Filed under: Call for Artists, From Haiti, Haitian Artists, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, International Arts Collaborations, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti
Hello Ladies & Gentlemen !
We are currently producing a collaborative Album with 100% of the proceeds funding our charity project here in Haiti
( LINKAGE- http://www.loveglobal.com/project/project.aspx?asset=696 ). We are looking for international artists from a variety of genres to collaborate with our Haitian Artists to create positive, encouraging,multilingual tracks that will bring life & awareness to the issue of child trafficking/exploitation here in Haiti.
What do I do if I want to be involved in this project?
-Submit a music sample & a brief write up telling us why you want to be involved to steph@nehemiahrecords.com by MARCH 15th 2012 & use the sign up form below to register & receive additional information.
After March 15th the artists who have registered & sent their submissions will be contacted for a telephone interview & those artists selected will go on to work on collaborative tracks with our Haitian Artists.
Nehemiah Records will then release the Album to raise the necessary funds to support our building project here in Haiti for Children at Risk.
NOTE: Artists wanting to register in the Vancouver BC Canada area will have the option to meet with us directly as we will be there from Feb 15th 2012 – March 15th 2012.
What Can you Expect?
- You can expect to connect with talented Haitian Artists who believe in the cause
- -You can expect to receive credit for your work ( media releases,press interviews,print publications & social media)
- -You can expect to add your tracks to your portfolio
- -You can expect to be invited to perform here in Haiti
- -You can expect to change lives
- You can expect to be taken to a point of full studio production with your music
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs!
Nous sommes actuellement en produisant un album en collaboration avec 100% du produit de financement de notre projet caritatif ici en Haïti
(LIEN-http://www.loveglobal.com/project/project.aspx?asset=696). Nous recherchons des artistes internationaux de divers genres de collaborer avec nos artistes haïtiens de créer positifs, encourageants, pistes multilingues qui apportera la vie et de sensibilisation à la question de la traite des enfants / exploitation ici en Haïti.
Que dois-je faire si je veux être impliqués dans ce projet?
-Soumettre un échantillon de musique et une brève rédiger nous dire pourquoi vous voulez participer à la steph@nehemiahrecords.com le 15 mars 2012 et utiliser le formulaire d’inscription ci-dessous pour vous inscrire et recevoir des informations supplémentaires.
Après le 15 Mars les artistes qui ont enregistré et envoyé leurs soumissions seront contactés pour une entrevue téléphonique et les artistes sélectionnés iront à travailler sur les pistes de collaboration avec nos artistes haïtiens.
Néhémie dossiers seront ensuite sortie de l’album de lever les fonds nécessaires pour soutenir notre projet de construction ici en Haïti pour les enfants à risque.
REMARQUE: Les artistes désireux de s’inscrire dans le Canada, Vancouver, C.-B. aura la possibilité de rencontrer directement avec nous car nous serons là dès février 2012 15 – Mars 15th 2012.
Que pouvez-vous attendre?
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à être prises à un point de la production studio complet avec votre musique
-Vous pouvez vous attendre de se connecter avec talent des artistes haïtiens qui croient en la cause
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à recevoir un crédit pour vos travaux (communiqués de presse, interviews à la presse, les publications imprimées et médias sociaux)
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à ajouter vos pistes à votre portefeuille
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à être invité à se produire ici en Haïti
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à changer des vies
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, micro finance haiti, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: earthquake haiti, hope for haiti, remembering 2010 earthquake haiti
316,000 thousand haitian’s died 2 years ago today when the 7.0 earthquake struck, shaking the lives of millions. two years have past since the earthquake and millions of people are still displaced and living in makeshift housing.many of the occupants of the tent cities that once were situated in the capital Port-Au-Prince have now been relocated to the outskirts of the city. it may seem to those who visit Haiti on and off that the situation has improved because rubble has been removed and they don’t see the tent cities in the city where they once did but the reality is millions are scattered in other locations not as visable. for example the other day i was driving in my neighbourhood here in Petionville and noticed that the tent city in the park was removed along with its occupants who had just been there the day before. does that mean that suddenly these people have proper homes? no i am afraid not..if you take a drive and head down a few backroads just outside the city you will find thousands of people living in these new “camps” who have been asked or paid to leave the capital. the other day i was in one of the new camps for the relocated haitians and saw that the conditions were similar to those they had lived in prior to relocation.the sad part is that these new camps are very far from basic necessities that are essential for survival.many of these new camps are in arid,dry and treeless places leaving the occupants ( including many small children) vulnerable and exposed to the elements such as extreme temperatures, high winds and hurricanes. many haitians make a daily living by selling, fruit, cookies, gum and cigarettes out of makeshift shops outside their homes or tents. for those who are now relocated to the remote outskirts and ghettos of the capital have no way to access basic necessities or survive long term in such places. it costs money to take a tap tap ( local bus ) or motorcycle taxi , so many of these people are just barley staying alive in their new homes, unable to make there little stores to help get enough money to survive everyday and feed their children.
