Tuesday, April 7, 2009

River bed

These pictures are discouraging. They show the brokenness of a nation. One of the things I do while I am in Haiti is spend some deliberate time picking up trash. I am so proud of our people at our property. They have really stepped to the plate and keep it pretty well cleaned up now. It wasn't that way when we first started working there. I am working to teach them the value of valuing what God gives them. It may not seem like much, but we are stewards of everything we have, and when we don't take care of it, how can we expect God to allow us more. Or something better. These pictures are riverbeds, and in the rainy season overflow their banks. All that trash you see in there gets washed to the ocean. I want to cry when I see this, this is hard for a water well driller concerned about pure water. I am glad to see as a country this trip in, that work has begun to set up an infrastructure to get rid of the trash. But this is going to take time to change, bad habits and no instruction have left these people bankrupt in understanding anything about the eco-system. And when your starving to death and dying of thirst, it's a hard transition to contemplate where you drop your trash, and that it should even matter. After all, you won't be around long enough to worry about it! Patience, prayer, and proper leadership will hopefully continue to bring change. We are trying to purchase a burning barrel for the property for a place to burn the trash. We discovered while we were there that there is really no place decent to go with it, so the training continues!

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