While Tim's team was here, Dr. Ed's team was here too. We went out to Canaan with the team. Amos' father, Pastor Marcelin was the host for the clinic.
Canaan is a community that was born after the earthquake. Thousands of people from Port-au-Prince settled here after the earthquake. Many people are still living in tarp homes. The building where Pastor Marcelin was going to hold the clinic was inside this tarp church.
The church is held together with boards and poles and tarps stretched over everything. The Haitian people are making the best of difficult living conditions.
Canaan is located at a base of a mountain area and stretches along Rte. National #1. The land is government land. Little by little you can see some construction work going on as people try to rebuild their lives. I think that Canaan will be a new city eventually. As you can see there are no services in Canaan. The people are on their own.
Near the tarp church is a beautiful newly constructed church. We went and visited inside and painters were at work. We spoke with the president of the Canaan community committee, who is also the pastor of the cement church and asked him if the clinic could be held inside his church.
We told him that we would stay away from the walls of the church and leave room for his workers to paint. Here is a view through the door of the church to the hills of Canaan.
Once everything was agreed to by the community committee everyone transferred the benches from the tarp church to the cement church :)
The people were willing to help move everything and things were carried over quickly. The temperature difference from a tarp to a cement structure with windows makes a big difference in the heat :)
Children and adults came to check out what was going on.
This young father came carrying his daughter.
Canaan is a desert like community, but people are trying to add greenery to the community.
Pastor Marcelin is the bald man to the right of the photo wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt. He did a good job of organizing everything.
This is a tarp home that is slowly being adapted. It now has a tin roof and the owner is trying to grow trees which will one day provide shade.
Everyone in Canaan has a difficult existence but you can see that they are trying. I didn't see any large NGO's out here, other than the tarps that were handed out to people. The living space is more open for the people out here, much better than in Port-au-Prince. People watch out for the community. I think that because they are on their own the people know that they have to watch out for each other.
Looking at the greenery around you can tell that it is all new. People are making a community. There are even paths/roads around the community. It will be interesting to see how Canaan changes over the years.
If I needed to live in a refuge camp I would choose Canaan over the camps in Port-au-Prince.
It took about 20 minutes to set up for the clinic. Here Rob is seaking with one of the medical team.
This young girl was peeking around the corner of the new cement church. This new church is built to last. I think that it is fitting that the first major structure built is this church. The faith of the people in Canaan keeps them strong. Pray for the leaders of the cement church in their outreach to the people of Canaan, and pray that the people will one day have strong homes and can leave their tarp homes.
I find it ironic that the people have given the name Canaan to their community. Their neighboring earthquake community is called Jerusalem. They know that God is with them.
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