Haiti still needs help, missions teams coming in to bring aid & relief to the pain and suffering. most of the countries and NGO’s that pledged AID and support have since pulled out and have not honoured their long term commitments so it leaves an overbearing workload for the haitian government and remaining NGO’s. this is why i keep fighting everyday here to try to create , implement and execute long term projects that will help the generations to come. when a disaster first strikes many people rise up to bring support & AID but its the long term restoration that is not so sexy or appealing to those who first responded.
i know how hard it is here just to do a simple task, like writing this blog post for example, if there is no power i cant work online nor charge our electronics and have to find creative ways around these barriers. if we have no running water we have to look to locals for innovative ways of sustaining , its challenging but its worth it. to give up the basic essentials and just adapt to the situation it’s critical if you want to work here long term & live . if you focus on all of the problems and barriers it leaves you feeling cheated and depressed, especially if you are used to going to Starbucks everyday and the only thing you have to complain about is the guy who took your parking spot . people in developed countries have little to no comprehension of what it means to truly suffer. if vancouver was hit with a massive earthquake none of your plastic ATM cards would help you survive and the ones who i truly believe would be the most help during such a catastrophe would be the homeless because they really know how to survive in the elements and be innovative.
every country has its challenges and issues and it just so happens that Haiti has more of these challenges compared to most places but that doesn’t mean we give up and treat it like an injured dog, we come along side it and nurture its wounds, we accept it as it is and try to love it….love can cover a multitude of sin and suffering. there are so many great people here loaded with gifts and talent but most of all a drive to stay alive, overcome and survive.
haiti doesn’t need hand outs ,it needs friends and long term support so it can heal. the earthquake brought all of the poor that were already here exposed and into the open so the world couldn’t ignore them anymore, the earthquake removed the blanket that was hiding the poor of haiti and stuck them right in your face. ghettos are complicated places full of their own politics and typically crowded and difficult to navigate through unless you live there, its hard to estimate how many people are living in a ghetto because its so easy to hide. when the earthquake destroyed all the ghettos here it brought the poor out into the open, its hard to ignore some thing that is staring you in the face, at least for me it is.
i really am crazy enough to believe i can make a difference here on a large scale by working with local people and understanding the culture. some days i have felt like leaving and giving up but then some thing happens…a tiny blessing or even a smile from one of the street kids and i am reminded of why i am here and it stops me from heading back to the selfish trappings of my once comfortable north american life of ease.
Six months after the quake as much as 98% of the rubble remained uncleared. An estimated 26 million cubic yards (20 million cubic meters) remained, making most of the capital impassable,and thousands of bodies remained in the rubble. The number of people in relief camps of tents and tarps since the quake was 1.6 million, and almost no transitional housing had been built. Most of the camps had no electricity, running water, or sewage disposal, and the tents were beginning to fall apart. Crime in the camps was widespread, especially against women and girls. Between 23 major charities, $1.1 billion had been collected for Haiti for relief efforts, but only two percent of the money had been released.According to a CBS report, $3.1 billion had been pledged for humanitarian aid and was used to pay for field hospitals, plastic tarps, bandages, and food, plus salaries, transportation and upkeep of relief workers. By May 2010, enough aid had been raised internationally to give each displaced family a cheque for $37,000.
In July 2010, CNN returned to Port-au-Prince and reported, “It looks like the quake just happened yesterday”, and Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the United Nations office of humanitarian affairs in Haiti, said that six months from that time it may still look the same. The Haitian government said it was unable to tackle debris clean-up or the resettlement of the homeless because they needed to prepare for the hurricane season. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive stated, “The real priority of the government is to protect the population from the next hurricane season, and most of our effort right now is going right now in that direction.”
Speaking of the difficulties of living in one of the many camps, one refugee told a reporter, “They told us when we were coming here, that we would live well. But what we saw when we got here and the way we lived here, it’s the contrary. The place where we are here when it’s hot, the sun makes the tents hot, very hot. And also the wind comes and blows the tents and wrecks them”. When asked what needs to happen now, he replied, “…In the situation we’re living here in the tents, we can’t continue like that anymore. We would ask them as soon as possible to give us the real houses that they said they were going to give us so that our situation could improve. Because the tents are torn, when it rains, rain comes in.”.
Land ownership is a particular problem for rebuilding because so many pre-quake homes were not officially registered. “Even before the national registry fell under the rubble, land tenure was always a complex and contentious issue in Haiti. Many areas of Port-au-Prince were settled either by tonton makout – Duvalier’s death squads – given land for their service or by squatters. In many cases land ownership was never officially registered. Even if this logistical logjam were to be cleared, the vast majority of Port-au-Prince residents, up to 85%, did not own their homes before the earthquake.”
In September 2010 there were over one million refugees still living in tents, and the humanitarian situation was characterized as still being in the emergency phase, according to theApostolic Nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Bernard Auza. He went on to say that the number was rising instead of diminishing, and reported that the state had decided to first rebuild downtown Port-au-Prince and a new government center, but reconstruction had not yet begun.
In October 2010, Refugees International characterized the aid agencies as dysfunctional and inexperienced saying,”The people of Haiti are still living in a state of emergency, with a humanitarian response that appears paralyzed”. It was reported that gang leaders and land owners were intimidating the displaced and that sexual, domestic, and gang violence in and around the camps was rising.They claimed that rape of Haitian women and girls who had been living in camps since the January earthquake was increasing, in part, because theUnited Nations wasn’t doing enough to protect them.
In October, a cholera epidemic broke out, probably introduced by foreign aid workers. Cholera most often affects poor countries with limited access to clean water and proper sanitation. By the end of 2010, more than 3,333 had died at a rate of about 50 deaths a day.
In January 2011, one year after the quake, Oxfam published a report on the status of the recovery. According to the report, relief and recovery a were at a standstill due to government inaction and indecision on the part of the donor countries. The report stated, “One year on, only five percent of the rubble has been cleared and only 15 percent of the required basic and temporary houses have been built. House building on a large scale cannot be started before the enormous amount of rubble is cleared. The government and donors must prioritize this most basic step toward helping people return home”.Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada, said “The dysfunction has been aided unabated by the way the international community has organized itself, where pledges have been made and they haven’t followed through [and] where they come to the table with their own agendas and own priorities. Most donors provided funds for transitional housing but very little money for clearing rubble or repairing houses”. Fox said that in many instances rubble removal “means it was [moved] off someone’s property onto the road in front of the property”. According to a UNICEF report, “Still today more than one million people remain displaced, living in crowded camps where livelihoods, shelter and services are still hardly sufficient for children to stay healthy”. Amnesty International reported that armed men were preying with impunity on girls and women in displacement camps, worsening the trauma of having lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones.
