwUVcCSgwhv1Vc_iN2ZIK-YjnMYHEPG0OuipopKCTNKB1A6XYdX3Z5bIEN2sn5WZCStQ/s640/blogger-image-449138112.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWusiGAxYG03g1KPwle15oPKAShF2swIvi9vifZxlo58UZ8VIQWbWBg0ftq5l3Dz5n2z01uMoF4IrFExH3SS4F0iKPUBsaUTsfSTPCYytiWK6EJf-EmJlsVgGPV65eHWvjDzASXmekGVk_/s640/blogger-image-1151990421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWusiGAxYG03g1KPwle15oPKAShF2swIvi9vifZxlo58UZ8VIQWbWBg0ftq5l3Dz5n2z01uMoF4IrFExH3SS4F0iKPUBsaUTsfSTPCYytiWK6EJf-EmJlsVgGPV65eHWvjDzASXmekGVk_/s640/blogger-image-1151990421.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXGwSIUhKQSHhS_7G66fU99b1tVbVK0IYfHsdHZgpAQrlvbh7EboxZMhmSldZv7z0aST8rKLRDNklhWwcWQzF79W3dnYsoJsI6Raql-R-08MkVtRC02gvxpYqGtovRyNxSD7BXHkz8nEu/s640/blogger-image-724473048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXGwSIUhKQSHhS_7G66fU99b1tVbVK0IYfHsdHZgpAQrlvbh7EboxZMhmSldZv7z0aST8rKLRDNklhWwcWQzF79W3dnYsoJsI6Raql-R-08MkVtRC02gvxpYqGtovRyNxSD7BXHkz8nEu/s640/blogger-image-724473048.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHyhuc9spwZCmiBMpcTKeW3DSzjLR6QCOSiENSa6gLB8nrYeXAJaOFI6e8U7dTt-2CQ1mpSiJrurkYIt5TZg26gAGPxuuOWn8NY9XgNLW3tiAh0Gp1hjic-a_pHlHpYicg-kRzc5Ew3vqP/s640/blogger-image-785525682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHyhuc9spwZCmiBMpcTKeW3DSzjLR6QCOSiENSa6gLB8nrYeXAJaOFI6e8U7dTt-2CQ1mpSiJrurkYIt5TZg26gAGPxuuOWn8NY9XgNLW3tiAh0Gp1hjic-a_pHlHpYicg-kRzc5Ew3vqP/s640/blogger-image-785525682.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTTY3CddVOc-g5DwCy5EZ8LLW7zC9VMAMGkaclW8i2Ft249B4xepJmfGnRFpQ8xqM3_RDcxhs-5NJywhyphenhyphen2mDzaXE7GCJitIkz86mNDfeY3NVPjsNdRG01pLm8Fzla_UEhTJ2IPyfU359W/s640/blogger-image-256154329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTTY3CddVOc-g5DwCy5EZ8LLW7zC9VMAMGkaclW8i2Ft249B4xepJmfGnRFpQ8xqM3_RDcxhs-5NJywhyphenhyphen2mDzaXE7GCJitIkz86mNDfeY3NVPjsNdRG01pLm8Fzla_UEhTJ2IPyfU359W/s640/blogger-image-256154329.jpg"></a></div><br></div>Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-75889210164739142532015-03-06T08:18:00.002-08:002015-03-06T08:39:42.532-08:00My First Rural Medical Clinic<div class="MsoNormal">
Below is an examining room for a rural mobile medical clinic
conducted near Cange. Normally this space is a classroom for a primary school,
but for about 5 hours the space served as a site to examine patients for high
blood pressure, diabetes, lesions, colds, and other ailments. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2yFNLk0zwdrALpEkGZ3-kZruJ6w1QfEaZHJwQ3ZUcYyduZkHQj5hfwu64dFt8QpM1RttT0Joq_o90fX135ft8YyuTWVOEMT_dtPkIr9o6YKdyTPYDxXQB3eFa_bCFevh5qKVv0pCGTej/s1600/image2+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2yFNLk0zwdrALpEkGZ3-kZruJ6w1QfEaZHJwQ3ZUcYyduZkHQj5hfwu64dFt8QpM1RttT0Joq_o90fX135ft8YyuTWVOEMT_dtPkIr9o6YKdyTPYDxXQB3eFa_bCFevh5qKVv0pCGTej/s1600/image2+(3).JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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From January 31-February 7, a team of medical care providers
from South Carolina visited Cange for a series of mobile clinics in 4 rural
communities nearby. I served as one of the translators for the team, and it was
my first experience with rural medical care in Haiti. It was truly
transformative. For the bulk of this post, I want to simply share what I
found so motivating about the clinics.</div>
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First, the experience created a sense of anger within me. Many of the ailments we saw can be
cured with over-the-counter drugs or relatively accessible
prescriptions in the U.S. But in rural Haiti, “simple” sicknesses are incapacitating
and life threatening not just to the one who is sick, but to all children,
family members and others who are dependent on the life of that individual. </div>
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<o:p></o:p>Given the general excess in the United States and other areas of the
developed world, the fact that people are dying who could otherwise live with
medicine I could pick up at any drug, grocery or convenience store in the U.S.
