Read Brush with Haiti for Free Online Page B

had practical matters to deal with - itineraries, flight arrangements, malaria preventatives, and so on. A representative from Catholic Relief Services helped us with the details. The organization was extraordinarily active on the ground and considered one of the most successful in making things happen in Haiti. She would make arrangements to meet us there.
    Our group would include Tom, Fran, who worked in the Heartland Center office, and Bishop Dale Melczek. There would also be Carol, a woman actively engaged in her parish and committed to all kinds of justice issues; Louise, equally active in her parish and fearlessly devoted to such practices as teaching reading to inmates at the local state prison; and Monica, incredibly compassionate and insatiably curious about the world's religions and spiritual teachings. John, a young photographer from the local paper also accompanied us. I felt a like an outsider, as I had strayed quite a bit from the Catholic faith over the years, and in my mind referred to the other women as the "church ladies." But I could not imagine a more interesting and wonderful group of traveling companions.
    We would be serving as a delegation from the diocese, there to learn and then report our observations to parishioners back home. Tied to the project were fundraising efforts, primarily the planning of special collections taken during the Mass. We each paid for our own expenses, so any money raised would go directly to the project. Fundraising was not one of my strengths, but the more I learned of the work in Haiti, the easier it became.
    The venture resulted from a recent initiative begun by the U.S. Conference ofCatholic Bishops. Its purpose was global solidarity, and through its implementation they hoped to see their dioceses partner with people-driven projects in various parts of the world designed with long-term development in mind. From what I understood, Bishop Melczek had been actively committed to the idea at the national meeting and enthusiastically brought word of it back to Gary. After much deliberation with Tom and others, a partnership was forged in Haiti. The poverty was severe and the country was geographically close, contributing to the sad irony of economic disparity in North America and also facilitating travel there.
    While Catholic Relief Services representatives described a variety of undertakings in need of assistance, they decided on one devoted to soil conservation in a remote area in northeast Haiti, near Fort Liberte. It involved the replanting of vegetation to ward off further erosion, a very serious problem in much of the country. In addition, it served to create a micro-economy in which participants could sell some of their produce in the marketplace. The notion of supporting Haitians in their own economic development appealed to me, as did agriculture. Haiti continued to rely on agriculture, and the benefits of producing from the earth while protecting it seemed boundless.
    Tom recognized that soil conservation was unlikely to get parishioners' attention to the point of freely opening their wallets, but orphanages would. Orphanage work is tied to long-term development only tangentially, but there certainly was a need for financial assistance. They were non-existent in rural areas where we would spend much of our time, as people in small villages tended to look after one another, particularly children who had no means of support. But in Port-au-Prince orphanages were abundant. The need was great, not only for children whose parents had died, but also for those whose parents could not afford to provide for them. They were not always run well, and to some extent had become one of the few ways to make money from the outside. But we were assured some were very good, and we would visit a few in order to make a wise decision on where to channel some of the money collected back home.
    This was one part of the trip that I did not look forward to at all. The thought of visiting