On the first anniversary of the earthquake, Haitian-born Michaëlle Jean, who served as the Governor General of Canada at the time of the disaster and who became United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Special Envoy for Haiti on 8 November 2010, voiced her anger at the slow rate of aid delivery, placing much of the blame on the international community for abandoning its commitments. In a public letter co-authored with UNESCO head Irina Bokova, Jean said, “As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community.”The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, led by former US President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, had been set up to facilitate the flow of funds toward reconstruction projects in April 2010, but as of January 2011, no major reconstruction had started.
with all this said, my prayer for today is that you would stop and take a moment to pray for all of the families here who lost some one during the earthquake, just as america honours those who died in 911 we need to show the same respect for those who remain nameless, unaccounted for who are laying in piles in the mass graves here in haiti with out any fancy monument stating their existence and record of life here on planet earth.
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: dreadlocks
“but i have dreadlocks and wear earrings i cant be a christian till i get rid of them , the pastor told me i wasn’t really a christian if i don’t change my appearance and when i told him i accepted jesus he said it wasn’t true because of my hair and i explained to him that god cares about the inside, about my heart, just like you taught me steph, i told the pastor you had piercings and he said you were not a christian either, i told him he was wrong ” said our new friend Rickardo AKA TwoZero the street boy we led to jesus last month.
on new years eve i was at a haitian wedding and all of the women were dressed as brides, it was hard to figure out who was getting married. all of the dresses were strait out of the 80′s, puffy shoulders and all. i turned to my husband and asked him ” whats going on here? why are all the women dressed as brides?”. he explained it was a cultural thing..whats the point of this story? well it is a totally different mentality here & the cultural roots are mixed in with american, haitian and of course the french slave masters that oppressed the people here just a few hundred years ago. Christianity here is influenced by what i can only describe as a highly judgmental southern baptist 1945 extremely religious mindset. if you don’t have a nice outfit..dress shoes, pants, tie etc.. you can not go to church here..its not possible..
so riddle me this batman… if you are poor as poor can be and live on the street but really want to attend church you cant… and do i need to tell you how i feel about this? i don’t think i do, i clearly think its rubbish but need to respect it..HOWEVER there is a solution.. turning our house into a church once a week where people can come as they are like our friend Rickardo who is a 20 year old illiterate,orphaned street kid .
for the time being he comes over and we pray together, read the bible and talk about god and his kingdom.I asked him today what he thought about me turning the house into a church once a week and he thinks its a great idea. he has never had anyone care for him so its really special to have the honour to be trusted with his soul and his divine destiny. he came by today for some food and a visit , he had been away visiting a family member that was very very sick and close to death from lack of food. we gave him some cash to go see his family and prayed with him before he left. today we found out he nearly died on a motorbike and remarkably walked away from the accident with only a few scratches on his face but the driver was not so lucky,we told him it was god protecting him.he also told his his family member that was close to death made a rapid recovery which i also attribute to our prayer sessions.
Rickardo told me today that he really feels different now that he has god in his heart and knows he can talk to god and started praying on his own. today i told him about the power of the name of jesus:)
i want to get him strong in his faith and then start taking him to do outreach with the other street kids downtown and have him pour out what has been poured into his soul and just keep repeating the process over and over and make thousands of disciples out of the orphans on the street & have them lead a love revolution of course..then rebuild the deserted ruins of their city :)
so what do you think, shall i start a house church for the hip hop artists and street kids in our home? i don’t really see any other solution, some thing has to be done and i am free to do it :) some one needs to get all the dreadlocks to heaven :)
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: gun fights haiti, police brutality haiti, violence in haiti
it seems any type of excitement here gets people worked up, special occasions, elections or concerts people just don’t know how to deal with any type of celebration over-here with out some one being killed. last night we went out to get some ice-cream & ended up in the middle of a shoot out in the street hiding from bullets behind a car while people were being murdered 10 feet from us. a boy who looked about 14 or 15 was shot in the head right before my eyes. i have never seen anyone shot in real life so when his body flew back and hit the wall i didn’t realize he was hit.my first reaction was to run over to him to help him but my husband told me to stay behind the car because the guns were still shooting bullets all over the street. while the bullets were still flying the boys friends grabbed his dead body, one grabbed a leg the other his arms and ran through the streets with his limp dead body while being shot at .
if i would have stepped out on to the street only one minute before i would have been hit with a bullet my self… but some thing in my tummy told me to stay where i was and sure enough the gun fire started right after and we had time to hide behind a car so we wouldn’t get hit.the police were the ones shooting up the streets and also the ones who killed the young boy. when i asked how is it possible that they can just shoot up the street like that and not even check for injured civilians my husband replied ” thats just the way it is here”. none of it made sense, i found out that the police had a road block
( a common thing here everyday) and the boys ran through it with out stopping and then the police killed them…just for running through the road block..who knows maybe the kids had some drugs or weapons and didn’t want to be caught or maybe they were just being silly teenage boys who try to rebel when some one tells them what to do like most teenagers do…but back home when that happens teenage boys don’t get killed for it and with no warning do police shoot up an entire city block nearly killing innocent civilians such as my self. i cant get the image of the boy being murdered right in front of me out of my mind, it keeps replaying like a bad movie.
