A key ministry in the life of the Diocese of Alabama involves our companion relationship with our brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti.
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Crochu Medical Mission
A Mountaintop Experience
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Editor's Note: In February C. Jenkins "CJ" Ross, a registered nurse and member of St Francis Episcopal Church in Indian Springs, led the Diocese of Alabama's the first medical team to to the remote mountain village of Crochu, Haiti. The team hiked in, camped out, and operated a three-day clinic that provided much-needed healthcare to more than 300 patients. Here she reflects on the challenges and joys of that very special mission.
It has now been 10 weeks since I traveled to Crochu, Haiti with five other hearty souls from Alabama, an eight member Haitian medical team and the prayers and support of countless others. It is often said, it is the journey rather than the destination that offers the greatest joy and satisfaction. This adventure to Crochu, with all its obstacles and opportunities was a true gift of joy.
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Crochu is a remote village isolated in the mountains of some 2,000 feet above Haiti’s Plaine du Cul-de-Sac. Accessible only by horseback or on foot, it has no electricity or running water. The nearest source of water – a natural spring -- is a 40-minute walk from the village. It is a poor village – even by Haitian standards. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Malnutrition in children is common and the overall health of the people is poor. Medical care is hours from Crochu and most can’t afford it anyway. And yet here we found a faithful, loving, joyful and hopeful community.
We were in Crochu on a medical mission as part of the Diocese of Alabama’s companion relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. We were there to support Carmel Valdema, a Haitian public health nurse, and her husband, Father Fritz Valdema, priest-in-charge of St. Simeon Parish and school. The parish consists of six Episcopal churches and schools in geographically separated communities, the most remote and poorest of which is Crochu.
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ince being assigned to St. Simeon parish, Carmel has established a mobile nutrition clinic for malnourished children and she spearheads an effort to bring much-needed medical care to the communities served by her husband. Together she and Pere Val, as her husband is known, make an incredible team.
Our Alabama team consisted of Melissa Strange a member of St. Mary’s on the Highlands in Birmingham, Susan Black, a registered nurse, also from St. Mary’s, Camille Cornett, a registered nurse from Grace Church Mt. Meigs; and a husband-wife team of doctors from Mobile -- Daniel and Carol Preudhomme. Carol is an internist/gerontologist and Daniel a pediatrician/gastro-enterologist.
We knew our team was especially blessed when Carol and Daniel – both of whom speak Creole and French -- enthusiastically answered the call to join our mission. Born in Haiti, Carol left the country with her mother as a very young girl during the political unrest of the Duvalier family regime. For Carol our mission was an answer to a long-time prayer for an opportunity to return to her people and bring a special gift of healing.
We arrived in Haiti Feb. 21 with several hundred pounds of supplies including more than 200 pounds of powdered milk and a sample of a new protein supplement for Carmel’s nutrition program, an I.V. setup and gallons of concentrated medication, syrups, pills and wound-care items. We spent our first three nights at the St. Simeon Church rectory in Croix des Bouquets. It was my first experience to sleep under a mosquito net. Although we were taking anti-malarial medication, one begins to appreciate the need to provide these simple nets to people in third world countries. On Sunday we worshiped with our Haitian brothers and sister, and conducted a medical clinic at Pere Val’s Church in Gorman on Monday.
After dinner, the night before we left for Crochu, the Alabama team, Carmel and some members of her support staff sat around the table in the rectory and said Compline, which the Haitians among us had never done before. I read in English and Carol translated in Creole. It was a special moment -- one of those “thin places” where Christ’s presence comforted and bound us together as one in his love.
Travel to Chrochu for our 14-member joint Haitian/American medical team began Tuesday morning sandwiched in the back of a Toyota Safari-type vehicle. Our beloved driver Jimmy skillfully maneuvered us up a narrow, twisting, storm-rutted dirt road better suited for the donkeys, cows and goats we encountered from time to time along the way. Our vehicle rocked and rolled from side-to-side as the tires slipped and slid on the boulder and rock-strewn road. Some in our group covered their eyes to avoid looking into the deep ravines that fell away from the narrow trail’s edge.
