Glenda's Reflections

Sadhana Forest

Sevah means service and that is exactly what we provided at Sadhana, like all the other volunteers from all over the world.

Sadhana Forest is a reforestation community located in Haiti at the border with the Dominican Republic. On our first day at Sadhana Forest, which was the start of the second session for that day, we were greeted by Marie, a French national who gave us a tour and shared her vast knowledge of the community and how it operates. After the introduction by Marie we were assigned jobs, and were placed in groups of 3 or 4. Some of the jobs assigned were: planting trees in the nursery, bathroom duty using sawdust (I will not go into the details here), water duty, kitchen duty, to name a few.

Our group chose kitchen duty for that day. The menu for the day was beans and rice with coconut milk. We made salad that comprised cabbage, beets, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and lettuce. Before we started to prepare the food the surface of the counter was cleaned with vinegar (not any of the usual kitchen cleaning products), then we washed the vegetables with water then with vinegar.

Rony, a young Haitian native, volunteers at Sadhana on a regular basis and pointed out what we needed to do and where to find the ingredients needed. Phuong and Daniel cleaned the beans of pebbles etc. while I proceeded to wash the vegetables. Coconuts had to be grated to add to the rice and beans. The graters Rony gave to them to start the grating job were in very bad shape, all twisted and bent, they had seen better days. Daniel and Phuong, novices to grating, had some problems and eventually Rony took over the job of grating the coconuts.

Rony placed pieces of wood into the opening of the coal pot style stove and proceeded to light it. The beans were washed and put into a large enamel pot. In a short while, one could smell the beans, which evoked an aroma of food cooking in a place far from home.

When lunch was finished I sounded the gong, knocking a metal hanging from a tree, and everyone gathered in the eating area. The eating area is a wide open space with a mosquito net in the center, with pillows placed around the edge of the net for sitting. When everyone was seated, a moment of silence was observed and then the eating began.

On my second day at Sadhana I chose to clean the water system. There is a water filtration system and every day large water bottles are cleaned with sand, rocks and vinegar. Firstly, clear white sand and small rocks are placed in the bottle with a small amount of water, it is then vigorously shaken, washed with water and rinsed with vinegar. Each bottle is filled by a hose connected to the filtration system, it takes about one and a half hours to full one 5-gallon bottle.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Refugee Camp

We were very excited to go to the refugee camp. We travelled for about fifteen minutes from Sadhana Forest in the back of a pickup truck to get there. We were determined to see the children and the reckless way the drivers drove did not deter us.

At the camp the children joined us in a tent which is the church. Rev. Kara provided them with coloring books and crayons. At first they appeared shy, but before long most of them were engaged in coloring. A few young mothers came with their babies and Sterling (Rev. Kara’s dad) held one of the babies in his arms and sang “Summertime”.

Going to the refugee camp was heartbreaking. Words could not truly have explained what I was witnessing, here families were existing on the bare minimum: no bathrooms, no running water, no electricity, no trees or other vegetation. These families were just living in a waste land. Was this really happening? In the year 2016 we still have human beings living under these conditions. Who do we turn to for help? We are all children of God.

May God, help, protect and bless the people in Haiti.