the other night i wanted to go for a walk and i only made it half a block from my house before my husband panicked and ran after me begging me to get back to the house, i thought he was crazy and couldn’t figure out why he was freaking out about me just wanting to have a little walk under the stars and then …..gunfire…about 20 feet from where i was standing. my husbands friends even came out to find us because they were worried about us being on the street and it was then i realized no matter how ” safe” they say our neighbourhood is… its not. i can only imagine how it is in the bad areas here if this area we are in is how it is and also where all the diplomats and the president live…now i know why when the president comes home from work everyday he has a massive security entourage …he is our neighbour…
my days of solo walks are over now that i am here, i have traded security and safety for walls lined with barbed wire and millions of starving and uneducated haitians who are all just trying to survive in this strange place.
it was different when i was coming here just for a month or a few weeks at a time to work and then go home but now i see that i am learning so much everyday i am here and wouldn’t trade it for the safety of my country because the thing is some thing needs to change here and i really believe i can bring change and win the hearts of gangsters through music and the love of God that resides inside of me.
i remember hearing about some people from my old church in canada coming to haiti for a missions trip a few years ago and thinking they were crazy to come here and try to do anything because of all the stories i have heard and now i am living in the middle of it all.
last night i sat on my patio overlooking the city and God told me he had me in handcuffs for a while because he was teaching me things and that i needed to be patient and just learn right now, which is hard for me because i am so used to doing things that make a big difference and gathering hundreds of people to pull off the visions i have to bring change and utilize creativity to bring healing. i know God wants that here as well i see it , i hear him speaking to me about it and helping me to adjust to this. the violence yesterday was just a reminder of the reality i am living in and to be very diligent and discerning even if it seems “safe”..its not. the thing is that i woke up yesterday with a “bad feeling” and now realize its just God giving me the heads up so i am trying to pay more attention to my instincts and stay in rhythm with God because here you never know when all hell is going to break loose.
i could write for hours but i don’t want to keep you much longer..after all it is christmas eve. i hope you have a good christmas and want to thank you for praying for me and also taking interest in my life here, its people like you who keep me sane when i feel like giving up. i started a school in my house every monday for the illiterate street kids we reach out to , i have some education materials arriving here on the 26th of Dec that were donated so i can take the kids from grade one reading & writing level to grade 3 and then have them reproduce this education in the other street kids, its a start until we get a building but we haven’t had many if any resources donated to us so i made this fancy budget explaining our ministry and broke down each dollar amount and explained what it was for in hopes that the needs would be met if i just keep casting my net. for now i share all i have with everyone around me and know God will replace it and we wont go hungry, its just a test before great increase comes. God just wants to see how i react when i am stripped from all i know and all financial security and fully rely on him to provide so that we can move forward with all the visions and get the housing built on our land and start relocating some of the kids.i have been reading about the effects of malnutrition and mental health and the two are directly linked so i am feeding the kids before classes in my home so they can focus and not feel so nutty from lack of proper nutrients.
heading to the beach now for christmas, talk to you in the new year, eat some turkey for me would ya..
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti | Tags: many things, plastic cards, security blanket, starbucks
starbucks,text messages and meetings , for the past 5 years it seems to be my life, trying to accomplish things so quickly as if my life were ending and for the first time i am slowing down and being forced to discover who god really is to me and if i really trust him. i have done many things in faith but always wanting a security blanket. i have always wanted to find the fastest way to do some thing and do it well to try to prove my self to god as if i needed to earn his love and acceptance and now god is showing me through the love of my husband how much he loves me and how calm he is. god is calm, god is peace and god is never shaken up, god is emotional like me, gets angry like me but he doesn’t ever change.
god today i am writing to you and asking you what you want from me here in haiti. where do you want me to step, where do you want me to go next and how do you want me to do it, i want what you want and have been stripped raw and bare like a naked baby. i am learning that you love me and even when i am sick and smell bad, i know this because of how you use my husband to care for me.having no water was scary at first but now i am getting used to waiting for it and appreciating it.not having electricity when i want it and appreciating it. not having my plastic cards that gave me power to get what i want when i want in my old life and now just having a few dollars and prayer to know when we can have enough to buy food again but being grateful for the food we do have.
today i was supposed to go to the bank and open a new account so my mother could wire money from our canadian account into our new haitian account but last night i got sick again. i was up all night in and out of the bathroom and for most of the day today. david got some leaves from a tree that you make tea out of to calm my tummy and it means more to me knowing it came from a tree here rather than the store, seems more holistic or some thing . i have spent the past week feeling rather lost and like a bit of a looser and i realized it was only because i cant have what i normally have when i want it,like access to money we know is there in our account but cant get yet..at least not with out much effort and brain storming.
i have dirty feet now most of the time and don’t go out with my nice purses and high heels but it doesn’t matter. my husband works hard to get us what we need to make sure we are okay, that we have water each day ..you know at least back home if you have no money you can buy a box of cereal to eat but here cereal is a fancy food for people who have extra cash, even going to the super market is a place for the higher class..when i go there i feel like a douche bag who thinks she is better than the people on the street selling food.
when you are in the super market here and see other white people they don’t speak to you especially when i am holding hands with my black husband. everywhere i go people seem to stare and i am trying to forget about it and not notice. even the locals laugh at me when i take public transportation with my husband, yesterday they laughed for half of the trip and even took a photo of me in the bus but my husband said to ignore it because they are not educated and don’t understand. in canada if i were in an interracial relationship no one would turn their heads at us but here its different.
my husbands friends are kind people who have done their best to make me feel comfortable , like us they know and see god in a way that dosnt fit inside religion which give some hope when we work together because they are not trapped in a box of religion like lots of people i have met over the years that i seem to annoy. his friends are all artists and famous people here who are generous and care about us helping the kids and are coming along side our work and vision.