Finally the vehicle stopped. The truck could go no further. We would have to hike from here. We were to have been met by a group of villagers who would escort us and help us carry our supplies the rest of the way to our destination. But, we had arrived early, before the villagers and before our supply truck that was to follow. So like good soldiers we put what we had on our backs and began the hour plus hike in the hot tropical sun. As we headed down a steep trail into a deep ravine, cut by last year’s hurricanes someone offered, “This isn’t so bad.” It was an omen of things to come.
Soon one of our team members began showing signs of possible heat stroke. We laid him beside some scrub bushes – no trees here – trying to find some shade. Fortunately the villagers arrived from Crochu bringing more water and donkeys. We rested and rehydrated. The villagers began to sing prayers of healing – as is their custom -- for our team member and we sang with them as we resumed our journey. It was another of those moments where you feel an overwhelming sense of God’s presence.
Men, women and children were already waiting patiently when we arrived at the stone church that was to become our clinic and our home while we were on the mountain. It had a cement floor, open-air windows, a rusting tin roof and bent metal doors that made a scraping sound when they were opened. We set up our clinic and after a quick lunch, began seeing patients. By 6p.m. when we closed, we had seen 120. In Crochu without electricity, the sun governed our days.
Before we left for Haiti I had heard that for our security the team would be locked in the church at night without access to the outside privy. So with the prospect-turned reality of sleeping with 15 to 20 others, with only one “slop jar” among us, I created on the raised floor of the altar area a private area with red and white checkered table cloths, twine, clothespins, and of course duck tape. Our nighttime bathroom became an examining room, and to our surprise a labor and delivery room, by day.
The nights were as cold as the days were hot. Our generous hosts provided a bucket of their precious water for us to use to wash. We were so grateful and we treated it with the reverence and care of a chalice running low on consecrated wine.
It rained one night, a hard tropical rain and it sounded like the Blue Men group playing drums on the tin roof of the church. I wondered, and can’t imagine, what it must have been like for the people of this village, who live in fragile homes with walls of mud and roofs of palm fronds, when the hurricanes came through last fall.
We began to stir just before daybreak and to our amazement we found more that 50 people outside sitting quietly on wooden benches and on the ground waiting patiently for the clinic to open. We learned later that many had walked as many as two days to reach us.
After a quick breakfast of Haitian (spicy) peanut butter, bread and fruit we set up and opened the clinic. As the metal doors scraped open, a women came and lay down at my feet, in pain, and obviously pregnant. She had been carried from her home more than an hour’s walk away by family and friends on a makeshift stretcher made with a mattress strapped between two poles.
She was dehydrated, and had been in labor for two days. The lack of properly trained midwives in Haiti is an issue and it was fortunate that they had found us. But, this was going to be a difficult delivery, and we were concerned that we might lose the baby or the mother. Fortunately, we had brought an IV kit from the States – the first of our medical missions to do so – and we put it to use.
Susan stayed with the woman during labor while the doctors and we continued to see patients on the other side of the tablecloth.
Melissa and I took turns checking in, hydrating and supporting her (and Susan) during contractions. Each time we checked, we could still hear the baby’s heartbeat and that gave us hope. Then we realized that our patient was going to need surgical assistance to deliver her baby normally. But we had no suture kit and no Pitocin for post-delivery use.
In that place where there are no roads, no motorized vehicles, no water and no electricity, cell phones work. We called and asked Pere Val to get the needed supplies, and an elderly woman from the village volunteered to hike seven miles down the mountain to meet him. She made it back just in time arriving just before the baby was delivered.
When the baby let out its first mighty cry, everyone in the clinic broke into cheers. Camille and I hugged and cried and thanked God for his miracle of life. Daniel and I placed the baby girl on the altar so we could clean and examine her. What better use of God’s table than as a place to accept his precious gift of life.
The baby’s mother and father named her Susan in honor of our team member who had stayed with her and helped her through the delivery.
