Post # 17, Federn Victor from Jeremie, Haiti

He is known around here as Victor but his first name is Federn.  He is from Jeramie, Haiti.  Jeremie is on the north and west end of the south peninsula on Haiti.  He has been in the USA for 6 weeks now, staying with a local Dr.. Victor speaks English very well.  That is how Dr. Allison met him.  He needed a translator when he was in Haiti on a medical mission and Victor translates when he can to make money.  Victor is 26 years old.  The oldest of 8 children.  He came to the States, when he was a child, for surgery on his arms and that is when he got a good grasp on speaking English.

Victor had a slow week last week so I put him to work at The Seed House, here in O'Neill, where I work.

He worked Wednesday and Thursday. He swept floors, Cleaned up oats under the mills, helped chop ice and remove slush and grain mixed from under the bulk bins outside.  He is not lazy and said he liked working.  Another thing we did was to wet-sand two tractors and wax them.  They hadn't been cleaned up for a long time.

We were enjoying our February thaw.  It was calm and 60 out.  Federn didn't drive the tractor but he wanted his photo on one.  He had never driven a car or pickup either so I had him drive an automatic pickup around the building a bit.  It was a real thrill to him.  He will be in the US 6 more weeks.  He has a 3 month visa.  He wants to return to the US with his 3 year old son, Stephen, and attend Wayne State College.  He ate dinner and supper, at our house, the two days he worked with me.  He said Haitians are fortunate to get one meal a day.  He said it takes 15 hrs. to travel to Port-au-Prince from Jeremie because the roads are so bad.  A distance of 150 miles.  He also said he has never been to Cap Haitian in the north.  He looked at my pictures and said it looked just like home