i want to share god with the artists we know in a new way not like the christians that live here and are very traditional, that doesn’t fit for gangsters and rappers from the streets who have done jail time and make a living shooting music videos or making music. at least my rough edges are accepted by these people and i am not judged but instead i am supported and welcomed. some of them speak a bit of english but it still feels lonely when i cant have a conversation with anyone other than my husband but i know in time i will be speaking the language.
on monday we are making a short documentary about our street outreach here with the kids and the vision we have to help people understand the need, i am putting it online for free download and will have it done in 2 weeks if not sooner , unlike the long long documentary i have been filming here for 2 years i need some thing now that i can show you so you understand.
i am hoping tomorrow i recover from this virus i have been fighting so we can get to the bank and try to get some of our money so we can buy food and get back to work. its hard to think i am here to help people when i feel like i need help my self right now but my husband says its all a test from god and i am starting to believe him.
it must be a test because how would god use me and show me his real heart and vision for haiti if i was still behaving like a snob who cries when she doesn’t have running water or electricity, how would i possibly understand what the people here need or are going through unless i had to suffer my self to build my character and shed my old skin . i have been coming here for 2 years of my life and have had to deal with some issues regarding conditions and camping in tents,washing in rivers and having no power but it was different because i always knew i had a big fancy bed to go home to , but now i am here and i know i belong here but i have been fighting my self and some of the things i see inside of me are ugly and selfish.
the other night i was at a big birthday party for a famous DJ here, it was like being in a rap video. anyways i was going pee and here the toilets in public places don’t have seats because if they did more disease and infection would spread around..anyways i was squatting over the open toilet and there was piss and dirt all over the tiled floor and this beautiful young girl walked in and started trying to fix her make up with out a mirror, she looked up and saw me half naked squatting over the toilet and the shock of finding my white ass in front of her made her drop her makeup on the piss covered floor.
the makeup was broken and stuck in the piss so i reached in my bag and started to fix her make up for her and her bra that had underwires sticking out all over, you could tell she was trying really hard to look and feel beautiful at the party but didn’t have much and when i wasn’t looking ( or so she thought) she started picking up the pieces of broken make up off of the ground and putting them back in the powder case to use again. it was then i realized how stupid i was for fussing over the things i didn’t have when i could go home to our place and find 5 tubes of lipstick and 3 cases of powder if i needed them.
i wanted to give her some money to buy a new powder case but she left before i could find my husband to ask him to give her some money. when i got home i laid on the couch and cried thinking about her, i thought about how she could be a nurse or a teacher but instead she lived in the hood and was picking up make up from the piss covered floor while i came home to my nice home with my beautiful husband and our big bed. so i told my husband about how it was bothering me and we prayed for her .
i seem to cry allot here, everything is making me cry, at first i thought it was because i was getting my period but then i got my period and i was still crying so then i realized it was god working in my heart changing me and making me a better person so i could really help people here. the god i know and love doesn’t yell at me, he doesn’t judge me he just loves me and has me suffer so i can be who he wants me to be and i know what he wants me to do here in haiti is really big but it also scares me , i cant hide from him. all i want to do is make art right now, make paintings ,music and express my self so i can find my self again here.
i don’t have to prove anything to anyone especially not god, i did what he said and i moved here to the poorest country in the southern hemisphere and he knew i wouldn’t have done it if my husband wasn’t here or haitian. i need to take this step by step and just let god change me because right now i am letting go and i am glad i ate that weird cheeseburger yesterday and got sick or else i wouldn’t have had this revelation while i was forced to stay still today and would still be where i was in my head and heart.
the way people advertise and go about humanitarian work doesn’t sit well with me thats why i moved here because i have a hard time respecting people who just come and go because there is no way you can really understand what is happening in a place unless you live in it. i don’t know how to tell people about our work here and am not the type of person who would write some thing about how many people we led to jesus that day so we get more donations, i don’t even know how to get donations and at this point just don’t care because i know god is helping us and we will have what we need when we need it and it will come from unexpected sources because we are walking with him and doing what he says.
my husband gets work just when we need it and the same goes for me, it is what it is and i know if i pass this test all the things we need to get going on a large scale will happen but first my character needs to be tweaked so i am not such a prissy tripped out white chick looking for starbucks in haiti.i am going to go now i feel really crappy from this virus that sucked my energy and every last bit of water out of my body…and am in the middle of reading a book a pastor friend gave me so i can learn more about how to care for orphans because i don’t know how its just some thing i have to figure out, but my husband is an orphan so he is teaching me things but the main thing is that my heart is for the orphans of this country,the forgotten ones that no one sees and just like in vancouver i am going to use art and music to bridge the gap and meet a need. i have this feeling that god is doing some thing for my husband and i today and that me being sick at home was so he could do some work for us and we could rest in his love together while he is busy working on some plans for us …divine appointments are about to take place and a shift is going to come because my heart is finally in alignment with Gods.
just breathe
Filed under: From Haiti, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, steph forster, steph leigh limage, voices of haiti
3am ….” what is that noise? is there a creature in our house?”,”no baby thats just a reptile..they talk at night”…
new noises to get used to and well…new everything… we haven’t had running water for 5 days now so we are hauling in buckets of water in to have bucket showers & wash the dishes. They said it will be fixed soon but my expectations are low…i am kinda getting used to the buckets…however i wouldn’t recommend drinking that water…that is unless you want the runs. I also don’t recommend the pizza from dominos here in haiti ( trust me i was just as surprised as you are now knowing there is a dominos here..or at least some place pretending to be)… anyways i will remember to never eat that again…unless i want to be up all night with my husband holding a bucket under my head…perhaps my tummy will just get used to the food.
