I wanted to share today with you about my village called Ropissard. The village is located by the river and is a small village. Most of the people in the village are farmers or raise animals. We have breadfruit, mango, banana and avocado trees that produce fruit year round. In our gardens we grow watermelons, sweet potatoes and other roots. We have chickens, goats, and cows that we raise and kill for meat. We also have horses and donkeys in the area that help carry loads of produce to open are markets.

We do not have a clinic or hospital in our village. If we are sick we go to a bigger town to find a hospital, clinic or herbal person for help. The women that are pregnant travel to a hospital or call a person that has knowledge in birthing children to help them. When someone dies they have 2 choices. They can call the morgue to come get the body. This will allow the family time to prepare for burial and the wake. Or the body is kept in a room in the home for up to 1 day. Someone comes to the home to prepare the body during this time. Then they are buried in the local cemetery.

Most of the homes in the area are made of cinder block, cement and covered with a tin or cement roof. There is one school in our village. For the children, during their play time, they like to play in the river, soccer, and play tag. There are no churches in our village but there are 5 vodou houses. We would like the area to be more developed and have a road, electricity and street lights.

One story I will always remember is when there was a big flood in our area. It was after a hurricane. It was very bad for our area, It destroyed many gardens, it destroyed the public water system and many homes in the area. It left the village in a bad place for many, many months because when your garden doesn’t have crops you cannot eat and you cannot live well.

I enjoy living in my village, it is a calm place most of the time. We live and work together to solve problems that we have in the village.