makes me angry. Given that billions and billions of dollars over the course of decades have poured into
Haiti in the form of aid, the fact that this type of death still goes on makes me angry.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwrAb2efaRHGyHHcwDTaSZ7Y4YJARDaXyMZwebsjTIWWujQrSPcSDk04ZKcs2HgRF6X9i6Vs_BleajTzZKFQ8jcdRt1TlqZJvul3LXnJeMSVs22hEwR2CuYq4EUhjS8A5YvkQuy85xl_z/s1600/image2+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwrAb2efaRHGyHHcwDTaSZ7Y4YJARDaXyMZwebsjTIWWujQrSPcSDk04ZKcs2HgRF6X9i6Vs_BleajTzZKFQ8jcdRt1TlqZJvul3LXnJeMSVs22hEwR2CuYq4EUhjS8A5YvkQuy85xl_z/s1600/image2+(2).JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this anger motivates me to seek change for this
injustice. This anger must turn into motivation. Because this change isn't as
simple as tipping a scale into another direction, or passing blame on someone
else. The injustice is more systemic, and every one of us plays a role. So instead,
I have to look inward and question what exactly should be my priorities in
life, and what I can do, with God’s guidance and the support of those around
me, to contribute to the relief of the suffering and the end of injustice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMcpGY3QxIgiNUOeA7z_AjSYWdmzh6Wh7eCb_t3i3aYXBGJu7t4DTFd3Gg_8Xlwit_I3sb95B2KuNweCcaihTEx1G24d6LsPXZp5rZXlC3av5g-gjy0gNRpAGWLqnqa0X-OhrsNfc85-B/s1600/image3+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMcpGY3QxIgiNUOeA7z_AjSYWdmzh6Wh7eCb_t3i3aYXBGJu7t4DTFd3Gg_8Xlwit_I3sb95B2KuNweCcaihTEx1G24d6LsPXZp5rZXlC3av5g-gjy0gNRpAGWLqnqa0X-OhrsNfc85-B/s1600/image3+(2).JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another reason the anger must turn into motivation is
because otherwise, sadness and despair may become too consuming. Cynicism may
prevail, and guilt just confines us to a selfish position. But
when the anger turns into motivation, then there is an understanding that
something can be done, even if we don’t know exactly what that is. I find that
in that realization, I notice more people who believe something can be
done too. From that comes reinforcement that this is a group effort, a reminder
to always be humble, and clarity for my own individual role in the fight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOoD6FYyDDia6qRvTlgQkv6ys6u_xx9ZYysvtXt_VBQrFjX_AzJTnhZF0Ia-r7OiDoykrBh1x6gJGrYZLIEomVxPcrehxc0pQoRdt5iLT2d0_V4XThNGdaN6ai0R_snG8mqejbBEj-IwBE/s1600/image3+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOoD6FYyDDia6qRvTlgQkv6ys6u_xx9ZYysvtXt_VBQrFjX_AzJTnhZF0Ia-r7OiDoykrBh1x6gJGrYZLIEomVxPcrehxc0pQoRdt5iLT2d0_V4XThNGdaN6ai0R_snG8mqejbBEj-IwBE/s1600/image3+(3).JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second motivating item on my list is the team of care
providers and their support who worked so well together—surpassing
unfamiliarity, cultural differences, language barriers, and the physical
environment where the clinics were held. I am particularly humbled by the poise
and leadership exhibited by the Haitians who planned the clinics, together with
various others who supported the trips through transportation, food and water, and
logistics. The Zanmi Lasante staff and networks did an incredible job. The team of Americans, many visiting Haiti for their first time,
rolled with the expected and unexpected punches with poise and patience. Given
the fact that this type of task was so far outside of what they knew, I’m
impressed with their perseverance and their composure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, I find motivation in the Episcopal Church. “The
church” as an institution so often, and justifiably so, receives scathing criticism
for being disconnected or involved in injustice itself, among other errors. The
Episcopal Church is not immune to this behavior or criticism. But this week was
a wonderful example of the effect of the institution of the Episcopal Church. This
week was an example of Episcopalians bringing love and light into the world
through individual vocation. This week was an example of Episcopal churches in the U.S. connecting
with Episcopal churches in Haiti within the context of a 35-year-old ministry
between Cange and EDUSC.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJV1Ya6R3oYAgR9hFaAPmOGr6wYg_ndq7PHb_Uk95k0KoA_9yrjwsnHXSd8rcR4B0TYiM6K9E7_GXOaz8RjqWgCQ7QWkAZjrvTkuQMElOV0BFzxR8AjOTnAK4PgWo2q80dUlzs7GT-5H5l/s1600/image1+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJV1Ya6R3oYAgR9hFaAPmOGr6wYg_ndq7PHb_Uk95k0KoA_9yrjwsnHXSd8rcR4B0TYiM6K9E7_GXOaz8RjqWgCQ7QWkAZjrvTkuQMElOV0BFzxR8AjOTnAK4PgWo2q80dUlzs7GT-5H5l/s1600/image1+(5).JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of these thoughts and feelings aren't new for me, but
participating in this medical trip brought much clarity and organization to my
mind. Also, as I’m living in a Zanmi Lasante complex, I am aware of the significance and intricacy of building medical
care networks in Haiti or ZL’s accomplishments and goals to that end. But
actively participating in that medical care, even if only for several days,
brings a sense of tangible reality to it all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghwqzZrBJa9G55gP5gfOIy9Nu-hU3Ny4jFwF_BhpdCm8tzMHJ-rbLGQlux1rJn_Ov0dnjhE1Ut5xLJRCXqjIbQOOxO1dhM7EXXsF3aEtFlzdSRFYiEAyqVeYe1S_t6YdEmbZL9l-QJJGfo/s1600/IMG_0454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghwqzZrBJa9G55gP5gfOIy9Nu-hU3Ny4jFwF_BhpdCm8tzMHJ-rbLGQlux1rJn_Ov0dnjhE1Ut5xLJRCXqjIbQOOxO1dhM7EXXsF3aEtFlzdSRFYiEAyqVeYe1S_t6YdEmbZL9l-QJJGfo/s1600/IMG_0454.jpg" height="388" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A flattering, sweaty picture of my dad and me in Cange</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a final, somewhat tangential thought, while I was translating for these patients, I couldn't help but
