She remembers the sobering sight of limbless people begging for money over airport fences, and adults and children coming up to her, rubbing their stomachs, pointing to their mouths. And she recalls how helpless she felt when she had no more granola bars to give, and how hard it was to shake her head no to all those hopeful faces.

Yet, incredibly, she tells of one girl, lucky enough to get a granola bar, who doesn’t selfishly eat the entire bar, but takes it home to share with her family.

Thus was the paradox of Sister Louise’s recent seven-day trip to Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where most live on a bit more than a dollar a day.

She’s been a teacher at Jasper’s Holy Family School since 1987.  Holy Family adopted Dupity, Haiti, as a sister parish in the early 1980s. Parishioners have generously sent financial aid ever since to the struggling 14,000-member parish high in the Haitian mountains, about as far from civilization as one can get.

The only electricity comes from a donated generator that ekes out about two hours of power a day for the Dupity church, rectory, and vicinity.  Kids have to study under four donated solar-powered street lamps.

The area only recently acquired running water, as a water line was laid to the health clinic. Residents can now fill a bucket of water at the center to take back to their one-room shacks.  Shacks so small that large families take turns sleeping.

Haiti has two official languages: French and Haitian Creole. Sister Louise knows French, so she has translated letters from the parish priest for the past 15 years. Her translation skills came in handy for the four-person Holy Family group that recently visited Dupity to assess their most pressing needs and to meet the new parish pastor.

“She was a Godsend in translating our thoughts to the Haiti parishioners,” said Steve Weinzapfel, a member of Holy Family’s Haiti Committee.

Gary Boice, another of the travelers, said, “Sister Louise was always upbeat, she doesn’t complain about anything, just a joy to travel with. And she was very empathetic for the conditions the Haitians were in.”

So empathetic that it’s difficult for her to talk about all she saw.

“This is about survival for them,” says Sister Louise. “You can’t imagine what it’s like until you’re there. I felt their pain, and I think they knew that. There are so many people in need of the basic necessities, yet they are so grateful and give thanks and praise to God for what they do have. My role was to convey as best I could to the people of Dupity that they are not forgotten, and to communicate to their benefactors in Jasper that the people of Dupity thank God for all the marvels God is working through them.”

Sister Louise is showing a Powerpoint presentation of the trip to various groups in hopes of raising more funds for Dupiti.

A key now is finding sponsors to educate the Dupiti children, at $300 per child per year, in addition to more funding for the nutrition centers. Since the devastating earthquake in 2010, more people have made their way to Dupity.

Sister Louise is touched by how the Holy Family school children have responded to other children in need. For her birthday party, one student asked for donations to Haiti instead of gifts for herself. A Girl Scout troop, using some of Sister Louise’s photos for a presentation at Kids’ Day, raised $100. Others have sold lemonade for the cause.

“Some have gone home after the Powerpoint presentation and told their parents they want to give all their money they have in the bank,” she says, laughing. “So one mother said to her husband, ‘You better step up.’”

Lessons learned on the Haiti trip run deep for Sister Louise.

“I learned never to take anything for granted. The Haitians taught me to be grateful and to praise God, not only when things are good, but when they’re not so good. And they taught me to see miracles in everything. For them, to get food is a miracle. For them, to just get the basic necessities we take for granted is a gift from God. Sometimes, God is their only resource.”

Despite the lack of sufficient food, Dupity residents insisted on offering some to the Holy Family visitors, to thank them for all the Jasper parish has done. One lady brought lettuce, but was sad she couldn’t give more, because a drought had limited her garden’s meager output. Chickens are scarce, only eaten on rare occasions, yet a man brought two for the visitors, saying he knew Americans were accustomed to eating meat.

“Those are the kinds of people you meet,” says Sister Louise, softly. “Despite all their hardships, they are still willing to share whatever they have.”

The Haitians’ hope is being able to send their children to school. In a meeting at the church, packed with parents of the school children in the sponsorship program, the visitors heard repeatedly, “If it wouldn’t be for you and God working through you, my child would not be going to school.”

Says Sister Louise, “Everything to them is a miracle, a gift from God. They live by miracles, they live by faith. A faith in that God will provide and is with them in times of despair as well as in times of joy. When you think about it, everything is a miracle, a gift from God.”

(To donate to the Dupity, Haiti, cause, contact Sister Louise at lmlosb@thedome.org or at 812-482-4485.)

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Comments? Questions? I welcome your feedback, and ideas for stories on how the sisters touch lives. Contact Greg Eckerle at geckerle@thedome.org, or at 812-367-1411, ext. 2636.