I miss you, Haiti! I miss the experiences I got to have every day there and the people I got to interact with. There are so many good memories that I think of when I think of Haiti.
On Monday afternoons, we were able to visit the Matthew 25 houses for the elderly. The one for the men was just down the road and around the corner from where we lived at the Fish House. The day I enjoyed the most was the day we got to ask them a lot of questions about their lives. Nawe used to gather flowers for his girlfriend whenever he went to visit her. Ettienne was a farmer and used to steal honey with his friends. Marcelin used to be good at sports especially jump rope, which he demonstrated for us. Christian Paul was a carpenter who had twelve friends like Jesus! I always left there feeling uplifted and happy – they had the joy of the Lord! We asked them what makes them laugh; they said knowing that God loves them makes them happy.
The old ladies’ home was a bit further away and took about 30 minutes of walking in the hot sun to get there. We would sit in the shade and listen to Leah sing her songs and clap with her. Darlene would join as well and her beautiful unseeing eyes gazing towards the sky always reminded me Who gave her joy every day. She is a lady who firmly believes that she will see again and she asked us to pray for her to be healed. I’m praying. Her faith is a huge mustard tree!
Tuesdays were JAM clubs! I loved these! My favorite place was in the mountains where you could see both the ocean and the green valley on the other side. A place called Deluge (del oo zhe). The children there were often seated in nice rows when we got there, ready for us to tell them a story. Amy had a fantastic one about the lost sheep we sort of acted out with a shepherd and a lost sheep that she ‘found.’ Then we played a version of ‘Where’s my Lost Sheep’ that I didn’t realize was actually a game my teammates called Marco Polo. We also played soccer, jump rope, and a lot of hand-clapping games. It was a beautiful mountaintop with lots of beautiful children!
We did some evangelizing as well. Every Monday we piled into the truck and headed out to visit people in the little towns. Twice we went to the same place in the mountains and then once to a town along the coast. The coast town was maybe my favorite. We got to talk to a group of men under a tree where one man was asking some hard questions. It turned out he was a Christian as well and was asking these questions to see what we would say I guess. During the conversation, I saw a little girl waving at me from the road, so I went to her and talked with her a bit. She just wanted to say hi and touch my white skin I think. Another little girl was sitting to the side while the men talked and she looked very sad. So I went to sit beside her but I guess my minuscule Creole attempts weren’t really working because I didn’t get any responses at all. As we finished our conversations, I saw her walk down a small trail with her mom. As it turned out, that was the trail our translator chose to follow and we soon caught up and we got to talk to them. Amy got to share the Gospel with her mom and she became a believer that day! I was so happy to see joy on the mother’s face and see the young girl beginning to understand what was happening with her mom. She hadn’t been able to go to school that day and I am so glad I got to meet my little friend. I still think about and pray for her and her mom and wonder how they are doing. I pray that they receive nourishment spiritually as well as physically.
Another of my favorite days was the Thursday we were told that we would be doing an extra day of evangelism. But no. As we were getting ready to jump into the truck, we were told we should probably be wearing work clothes. So we quickly ran back to change and then piled in wondering where we would go. It felt rather strange yet so freeing to be literally going along for the ride and knowing once we stopped we would be told what to do next. We drove to the beach where we dumped rocks (the beach is more stones and rocks than sand) into buckets and then sent it down the chain of people to the truck. Once the truck bed was full, we drove back to Gary’s house and put all the rocks on his drive and inside his gate. We did some heavy lifting that day and it felt good to work hard and get dirty. To top off the day, two others and myself needed to go to town to get money from an ATM. So we got to have a long truck ride with lots of windy moments!
I left Haiti over a week ago already. I spent 5 days getting to the next country, South Africa. And now I’m trying to adjust to the windy, definitely colder town of Jeffrey’s Bay.
