The Deacon's Bench - January-February, 2009

Let me tell you about our trip to Ste. Thérèse. Arriving in Port-au-Prince around 1:30 in the afternoon, our first experience was of the airport. Things have improved since the first time we were there, in 1999, but the place still reminds me of the first circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno. So much noise and confusion! We saw Fr. Horelle almost immediately, and he soon had us safely in his rented SUV. A young seminarian-to-be, Altido, was also with him.

We left the airport and headed off to Lilavois through the free-for-all, who-has-the-loudest-horn insanity of Haitian traffic. The UN presence was conspicuous. Fr. Horelle liked that. I noticed that we traveled to Lilavois by a different route than we’d taken before, staying off the main roads. Fr. Horelle told us that he’d told his parishioners we were coming, but not the exact times of our arrival and departure. Things are safe enough, but you still have to be cautious and alert.

We spent the rest of the day catching up on things and wandering around the church compound, seeing what was new. There’s a church hall and auditorium now. The computers are securely in place and protected from dust and dirt. The plumbing works now! Last time everything was done with buckets.

We had dinner together, sat around for a while discussing life in general, and then turned in. Sleep came with difficulty. Roosters, dogs, donkeys, pigs, sheep, and this year’s special, a turkey, kept sleep at bay for a while.

The next day we visited the school. The little folks are so cute! Lots of smiles, hugs and laughter. They were fascinated by the cameras and our watches, not to mention us ourselves. The older children were more reserved, but pleasant and responsive.

We played with them all at recess, and then visited them in class. Marguerite did most of the talking, although I piped up a few times, when I could assemble a coherent sentence correctly in my brain. Conversing in an unfamiliar language is hard work!

In one of the classes a young lady asked “Quest-ce que le but de votre visite?” – What’s the purpose of your trip? Marguerite told her it was because we loved them and wanted to help them. I added that we were there to find out what their needs were, and to give them what they needed rather than what we thought they might need. She seemed to understand that. The teacher of that class (18th century philosophy), was full of energy. He told me that he loved to teach teens, and that he found them free of baggage and very receptive to new ideas.

Later that morning Nick and Emily from Norwich Haitian Missions arrived to go over things. Nick is from Omaha originally, and went to school in Chicago. He is a Cubs fan, and hence a good man to put in Haiti because he’s familiar with the face of hopelessness (the Cubs haven’t won a World Series in over a century).
To be continued….