Christianville: Your Home in Haiti

Christianville Mission was our home away from home while in Haiti last November and we would venture a guess that it will be our home again this year.

Getting luggage at the entrance to HFH camp

Camp is truly rows upon rows of tents.  Big tents that sleep 16 to small tents that sleep 4 or 6.  The biggest tent, the "mess hall", is actually air conditioned which is really a treat after a long days work...as is The Globe!

Camp

Tents come fully furnished including mosquito netting

Looking forward to more evenings at The Globe

Of course, this is a Habitat camp so you may have to do some minor repairs to your tent like we did last year.  Thank goodness for duct tape!  It can fix anything!

Habitat camp is on Christianville property but only the VIPs actually get to stay at the mission itself, which is a couple of steps up the dirt road.  It is generally off-limits to the rest of us. 

However, last year we arrived a day early and some of us actually were asked to bring stuff up to the mission in preparation for the VIP arrivals.  While executing our assigned tasks, we met Jim who works at the mission and asked him for a small tour.  Needless to say, our secret tour lasted about 2 hours...and the view of the surrounding area from the mission is beautiful!

Looking across from Christianville Mission

We learned that the mission has a school for area children and provides one free meal a day to each of them.  They also raise, and teach the locals how to raise chickens for eggs, goats for meat; they even have a tilapia farm with about 20 different size pools for the fish.  And, since we are from Florida, we were excited to learn that the University of Florida has built a lab at Christianville to research and educate the locals about cholera and malaria!  Go Gators!

During the earthquake, the school at the mission was pretty much destroyed.  As you can see from these photos, the second floor collapsed onto the first floor.  Thankfully, no children were inside the school during the earthquake and no one was hurt.

Christianville Mission School

Peering through the rubble of the school at Christianville

The Habitat camp was a great home away from home, even though the accommodations are, as HFHI says, primitive.  If you ever have been camping before then you will be fine.

Hey!  All you have to do is remember that where you are staying is 5-star compared to what most Haitians have as shelter, which is why we are going there in the first place...to build safe, decent homes for families in need.

It is just the way we do things!

Gina