Sunday

 SUNDAY

We got up this morning early to get ready for church.  We headed back to St Christopher where we worshipped with the village.  I had the very good fortune of having smiled at a baby as soon as we had arrived.  The grandmother who had brought the baby to church noticed my interest and quickly hustled the baby over to me and I got to snuggle a very beautiful Haitian baby girl on my lap all through Mass, which was about the greatest thing EVER!!!)   

They had asked our host to speak after the Gospel and he involved our kids in an interactive homily on sin.  (Since many Haitians can not read, there is a lot of interactive participation and also nearly everything is done in a call-and-response fashion which was very interesting for me to see, although I am not sure how much the kids were able to follow.)  

After the homily, we passed out hygiene kits to all of the people in attendance.  They also put me on the spot and asked me, as the group leader, to address the congregation before the closing prayer.   We sang the closing hymn and then as people filed out of the church, many (MANY!) of them came over to us to shake our hands.  We also received many hugs of welcome.  Afterwards, we mingled outside briefly and, having brought more translators, were able to have a more productive conversation. 

Afterwards, we went to lunch at Yolti’s (There are not that many “safe” places for Americans to eat – even at restaurants, so Yolti’s sees a lot of traffic when groups are in town!) 

After lunch, we went to a small Haitian orphanage in the village of Source Matelas.  We took soccer balls and a selection of small toy balls and spent some time playing with the children.  It is a small orphanage which houses 18 boys and girls whose ages range from about five years old, to about thirteen (In Haiti, ages are often approximate.)   There are many many orphanages in Haiti and the majority do not receive support from the state.  That makes life in a Haitian orphanage very difficult for the children who are there.  Many orphanages often can only afford to feed one meal a day and this is  sometimes a meal just meant to curb hunger which is not nutritionally balanced.  The orphanages may be hard pressed just to keep the children relatively safe and alive, so they often can not educate the children and do not have resources to buy clothing or toys.   Ignite Your Faith Ministries found this orphanage in that condition and has tried to come along side the orphanage by helping fill in the gaps in funding to help with meals.  We were able to do a small part by bringing down children’s clothes, and providing each child with a hygiene kit, as well as some educational supplies and toys.  It is hard to see the level of need and not be able to meet it all.  They still need so much more.  We tried to make up for the lack of material things by showing them as much love as we could in the time that we were there.     

After the orphanage, we headed back to the mission house.  There was a little while before dinner, so the kids really got involved with the Haitian boys who live in the house as well as spending some time with our guides/translators.  There was a Fifa tournament going on in the living room, Connect Four challenges in the kitchen, and students talking and journaling up on the roof.   A few kids helped Tom prepare for dinner.  Riley and Ashtin were grill masters, preparing enough hot-dogs (you were expecting filet mignon?) for the approximately 25 people who were there.  We had leftover sandwich meat from the night no along with hot-dogs.  Chips and fruit rounded the meal out again.  IT will be hard in this leg of the trip, because vegetables will be limited. IN Haiti, vegetables are usually purchased from street vendors, but - as Americans -  We have to be quite cautious about exposure to bacteria and about consuming biotic elements which the Haitians can eat with no problem, but which our bodies can not handle.  I don't want anyone getting sick!!

After dinner, we had reflections together and then a few hours before bed to continue getting to know each other and our Haitian hosts better. 

It was a good day. There are a few photos below. And, yes, yes that is a lizard in the house.  I believe that I may have mentioned that the windows do not have screens?  Or glass.  Windows in Haiti are pretty much just places where the wall has an opening.  
Useless-but-fascinating-teacher-fact: the word window is derived from "wind hole."  A whole in the wall where the wind can come through.  Also, as it turns out, lizards.