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

Daily Life in Ouanaminthe---Pinning Hopes on Jesus, With Exodus 14:14 Courage
By: Pam Mann
January 3, 2012

Even though I've been a slacker on my cardio and strength training goals in the first days of 2012, I did work through a new yoga app before bed last night. The calm male voice said to breathe deeply and "delight in the day you've been given." The first time I heard that phrase I thought the secular world is going to outstrip believers in calling people to joyful gratitude, if we're not diligent. I do delight in this day and I know Whom to thank for it. I'm pinning my hopes for it on Jesus Christ, as I was exhorted to do in Brodie Taphorn's New Year's Eve sermon at the Mill Run Jazz service [click here]. Brodie told an entertaining tale of his childhood hope to be the macho hero for a certain girl and urged us to set our sights higher when we pin our hopes. I sat there as an English teacher pondering the linguistic origin of the expression "pinning hopes on something." Later, in an Internet search, I learned that the expression possibly has its roots in a fourteenth century military practice of soldiers pinning their leader's insignia on their sleeve before going into battle. Given that during the New Year's Eve service we had sung a jazzed version of "Stand, Stand Up for Jesus, You Soldiers of the Cross," I found this military image striking a chord in my spirit. My personal approach to each morning involves centering on preparation for spiritual battle. In Ouanaminthe, folks are keenly aware of spiritual forces. Perhaps being an international border town increases awareness of powers and principalities. Maybe the prevalence of voodoo practice or sex trade heightens sensitivity to the reality of evil. Or, just as people with few restroom facilities or bedrooms have less opportunity to be physically modest, they also tend to be brutally frank about their own sinfulness.
READ MORE...

Progress Comes Slowly Sometimes in Haiti
By Pam Mann
11:00 a.m., Saturday, November 19, 2011

I stopped so suddenly, arriving at the stairway to our UMC apartment, that Dave, coming behind, bumped into me.  "Oh," he said, looking about, "is something wrong?"

I had to laugh. "No," I said. "I just wanted to say I had a good time."

He looked down at me and smiled. "I'm glad you enjoyed our Caribbean getaway."

"I did.  Thank you." We stole a kiss, like a teenage couple ending a date on the front stoop.

Amazing what twenty-four hours one mile away across an international border can do to revive the weary.  Approaching the 90-day limit of our tourist's permit, we needed to have our passports stamped with an exit date in order to remain legal aliens.  This weekend, lengthened by Friday's national holiday for the 1803 Battle of Vertières, was a good time to get away.  We stayed at Raydan Hotel where mission teams traveling through the DR often spend an overnight and we ate at Beller restaurant, an open-air sports bar, where teams sometimes eat.  We didn't need to go all the way to a coastal resort because mostly we simply wanted to escape phone calls and requests at the door to crash.  We still met the occasional beggar, had to ignore blaring meringue music for hours outside our hotel and experienced an hour-long water cut-off, BUT it was still a break from the routine of responsibilities in Ouanaminthe.  I was sincere in the appreciation I expressed to Dave for the respite and knew he also felt refreshed.
READ MORE...

Kidnapping in Cap Haitian --- and Prayers Answered
By Pam Mann
8:00 p.m., Thursday, September 29, 2011

Yesterday morning a glum Jaccin came in Dave's office. "I have bad news," he said. "Pastor Mano (nickname for Emmanuel) was kidnapped in Cap Haitian."
I felt sick. He has preached several times at the big Baptist church in Ouanaminthe with such a gentle pastoral manner. To imagine him in the hands of murderous thugs was chilling. "He's diabetic,"
Jaccin continued, "so there is real concern for his health."
READ MORE...


