Around LesCayes
Ferme de Levy, where I planted maize trials with CIMMYT.
The road to Port au Prince, and the airport (dirt runway).
Bahá’í communities.
Crossing the river.
1 in 4
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Glycogen Storage Disease
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First Belgium Baha’i
The visit of Madame Lea Nys (1910-1992) to our home in Les Cayes. This “valiant handmaiden of Baha’u’llah” was born Lea Maria Decelle on December 27,1910, in Brussels, Belgium. Lea was attracted to the spirit of sacrifice of pioneers, their simplicity, their availability, their hospitality, in spite of the little means they had. Their ideal was hers. We were very happy to meet her.
She was “the first to accept the Message of Baha’u’llah on the soil of Belgium.” Baha’i literature in French was lacking. Lea dedicated much of her energy to the translation of the Sacred Texts, such as prayers, into French. She visited more than sixty francophone islands scattered across the globe. Everywhere that she went, she would radiate a natural ease in meeting with the poorest and the richest and in proclaiming the Faith through the media. She would leave behind many people who would declare their Faith in Baha’u’Ilah. Nothing would stop her, neither fear, nor precarious situations in remote villages. She was happy with simple comforts and would share life with the most humble of people, and she was equally at home in more sophisticated environments. 
Newborn
Soon after she was born in Port-au-Prince, we were back in Les Cayes. We had a large house. Our saviour and housekeeper was Cleant, who was wonderful. We knew nothing so she bought food in the market and cooked for us. Upon arrival we did not speak a lot of Creole, and besides taking care of work, and Aileen, we played a lot of double solitaire. This was the age of: no mobile phone, land line mostly down, no videos or DVDs, only one local radio station, and only a few English speakers in town. We were the only foreigners, except for Catholic priests, who we never saw. It was me and Carolyn, local Bahá’ís, and occasional visitors such as my mom and Ralph.
Cayes, Haiti
In 1975 we moved to Cayes, Haiti. Located about 100 km from Port-au-Prince, but even more then the distance the isolation was extra-ordinary. It took 12 hours to drive a pick-up truck to Port-au-Prince, and by that information you can understand that the road was not paved, though mountains, along beaches and rivers. The only other foreigners in the region were Catholic priests, and they were never seen. This is Aileen’s first home.