think about my dad’s work as a physician. Being in a position to contribute to someone’s relief from pain,
physical or mental, and having to break through barriers of modesty and privacy
to gain necessary information to enhance quality of treatment, is an immensely
emotional and intricate task of great responsibility. It requires integrity,
respect, vulnerability, and compassion. Even though I was only a translator,
experiencing what it’s like to see a patient, diagnose them and attempt to
treat them enhanced my respect and appreciation for what my dad
does. Being a doctor (or any medical care provider) is a beautiful thing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
May God bless the work of Zanmi Lasante, the Episcopal
Church, and all health care providers around the world. May God bless each person
involved in the fight for justice, each in their own vocation, such that we all
can realize that we have power, that we have hope, and that we are not alone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-43501259651917948612015-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:002015-01-27T11:22:56.147-08:00Buen Vivir--Striving for "Good Living"Buen Vivir speaks to good living, common wealth, the pursuit of happiness perhaps. But who determines what is buen vivir, and how can we strive for buen vivir for all?<br />
<br />
The U.S. Declaration of Independence suggests Creator-given rights, namely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are what constitute good living. The document continues by saying that good relationship between the government and the governed, prudence and not abuses, is the mechanism that can spread and maintain buen vivir.<br />
<br />
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explains, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matt. 22:37-40). Again, the focus is on good relationship, this time between people and between people and God. Through these commandments, restorative and loving relationships, we can achieve buen vivir.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l71Jw-WfXLRZN0LEA8nZUtZG2qQvVV1KQyU_XPIoNGPpCHf2ni13S6GSk7UViLBpD6Xpp-kuVmbHVJ3ky1c9aGXEDWFZ3QOYjOOTwmx5p7XuxO0ZM5bNHIVcisNxWKOOnddykYGdPSsk/s1600/IMG_2657.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l71Jw-WfXLRZN0LEA8nZUtZG2qQvVV1KQyU_XPIoNGPpCHf2ni13S6GSk7UViLBpD6Xpp-kuVmbHVJ3ky1c9aGXEDWFZ3QOYjOOTwmx5p7XuxO0ZM5bNHIVcisNxWKOOnddykYGdPSsk/s1600/IMG_2657.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
The rights-based approach to community development is one method used to restore relationships and help us achieve buen vivir for all. <a href="http://cristosal.org/">Foundation Cristosal</a>, a non-profit human rights and community development organization, works for the good living of all people in El Salvador using this approach.<br />
<br />
I just spent a week with Foundation Cristosal's Global School in San Salvador, taking a course on the theologies of human rights and development, where I learned about the rights-based approach and the positive impact it can have.<br />
<a name='more'></a>I had two main takeaways from my time in El Salvador. First was simply seeing the country, meeting Salvadorians, and learning more about their history and current reality with overwhelming gang violence and emigration. Second was learning about the rights-based approach and how Foundation Cristosal works within El Salvador using that perspective.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkxYLPj_6yIVyXgMTah8NQEOwe544jpsxHpPMoCiHqV9rHOz9fYV8P4FgSHUFd6rxsUTvXYq7xkc61ENa7FTNIos9uFYOZg9cL7bRCI3wFFFtD-cQ6yN3aBpC3OQz4ALamr77H22MM5Ky/s1600/IMG_2611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkxYLPj_6yIVyXgMTah8NQEOwe544jpsxHpPMoCiHqV9rHOz9fYV8P4FgSHUFd6rxsUTvXYq7xkc61ENa7FTNIos9uFYOZg9cL7bRCI3wFFFtD-cQ6yN3aBpC3OQz4ALamr77H22MM5Ky/s1600/IMG_2611.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The church where Oscar Romero was assassinated</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jRLKZwGgKFfZpqLIpR6UdY6Lsm8Y9vEfzS2lrbwvCcYD7KeVqeZoSM7EfPBuYMMKVj69pN7DgjZSN2lOZ8KMncq7uSWyXv6U6XM8Cx7lNZICuKrbo9J09Pb6YQ9ZMNCXAalEAQtr6BKU/s1600/IMG_2607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jRLKZwGgKFfZpqLIpR6UdY6Lsm8Y9vEfzS2lrbwvCcYD7KeVqeZoSM7EfPBuYMMKVj69pN7DgjZSN2lOZ8KMncq7uSWyXv6U6XM8Cx7lNZICuKrbo9J09Pb6YQ9ZMNCXAalEAQtr6BKU/s1600/IMG_2607.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oscar Romero's Home</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A daily newspaper in San Salvador reported on the continued gang violence. 102 people were reported killed by homicide in the first 7 days of 2015, in a country of around 6 million people. This gang culture, some explain, is an evolution of the environment of violence during the Salvadorian Civil war which lasted from 1979 until 1992.<br />
<br />
During the course, the Cristosal staff took us to important sites around the capital including Oscar Romero's house and his resting place underneath the cathedral. Along the way, staff shared their nation's history, their personal connections, and how they feel motivated by the hope of Romero's preaching. It is very clear to me that many Salvadorians not only do not want to be defined by the violence in their country, but are boldly working to combat it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vYPqoSDNp16aO3BR_Mjx2MntfS8oLqg2R8Fc29l-3o6EA5QxYr09jfAeMqa4OPDZ0QO8KTMBgaN0TiJ_eppJy7TEpRwuZjvZvgZJ9vcje_eMOVu7CYeBWdD1pEjvrJtcDQYJPeGaJO1j/s1600/IMG_2614.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vYPqoSDNp16aO3BR_Mjx2MntfS8oLqg2R8Fc29l-3o6EA5QxYr09jfAeMqa4OPDZ0QO8KTMBgaN0TiJ_eppJy7TEpRwuZjvZvgZJ9vcje_eMOVu7CYeBWdD1pEjvrJtcDQYJPeGaJO1j/s1600/IMG_2614.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iglesia El Rosario</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGod0K4Ap8UbXoyVGFRnXjEMXgNMV5KZqSf4xKyOFNTLzQgIeqlb0nZ7IMNpU4x0pNbzOVKUlhBu1vf5-hUiCtoUj9KiIeaFP2V8Gz9CV73gdePu4lD_MXfuUw14HRzXWLzBVtk5Bw0r7n/s1600/IMG_2639.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGod0K4Ap8UbXoyVGFRnXjEMXgNMV5KZqSf4xKyOFNTLzQgIeqlb0nZ7IMNpU4x0pNbzOVKUlhBu1vf5-hUiCtoUj9KiIeaFP2V8Gz9CV73gdePu4lD_MXfuUw14HRzXWLzBVtk5Bw0r7n/s1600/IMG_2639.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of one of the coolest Stations of the Cross I've ever seen</td></tr>
