During our stay in Jeremie we met with a few religious communities who are well established in Haiti, the Missionaries of Charity, the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Order of St. Camillus, and a community of consecrated men and women called Myriam Bethlehem Family. Most of these homes are up in the hills and the view of creation and the sea is an icon of God.
Myriam Bethlehem Family is a new congregation from Canada that was approved canonically in 2006. They live among the people and believe that their life of prayer is a service to the people. They just finished a volunteer house and faith formation center. They have a lay volunteer living with them now from Switzerland. From them we learned also a way of composting and burning garbage here in Haiti, since they do not have garbage pickup like we do.
The Order of St. Camillus runs a small hospital in the hills, near the sisters house. They are in the process of building a new hospital that will specialize in burns. This is very much needed in Haiti, since there is no electricity people use kerosene for cooking and lighting at night. There are many accidents using kerosene.
As you see from the pictures the hills are very green and much fruit grows everywhere in this area. In the photo of men at the construction site you can see they have to do everything by hand, since they do not have construction machinery. They crush the rocks by hand.
We experienced that we are all here for the same purpose “that the world may believe…”
