Friday, October 21, 2011

Haiti Mission Trip: Day 2

October 9, 2011

After a decent night of rest (despite the city car noises and the roosters that started crowing at 1am), we had breakfast and packed up two vans (one for the team and one for all our bags and supplies) and began our 3 hour drive to Hinche.  Yorkie (Tom the director's dog) decided she wanted to go with us and hopped in the van and made herself comfortable.  The views were amazing along the way as we drove through the mountains.




Along the way we stopped at a beautiful lake.  We had a short devotion together since a worship service was not possible because of time.




We continued our drive through the mountains with spectacular views of Haiti.  We were also able to stop at Partners in Health--a large clinic facility started by Dr. Paul Farmer in Cange, Haiti.  You can read more about Dr. Farmer and Partners in Health in the book "Mountains Beyond Mountains".  We were able to walk around the complex (after someone sprayed down the bottoms of our shoes to make sure we weren't spreading diseases).  The complex was beautiful.  In the center was a chapel and worship was going on.  Spriti-filled singing voices filled the air.  It was beautiful, and I could feel the presence of God in that place.

We continued on to Hinche.  Actually, the church is just outside of the main downtown area of the city.  We first unloaded all the food supplies and the stove into the Lay Pastor's house where all our meals will be prepared.  Then Patrick, our interpreter, walked us over to the church.  Solomon, the lay pastor, greeted us in Creole and led us into the church where the congregation was singing.  Church service began at 9am and ended at 11am, but they all waited another hour to meet us!  Solomon greeted us again in front of the congregation and thanked us for being there.  We each introduced ourselves in front of the church as the congregation applauded.  Rich said a brief thanks on behalf of the team to the congregation, and Gary gave the benediction.  We felt so warmly welcomed, and the congregation was so hospitable.

After saying hello to most of the congregation, we had some time to play with some of the children.  We pumped up two soccer balls and the boys had two games of soccer going on at the same time (one with the older boys and one with the younger).  Jen and I played lots of hand games with the girls.  They all love getting their pictures taken and then being able to see the picture on the camera.





The dogs around here break my heart.  Most of them are starving to death and have some sort of injury.  Dogs aren't pets around here.  We were told not to feed and pet them because they will continue to come back and many Haitians will then beat them to get them to go away.  Being such an animal lover, it's really difficult for me to see so many animals in that condition and not be able to help.  There are a lot more animals here than in Port-au-Prince or Petion-Ville.  We've seen a lot of goats, horses, donkeys, oxen, pigs, and chickens.







We took a walk around the town with Patrick and then sat and fellowshipped together until dinner.  We learned how to play Casino, a Haitian card game.  Dinner was delicious!  Our cook, Lulu prepared BBQ chicken, rice, beans, macaroni and cheese, a potato/carrot/corn salad, fried plantains and chicken sauce!  We ended with a devotion from Colleen and singing lots of songs with Lulu and Solomon.  Lulu taught us the song Siyahamba (We are Marching in the Light of God) in Creole!




After singing we walked back to the church for the evening.  The generator is running the lights in the church for a little while, and the community is currently using the generator to watch a movie outside!  Tomorrow will be our first day of work.

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