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For the touristy part of my week, I spent time with fellow YASCer <a href="http://hannahperls.blogspot.com/">Hannah Perls</a> who originally gave David Copley and me the idea to arrange my trip. (Thanks David!!) She works for Foundation Cristosal. Hannah and her friend Gerardo picked me up from the airport and we went straight to the beach for some fresh fish and swimming in the Pacific Ocean. I was able to meet up with them throughout the week for cold drinks, tasty food and wonderful local music. You should check out Gerardo's music, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/maiztones?pnref=story">Maiztones</a>--and he has aspirations to create a music school in El Salvador, something that, among many things, would provide further opportunities for young Salvadorians.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatohrkslUj5zm6NMSjxCqUcUYQ1uiU_XawTMp5vHCAxhej4kI1RJT0V05b07N8PPKsDG9-YcDAgWrXw1aTnuPg6kGhf9QzGjTHpqLErPchCNBwwXxso-WBbV7E_ue8QH9A3Gq2dFj6Bp9/s1600/IMG_2601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatohrkslUj5zm6NMSjxCqUcUYQ1uiU_XawTMp5vHCAxhej4kI1RJT0V05b07N8PPKsDG9-YcDAgWrXw1aTnuPg6kGhf9QzGjTHpqLErPchCNBwwXxso-WBbV7E_ue8QH9A3Gq2dFj6Bp9/s1600/IMG_2601.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hannah paying up (in pizza) for losing the fro-off (a.k.a. fro-down)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lasmusasbatucada?fref=nf">Las Musas Desconectadas</a></td></tr>
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I also was able to have dinner with Hannah, Gerardo, and fellow Episcopal missionaries <a href="http://tomcaticus426.blogspot.com/">Tom and Diane</a>, who are on a three year mission in El Salvador. We all attended the same training together, and I had not seen them since that time. We had a wonderful dinner at a scrumptious Italian restaurant.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb8gWuUq5W7-i0q6OtnItc7R9jDnCKB-hcDy0gjUj0_UIrlvgzkAfVtj_knnfdQeQPEobmNyWGnUMCnva4Km0EimdR59cKzwWLinbI2FNYgJnba7kbUOueAZtHeKSFfXwbN3DWSEdRLsQW/s1600/IMG_2650.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb8gWuUq5W7-i0q6OtnItc7R9jDnCKB-hcDy0gjUj0_UIrlvgzkAfVtj_knnfdQeQPEobmNyWGnUMCnva4Km0EimdR59cKzwWLinbI2FNYgJnba7kbUOueAZtHeKSFfXwbN3DWSEdRLsQW/s1600/IMG_2650.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A volcanic crater! </td></tr>
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Finally, I learned so much from the content of the course and the other participants. I joined five others from the <a href="http://vst.edu/">Vancouver School of Theology</a> in Canada, and they all offered meaningful reflection and thoughtful questions throughout the week.<br />
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Through a series of meetings, conversations, site visits, and one community visit, the Cristosal staff and guest speakers taught us about the theology and theories of the rights-based approach. Restoring relationships, advocating for the assurance of basic human rights for all, and building community capacity are at the core of the approach.<br />
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Rather than seeking to provide for a need (for example handing out food), or funding a project from the outside (for example externally funding a water well project), the rights based approach would seek to empower the community in need to grow its own food or communicating with the government to provide clean water.<br />
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Two key terms to the rights based approach are "rights holder" and "duty bearer," used to describe the position of an individual or group. Each person or group may fall into both positions depending on the relationship. For example, a government has a duty to provide certain basic human rights (as outlined by the UN and most constitutions) while the population has a duty to pay taxes. Yet, the population has a right to those provisions from the government.<br />
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Rights-based development helps people and communities claim the rights they hold and advocates for duty bearers to fulfill their duties. This happens in part through a restorative process that builds relationships and capacity without fostering dependency. Through those long-lasting, loving relationships, dependable justice can advance and human suffering diminish.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We worshiped on Sunday in San Ramon, Pueblo de Dios en Camino</td></tr>
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I'm very excited to apply what I learned to my work in Haiti. I really believe the rights-based approach has a valuable place there--and is in fact already happening in some cases even if not by the same name. In light of this experience, my biggest immediate task is to analyze each of the initiatives I'm involved in from the rights-based perspective, identifying aspects that pass or fail the approach. From there, I hope to determine why the current approach exists and seek potential shifts in the ministry for a better way forward.<br />
