Saturday

Beach day!

As a thank you for our help, Meg and Wilbert treated us to a day at Cormier Beach. Cormier is an American-ized beach, very clean, with an open-air bar/restaurant. One of those where you get out of the water and walk right up to the bar, or have a seat in the restaurant.

The water was so clear that, standing in water up to my chest, I could still see the bottom. Morgan, Aidan, and I, and several of the team members enjoyed swimming, and the rest enjoyed hanging out in a chair under the tree.

I was digging around with my feet and bringing up things from the bottom. I found a few bits and pieces to bring home as souvenirs - some coral, a pretty rock, and some kind of spherical shell. But Morgan found the granddaddy - a sea biscuit! She was digging around as well, felt something like a rock, brought it up, and discovered her luck! We're soaking it now so we can bring it home.

At the entrance to the beach area, they were holding a Haitian Artisan's Fair. Meg said the pieces would be authentic Haitian-made, as opposed to the Tourist Market, where much of the things are imported. So the ladies decided to check it out. We found the people to be really nice, not pushy and in-your-face like the Tourist Market, and the prices were VERY reasonable for true artistry. I decided to go ahead and purchase all of my gifts and souvenirs there. Several of the other ladies bought some beautiful things as well.

Of course, the time to leave came too early, but the drive over the mountain takes a while, and we wanted to stop at the grocery to pick up snacks and vanilla.

Once you leave the city of Cap Haitien and start up the mountain, the road is gravel/dirt, very bumpy in the back of a truck, and has steep drop-offs with no guardrails! And occasionally you might be passed by a taptap! There were a couple of times where I couldn't look, because I couldn't see ground over the side of the truck. As we were coming down the other side, I found myself praying that the truck had good brakes!

The mountain road is filled with residences, some gated, some nothing more than a tin roof and a sheet for a door. You'll also see many people walking along the road, as it is the only form of transportation available to them. At the homes, both on the mountain road and in the city, people are cooking on charcoal fires, children are taking baths in a communal well, street vendors are offering their wares, men are burning garbage fires, women are carrying laundry or dishes in huge tubs on their heads. Children swim in the river that you know is filled with sewage. When we got off the truck to go into the grocery, there was yellow-green "water" in the gutter. Obviously, I warned the kids not to step in it. When we toured the city last Monday and it was raining gently, a little boy was taking a shower under the rain gutter, completely naked, right out in the open. Yet smiles spread across the faces of so many as we smiled and waved to them from the truck. Children wave fervently back, some running alongside the truck as far as they can. Some don't smile back, and it makes me wonder what they are thinking of us - Americans with lots of money they won't share? Americans who have done harm to us as a nation in the past? In some people though, especially children, you can still see the joy they have in their hearts. I pray that God's love we have brought this week spreads and grows throughout these people, and that we can continue to share it with them in the future.