A Visit to Michelor's Village

Today Dorothy and I had the opportunity to take Michelor to his village outside of Criox-des-Bouqet to visit his mother. It was an awesome day!  His village is incredibly poor.  There are many places in PAP that are very poor, but the villages that are outside of the city are much worse.  Now, I have a better understanding of how Mich was so malnourished for most of his life. 

The road into Mich's village

Mich's village

When we arrived at Mich's village, he eagerly led the way to his home.

From a distance, Mich saw his mother and pointed her out to me.  Then, he started waving to her as we got closer.

Mich and his mother were very happy to see each other again.

His mother, Michelin, allowed me to go into her home.  It was a small two room mud house with a thatched roof. 

Mich's house

The main room in Mich's house

The doorway to the second room in Mich's house.  You can see the thatched roof above

After we got a quick tour of his house, I met Mich's tonton (uncle).  He happens to be the village drunk.

After seeing his tonton and mama, Mich immediately set off in search of his younger brother who was at school.

When he found his brother, Lukenson, they had a happy reunion. We learned that Lukenson is only ten years old. You can see that Mich and Lukenson are the same height even though Mich is four years older than his brother.

Mich with his back to the camera, his mother, and his younger brother in yellow

After Mich was reunited with all his family members, we walked all through the village meeting people and talking with them. Karen, another missionary friend of ours, distributed vitamins to those in need.

 We got to meet this little girl. She has hydrocephalus and is six years old. She is literally a walking miracle. Despite the fact that she has never had any medical care for her condition, she has learned how to stand and walk.

On our way through, we passed by the village witch doctor's house.

This is some type of Voodoo shrine in front of the witch doctor's house. You can see a cross, a clay pot, and some type of doll upside down on the chair.

We also got to see the "Spirit House".  It is a house with no doors or windows.  The base of the house is lined with thorn branches.  The Haitians believe that if they have a house specially for the evil spirits, it will keep them away from the people.  The children told us that Satan lives there.

The people in the village showed us some rice that they were drying in the sun.

This is the sheep pen. They use thorn branches and cactus as a fence to keep the sheep in. I think it is very creative!

In addition to meeting Mich's family, I also got to meet Guerdline's family.  She is from the same village as Mich.  This is Guerdline's mama and her little sister.  Her sister looks just like her!

Here are some of our other sights along the way: 

a natural spring

All in all, we had a great time at Mich's village.  His family and friends were very happy to see Mich, and I enjoyed just talking and spending time with them.