Carmel completed the surgical procedure. And as our workday drew to a close, we said goodbye to our baby and her family. Mom and swaddled baby were placed back on the traveling bed. (How present for me was the vision of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.) And as the villagers began their journey back over the mountain, everyone began singing in thanksgiving and praise for all that God had given us that day.
Later, as the sun was setting and we were preparing for our final night on the mountain, we heard the distant sound of angels still singing and caught a final glimpse of the villagers as they crested a distant hill.
It had been a good day. We had delivered a baby and maybe saved a life. We had seen some 187 other patients; and would see 120 more in the morning before beginning our own trek off the mountain and home. But this day was special; we had been touched by Providence, and experienced fully the amazing grace of God.
Click here for additional photos of the mission
Click here for additonal information about Alabama's companion relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti
Parish-Sponsored Construction Mission
Lays Nutrition Clinic Foundation
EDITOR'S Note: The first parish-sponsored mission of the Diocese of Alabama's companion relationship with the Diocese of Haiti was successfully completed May 2, 2009. A five-member construction team from St. Mary's on the Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham spent a week in Haiti building and back-filling the foundation for permanent home for Lespwa Timoun, a nutrition clinic operated by Father Fritz Valdema and his wife Carmel. With the foundation complete the floors can now be poured. The team also 
delivered more than 300 pounds of powdered milk for use by the clinic, hung an additional light in the church at Fond Parisian and visited the school there to inspect the new roof funded by parishioners from the Diocese of Alabama. The original roof had been damaged by last year's hurricanes. The following is a reflection on the mission by team member Phil Black:
The irony finally hit me as I stared at the beautiful, juicy bacon cheeseburger in front of me. We had talked about this moment for most of the week and finally Mary Balfour Van Zandt, Brad Cain, and I could relish the taste of food we had missed while on our trip to Haiti. Most Haitians we met over the past week would have never seen food like this or tasted it. Malnutrition, especially among the very young is an everyday fact of life in Haiti.
The three of us, along with Hap Parker (all members of St. Mary's in Birmingham) traveled to the vicinity of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti to spend a week helping with construction of the new Lespwa Timoun ("Hope for Children") Nutrition Clinic in the
village of Croix des Bouquets. Hap was a contractor and brought along a mason friend of his, Derrick McCormick to help with the masonry work. Mary Balfour, who is a professional fundraiser, had helped raise money to begin construction of the clinic. Brad, an attorney, was also a gifted handyman. As an architect, I was interested to see construction done in a country where materials are scarce, labor is cheap and heavy machinery is nonexistent.
Our gracious hosts (and very skilled drivers in the chaotic Port-Au-Prince traffic) were The Rev. Fritz Valdema of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti in the Saint Simeon's Parish at Croix des Bouquets and his wife Carmel. Pere Val (as he is called by his many friends) oversees six parishes. On the Sunday after our arrival, we witnessed the typical busy Sunday in any priest's life 
multiplied by two as he and his staff delivered an early morning service in St. Simeon Church, packed up the choir, band, and acolytes and several devotees, and traveled an hour up the road to St. Marc's Episcopal Church where a "high service" was held on Saint Marc's Feast Day. Our group was honored by a beautiful children's choir singing a "thank you" song for the new water well the Diocese of Alabama had funded. Passing the Peace, although in Creole, was an embrace of the warmest spirit from everyone in the church.
A "feast day" takes on a very poignant aspect in the lives of our Haitian brothers and sisters. After the wonderfully lively service, a beautiful banquet table was spread with large 
platters of rice and lintils, baked pasta, goat stew, roasted pumpkin, melons and fruits, corn, slices of sugar cane, onions and tomatoes. As honored guests we were directed to the front of the line. Adults in the parish were next and finally, a long line of children from the biggest to the smallest. As we finished our small plates with token amounts of food, Mary Balfour and I watched to be sure even the last were fed. A quiet descended over the gathering as everyone ate their heaping plates. It was clear that this was a rare and important meal for everyone. The children especially, ate quietly and diligently as if this might be their last real food for some time. The experience was humbling and redefined what it means for us to be thankful.
