Ministry to Haiti by New Orleans Northshore Catholics

Mary, Queen of Peace ministry offers help and hope to Haitian parish

Published: Sunday, April 08, 2012

By Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

Muguet Bolotte was forever changed by her February trip to Haiti. “I left part of my heart there is what it feels like,” she says.

Photo by Michael St. GermainMuguet Bolotte and Msgr. Wildor Pierre in front of the sacristy near the remains of St. Francois Xavier Chapel. The chapel was destroyed in the earthquake.

Teresean Sister Marina Aranzabal feels the same way.
“I just keep waking up every morning and asking, ‘What can we do?’” she says.
Bolotte and Aranzabal traveled with three others representing Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Mandeville on a mission trip to Dessources, a small village high in the mountains of southwest Haiti. The church has twinned with St. Benoit, the Catholic church there, offering moral and financial support to help the parish rebuild after the January 2010 earthquake destroyed the main structures in the village.
“They ask for so little and they need so much,” Bolotte says.
“They are building a community from scratch,” Aranzabal adds.
The church is really the heart of that community. Msgr. Wildor Pierre is not only pastor of the church and six chapels that dot the countryside. He also has the only vehicle in town, which makes him firefighter, police officer and ambulance driver.
“There’s no medical care there,” Bolotte says. “A medical emergency means a two-hour drive down the mountain.”
Mary, Queen of Peace was matched up with St. Benoit with the help of Catholic Relief Services, and, although the two parishes might not seem to have much in common, they have two similarities. Both have schools for about 500 students, and both saw a population increase after a natural disaster -- Mary, Queen of Peace after Hurricane Katrina, and St. Benoit after the devastating earthquake.
“It was kind of like a blind date, but we got the right priest,” Bolotte says. “Msgr. Wildor is passionate about helping his people.”

Muguet BolotteSister Marina Aranzabal and Mary, Queen of Peace parishioner Andrew Worrel in the school's open-air kitchen where lunches are prepared for 500 students every school day.

Bolotte and Aranzabal both speak French, the language of the villagers, and Pierre speaks English, so there was no language barrier when he visited Mary, Queen of Peace in October or during the team’s weeklong mission to Haiti.
“With two people who speak French and a priest who speaks English, you get a better picture of everything,” Bolotte says.
The trip was a learning experience from beginning to end. The hardest part was the beginning, when the team arrived in Port-Au-Prince. The capital looks very much like it did shortly after the earthquake, and 500,000 people are still stuck in terrible living arrangements.
“The broken buildings are still there, and the tent cities are on every corner,” Aranzabal says. “It would take major international aid to just clean up the debris.”
By comparison, their destination -- a five-hour uphill drive on bumpy dirt roads -- seemed blissful.
“In the mountains, they don’t have cholera,” Bolotte says.
“And they don’t have people living in conditions no human should live in,” Aranzabal adds.
The villagers’ tiny huts are made of mud and sticks and have outdoor kitchens. They don’t have electricity or running water, but they do have land that will yield a few crops, including potatoes, pumpkins, corn and beans.
“You don’t have anything, but at least you can eat,” Aranzabal says.
They have to hike to get fresh water, and planting is done one seed at a time.
“Farming means, ‘Stick a machete in the dirt and plant a bean,’” Bolotte says.
What the people have, though, is a remarkable spirit and a belief in a future for their children.
“They are so loving with smiling faces,” Aranzabal says. “They’re so happy because two years ago they didn’t have a school, and now they do.”
But the school, which is under the same roof as the church, isn’t finished.
“There’s no credit, no loans in Haiti,” Bolotte says. “As Msgr. Wildor gets money, he builds a wall.”
It has dirt floors and children sitting on benches 40 to a room with only a few books and a green chalkboard. But in a country where half the children don’t get to go to school at all, it means everything.
“The people told us, ‘All we want is a school for our children,’” Aranzabal says.
It is for first through sixth grades, but some students are 16, 17 and 18 years old.
“Father Wildor hopes to build a junior high,” Aranzabal says. It would be a vocational school, where the older students could learn about such things as farming, doing electrical work, and harnessing the solar power available to them.
“They could learn a skill they could use,” Bolotte says.
The school’s annual budget is $16,500, which includes a hot lunch for 500 students every day. For many of the children, it is their main meal, and they walk 30 to 60 minutes to get to school, carrying water that’s used to prepare their lunch.
“If we can send them $8,000, that pays for half a year of school, including their lunches,” Bolotte says.
School is in session for nine months each year, and the 10 teachers are paid $85 a month, except when there is no money to pay them.
“They just keep working until the money comes,” Aranzabal says. “Actually, they seem hopeful.”
So far, the Mary, Queen of Peace Haiti Ministry has sent funds to extend the church roof, put a roof on the school, upgrade the pastor’s vehicle, and provide the lunch program for nine months. They’ve also set up a sponsor-a-teacher program, which costs $85 a month.
“Msgr. Wildor sets the priority list, and we go from there,” Bolotte says. “He will see that the projects get completed.”
On his wish list are three more classrooms, a school kitchen, a cistern and a diesel generator. One of Pierre’s chapels, St. Francis Xavier in Gille 45 miles away, was destroyed in the earthquake and also needs to be rebuilt, which would cost $50,000. He has 3,000 parishioners in Gille who pray in a church that has no roof.
“If we could rebuild the chapel, it could double as a school,” Bolotte says.
Bolotte, the ministry leader, has been trying to find grants to help pay for the rebuilding projects, but that has proven difficult.
“I can find grants to provide enrichment, but they aren’t up to enrichment,” she says. “They need paint, floors, doors.”
Mary, Queen of Peace has made a permanent commitment to St. Benoit, and Bolotte and Aranzabal invite other churches, civic groups and families to join in their ministry.
“The people are so appreciative of everything we do,” Bolotte says. “The very little we provide is huge for them. We can make a significant difference in thousands of lives.”

To help St. Benoit Dessources, make a check payable to Mary, Queen of Peace with the memo " Haiti Ministry," and send to Mary, Queen of Peace, 1501 W. Causeway Approach, Mandeville , LA 70471.
For more information on the Haiti Partnership Ministry, contact Muguet Bolotte, ministry leader, at 985.705.1846 or mqphaiti@gmail.com, or contact Sister Marina Aranzabal, pastoral associate, at 985.630.7130 or sistermarinastj@hotmail.com.

>>>This parish is a neighbor and the parish that embraced the prison ministry at Rayburn Correctional.  Another fine example of living the Gospel!