i come from a world where everything is so sterile and clean…including the food..i am sure i will adapt. everyday the power goes out..you never know when the power will go or come…its just the way it is here.there is so many changes to get used to… today i went to the bank to try to set up a business account only to find out that my fancy awesome line of credit means crap all here in haiti…no special line to wait in because i own a business and have a fancy bank report…no sir…today i realized all i worked for in canada means NOTHING here..i have to start fresh..which is cool in its own way because i have to learn new things which will help me grow in character.
its been a rough week, i had a few melt downs..crying for my mom like a big baby..missing my friends and starbucks…my husband is a patient man..he has really supported my transition and even hired a young guy to come in a few times a week and clean the house for me…it takes the edge off since i have to hand wash everything now and haul water…i don’t really want to spend all my time like cinderella. the husband and i have been mapping out a plan for the next few weeks of how were are going to move forward with our ministry & businesses. i hate jumping into things with out a solid plan and some thing on paper..its just how i am ….you need to plan and budget everything so you can measure results and have accountability.
i have been spending lots of time praying and waiting on god to tell me when to move,when to sit, when to rest and when to worship him…i don’t want to get ahead of god i want to walk with him and in unity with my husband. david and i need to be in unity so god can use us as a team, which means we need to really press into his word ( thats the bible FYI). to be honest everyone talks about the first part of marriage being so intense but not for us..we have lots happening for sure but between us its chill and calm, we just have peace in our home and have no issues working things out and going to god with things…its really nice because the rest of life seems pretty challenging right now. davids sister was murdered the other day, we are getting through it together..i am not really sure why i am writing this post its not particularly interesting but i needed to write…i guess i will talk to you later i need to go find a dish rack :)
Filed under: News
For more information on our work in Haiti & how you can support us you can click this link
http://www.thisglobalvillage.com/members/member-profile.aspx?user=454
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Hi my name is David Limage , I am a 29 year old Haitian man who was born & raised in Port au prince Haiti for a majority of my life aside from a period of time I went to school & lived in Miami Florida before my mother got sick and I had to move back to Haiti to care for her.I am an Orphan but growing up my parents were both pastors and had a church in Carrefour Haiti that is still going today.
God loves me so much that I can’t stop telling others about how he has showed me so much love and has made a lot miracles happen in my life.When I was a 3 year old boy I was very sick, my mom found out that I had a problem with my heart. The problem was a little hole in my heart and the doctor said to my mother that they couldn’t do anything for me.My mother thought that she was going to loose me.
My parents took me to several hospitals, but they could never find any way to help me and the Dr’s said it was hopeless.My Mother started praying with me & after 7 days we returned to the hospital & the Dr conducted the same examination on me and discovered the hole in my heart was no longer there, I had been healed. The doctors at Jacksonville Miami Hospital could not believe their eyes.God healed me because he had a plan for me.
I lost my father in november 1988 and after my Dad died my mom was the only one taking care of us and made sure my two brothers & I were provided with a good education. In 2003 I also lost my mother to Diabetes , it is the same disease that took my father from us in 1988.
Before my mother died I took care of her while she was suffering,I was her doctor…well that’s what she used to call me because she always wished that I could have been a doctor.
After she passed away I had to face life on my own back in Haiti and had no one except for God .
I went through a very difficult time and have experienced the street life in Haiti and I had to fight to obtain what I wanted to get on my feet. I wasn’t used to being on my own with out my family and my brothers were back in Miami.
On the 12th of January 2010 my house collapsed during the Earth Quake and I was inside on the 1st floor and the 2nd floor collapsed and fell directly on me. I was trapped for 11 hours with the concrete roof on top of me and dead bodies around me, I thought I was going to die like that.
After several hours of being trapped and praying non stop my friend who is a cripple and has a back injury from a pervious car accident came to rescue me and he had to dig alot to get me out of the house. 7 people died in the house but I survived and God once again saved my life because he had a plan for me.
A few months after the Earth Quake I met my wife Stephanie while she was in Haiti helping people and God told me that she was the one for me.Since the day we met we began to work together & we want to do more in Haiti especially with the children that live here.
There is a lot of weird things going in my country especially with the orphaned children and we need your help to get them a home, a safe home where people care about them.
In my country they don’t really care about the orphans especially the ones that live on the street ,they have no one to look after them,they are in a country where people come from all over the world and take them from the streets to exploit them in various disgusting ways. They pick up a child from the street and tell them they will feed them and then they murder them or take their organs and sell them on the black market, it happens everyday and no one is watching or reporting it, nor is there anyone who really cares.
The street kids are also used as drug mules and they are sexually abused , little boys & girls. This is not right that’s why we need your support to make a change in Haiti so we can work to make the Country a better place. All of these children need a home, and there is only one thing they are asking and that is to show them love and make them believe in themselves . We need to build them up and tell them that they can be a very important person one day when they grow up.
Haiti’s future presidents, future prime ministers and future police officers are the kids on the streets and we need to help them and let them believe that they are very special.
One of the dreams my wife and I have is to offer these children a home ,help them eat properly and show them that they have something good inside of to offer the world .The other day I went to the country side outside Port-au-Prince to a placed called Miragoane to pick up a truck when I saw that little boy about 7 years old and he was running after the other orphans on the street and that little boy should be at school and he wasn’t eating properly like thousands of kids in Haiti,it breaks my heart.
The Children who live on the streets are eating bad food..and when I say bad I mean they eat what ever comes to them …like dogs in the garbage.
Despite this travesty I see how God always protects these kids from diseases that they should be contracting from eating things from the ground. God loves these kids,and he’s waiting for you to participate to help the children find a better situation so they can be happy, have a good education and be someone important in the country.Taking the children out of Haiti and adopting them wont heal my nation, you need to come here and live in the culture with the children to raise them as Haitians so they can be leaders and rebuild the Country, they are the future.
