Visit to Savann Aneri

Ever enterprising Haitian people are converting their overturned fruit trees into the one commodity they can sell in place of their decimated gardens and fields--charcoal.  Everywhere on Haiti's southern peninsula we see smoldering piles of earth like the one pictured here.  Unfortunately, this superabundance of charcoal will lead to decreased prices and further dependence on an energy source that is ravaging Haiti's environment.

A church building where Pastor Israel, the pastor of the Balendi congregation of Savann Aneri, used to preach and teach.  Unfortunately, we were unable to reach Pastor Israel's current church because of an impassable river.

A school in the Savann Aneri area which was smashed by the winds of Hurricane Matthew.  We left several sacks of rice and beans for the community here.

Last week we had a chance to visit a region in the southern peninsula called Savann Aneri.  Since we had heard that the Savann Aneri community was affected by the hurricane, we loaded up our 4WD truck with twelve sacks of rice, two giant sacks of beans, and 20-30 tarps.  We knew that the road to Savann Aneri was bad and our truck was heavily loaded.  What we didn’t realize is that the road crossed the same river three times before arriving at the area of Savann Aneri we wanted to visit called Balendi.  After several hours banging, bumping, and scraping over eroded and practically impassible roads we arrived at the third river crossing and found a massive sandbar deposited by the hurricane's flood waters that could not be crossed by anything short of a tank, bulldozer or other tracked vehicle.  While we regret that we were not able to reach the Balendi area, we were encouraged to see that the damage was not as severe as we expected.  Perhaps the mountain between Haiti's southern coast and the Savann Aneri area absorbed the majority of the Hurricane Matthew's destructive winds.  As we were trying to return to the main road, we realized that our truck's suspension had been damaged by the overload and the bumpy roads.  Thankfully, we were able to return home safely.

The third and final river ford to arrive at the Balendi church in the Savann Aneri area.  The ford is on the left where the river left massive boulders and an impassible sandbar (not pictured).