Friday in Haiti

by Lisa and Mercy

This morning we painted the trim on the church. Later on during our break, some of us went outside to play soccer and some stayed inside to create God's eyes with the kids. After having lunch some of us painted another small building so that the school administrators can use it as an office. The rest of us re-painted some of the chalkboards in the school. After all the work was done, Frenau's family invited us to their house.  We saw the foundation of their new home that was suppose to have 12 rooms!  Then they invited us into their current house that they built after the earthquake. Frenau explained how they had enough materials to build another house but they built the walls around the house first in order to protect the land.  By the grace of God, they'll be able to move into their new home soon. Inside the house, Frenau's father surprised us with gifts: a creole bible for pastor Jay and Mary Friedman, a wooden carving of a map of Haiti, a creole learning book, two cups with Haiti on them, and bracelets for everyone. Before we left, Frenau's father gave a beautiful prayer thanking God for their home, as well as Jay and Mary's generosity and dedication to bringing youth to Haiti. We all were moved by his words, and hope to see his whole family again.

We had dinner at the home of the Charge de Affairs  in Haiti, Brian Shukan, who grew up in Longmeadow.  He is the deputy ambassador at the US Embassy.  It was a treat to hear is slant on conditions here and tell him a little about CONASPEH.

Contact Through the End of the Trip

I have been asked by Dr. Jay to let everyone know that his phone has malfunctioned and that he is not receiving calls or texts.  If you are trying to reach him, please use Mary Friedman's phone:  413-244-2065.

Parents of participants:  they will contact us as soon as they are able once they arrive at JFK airport tomorrow evening.

I hope you have all been enjoying reading about their trip as much as I have.

Best,
Deb

Finishing the Church and Making God's Eyes

Yesterday we returned to Bon Repos to continue with our painting.  Some of us painted the chalkboards with black chalkboard paint to give them a nice new surface for the teachers.  Some painted the red trim on the windows. Some painted the inside of the storage shed.  We taught two classes how to make God's Eyes with yarn and popsicle sticks.  Even the teachers wanted to make them! At break time for the school Mark, Mary Catherine, and Keating "played"soccer with about 250 kids and three soccer balls ! It was chaotic and fun.  At the end of the day we went to Pastor Dorilien's house for some parting gifts, sharing, and prayer.  A full and blessed day!

-Mary Friedman

Important note from Dr Jay re phone calls and texts

I have apparently had a mal- function with my cellular device-- my phone is no longer getting service for phone calls text messages or email.  No Service-- at all.  This happened after having service for the first three days here-- not clear what has broken.   And none of the technically sophisticated youth can get it to work either....

Anyway I am receiving emails on the iPad.... But I am thinking there is a lesson here for me about disconnecting

A quick comment from Keating

Today I think was a pretty decent day I really have not had the greatest time in Haiti, because I just cannot understand this Creole which makes it hard to understand the Haitians, but I want to be able to talk to them.

A Summary Of The Day 4/22/15

Today began with a 6:00 wake up, which was extremely popular with the kids of the group, but the fulfilling day of hard work was worth the lack of sleep. We ate a delicious breakfast at Walls Guest. House and were on the road by 7:30. We arrived at Pastor Rene's school, dropped off the school supplies which we brought for the children, and were given a tour by Pastor Rene's son, Frenaud. The children were very enthusiastic about our visit and once they discovered that my sister and I spoke French, chattered away in French at a ridiculous pace that made me exhausted! But it was nice for the group to connect to the children on a personal level.

After the tour, we spent long, demanding hours in the sun painting the outside of the church, located directly next to the school, the exact same shade of pale yellow that it was before. It was "hot as Hades or rather Haiti" in Dr. Jay's words, we were constantly stared at and swarmed by children, and by the end everyone was completely covered in paint. In other words, at home I would have been miserable and taking breaks every other second to escape the heat. Yet, here in Haiti every single person, American and Haitian, worked until coaxed into lunch by our concerned chaperones. It's a different environment, one where working on a project like this is a way of communication that shows that we are here not for charity but for sharing. I didn't want to stop and was having fun talking in my broken French to our driver, "James", about Haitian culture and Creole.