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Thank you to all who made this experience in El Salvador enjoyable and educational.Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-13351206523248381092015-01-01T08:48:00.000-08:002015-01-01T08:49:35.802-08:00Gift of SeedlingsHappy New Year and Happy Haitian Independence Day!<br />
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I have unexpectedly delayed my return to Haiti until the end of January, in part due to travel advisories for Port-au-Prince due to increased protests that are blocking travel around the capital. In short, protesters are unsettled by the current presidential administration's inability to hold elections--dating back to 2011. Protesters in part have called for the resignation of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/world/americas/haiti-prime-minister-resigns.html">now former</a> prime minister. He did resign, and since his resignation, President Michel Martelly has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/26/us-haiti-prime-minister-idUSKBN0K401G20141226">nominated a replacement</a> during his Christmas Day message.<br />
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If the government is not able to hold elections by January 12th, parliament will be disbanded. Please pray for Haiti during this tense political time, where many are worried about the country falling back into unproductive political turmoil--something that has contributed to the country's lack of development for centuries. This would be especially disheartening now, given the bright spots of development in Haiti in recent years. See this article from the <i>New York Times,</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/opinion/nicholas-kristof-scrooges-of-the-world-begone.html?mwrsm=Email">Scrooges of the World, Begone</a>! (Thanks, Al Brady, for forwarding that article.)<br />
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For the rest of this post, I want to exhibit another reason for hope and a reason to expect progress in Haiti. I've talked about Agronomist Hermane before, but I want to feature a recent event he organized and held for the children of the primary school in Chapoteau.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I have been working with Hermane on a fish farming initiative for Chapoteau that we are planning in collaboration with <a href="http://www.partnersinag.org/">Partners in Agriculture</a> (Zanmi Agrikol). Rather than me introduce Hermane and his dreams for Chapoteau, I'll let him share that with you in this video (that's Malachi translating, and Paul Palmer behind the camera):<br />
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Hermane has been growing many seedlings in a nursery that he's built at his house in Chapoteau. He recently held an event at the end of the fall semester for the school students in Chapoteau where he distributed seedlings for them to take to their homes and help grow their gardens. He hopes this will improve health, food access, and the economic situation of town residents.<br />
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For a bit of background, Chapoteau, like some other rural communities in Haiti, relies on the production of charcoal. Due to efforts to curb deforestation, a very serious issue in Haiti, the charcoal market for Chapoteau has been cut off. Trucks that used to stop by Chapoteau on their way to Port-au-Prince are no longer picking up the sacks of charcoal. Certainly, efforts to stop deforestation are important to pursue, but there are local, negative impacts of such measures in the short term, and Chapoteau residents will need to adjust to find another source of income.<br />
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Hopefully, Hermane, Zanmi Agrikol, our financial partners and I can get the fish farming co-op up to speed in short order in 2015.<br />
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<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-25478995575713078492014-11-21T14:56:00.002-08:002014-11-21T14:56:33.128-08:00U.S. Tour Part 1I am already back in the U.S. for the first of three non-consecutive months that I will spend visiting churches and organizations here. The primary goals of this traveling in the States is to first build up more support and interest in the ministry in Cange and second to help facilitate more collaboration between existing and new partners. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph at Church of the Incarnation of the new church in Tierra Muscady</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph of the old church in Tierra Muscady</td></tr>
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I'm really enjoying touring around North and South Carolina (then Virginia next week) speaking to Rotary clubs, churches, youth groups, and classrooms. It's already been a busy month so far, and I have many more visits to go before heading back home to Haiti on December 9th. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the newer sanctuary at Church of the Incarnation</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Display of artisan items from Cange</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Display about the outreach of Church of the Incarnation in Haiti</td></tr>
