Pam & Dave Mann are missionaries from Central Ohio living and working in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. At lease monthly they email stories about their experience to COCINA for your reading enjoyment. More about Pam & Dave
May 19-21, 2010 --- I.U. Student Walks Again After Earthquake Injury Forced Amputation of Foot
By Pam Mann
Once I arrived home from school, I opened the bedroom window to let in some breeze. I began to peel off my uniform for a shower when my cell phone rang. “Dave,” the screen read.
“Hi, Love.”
“You've got to hear this good news directly from Hugues,” Dave said. “I'm handing him the phone.” In the second before Hugues could speak, I wondered: new grant money to keep the clinic operational? Another student scholarship for college? No customs to pay on the new bus?
“Hi, Pam! Lynne-vie walked!” Lynne-vie is the IU-grad quake victim who lost her right foot to amputation.
“She walked? You mean with a cane?”
“No cane. Randy put on the prosthesis and then we helped with some baby steps but she said to her try. And she walked on her own.”
“Oh, my, she walked!”
READ MORE...
NOTE: A YouTube video of Lynne-vie's first steps - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXyFZdKO4XM
Sunday, February 14 --- Praying, Mourning and Worshiping God in Ouanaminthe
By: Dave and Pam Mann
2 p.m. Sunday, Apartment Main Room
Hugues had learned that the big Baptist church began its Sunday worship service, not at the usual 10 a.m. start time, but at 6 a.m. So much for our plan to leave IU at 9:30 so that we'd be early for church. The mission team was dreading walking in late and having the front row worshippers give up their seats to the foreign visitors. I naively believed the Sunday morning worship would be much like usual despite this being the third and final day of the nationwide call to prayer and fasting. School had been called off on Friday. Even the Dajabon market day was moved to Thursday so everyone could pray, beginning Friday morning. And people prayed. We heard the loud hymn singing, corporate prayer and shouted responses to preachers all around us. That was Friday morning, the 12th, remembering January 12th, the date of the quake. This is the anniversary, I had thought. Their energy will peter out after this.
Saturday did seem calmer though people still dressed in black and white, the colors for mourning. People still gathered in churches but with less commotion. So I thought I knew what to expect on Sunday. Then Saturday night with the mission team we discussed Sunday morning church options. Ironically, we opted for the big Baptist church because their service was more predictable in length and content than the Bible Temple on the edge of town. I'm not likely to call Haitian Baptists predictable again any time soon.... READ MORE...
Ouanaminthe --- Schools Still Closed, “Refugees” Arriving, People Afraid, Mourning
By Pam Mann.Thursday, January 28, 2010, 8:15 a.m.
It was nearly 8 p.m. We walked home in the light of a nearly full moon. Because few homes have electric power, a full moon draws people out into the street or onto porches to chat at day’s end. If we weren’t in a month of mourning, loud music would be blaring. Last night we didn’t even hear loud laughs and joking, only muffled conversations.... READ MORE...
Life in Ouanaminthe (northeastern Haiti) 13 Days After Earthquake
First, an update on what has been happening in Ouanaminthe the last week; then Pam’s journal.
No photos of the disaster – you’ve seen enough of it on the news channels.
As you know, there have been numerous aftershocks following the major quake of January 12th. The aftershocks have simply caused the rubble to settle a bit more, with no physical damage in the regions a distance from the capital city, such as Ouanaminthe.
Joe succeeded in making his second trip to Port-au-Prince in the school’s pick-up despite its questionable road-worthiness. His extended family is now in Ouanaminthe, filling his house. Many, many other homes in Ouanaminthe have found additional occupants as the population continues to leave Port-au-Prince. The city of Ouanaminthe has swelled with many new faces appearing on the street
.... READ MORE...
Ouanaminthe, Northeast Haiti, Before and Right after the January 12 Earthquake in Port-au-Prince Area. By: Pam Mann
7:15 a.m. Friday, January 8, 2010
Squish. Slurp. Squish. Slurp. With each step my mud-pasted shoes adhere to the road. Impatient motorcyclists yell and toot horns. Ahead of me, annoyed women grumble, each head crowned with a laundry bundle for river washing. Where puddles grow wide and deep, the more agile I.U. students hop from one makeshift stepping stone to the next. Such is the morning traffic on Rue Lamine. Ah, it’s good to be back!.... READ MORE...
Christmas and New Year's Celebrations in Ouanaminthe
The following are selected eleventh grade English essays describing how Ouanaminthe celebrates Christmas. None are great literature but some are exceptional considering how the writers have progressed in fluency just this school year.... READ MORE...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
“I’m thinking about Fabienne’s birthday story you read to me,” Dave said as we walked out the school gate. It was dark. The night guard wished us good night as we left. Fabienne’s account, an English homework assignment, revealed what a small thing, small in our view, can make a day great for a poor teenager... READ MORE...
Thursday November 5th, 2009
The I.U. high school administrators decided, during the summer, that they would divide the three classes of the 11th grade by ability. In the past, each class had the whole range of academic prowess represented. This policy change experiment was made in hope of producing a national laureate on the government exams, something I.U. has yet to achieve... READ MORE...
Saturday, October 31, Reformation Day (By Pam Mann)
Last weekend Roberto, a Dominican technician, set our apartment up with a new inverter using four 6-volt batteries. When the big clinic generator runs during the day for clinic operation, the little inverter/battery system in our apartment gets charged. Then when the generator shuts off at 5:00 p.m., our apartment still has power from the batteries... READ MORE...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
It was Friday afternoon, our first week of classes at I.U. behind us. Thankfully the striking public school teachers were placated by the newly formed private school association’s gesture. We took Tuesday off in support of them and then they did not harass us when we resumed class on Wednesday. The upper grades were at nearly perfect attendance while the elementary classes were about 80%. Late arrivals often blamed their tailors for not having their uniforms ready... READ MORE...
Monday, September 7, 2009
The first day of school! Classrooms are painted, class rosters posted, schedules planned. In last week’s teachers’ meeting, Mèt Joe had announced that our first morning would be dedicated to our opening worship time. Regular classes would begin after lunch... READ MORE...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
We have sometimes been asked about the emotional effect of traveling back and forth between the U.S. and Haiti. Which one is home? How do we adjust? Does it take a couple days to adapt? This entry from Pam’s journal immediately upon our arrival [from summer break] attempts to address such questions... READ MORE...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Yesterday, Hugues was in Port-Au-Prince, having been in the U.S. over the weekend to deliver James and Pedro to their Cedar Campus escorts in Detroit. There were flight delays. The threesome ended up getting no sleep on Saturday night. But, hallelujah!, the two I.U. seniors are in Michigan, ready for eleven weeks of volunteer work at the InterVarsity camp on Lake Huron. ... READ MORE...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
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