Williamson

their meeting

my meeting!

Williamson is one of my favorite villages in Haiti.  Although, I haven't been to many, there is something about the people, pastor, school and even the location that brings me peace.  I was so happy to be able to go there today with Pat to talk with Pastor Joassaint about his dreams for his community and the things that we can work together on to improve the living conditions and his school.  Well, they did a lot of the talking and I got to enjoy 2 very large pieces of melon from the garden and to rock their youngest daughter to sleep!

One of the main priorities for this community is water.  We worked with Pastor Joassaint to find leaders in the community who have shown interest and initiative to have a water catchment system on their house.  Two families seemed to stand out and we took measurements for the team who comes in on Thursday.  Hopefully we will be able to work with Haitians to put together a water catchment system that will collect the rainfall they receive.  Williamson also needs to have its well system finished.  This would allow cleaner water to be pumped from the ground and therefore, not need treatment.  This is a challenge as an expensive machine is needed to dig to the level where the water is clean enough and plentiful enough to drink on a regular basis.  

In addition, we talked a lot about their school.  I asked some questions about teacher training and professional development and hopefully we can continue those discussions with the teachers next week.  It sounds like they are getting continuous professional development already in another area farther north, which is good to hear!

One thing that is amazing about Pastor Joassaint is that he is very specific and very thoughtful about what he thinks the community needs to improve.  He is not looking for a handout but some assistance to implement things he knows are good practices for his village.  We discussed a laptop computer to be able to track student attendance, lesson plans, examination reports and scholarship information.  Documenting this electronically helps all parties - WWV, Williamson and the Haitian Ministry of Education because these statistics need to be turned at the end of the year.  Hopefully I can work with the administrator on this project.