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Each meeting or event I attend is an overwhelmingly positive environment that energizes me to give my best to this work. I also find it incredibly inspiring to see at these churches images or displays about the work in Cange and the particular ministries or individuals that each parish supports. As examples, the pictures I'm using in this post are all from Church of the Incarnation in Highlands, NC. All over the church and sanctuary are items advertising their ministry and relationship with Cange and Tierra Muscady. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPkBMZg81D0b9jz4d9hlO8-C3eLEIhmafj2cE2UheAJEH8wzlxsGA0PL4t8vwxHtQcvSJud3lavSM1KRBeBsugi1ZuzH86t8RVGjSWNX09acm-vKlX1XObmCJ0Hw12iKxO7l-UcOtvSg6/s1600/IMG_2458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPkBMZg81D0b9jz4d9hlO8-C3eLEIhmafj2cE2UheAJEH8wzlxsGA0PL4t8vwxHtQcvSJud3lavSM1KRBeBsugi1ZuzH86t8RVGjSWNX09acm-vKlX1XObmCJ0Hw12iKxO7l-UcOtvSg6/s1600/IMG_2458.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photographs of each student receiving a scholarship through the efforts of Church of the Incarnation</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyswKgWBC71iHC42GoUj2loelQmjuLvSctv_4JJfvMdmlN4kOaSNbFxrC0SrNKb6s2QD83gvc1EtKJosL1VMEacbkEmbPa3mOnfOQ79sQK22w3EGL4n56UOgxLqD_t6j-rTe2z2lYpOD5/s1600/IMG_2463.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyswKgWBC71iHC42GoUj2loelQmjuLvSctv_4JJfvMdmlN4kOaSNbFxrC0SrNKb6s2QD83gvc1EtKJosL1VMEacbkEmbPa3mOnfOQ79sQK22w3EGL4n56UOgxLqD_t6j-rTe2z2lYpOD5/s1600/IMG_2463.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the Stations of the Cross, completed by artisans at Sant Art in Cange</td></tr>
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I'm incredibly grateful to all of my hosts who are arranging these meetings and housing for me when needed. From Newberry, to Columbia, to Highlands and to Herndon, VA, I've been welcomed to share my personal experience and my understanding of the realities on the ground, to hopefully represent and amplify the voices of our companions in Cange, and to help facilitate the learning and giving that happens among all parties. </div>
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It is through this particular component of my job that I get an even deeper sense of the many parts in the body of Christ. With each visit, I am reminded of the unique role each of us has to play in walking with each other on the path towards justice, reconciliation and love.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWWW5CNcs6jbDqybOdSykZ2o9eBB8QPNtOW9I7m82pVnZP2iLenVx0hqKPNEl2cI2Z40CJkx6leJ2e49YPtakQIOKd67BdCnMTHZ-QdxETbBbeHiLEkb8kUIZUtJs5FUD8eLuYKIlwCAh/s1600/IMG_2464.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWWW5CNcs6jbDqybOdSykZ2o9eBB8QPNtOW9I7m82pVnZP2iLenVx0hqKPNEl2cI2Z40CJkx6leJ2e49YPtakQIOKd67BdCnMTHZ-QdxETbBbeHiLEkb8kUIZUtJs5FUD8eLuYKIlwCAh/s1600/IMG_2464.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "Lafontant Cross" at Church of the Incarnation</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRE5tuX_t5DlxmMKe5ZVKMhTb4S3LAyAvQ3KENDvbuhGT3YIV7GIAg4bCggdy7XHBaAaL5xZBSoxrxtvxnMMWsG-xhc2Po6OezXkftK4sHA8sGPWbo-Y8Fyj4oNH7nmfpdqmcs_H8gXTX/s1600/IMG_2465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRE5tuX_t5DlxmMKe5ZVKMhTb4S3LAyAvQ3KENDvbuhGT3YIV7GIAg4bCggdy7XHBaAaL5xZBSoxrxtvxnMMWsG-xhc2Po6OezXkftK4sHA8sGPWbo-Y8Fyj4oNH7nmfpdqmcs_H8gXTX/s1600/IMG_2465.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-24879615726834423252014-10-12T12:46:00.000-07:002014-10-12T12:46:10.207-07:00Back to CangeAfter about 6 weeks in the U.S., I'm back and safe in Cange, Haiti, once again. I had a wonderful time back in the U.S. visiting churches, universities and family and friends. I also had a wonderful time at the re-entry retreat for YASC that was held in New York City for a long weekend.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YSCKbyh_yWajdO-1vsC5VMBsvxFNWiSDXY0mN8Yd8v9nUo6a1Qxd2Kpfw856nOxibf7fDIi53ljJBsJhodBpKq5p6sbM9RmabLiG6C9V0sEVRzg8RY6kNKLaiEADi22DZhB0g0d7uylu/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YSCKbyh_yWajdO-1vsC5VMBsvxFNWiSDXY0mN8Yd8v9nUo6a1Qxd2Kpfw856nOxibf7fDIi53ljJBsJhodBpKq5p6sbM9RmabLiG6C9V0sEVRzg8RY6kNKLaiEADi22DZhB0g0d7uylu/s1600/image1.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
Seeing other fellow missionaries again was such a pleasure. A good number from my group were in attendance, sharing their stories and experiences from their missions around the world.<br />
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Now that I'm back in Cange, I'm putting more focus back on Sant Art, the marketplace and fish farming. I'm also continuing in my role to assist with communication between the U.S. Episcopal partners and the Episcopal parish here in Cange. I have a lot of tasks to accomplish, but most important and enjoyable to me is to be back in Haiti and speaking Creole once again.<br />
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I will check in again soon, as some important project developments are underway. In the mean time, read this little piece from the Episcopal News Service:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/10/07/yasc-missionaries-unpack-their-experiences-serving-abroad/">http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/10/07/yasc-missionaries-unpack-their-experiences-serving-abroad/</a>Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-19246420975908476922014-09-14T15:08:00.000-07:002014-09-14T15:08:36.962-07:00Back to the CarolinasWow, it has been quite a ride since I last made a post on here at the end of July. I had a crazy push for setting up projects and connections in Haiti to function for my six or so weeks back in the States, then I had to prepare to actually leave for a while. This required some mental fortitude, lots of time for reflection, and patience. Then I actually flew back to Asheville on August 21st.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvr1jNZ4D6KJr_nebe5CoSf-TLQz-YMmiTQc0tPWkbnD3pN1wCfzPSk2bWZPELRhYLntWGEbSjQQZchyphenhyphenk4Q70t3bcCCjWf7tWrJGEvUan1KdHJ8I6nk2mg0M8_RzCsVvUH66cQ8E2Iu0k/s1600/cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvr1jNZ4D6KJr_nebe5CoSf-TLQz-YMmiTQc0tPWkbnD3pN1wCfzPSk2bWZPELRhYLntWGEbSjQQZchyphenhyphenk4Q70t3bcCCjWf7tWrJGEvUan1KdHJ8I6nk2mg0M8_RzCsVvUH66cQ8E2Iu0k/s1600/cross.