Haiti Days 7 & 8

By Stephen Kaerwer

This will be a short summary of the past two days, because we have been too busy to write full entries for those days. On the 24th, we got the opportunity to go and worship in a Haitian church. The building was not much to look at, very simple and made of concrete, but the people there were enthusiastic, friendly, and genuine. When we came in, we heard a man giving a message in Creole. I couldn’t understand anything, but I enjoyed listening to the Creole language. After the fist message, we worshiped in Creole. Worshiping with them was an awesome experience, listening to the people sing their praises. Next, Lindsey and I gave short testimonies in English that pastor Cange translated for us into Creole. Next, Andrea gave her testimony, beginning in English until pastor Cange discovered that she spoke French, when he told her to do her testimony that way. She completed her testimony in French and the congregation clapped for her when she finished. Matt gave the main message on loving all people equally; regardless of whether they are like you and regardless of whether or not they can do anything for you. After the message, we did some more worship and then went to go get lunch at epidoor.
Epidoor is, according to Bill, “the closest thing to a fast food restaurant as you can get in Haiti. We had pizza, burgers, and po’boys. It was nice to have a taste of home. After food, we went to go do some shopping at a metal-work village. There, people made metal hangings and sculptures that they hung on the walls of their homes and allowed you in to see and purchase. Here, it was more wheeling and dealing, made especially difficult because of the language barrier. We picked up some cool things, and despite the fact that it was raining pretty hard off and on, I really enjoyed it.
After bargaining at the village, we went to a different church and Candice, who has a specialty in crisis management, gave a seminar on stress that was translated for the youth of the congregation that was again translated by pastor Cange. The seminar was just for general education for the youth, but more specifically because many of them were dealing with the effects of the past hurricanes. After that was done, we came back to the house, out dinner and then crashed for the night.



On the 25th we spent the beginning of the day split up at another local school. Matt and I worked on doing a tin roof for a building next to the school that will be used for cooking food for the kids. I always enjoy learning a new construction skill but it was a bit frustrating working with the Haitians because of the way that they tend to take their time to do everything. The rest of the group was in the school doing crafts and singing with the children. They also gave them some Mardi Gras beads, and that was a big hit.
We left the school at noon and came back to do some assorted tasks at the home. I went with Cristina and Bill to the Caribbean market where I purchased a large supply of Zuko (Haitian Kool-Aid) to take home. The rest of the team worked on making a table for a local school. After We got back to the market, some of us worked on making a bench for a school and some of us worked on preparing crafts for the next day…gotta go to work. To be continued.