Sunday, Pt 2

We did attend church at Fosse Capois, with Pastor Larry preaching. Our new friend Clenel translated for the Haitians, doing a great job. During the sermon, and little boy who had a problem with his eyes came in and sat on the pew bench in front of me, next to Meg. During the final prayer, for some reason, I felt a strong urge to just put my hand on his shoulder. After the prayer, he kept taking my hand and petting my arm. Finally I sat down and said, "Como reley?" (What is your name?) His last name was Jacques (Haitians give their last names first), but I didn't catch his first name, even after repeating it three times. There were a lot of people in the aisleway right in front of us, talking and laughing.

Bob took us out to the classrooms which are right next to the church. I couldn't imagine teaching there. It was like something from the1700's - a tiny room of concrete walls, three rows of wooden benches, a chalkboard on wheels, and a small teacher's desk. No shelves, no bulletin boards, no lockers, no smartboard or computers (no electricity!), no gym or music room, no library. It did, however, have a few classroom pets - lizards crawling on the walls are a common sight. I'm sure spiders and insects are prevalant, as well.

After the service, we returned to the compound to pick up a few of our interpreters from the week, then went to a very nice restaurant in Cap Haitien, where they served us a buffet of chicken, shrimp, and goat. I tasted the goat - it was good, but I mainly at the chicken. They also served something that looked like coleslaw, but was actually hot peppers! For dessert, muffins were served, and we also had a choice of a chocolate brownie-like dish or ice cream - fraise (strawberry), orange-anana (orange-pineapple), or pistache (butter pecan). I had the orange-pineapple ice cream with a muffin - delicious!

After the meal, some of us took a walk down to the Tourist Market. A couple of people bought some things, but since I had already purchased my gifts, I went more for the experience than anything else. It was very interesting - each booth about 8x8, filled with mostly imported items, and each vendor hounding us (Looks are free! Blue Light Special! Please come in!), and some even carrying their items in a basket and following us. Right across the street was the ocean, green/brown, with a small mountain of smelly garbage on the shore.

We said our good-byes to the interpreters, and returned to the compound. After a while, a storm started brewing, and we could hear thunder in the distance. Then it started to sprinkle a bit - we just sat on the veranda and enjoyed the slightly cooler temperature. Then we began to see part of a rainbow! I went to get my camera, and watched and took pictures as we saw more and more of the rainbow, then it began to turn into a double rainbow, and finally, both rainbows stretched all the way across the sky into two full rainbows - so beautiful, and such a blessing! Wilbert arrived at the Mission during this time, and I asked if he noticed it. He said he did, and that he had prayed for a rainbow on our last day. This just sums up our trip - a blessing to 150+ Haitian children (including the ones we smiled and waved to on our truck trips), us, and God.