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metal art</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am so grateful to have spent just over a full year in Cange, Haiti, working under the Young Adult Service Corps in relationship with the Diocese of Upper South Carolina and many others who work in and around Cange. What an amazing year of growing confidence, new relationships, a richer faith, and a different outlook on day-to-day life. God's love is so alive and vibrant in this world.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55H8XGKuxEG6uLSIlps-spGUIzfQz96CLaByiVtVK2Vd1Nt9rhF6tvjClFcdC_8mT2mJBFzs1GdfD-QYvMHLMFj5GygDqC1MWqnAaoCvGMKq4xlW_8Z4Pd6ur35UWCui7J8zBfvfpL7XV/s1600/Bird+Bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55H8XGKuxEG6uLSIlps-spGUIzfQz96CLaByiVtVK2Vd1Nt9rhF6tvjClFcdC_8mT2mJBFzs1GdfD-QYvMHLMFj5GygDqC1MWqnAaoCvGMKq4xlW_8Z4Pd6ur35UWCui7J8zBfvfpL7XV/s1600/Bird+Bowl.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gourd bowl</td></tr>
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Since I've been back, I've already jumped into church visits, and I head to the University of the South tomorrow. But I've spent time with family and friends too, watching the UGA-Clemson game with Clemson friends and going to the beach with my aunt, uncle and cousin. I even got up to Wilmington, NC, to see my grandparents there for lunch. What a wonderful treat to get to see so many amazing people I have been missing, yet have supported me so sincerely and significantly during my time with YASC.<br />
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Which brings me to my next topic of this somewhat unorganized post: second year fundraising. Thanks to so many wonderful financial donors and the help of my home parish Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville, NC, I have met my second year fundraising goal for YASC. Mesi anpil, thank you very much. Worthy of a name drop in no particular order are the clergy and staff of Trinity--Scott, Carol, Peggy, Ken, Debbie, Dillon, Sharon, Glenn, and Beth--thank you so much! I am grateful for those who contributed financially and for all who show support through your words, actions, thoughts and prayers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirip_IBNsKRpfQjxvsy4Zx1s-NQ67Gr23CuBmzMIAt4fEdEQ7BSoJUyTu-cWnexsZtgHnLiuAbdPgGV_fyTarCWLEM_jFsv35F-5ysf4xDmSo9RsA8XBbrwS3JUUn7tSgeSv68dQxWkuXn/s1600/bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirip_IBNsKRpfQjxvsy4Zx1s-NQ67Gr23CuBmzMIAt4fEdEQ7BSoJUyTu-cWnexsZtgHnLiuAbdPgGV_fyTarCWLEM_jFsv35F-5ysf4xDmSo9RsA8XBbrwS3JUUn7tSgeSv68dQxWkuXn/s1600/bird.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metal art</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>So what lies ahead in year 2?</i><br />
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I'll be spending my time split between Haiti and Columbia (note this is the city in South Carolina, not the South American country, Colombia :-) ). As a part of that, I'll be shifting my responsibilities just a bit. As other organizations take over upcoming phases of projects I've been a part of in Haiti, this opens up time for me to travel around the southeast to visit churches, universities, organizations and people to generate more interest and involvement in the general work in Cange in which EDUSC is involved.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoh_KQ-VyqrNiNHOkR-fZ0MgwSeZpYsN6aFd5WRoY_bwfS-pkZO9vtVbIHbuTzFleK_nNxThRJw5XXvs3xHmwrFzc6aoSblUn_0RZjJZGMwOABi7lsCFATGug-ChPbjCxFtS3BOrJykeZ4/s1600/Card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoh_KQ-VyqrNiNHOkR-fZ0MgwSeZpYsN6aFd5WRoY_bwfS-pkZO9vtVbIHbuTzFleK_nNxThRJw5XXvs3xHmwrFzc6aoSblUn_0RZjJZGMwOABi7lsCFATGug-ChPbjCxFtS3BOrJykeZ4/s1600/Card.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Banana bark greeting card, "<a href="http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/details.php?categorynum=17&categoryName=&theRecord=7&recordCount=13">Neg Mawon</a>" design</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The Cange Marketplace</b> is moving into the land purchasing and construction phase, which will be handled by Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries and students and graduates of the CFFL vocational school in Corporant, Haiti. This is a wonderfully exciting step in this project. I'll continue to be involved as we develop the operational business plan with the Market Committee of Cange.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3p0Ia6BlJzDPoyC6ss3vw0b8q46LaaeY8EEq0MnGEmKzDCgU-qNwAjfry66BirHQqx8eFSmg91tISZDdbD3jj47sSV0jWr5P6uwJA6jLheSiuv19N6YEsKwzbpOgv3silxE-XrOFGE49l/s1600/bowl+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3p0Ia6BlJzDPoyC6ss3vw0b8q46LaaeY8EEq0MnGEmKzDCgU-qNwAjfry66BirHQqx8eFSmg91tISZDdbD3jj47sSV0jWr5P6uwJA6jLheSiuv19N6YEsKwzbpOgv3silxE-XrOFGE49l/s1600/bowl+2.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hand-turned wood bowl</td></tr>