The "Hope for Children" ("Lespwa Timoun" in Creole) Nutrition Clinic is Carmel's dream for the malnourished children in the area. As witnesses to the hands of God working through Carmel and her staff, we saw the lives of children and infants 
changed by the food, medicine, and vaccines provided at the weekly clinics held in the parish churches. Having a permanent clinic location will amplify their efforts by providing safe storage areas for food, medicine, and supplies, a well for clean water, and a generator for electricity. Carmel's team keeps meticulous records and can track each child's progress and development though the program. On more than one occasion, she has taken in children as her own to raise, ensuring their future in a loving home. This is truly a mission of God for Carmel; a warm and kind "mother" to dozens of children. She is a gentle woman with a boundless heart.
The remaining days of our visit were spent at the clinic construction site where Carmel's dream of helping children has taken earthly roots. The footings have been dug and poured. Our St. Mary's team of five and a group of a dozen Haitian workers laid more than 600 concrete blocks to form the 
foundations and support columns. Work in the relentless heat and tropical sun quickly withered our group but the Haitian workers labored on all day. There was much good-natured humor -all in Creole- about how we "blans" (as the Haitians called us) took refuge in a thatched shelter built just for us. We would work for a while in the 106 degree heat and rest in the shade. Brad found his calling as the youth director of the job site. On his breaks, he played stick ball and soccer with several of the local children. Through our fundraising, we were able to buy the materials and hand tools and provide much-needed employment in a desperately poor country that has an unemployment rate of approximately 80 percent. The local workers were expert masons but were accustomed to using their bare hands to apply the mortar. Hap and Derrick showed them how to use the new steel trowels we brought and they were quick and appreciative learners. With no knowledge of French or Creole, Derrick was quickly respected by the local masons for his skill and ability to stay up with them in the heat.
The anticipation for our cheeseburgers was short lived and that "supersized" dining experience is in stark contrast to the memory of our trip to Croix des Bouquets. The Haitians we worked with and met each day live with dignity albeit in the poorest possible conditions. Their shoes are old and worn but are shined. 
Their clothes are faded and mended but clean and fresh. What they have is not near enough to sustain even a meager existence. One small boy, Ricardo, was brought to Carmel nearly dead from starvation at six months old. Through the nutrition program, he is now a thriving and energetic five-year-old school boy with a chance to dream about his future. The lifesaving work that Carmel and Pere Val do each and every day is proof that the Spirit of God is working miracles in Haiti. I hope that our Diocese continues its support for the Diocese of Haiti. Making the Lespwa Timoun Nutrition Clinic a reality will create a lasting change in the lives of people like Ricardo and so many others.
"Whatever you do for one of these, the least of your brethren, you do for me......"
Matthew 25:40
Hurricane-Damaged School Repiared
With Diocese of Alabama Donations
A hurricane-damaged school in the village of Fond Parisian, Haiti, has been repaired thanks to the generosity of parishes and parishioners in the Diocese of Alabama.
The kindergarten building at St. Sacrament Episcopal Church School in Fond Parisian, was damaged and in danger of collapse 
following the Hurricanes of September 2008. The damage was discovered October by hurricane relief/construction mission team in Haiti from the Diocese of Alabama. Because of the danger posed to students, the children were moved to an open-air classroom under the shade of a tree next to the building, and the concrete roof was demolished.
Contributions to the diocese for hurricane relief in Haiti were used to replace the roof with a structure strong enough to support addition of second story classrooms in the future.
"On behalf of the people of Haiti, thank you for your generous donation to make the school safe for our children. May God bless you," said Father Fritz Valdema, priest-in-charge of the Croix des Bouquets Parish that includes the church and school at Fond Parisian.
The Diocese of Alabama and the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti have joined in a companion relationship that is focused with the six-church parish of Croix des Bouquets near the capital city of Port au Prince.
Alabama Medical Team Heads for Remote Haitian Village
Photos by: Anne Kimzey & the Rev. Deacon Dave Drachlis
A team from the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama arrived in Haiti Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, on a mission to provide medical care to residents of an isolated village high in the mountains above the capital city of Port au Prince.
