VISIT AT MATENWA COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER
I had the opportunity, through recruitment campaign at HELP, to visit around 30 towns in 7 of the 10 departments of Haiti. I was born and raised in Cap-Haitian and have been to almost all the communes in the North and North-East Departments. I visited the South, South-East, Artibonite, North-West and I live since five years in Port-au-Prince. I wanted to add so badly to this list one of the beautiful adjacent island of Haiti.
So, there is no need to mention how excited I was when, as part of a monitoring team of ACTIVEH’s interns activities, I had to visit the Haitian island of La Gônave. I had on my head all this beautiful pictures I have seen over the internet, the attractive blue of the sea and was looking forward to jump for the first time on a flatboat.
Le voyage a été à la hauteur de mes espérances !
I was fascinated by the view, the blue of the sea and the movement of the water.
Un week-end sublime se dessinait à l’horizon. Isn’t it? We boarded on Carries, a locality near of Saint-Marc, and docked 45 mns later at Anse-à-Galets. Our trip was well planned. Some motorcycles were waiting for us to take us to MATENWA.
This one hour trip on the motorcycles was the “onion” of our trip. We got to MATENWA stained with dust.
After taking a bath with "yon dlo glase” and eating a “bon bouyon” prepared by our host family, we were ready to meet the responsible of the Center. We took a tour led by our two interns there: Pierre Michard Beaujour and Jack Sony Jean Noel. Michard worked as an agronomist and Sony interned at the IT Department. Their works are very appreciated by the all community. Their simplicity, involvement and capacity to take initiatives had marked MATENWA. Michard has traveled from one end to the other all over the island to train children and teachers in approximately 20 schools of MATENWA’s network. Sony reported that he received people from different part of La Gônave with broken electronic gadgets looking for help. One teacher, even offer the two interns lands to build their house so they can be interested to stay in La Gônave.
The dust, the fatigue and the one hour trip at 4:00 AM back to Sou Pwen were nothing compared to my satisfaction to see the impact of those two young men on this community. They had inspired children, young and adults in the community and even were they left their works will remain. I am proud of Michard and Sony and of 38 other internships that ACTIVEH has facilitated in 17 organizations across 6 departments in Haiti.
C’est le sourire aux lèvres que nous avons regagné Port-au-Prince.