Haitian Embassy

We had many wonderful experiences this week. I want to share a couple of them with you. As you can see from the pictures, we went to Monte Bonito (a small town outside of Padre Las Casas which is the town where Ramon's family lives). The main purpose of our visit was to work a little more with Ramon and help him gain a little more confidence in making things out of coconuts. He lives in a very small home in Padre Las Casas that does not have an outside area where he can cut and sand. His parents live 8 kms away in a beautiful town on the top of a very steep mountain. They live as farmers and have a lot of outside space.

Power or "light" as they call it here, is a problem. It has a way of not being there when you need it. When we left Padre Las Casas there was no power. On the way to Monte Bonito, we noticed a power line that had been knocked down. So, of course when we got to Monte Bonito, "no hay luz!". This turned out to be ok. We got to spend some time meeting Ramon's family. He has many siblings who are all very kind. IN the typical Dominican style they fed us in 2 different houses within about 30 minutes. We showed them some of the things that Ramon will be making and they liked them and seemed excited. After a couple of hours of visiting the power came on and so Ramon could start working on coconuts. I just stood around and watched mainly to see if he understood the process and to see if he was going to be safe. The answer is yes to both of those. He said that he really likes the work which is a big bonus also.

What was Hermana Borup doing all of this time you ask. She had her most Dominican day ever. She sat in a chair in the shade and talked to Ramon's mother and sister. Well, some talking and some just sitting and a lot of watching the babies entertain themselves. When her legs were in the sun his family quickly made her move more into the shade. I might have mentioned this before but there is a song that says "you are the shade of my life". which illustrates the value of shade. There is NOTHING more valuable than shade here, NOTHING. No one stands or sits in the sun if there is ANYWAY to be in the shade. Someone pulling you into the shade is an act of endearment. Everywhere you look people are sitting on plastic chairs sitting on the side of the street that has the most shade. When there is no shade (at night) then there are still people sitting on plastic chairs in front of their houses. You can talk if you want, you can play on your phone if you want, or you can just sit there and listen to the bachata music that someone within 2 blocks is playing loud enough for the whole neighborhood to enjoy. Did I say loud? Sometimes (most of the time) one neighbor a couple of doors away is playing his music and another neighbor a couple of doors the other way is playing his music so you just have to choose which one you want to listen to. You will, however, hear them both, loud! Anyway back to our day. It was great! Meeting his family and being in his families home was a highlight from our mission.

The other experience I want to talk about is going with Phillipe and Mona (both born in Haiti) to the Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo. They are a couple we heard about when we were doing house inspections a few weeks ago. (Maybe there are some benefits form house inspections)They live in Bani and were taught by the missionaries about one and a half years ago. They have been attending church this whole time but have not been baptized because they cannot get married.

They needed to go to the embassy so they could get a passport so they can get married. But first, they need to get their birth certificates, not so easy. She was born in her mother's home in Haiti and her mother never registered her birth so she does not have and has never had a birth certificate. He had a birth certificate but gave it to his uncle who was going to help him get a passport. His uncle won't answer his calls and Phillipe thinks his uncle lost the birth certificate. So off to the embassy we go. We thought since he had a birth certificate getting a copy would be easy but hers might prove impossible. The Lord has a way of working miracles in our lives and letting us know He is in charge.

When we got to the Haitian Embassy we saw a sign that said they will no longer request birth certificate copies from Haiti. In other words wasted trip. We were told the policy was 2 weeks old. It seemed like that was it. We can't get them what they need. They can't get married and they can't get baptized until they move apart or someone dies (then they can both get baptized). We had the Hermana Missionaries with us and when the man saw we weren't just going to go away, he invited to the other side of the embassy (the side for troublemakers) to see if there was a solution. There were two people working there. One was a woman who seemed to know the process well and was used to saying no. The other was a young man who was newer to the process and didn't like to say no and was willing to find a solution.(miracle)

After going back and forth for some time he determined that getting a birth certificate for Mona was going to be easy. And they could make one in this office. She needed a copy of her mother's passport (the miracle, her mother has one and she is still alive and lives in the Dominican Republic) and there neede to be 2 witnesses to say that that is her mother and she was born in Haiti. We volunteered but there was a catch, the witnesses needed to be Haitian and needed to be older than her. They asked around in the back rooms of the embassy and they found two people who were willing to go on our word and testify. (miracle) We had her aged mother send a picture of her passport that was clear enough to print and see all the numbers well. Which took several attempts. The "no" woman kept saying "no" so we had her send others. The "yes" man finally said "yes". (miracle) Problem solved for her.

Phillipe, on the other hand, had a whole different problem. There seemed to be no getting around the new rule. He was going to have to go to Haiti and spend several days there waiting for records to be searched and a copy of his birth certificate to be made. Which is very risky (getting back into the country) and very expensive. However, While we were spending a lot of time going back and forth about Mona's birth certificate he was trying to get a hold of his aging uncle. After several calls to his relatives, it turns out that his uncle is not aging anymore. He just recently passed away. (miracle:)) As he talked to more and more people in an effort to find out what happened to his birth certificate, he was told that there were a lot of documents that they still have and that someone thinks that his birth certificate was in with those papers, but he would need to come to San Juan (about 2 hours from Bani) and look for himself. A couple of days ago he went to San Juan and after looking all day long he called the Hermana missionaries and told them he had found it!(Miracle) The problem was solved for him.

We finished our time in the Capitol with them by getting something to eat and having their passport photos taken. We were told by the embassy in Santo Domingo that it will take 10 months to get their passports if we apply there but the Barahona embassy told us 3 and a half months. Stay tuned for our adventure to Barahona next week. (really this week).

We knew we needed divine help to get both birth certificates. We thought we wouldn't need much help to get his and that hers would be almost impossible. We went hoping and praying for a miracle. Then things just completely flip-flopped. The Lord has a way of letting us know He is in charge of this work. He blessed us with several miracles but none of them were what we expected. He opened the door wide for her when we originally thought it was closed and he reopened the door for him after we thought it had been closed in our faces. (does any of that make sense?)

Oh yea we did all of this and had a bunch of visits and district meetings too. We love being missionaries. It's going to be a sad day when we have to take these tags off in a few weeks. We'll see you all soon though and that won't be a sad day.

Your friends

Hermana Y Elder Borup