Oelkes travel to Haiti on mission trip
Phil and Debbie Oelke
spend eight days in country
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
When most people think of visiting the Caribbean, they think posh resorts. Days spent lounging by the pool. Total relaxation.
But that wasn't the Caribbean that Phil and Debbie Oelke experienced. The Hillsboro couple recently spent eight days on a missions trip in one of the world's poorest countries: Haiti.
And their time among the optimistic, friendly Haitian people has truly made them appreciate their American lifestyle.
"We feel pretty wealthy right now," Phil said.
The Oelkes traveled to Haiti the week of June 20 as part of a group from the Lord of Life Lutheran Church of Leawood, the church where Debbie's dad serves as pastor. They had each gone on individual mission trips in the past — Debbie to Slovakia, Phil to Africa — and they wanted to serve together this time.
The Leawood church is in the middle of a three-year agreement with another Lutheran church in Archaia, a town about ten miles from the coast. Last summer, in 2002, the group helped build the first floor of a school. This year's team started work on another school building — both are on the church property. Other members of the team worked at another nearby church.
Going to school is a precious thing for Haitian children, the Oelkes said. Most prefer private schools, but even if parents send their children to a public school, they must pay $100 a month. That money is what pays the teachers' salaries; a typical teacher's salary ranges from $600 to $1,000 per year.
"It was a real privilege for kids to go to school," Debbie said.
The poverty of the area is evident in peoples' lifestyles. A typical home is made of cinderblocks, laundry is done in an irrigation ditch out front, only the wealthy get electricity, and food is scarce.
"Kids are fortunate to get four meals a week," she said.
But despite the hardships they face, the Haitians that the Oelkes met were friendly people who prided themselves on their clean appearance and loved giving hugs.
On a typical day, most of the men in the group spent the entire day constructing the school. But for eight of the team's adults, mornings meant Vacation Bible School, then construction work afterwards.
Debbie remembers her first day of Bible school: 300 kids showed up, with just eight adults to supervise and one interpreter to translate from Creole into English.
The crowd was just too much to handle, so the next day the group made the hard decision to limit the numbers to around 135, she said. But with the variety of crowds each day, every child probably attended at least two or three days of the week.
Debbie loved to hear the children sing, she said.
After VBS, local Haitian women would prepare lunch for all the workers, usually a combination of beans and rice, Phil said. Some of the other meals included fish stew — with the heads intact — and goat meat. They also served lots of fruit.
"I'm sure they fed us like kings," Debbie said.
In the afternoon everyone helped construct the walls of the school, using cinder blocks and mortar. There were no windows in the building, only decorative cinder blocks with designs cut in them, and the heat was unrelenting, Phil said.
On Sunday the group worshipped with the Haitians in church, with all the women sitting on the right side of the auditorium and all the men on the left.
"The singing was unbelievable," Phil remembered.
While they were down in Haiti, the group was also able to distribute a variety of medical and household supplies that came down on two packed buses, shipped to the country on barges and donated by Americans.
The Oelkes' experience has left them with a desire to return to Haiti as soon as they can. They were moved by how their apparent lack has made them spiritually strong.
"They're so much more dependent on God than we are," Phil said. "That was pretty inspirational to be around people like that."
The couple feels blessed with their life in the United States, he said.
"I don't think Haitians fathom how we live," Debbie said.
The Oelkes are members of Zion Lutheran Church.