Help us make a better place for these children to live.I know you will be proud when tomorrow that little boy from the streets that u were helping becomes a very important person, you will be proud of what you did for them and God will bless you.
There’s so many needs in Haiti and my wife and I we want to bring a change to haiti and we are fighting to change it ! We are fighting for the orphaned kids the ones that are living on the streets who don’t have anywhere to go,the ones that our government neglects the most
After the earth quake I met a little girl named Fanie she is only 13 and has a little sister that is 7 years old . They lost their parents during the Earth Quake on the 12th of January and Fanie had to take care of her and 7 year old sister and were living in a tent. Along came a 45 year old man who started sexually abusing her and in return for the sexual abuse …… some food and few dollars to take care of her little sister.Some times she would say that she didn’t have the strength to do it but because she needs food for her little sister she had the responsibility to take care of her..and if she didn’t do it he’s not going to give her any more food or money ( we are talking 5$) … I tried to help her but when I went back to get her when I had money to help her , she was gone.
So that’s the situation & reality in haiti and we really need your help ,we need to show these kids that Jesus loves them and that they are worth more than that.
My wife and I have a dream for Haiti and we have been working together to make it a reality. As I mentioned I am from haiti so we know what’s happening here and we want to stop it!
We want people from other countries to hear the voice of haiti,we want to stop the orphan organ trafficking and stop the gangs and drug dealers from using the kids as drug mules & for gang members and stop abusing them sexually.
These kids are just asking for love and a place to live so please we need your help for our country and God loves these kids! Bring them to the kingdom of God with us let’s teach them how great is God and how he is using you to help them have a better place in this world and a better life .
I know what it feels like because I am an orphan and I know how they are suffering because I’ve been through it and I used to feel lonely,desperate,and sometimes others would disrespect and abuse me because they know that no one would stand up for me……but they were wrong God was always there for me when ever I needed him,and he gave me a wonderful wife who has a big heart and loves hlepping people.Help us offer these kids security, offer them a home and offer them love. help us teach them that they can dream and their dreams can come true, just like me.
For more information on our work in Haiti & how you can support us you can click this link
http://www.thisglobalvillage.com/members/member-profile.aspx?user=454
Filed under: From Haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti
a few weeks ago i started a campaign to gather basic medical supplies & hygiene products to take down with me to haiti next week for an orphanage project we are working on from Oct 17-24th 2011 in port au prince. one very special little boy named Joey managed to raise $320.00 for the project . joey personally went to the store and bought medical supplies and basic hygiene products for the kids at the orphanage with his birthday money. this is joeys letter to the kids at the orphanage and a little photo slide show of joey shopping for the supplies him self! i will be taking a copy of joey’s letter and the photos of him to give to the kids directly and get a letter + video from the kids at the orphanage in haiti to give to joey so he can see the kids receiving his gifts. here is joeys letter + photos…..
“Hi,
My name is Joey, I am ten years old. I live in Ladner British Columbia, Canada. My hobbies are reading, playing hockey and basketball, and writing stories. When my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told her that I wanted to have money for Haiti so at my birthday party we raised $195 dollars. Than my mom’s friend gave $20 dollars. After that my auntie Christina gave $100 dollars. The total came up to $320 dollars. I got the idea from just the felling of sadness for your country. I hope this stuff helps you a lot.
Joey”
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Filed under: From Haiti, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti
in a few weeks my family & friends will be heading with me into haiti to attend my wedding but also to come along side the good samaritan foundation of haiti to bring much needed aid to their community . during the elections i had the privilege of working along side a photo journalist from texas USA named matt schram . matt was a delight to shoot with especially in the tumultuous environment in haiti during the elections. matt is a solid man and i speak and think highly of him.
matt has been helping an orphanage that is located in the heart of port au prince run by the samaritan foundation in haiti. during the earthquake the orphanage was destroyed and now the pastor who runs it has 30 children living in his house that he took in . the children have no beds and are in need of basic medical supplies , food and proper sleeping arrangements . the children have been sleeping on the floor in poor conditions since the earth quake on january 12th of last year. it is our intention to go into the home of pastor vincent and build wood framed bunk beds for the children.
matt also owns a construction company in austin texas USA and has allot of experience with these types of projects. in addition to the beds we are planning to build with materials we will purchase when we all arrive in haiti in a few weeks, we also want to bring basic medical supplies and purchase a few large bags of rice and beans to help the children have their hierarchy of needs met. with all this said matt is spear heading this initiative along side my team and family members . matt is currently accepting donations to help cover the cost of the building supplies. you can donate directly to this project by clicking here http://haiti.cmmissions.net/giving/donate.html ( NOTE – if you donate directly please state that it is on behalf of this initiative so they know where to apply the resources)or contact matt through his email at delmundolibre@gmail.com
donations of $5 -$25.00 are appreciated ( FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE FOR BUILDING PROJECT SUPPLIES ONLY AND PLEASE CONTACT MATT TO OBTAIN MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ASPECT OF THE PROJECT BEFORE DONATING TO BE CLEAR ABOUT THE NEEDS/MATERIAL COSTS THAT ARE STILL OUTSTANDING ) and as usual we will film and photograph the project to show you where your donations are being applied and how you are changing lives with us in haiti, you can track the status of the project on this site.
if you want to donate towards the bags of rice and beans you can do so directly through the samaritan foundation haiti and note that it is for this initiative so we can track the results when we arrive and the impact this had .
if you are interested in donating basic medical supplies and live in the vancouver area feel free to contact me at info@nehemiahvancity.com . I will be collecting basic medical supplies to personally take down until October 13th 2011. I will photograph your donations being delivered to the children so you are involved in the process and post the photos on this site.
