Marin is a village tucked into a lush valley about two hours northwest of Grand Boulage, accessible only by foot, horse or donkey on rough, narrow paths that snake their way up and down the steep mountains. In the main village, the largest building is a stone church, accented in blue, where Friends of Haiti holds clinic. The group saw 800 plus patients in April 2010, with medical issues ranging from respiratory infections to scabies to hypertension.

Above the village, a school sits atop the mountain. Its leaders have already approached Friends of Haiti for help -- government funding, they say, is no longer coming. Still, nearly two hundred children have class here, in a compound needing serious repair, training for teachers, and supplies for classrooms and kids. Recently, Friends of Haiti provided the school with two gravity filtration units to provide fresh drinking water free from bacteria and parasites.

Next to the church, a wide path serves as a kind of marketplace (where our teams buy fresh avocados when they're available!) before narrowing and leading down to the stream that provides drinking, cooking, and wash water for the village. 

Marin is a beautiful, serene village, experiencing the same problems as the rest of the country. In traditional Haitian form, its inhabitants are hopeful rather than discouraged. They have energy and fire as they tell our volunteers their goals for the area. Friends of Haiti is the only nonprofit organization operating in Marin.