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| 'Downtown' Crochu, Haiti |
The weeklong mission is being conducted as part of the Alabama diocese's companion relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. Alabama is focusing its relationship with the Croix des Bouquets parish, which consists of six geographically separated churches, served by the Rev. Fritz Valdema and his wife Carmel, a public health nurse.
"In the spirit of the companion relationship, the six team members from Alabama will be joined by Haitian health workers to conduct the mission," said the Rev. Deacon Dave Drachlis, Companion Diocese Commission co-chair.
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| Crochu is the poorest of the villages in the Croix des Bouquets parish. |
The combined team was scheduled to conduct a health clinic at St. Simeon Church in Croix des Bouquet on Monday, Feb. 23, and depart for the remote village of Crochu Tuesday morning. Crochu is situated northeast of Port au Prince in the mountains approximately 2,000 feet above Haiti's Plaine du Cul de Sac.
It is the poorest village in the Valdema's parish and significant health issues and malnutrition plague its
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Much of the road to Crochu was washed out by the hurricanes of 2008. |
residents. Crochu has no electricity, no running water, and it is inaccessible by vehicle. A narrow rocky road -- navigable only by 4-wheel-drive vehicle -- ends well short of the village. It is an approximately 40-minute hike or horseback ride from the road's end to the village.
"The team will hike in and camp out," said Drachlis. "They will pack in all of the drugs, medical supplies and other equipment they will need, and plan to sleep in an open-air concrete block church about a 20-minute walk from the village.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to provide medical care to people who might otherwise be unable to afford medical care," said C.J. Ross, a hospice nurse and the team's leader, who attends St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Indian Springs.
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| Repacking rice for the climb to Crochu. |
Other members of the Alabama team include: Dr. Daniel Preud'Homme, Director of Clinical Services for the USA Pediatric Healthy Life Center in Mobile; his wife, Dr. Carol Preud'Homme, an internist, specializing in gerontology at Medical Center in Houston; Susan Black, a home health nurse who attends St. Mary's on the Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham; Camille Cornett, a nurse with the Baptist Health System in Montgomery, who attends Grace Episcopal Church in Mt. Meigs; and Melissa Strange also a St. Mary's, Birmingham parishioner.
The poverty and health problems in Crochu have been greatly exacerbated by the four major hurricanes that devastated many areas of Haiti last September, according to Drachlis.
In October 2008, an Alabama construction team working in the Port au Prince area purchased approximately one ton of food staples for the village. In November,
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St. Alban's Church before and after the 2008 hurricanes. Church services are now conducted in the school (pavillion with flag) behind the slab where the church stood. |
Companion Diocese Commission co-chairs Anne Kimzey and Drachlis made Alabama's first post-hurricane visit to the village to deliver additional food and assess the hurricane damage. "It took three hours on horseback just to reach the village." recalled Drachlis.
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| Crochu subsistance farm turned rock-strewn wash by the 2008 hurricanes. |
Torrents of water from the hurricanes had washed out the only part of the road that had previously been navigable by four-wheel-drive vehicle. The flooding swept away many of the small subsistence farms in the area and the hurricanes damaged homes, and completely destroyed St. Alban's Episcopal Church in the village.
"All that remains of the little church is it's slab," recalled Drachlis. "The people of Crochu now attend services in the school, a metal-roofed, open-air pavilion with mats -- woven from palm leaves -- for walls." Villagers using only hand tools recently repaired the lower part of the road.
The medical team will spend three days and two nights in Crochu. The team is scheduled to return to the United States Saturday, Feb. 28.
Click here to read reflections by people who have participated in missions to Haiti.
Archive:
- Crochu Medical Mission - A Mountaintop Experience
- Parish-Sposnored Construction Mission Lays Nutrition Clinic Foundation
- Hurricane-Damaged School Repaired with Diocese of Alabama Donations
- Diocese Conducts First Medical Mission of 2009
- Medical Team Arrives in Haiti
- Haiti Construction Mission Accomplished
- Alabama Mission Team Heads for Haiti
