Haiti Mission Trip - Sunday Recap Part 1

The story of the mission trip I took to Jacmel, Haiti in July 2010 with Forward Edge International continues...  I have been using the journal I kept during the trip as the source material so that I can finally share all the details of my trip. Additional "current" notes and extras are also included. It's like a DVD Bonus Section!

Sunday, July 11, 2010
7am local time (US Central)
Jacmel, Haiti - rooftop of the Loving Light Hotel

7am and it's already hot enough to be sweaty.  There is a burning smell here all the time - burning rubber or overheating cars? Turns out that the garbage and sanitation plan in Haiti is to throw all the trash out on to the street and then burn it when it becomes overwhelming. That is the smell that pervades the air.  Waiting to start 7am group devotions.  It is hard to want to eat or drink when it is so hot!

One of the things I was really confused about before I left for Haiti was the time zone situation.  If you look at a map...

There is Haiti (in purple) in the middle of the map. And, up to the left, northWEST of Haiti, is Florida/United States.  So, if Haiti is East of Florida, how is it in the central US time zone? I read that online and thought the answer had to be one of two things:
1) The internet is not always correct and Haiti is really in the Eastern time zone, or the next one earlier. 
2) Haiti isn't actually East of Florida, it just looks that way because of the way the Earth's geography is warped when stretched into a flat map.
Turns out neither of my two theories was correct. Yes, "Haitian Time" is with the US Central time zone even though it is further East than Florida. The reason seems to be agricultural.  The sun rose around 4 or 4:30am, allowing people to be up and working by 5:30am.  In a place where electricity is spotty at best, this is an easy way to take advantage of more hours of sun.

Did I mention the SUN COMES UP AT 4AM? And that PEOPLE ARE UP AND WORKING AND MAKING NOISE IN THE STREET AT 5:30AM? Every day...

It was really difficult to sleep last night.  We have a fan and it is creaky.  Our bed was also creaky and Patti got up twice to pee.  We could hear ALL of the street noise in our room - honking, people shouting, music playing, trucks banging up the road.  I feel like I didn't get much sleep. Not to mention sharing a double bed in a tiny room with a stranger! =)

Still waiting for devotions.  I'm picking up a "them and everyone else" vibe going on here.  There are 15 of us, and about half are together from a high school/college youth group in Texas.  They don't interact much with the rest of us and I don't really even know their names.  There is a longer term missionary here named Jennifer who has been here are few months.  She is here to teach English and lead a women's ministry at the church.  Jennifer ended up being one of my very favorite people in Haiti.  She will be there at least until November, so please pray for her.  She left her world behind to move to Haiti and change lives.  The list of things that have been accomplished since she arrived is huge. And she has an amazing spirit of generosity. 

Change of plans! Instead of 7am devos and breakfast here, we are going to church right now.

Changes in plans and wacky things coming up were pretty common while I was in Haiti. It was more rare for their NOT to be a change in plans.  We went places when our ride was available, which sometimes was and sometimes wasn't the time we were "scheduled" to go do something. If it rained, those plans changed.  If someone was sick, plans changed.  If supplies on one task ran out, plans changed. Etc. Our group quickly picked up two sayings from our Haitian translators and the long term missionaries we spent time with: "Haitian style", which is similiar to the slang use of "that's ghetto" in the US only without the negative connotation - being late, putting 20 people into a car that should (by US standards) seat 6, doing something in a totally strange way because it has to get done and that is the only way. Haitian style.  The other saying, "It's Haiti!" was said in resignation. If something went wrong, "Oh well, it's Haiti!"

July 11, 2010
4pm
Loving Light Hotel Room

We are back at the hotel and have a break for dinner. 

This morning we rode in a tap-tap to church, which is about a 10 minute drive into the "country".  I got to sit on the top, which is a little more scary but also allowed for a nice breeze.  I had sweated through my shirt by the time we got there!

First tap tap ride - I'm on the top left in my stylin' sun hat

Tap tap view on the way to the church

               
The church is cinderblock with a new roof the last FEI team finished last week.  They hang streamers and balloons in green and white to make it more festive.  There is a generator for some electrical stuff - keyboard, projector for songs. 

 



Church building, being prepared for services

  

 

View from front "doors" of church



Children's church is first.  The kids came from all over for church, alone with siblings.  There were very few adults around other than those involved with worship.  We helped the kids carry in chairs, then our team had breakfast (prepared by the kitchen ladies, some of whom are actually trained cooks apparently).  We sat in on children's church.  There was some kind of sermon or Bible reading. Some question and response, a lot of singing. 

There were about 250 kids there and the service lasted about an hour and a half.  All the kids were in their "Sunday best" which mostly involved second hand holiday dresses, fancy socks and whatever shoes they have.  The boys were in anything from jeans and t-shirts to school uniform type clothes.  Some of the toddler aged kids were scared of us because they haven't seen many white people before. 