Inside the church for lunch, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (pre-made in the morning at Walls) and cold soda brought to us by Frenaud. During lunch I finally got to play soccer, which is something I've been itching to do since I saw (extremely good) Haitian kids playing on Monday. A juggling exchange started between James and myself,  which led to half the youth, who were supposed to be working on painting, to start a juggling circle as well. The break may not have been relaxing, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Afterwards, we re-painted the inside walls of the church. It was demanding work, which left us all exhausted and paint splattered (Aaron was especially covered in dense, white flecks), but the new brightness of the church was work every minute of work. We spent a enjoyable, hard day of work filled with wonderful people, fascinating conversations, and amusement.

Upon our return to Walls, we enjoyed the comforts of the hotel with new appreciation, a nice dinner (complete with two adorable cats at my feet), card games and a refreshing swim in the pool. We finished the day with a closing circle and talk as well as blog posts by Noelle and myself!

Thanks to all who made this trip possible,
Mary Cate

4/22/15 - Observations of the day

Hello, Mary Cate is writing the summery of today so I get to write about our observations of the day. Today we left Port-Au-Prince and traveled to Bon-Repo (please excuse my spelling). We passed over a bridge with a brown river surrounded by trash. There are huge pigs milling around in the trash. We have all been a little surprised about the trash. There is no trash pick up Or recycling system in place here. Abbie commented that maybe taking care of the Earth is a privilege. We were driving during before school time so we saw many students walking to school in their uniforms. One boy walked right in front of our van and held up his hand motioning don't run me over. One thing we all have noticed is the hundreds of. Brightly painted lottery stores. The Haitians are strong believers in dreams and the lottery is a way to get enough money to leave Haiti. Carla said that the real Haitian dream is to move to the US. The lottery is not run by the government but is a huge business. Once we arrived, we were given a tour of the school. The kindergarten took up a third of the building and had three small classes. Their ages ranged from 3 to 7. They all sang us welcome and proudly counted to fifteen in French. We have noticed the difference between creole and the language they learn in school, French. All Haitians speak creole but only those who go to school speak French. No where else I. The world is creol a national language so it is useful to learn French however French is used a a class barrier here.
        In the school we were welcomed warmly. All the teachers allowed us to speak to their classes. The grades 1-6 were all in one room separated by blackboards. The schools are so different from in the states but everyone wants to be in school and have an education.
   As normal, Monica found a child to entertain, Emily used her French. Mary Cate finally was able to play soccer, juggling with our bus rider, James. Painting g was fun. We decided to do the outside first. Next time anyone needs something painted just invite 22 people over. There was so many of us that we finished the walls on the inside and outside of the church. Painting was nice because we were working together, it was not us standing around, or us doing something for us. After the teachers passed out the school kits we brought the dynamic changed slightly. The kids realized we had brought the kits, even though we did not pass them out, and asked if we had more. The painting supplies that we had brought was not enough to do both the outside and inside if everyone had something to paint with. We use most if our rollers and all the trays on the outside so I had fun scrubbing rollers and trays clean in the empty paint buckets now filled with water. It had never occurred to me how simple it was to scrub the disposable roller and let it dry to reuse. Everyone that we worked with was so incredible. We criss-crossed paths never managing to accidentally paint each other. We were however covered in paint. Our sunburns are spotted because tiny spots of paint were on our skin. Another thing we saw a lot of were the colorful pick-up trucks and school buses that serve as the taxis and buses for the city( aka tap-taps). They are often painted with slogans about Jesus and religious sayings. On one I saw a picture of Messi.  It is amazing people manage to hop on to the right one and never fall off. We have seen people standing clinging on with one arm who look like if they hit one if the larger bumps in the road they will fly off.We all had a great day and enjoyed rewinding in the pool and playing cards.  See you all in a few days- Noelle