A New School Year in a City Turned Hostile
(Story by Pam Mann)
7:00 a.m., Sunday, September 4, 2011

We sit in the apartment main room, enjoying the relative peace.  The small generator which starts up before dawn when the clinic inverter power dies has ceased roaring.  I should be glad that the racket and gas fumes mean power is being provided to the all-night emergency room below our bedroom.  The sanctified part of me knows this and gives thanks to God; the carnal part of me says, "Finally!" when the roar grinds to a halt at full daylight and we can hear again the gentle rumble of motorcycles and singing in the Catholic mass.  My unsanctified self is grumbling this morning that we have no running water.  The custodians forgot AGAIN to pump up water into the roof tank yesterday.  Now we must wait until the big generator growls awake later this morning so the pump (and the custodians) can work.  Saint Pam is praising the Lord anyway.  She also rejoices in the Lord despite the fact that her head is still congested and her ears still plugged since the air flight to the island.  Her unsanctified dark side meanwhile is irritated that two NyQuil cannot provide a good night's sleep if she's coughing, hacking up phlegm all night.  Whose body is this anyway?  The saint's or the sinner's?  The two constantly bicker over that very issue.  At any given moment, God only knows who is winning!
Ouanaminthe seems to be in a kindred identity struggle.  Will it be a peaceable community or each man for himself?
READ MORE...


Reflections on our First Five Years at Institution Univers
By: Pam Mann

In February 2005, my husband Dave and I first came to Univers as part of a one-week mission team. The next year, we came for a seven-week stay to learn Creole and discern what God wanted our Columbus, Ohio congregation to do in Ouanaminthe. During that time, it seemed God wanted our congregation to give us up for full-time service at Institution Univers. Our home church has never let us go. They provide instead our full support and an average of 3-4 mission teams annually.
READ MORE...


Eloquent Student Speech Delivered at the 2011 Graduation
By Pam Mann, Missionary Bible and Art Teacher in Institution Univers

Noëlla Cadet was one of the students who fled Port-au-Prince following the earthquake of January 12, 2010.  She and her family came to Ouanaminthe, and she was one of the 350 new students received in February 2010.  Proving to be an excellent student, she emerged first in her 13th grade class from the early stages of her brief stay with us.  As a result, she was invited to give the student address at the 3rd annual commencement ceremonies on June 26, 2011.  Following are some excerpts from her speech.
READ MORE...


Cholera Epidemic Comes to Ouanaminthe and National Elections Carried Out
By: Pam Mann
Sunday morning before church, November 28, 2010, Election Day in Haiti

Teaching is not for wimps.  Neither is cross-cultural ministry in a poor country.  I felt myself wimping out by the end of the week and really thought God should send in someone else – you know that lion-hearted, truly sanctified individual who is rarely discouraged, ever confident in God's provision.  I have prayed previously in earnest that God would send someone else to do the work, someone who has greater faith and patience than I do.  You know what comes back as God's clear response to that prayer?  “Good idea.  Now, you become that someone else.”  God does love to staff His kingdom with unlikely characters, doesn't He? READ MORE...


Haitian’s in Ouanaminthe Area Locked Out of Neighboring D.R. Due to Cholera Scare
by Pam Mann
Sunday, November 14, 2010

The 12-member mission team seemed to have had a good week in Ouanaminthe:  ten people worked surgery on the third floor of Univers Medical Centre and two Columbus police officers trained our security guards at UMC and IU.  This morning began with a trek through the market, especially for the first-timers who were more than half the team.  Meanwhile, the veterans packed bags onto Bus 101 and perused the artifacts displayed below the mango trees near the guest house.  It was such a calm beginning to the day. READ MORE...


A Haitian Mother Mourns Daughter’s Death with God’s Help and Haphazard Start of New School Year
by Pam Mann
Thursday, September 2, 2010

We were strolling down Rue Vallières, marveling that, finally, during the month of August, work crews had leveled the piles of road fill and made the street open to auto traffic.  The neighborhood has waited since Easter for this road to be passable again.  One of the “victims” of the road widening was Loulounise, a robust middle-aged grandma with an easy smile.  In April she lost her front porch and, then again in June, the engineers told her that her front room also had to be sacrificed, and all this destruction with no compensation. READ MORE...


I.U. Student Walks Again After Earthquake Injury Forced Amputation of Foot
by Pam Mann
May 19-21, 2010

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...


Thursday, January 28, 2010, 8:15 am --- Ouanaminthe --- Schools Still Closed, “Refugees” Arriving, People Afraid, Mourning
by Pam Mann

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 12^th.  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...


Friday, January 8, 2010, 7:15 am --- Ouanaminthe, Northeast Haiti, Before and Right after the January 12 Earthquake in Port-au-Prince Area
by: Pam Mann

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...