The kids seemed anywhere from disinterested to suspicious of me at first.  I later learned that this had a lot to do with the fact that I have light blue eyes, which they find frightening and some think is connected to Voodoo in some way.  There were a few other team members who almost instantly had kids around them.  I felt bad, like I lost that ability to connect with kids that I used to have.  But then we were called up in church and through a translator we told our names. Right after that, I had a few kids holding my hands, high fiving me repeatedly, calling my name: "Ah-mah-DA". 

I sat on the floor in the corner of the front row of kids for the rest of the service, swinging hands with a few of the kids.  Very few of the people speak English at all.  The ones who do know a little English tend to be teens and young adults.  I had an English-French dictionary with me - you can't just walk into a Barnes and Noble and get an English-Haitian Kreole dictionary - and quickly realized it would be next to no help in Jacmel.  The Kreole dialect there is not very similar to French and I usually did better pantomiming than trying to piece something together in French and basic English.

After the kids' service, I asked the girls if I could take their pictures. It is amazing how kids are the same everywhere.  It reminded me a lot of the kids at St Paul.  They LOVED having me take their picture and show them on the screen. I could have done that all day long and they would have been happy.  I let a few of the older kids use the camera to take pictures too.  Even the adults liked having their picture taken and then looking at it.  After the service there was a little break before the adult service, which lasted more than 2 hours (sermon and singing).  The kids just play outside during that time. 

It was probably about 95 degrees. It was ridiculously hot.  Actually, it was partly cloudy and doesn't SEEM that hot. There isn't that "take your breath away" heat like in Phoenix or the hottest days at home, but I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life.  Everyone was sweating through their clothes.  I drank 50oz of water by 1pm and felt like I was dying of thirst. (Only peed 1X today so far)

During the break and for most of the service, I spent time playing with the kids.  They showed me some goats (for food, occasionally milk).  We practiced some Kreole vocab.

Forgive me for what is probably horrendously inaccurate spelling. I wrote these down based on VERY limited French pronounciation and what the words sounded like to me. So, let's just call these phoenetic!

Koumo ooh rele? ------ What is your name?
Adume! --------------- Until tomorrow
Bonswe --------------- Good afternoon/evening
Bonjour --------------- Good morning

A few girls played with my hair.  There was one girl who kept pinching me in a way that was supposed to be loving or playful, but it really hurt! I ended up having to hide from her! One girl made me practice saying the name in the back of her Bible over and over and over. (I thought it was her name for a long time but then realized it was not.  In Haiti, they say last name first.)
Pierre Jean Rene' (Pierre Jsohn Ree-knee)

 

I handed out Bible stickers I brought from the Dollar Store.  I had 1 pack with me.  I drastically underestimated how many kids we would be seeing when I was buying little goodies to bring along with me for the trip.  I had to be very careful to not hand anything out unless I had enough for all the kids who were there at the time.  You would have thought those Dollar Store stickers were diamonds! They were putting their hands out, in my face, tapping me, pushing each other for a sticker.  I just kept saying, "I have enough. Please don't push!" I got really hot during that time with about 30 kids gathered around me in the sun, pushing for stickers, no chance to get a drink of water.  They were really interested in what the stickers said, so I would say the words outloud and some of the older kids would repeat them. (Jesus, love, joy, grace, etc.)

Passing out stickers

I also gave out beads and string for bracelets.  I should have brought more beads! Some kids tried to hoard the beads, but would share if I pressed them to.  Most of the kids got at least 3 beads, some as many as 20.  They had fun making the bracelets, but it was pretty chaotic. 

There were occasionally kids who would take my hand and lead me to shade, offer to carry my backpack, offer me water (which comes in little plastic bags).  I tried not to let them "serve" me unless it would be impolite.  I did let them lead me around sometimes to show me things. 

Carrying my backpack

There was a little girl, Mikaela, who kept using my sun hat to wrap up "gifts" for me to open, just like Little Man and Sister do.  I let her flip through my Bible and she found the pictures I brought of the kids.  She showed them to everyone she could find.  They were very interested in Little Man's light features. 

Not a flattering picture, but what do you want? It's 100 degrees!

Eventually I got so hot from the sun and kids crawling all over me (sitting on me or very close) that I retreated into the hot church for a break! I had avoided going inside because we had been told that it gets so hot in there during the adult service.  But there was a seat open right next to the door frame (no door) so I listened to the last 15 minutes or so of the sermon and saw how they take communion.

After the service, I spoke to some of the adults.  A student in Jennifer's English class practiced speaking English with me ("What is your name?", "How are you?", "What is your occupation?") with her help.  He did well considering they just started class yesterday!

We ate lunch at the church compound.  They tarped off the area where we ate, which made me feel bad.  We are here to visit and help but receive special food, etc.  For lunch, we had hot dogs, fried plantains, hush puppies and salad (which I didn't eat because of fear of disease from the uncooked veggies). 

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Tomorrow: the rest of Sunday in Jacmel...