I prefer to not receive financial contributions for the medical supplies as it is easier for me to ship them down with me. if you donate a few bottles of children’s tylenol it saves me the trouble of buying half the supply at the drug store :)
the items i am looking for are things you would find in your medicine cabinet at home such as :
- children’s tylenol / advil ( chewable )
- pepto bismo
- bandaids ( kids patterns are cool cartoon characters etc)
- basic first aid kits
- children’s chewable vitamins
- gripe water for infants
- tooth brushes + tooth paste
- travel sized shampoo
- bars of soap
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Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: haitian weddings
love among the ruins in haiti…god can certainly use the strangest of situations to bring two worlds together for purposes far greater than we can ever imagine. today i got engaged to my boyfriend david ( aka mike lab….his music alias) . its some thing we have been cooking up for a while now & for you reading this it may be news …but for us its not. over the past months i have been seeking counsel from my closest friends , family, pastors and mentors & their support means more to me than anything, honestly i cant believe how lucky i am to be surrounded by such amazing people all over the world loving me, praying for me, taking my calls at 3 am, giving me back rubs ( pastor Marylyn thats you! ), feeding me in mind body and spirit but most of all helping me walk through my personal fear of comittment. at 28 i am good and ready to complete the the puzzle with my matching puzzle piece but i never thought in a million years i would find it in haiti…let alone right up the street from the church we have be working with in port au prince.
so who is this mystery man? like i said his name is david, he is 29 and the son of a fire breathing prophetic force to be reckoned with pastor. he was raised well with solid values can pray like no one i have ever encountered and to me thats is number one. he was born in haiti but moved to miami and then moved back to haiti when his mother got sick in 2003 so he could care for her. he survived the earth quake last year after being trapped inside a building that collapsed on him surrounded with dead bodies and was miraculously rescued 11 hours later. he is a music producer, beat maker and sound engineer and has been working for record labels in haiti for the past five years. we met making music and i knew as soon as i met him that this was it, i couldnt explain it and went back home to my pastors and told them ” i just have this feeling…you know>?” and pastor replied ” yes i know i have been living with that feeling for nearly 40 years”… meaning his wife… david is now an orphan but knows god in a way i have never seen inside of another human being.he really understands that god is our father and continues to blow my mind . each time i am off my game he gets me back on my game by speaking truth to me and praying up a storm…its pretty intense but exactly what i need. he is very calm and laid back, funny and soft spoken, extremely gifted and has a huge heart for justice and to see his country restored.he speaks three languages and can write a love letter like no other..seriously his letters should be on one of those websites that you google when you want some thing awesome to put in a card. he is also co-producing my soundtrack for my film voices of haiti and working for my record label. for me north american men have always been a bit boring…i move fast so i need some one interesting to keep up with me and hold me back when i am going to fast….. so to meet some one who has the strength to overcome extreme adversity and survive through hell is a great asset to me because i also have had a rough past and its not what defines us but what shapes us and makes us stronger. my friend pastor reggie said to me 6 months ago just a few days before i met david that if i were to marry some one that i would have to send them to live in haiti for a year and see if they could survive there like i can and if they could then i could marry them …he then said i was going to marry a haitian because i needed some one who also knew the streets and how to care for me/protect me when i am working in haiti but also some one who understands the arts….well reggie was bang on.
my pastors have been a great support to me through this because they as well have a cross cultural marriage and have a simular story…well minus the haiti part. so i went on a quest seeking god and did everything in my power to push david away but then god showed up and when i mean he showed up i mean big time…maybe one day i can explain more about that but i dont want to get to trippy with you but lets just say numerous confirmations, numerous visions, numerous random people coming up to me with messages, extreme favour and a love that cant be refuted. so with all this said the wedding date has been set for the week of October 17th 2011 and we will be getting married on October 19th .my mother , sisters and friends and i will board a plane to port au prince and then a few days later head to a beach resort called Club Indigo and have our marriage ceremony there performed by my favourite haitain pastor …the one and only Reggie who if you have been following my work would have heard of a few times and seen in videos. We will have a reception of 50 people, dinner, dancing and live music. After the Wedding we will all be staying at the resort & also doing some humanitarian work with the Good Samaritan Foundation in Haiti to rebuild an orphanage. i am inviting my family and close friends + those who truly walk with me each day…not the people who pop into my inbox once a year to give me advice about my life…i mean people who really know my heart, who know my world who pick me up when i am down and hold my hair when i have food poisoning and need to throw up in a bucket ( too descriptive??? ).
After the wedding i will head back to canada to get back to Vancouver Film School and then David will come with me or maybe a bit after depending on the paper work with immigration, but we have already been dealing with them for nearly 3 months …what a headache…no kidding…but i have certainly learned ALOT about immigration and my own country in the process. while i study david will work and then head back to haiti around fall of next year to set up our home in haiti where we will open a studio for nehemiah records to work out of in port au prince…this is some thing we have been working on for a few months now so we are excited! after i graduate from VFS i will head back to haiti as usual and set up my camp there, we plan to live part time in haiti and part time in canada when we are not traveling for work . i want to live in both worlds because i need to create awareness for the situation in haiti and how can i do that if i am not ever in canada to tell you about it! so with all this said i am happy and i feel peace and so does my family , close friends and pastors so while this may have just come out of the vault for you to know it certainly isn’t news for us on this end but i am happy to celebrate it with you. i could say allot more but i defiantly think this unexpected love story will make a very happy ending to my film ( sorry post production i have just a bit more to put in…)… good night from vancouver
