Today was my first day in Haiti. I am here exploring how Land of a Thousand Hills can establish a Community Trade relationship with coffee villages, an inkling I had right after the earth quake. Today I had a chance to make a new friend in Port Au Prince, Alex.
Alex loves the people of Haiti, his people. He also is thankful for the “Halleluiah” people, the faith based groups that come to Haiti to build houses, pray, sing and minister. They say “Halleluiah” a lot. Which is OK.
As Alex says in addition to this “we need to allow the people work!” Alex is an entrepreneur and been in business for years. He has started and shut down his business 4 times as different presidents and dictators came and went. Today he has a contract to make school benches for Unicef. 30,000 children will have a place to sit while learning. He also showed us proudly the handcrafts, the painting, the metal work of his employees. He employs 80 people and each of them supports about 5 family members. That’s 400 Haitians thriving and surviving through work. Each morning he has welders lining up wanting to work for him. They are paid by the piece and can earn as much in 15 days as many Haitians earn in a year. He has had to put limits on the hours they work though and doesn’t let them start before 6:00 a.m. and he makes them stop at 6:00 p.m. Haitians as he says love to work!
When I left I told Alex that he was a “hallelujah” person doing God’s work. Being His hands and His feet.
Makes me wonder how you and I can join with God in his work through our work.
Drink Coffee Do Good
Jonathan