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<b>Zanmi Pwason Chapoteau</b>, the fish project in Chapoteau, is still only in the planning phase with Zanmi Agrikol/Partners in Agriculture. Supporting partners are finishing up structures for reporting and management while seeking final financial support for what will be a primary economic development project for the community of Chapoteau. I look forward to getting these steps out of the way efficiently and effectively, so implementation can begin.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQyPRZ6BYczlBNnL7pD8wczjNG-vDueknATGs83dQSvhrivKB7djbxc4UL_BG_KZF2NQkIKgIImYNv-r2XfIoCtRlZdsg9cHSDIPB6V2qVo9LjOO_KqQT89QtOMvqvqp_kTGf2ornl7ON9/s1600/Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQyPRZ6BYczlBNnL7pD8wczjNG-vDueknATGs83dQSvhrivKB7djbxc4UL_BG_KZF2NQkIKgIImYNv-r2XfIoCtRlZdsg9cHSDIPB6V2qVo9LjOO_KqQT89QtOMvqvqp_kTGf2ornl7ON9/s1600/Fish.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metal art</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Sant Art</b> the art center of Cange is in a particular state of uncertainty. Unfortunately, the director Ms. Jackie Williams, had to return to the U.S. with a medical emergency back in July. She likely will not return before January, and this comes at a crossroads for Sant Art, which is in need of new structures. I pray for her speedy and full recovery. We're pushing forward, seeking new contracts and developing new designs of beautiful hand-crafted art by the staff in Cange. For the short term, orders can be made by emailing me.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPfSicASnVONOqOraU2l1CEBaah6VmozFnb6V9lauIrmRoHre1HLHEzS3336UhGY56MPu68DilhXeP5LB6Db6ywwFC8KXqm0La3s8dHD8jbl2LDk__1e7tTwEQ6CKhsupDNer90x0944Q/s1600/Red+Flower+Bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPfSicASnVONOqOraU2l1CEBaah6VmozFnb6V9lauIrmRoHre1HLHEzS3336UhGY56MPu68DilhXeP5LB6Db6ywwFC8KXqm0La3s8dHD8jbl2LDk__1e7tTwEQ6CKhsupDNer90x0944Q/s1600/Red+Flower+Bowl.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gourd bowl</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Episcopal Relations </b>I will take on a bigger role here, working here and there to facilitate the relationship between the Episcopal parish in Cange and all other Episcopal partners like EDUSC, Church of the Incarnation in Highlands, NC, St. Timothy's in Virginia, and the Diocese of Haiti. Work here will also involve other religious and secular organizations like universities, CEDC, and other denominations.<br />
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This work will consist of in person visits to vestries, youth groups, churches and events. I'll be visiting universities seeking additional partnerships for Cange in the models set forth by Clemson University, Sewanee, and Centenary College. I'll also be creating reports on communities near Cange and under the Episcopal parish network there. There are many U.S. churches that support these communities, but they are not necessarily organized. These reports will include local perspectives and visions as well as the perspectives and visions from all partners and will serve as a tool for everyone to move forward together.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGRUi64eOPRkU6AKrYkYTTm_W8dt5ytq-6cpY19-bXgWiH-fkQFSXBLpqhEGeXrgGhL6m_RnrDCzwfsVT8RIvJjXCPXqIE6XaYKmHwc57p0Sis_Yl9DQhavSYy6hPV6ZKwspv1CPFqDlj/s1600/DSC00526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGRUi64eOPRkU6AKrYkYTTm_W8dt5ytq-6cpY19-bXgWiH-fkQFSXBLpqhEGeXrgGhL6m_RnrDCzwfsVT8RIvJjXCPXqIE6XaYKmHwc57p0Sis_Yl9DQhavSYy6hPV6ZKwspv1CPFqDlj/s1600/DSC00526.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hand-woven rugs, in progress</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are a handful of other activities I'm involved in to a lesser degree and some that simply haven't developed much yet, but have the potential to at some point over the course of the next year. I'm very excited for what is to come.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1L1gMxkpm_VV1R8LeOIgkRj_Wl0wjrDZhNLYNQ7uC0xRU7ieuwdP7droyhRNu8Gu0uNS5Qhn_bKFwDNXifMSAA4OYg7D-6emcRlcqI6XbnjBvH2heNkdtG8f05FSxxtaYmh3Ahb0LjvgV/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1L1gMxkpm_VV1R8LeOIgkRj_Wl0wjrDZhNLYNQ7uC0xRU7ieuwdP7droyhRNu8Gu0uNS5Qhn_bKFwDNXifMSAA4OYg7D-6emcRlcqI6XbnjBvH2heNkdtG8f05FSxxtaYmh3Ahb0LjvgV/s1600/photo.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crocheted bracelet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I will continue to update this blog, hopefully on a more regular basis, throughout my second year. I really do appreciate this as a form of communication to you all, and welcome conversation and questions at any time. It's always wonderful to hear from you.<br />
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Map mande ke Bondye beni ou<br />
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**The photographs in this blog are samples of the new art being produced at Sant Art in Cange. Thanks to CEDC intern Kristen Oehrig for the pics!**Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203840007103399937.post-8613379154912055602014-07-27T05:51:00.000-07:002014-07-27T05:51:02.605-07:00Market Place Kombit #2The kombit is a Haitian tradition where communities will gather to work on an individual's farm for a day in exchange for a meal, drink and fellowship. In the future, those benefiting from a kombit are expected to participate in the next one hosted by another farmer.<br />
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The tradition applies to various communal efforts in Haitian society, like the one that happened in Cange yesterday to prepare land for a new market place. It was the second kombit of this effort so far, and it was much more successful than the first. More people, more accomplishment, and an excellent meal cooked by market committee members with food provided by other residents of Cange.<br />
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An awesome day of collaboration, culture, progress and friendship. I'm really proud of this community, and I think the best is yet to come.<br />
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Ayiti ap vanse.<br />
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<br />Alan Yarboroughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119987191269553973noreply@blogger.com0