While in Haiti, we had a great time. It was a blast to be with a group of Christian men who just enjoy life. Here are some general notes about what we saw and did:
As expected, Geno made friends with all of the children. In fact, he taught a couple of the girls to say, “Yo”, “Give me five”, and “Good job” with hand slaps and thumbs up. He got such a kick out of it.
The coffee in Haiti is stronger than typical US coffee. It seemed to have its effects on Jonas who was always on the go and pushing the group to working harder and faster. He was the unofficial “boss” of the group.
My dad, Joe, had some troubles with sickness during this trip. The first time it may have been heat stroke or dehydration. The second, a bad reaction to mangoes.
Jonas had the opportunity to go to see Revenel’s quarry. He was excited to see the equipment. Revenel wants Jonas to come back after a new piece of equipment arrives so that he can teach the workers how to operate the machinery.
One of our interpreters, Samuel, enjoyed coming up behind the guys and surprising them. He would call out, “Yo Geno”.
On our last morning, some of the guys got up early, crawled over a railing and watched the sunrise from the hotel rooftop.
When we arrived in Port-au-Prince, Revenel was late to pick us up. He said that we need to get used to “Haitian time”. We joked about it. After about three days, we had a different driver and we realized that “Haitian time” is probably more accurately “Revenel time”. We gave him a hard time about it until the last day when Revenel had to drop some paperwork off at a government office, which was not open on time. We thus said that “Haitian government time” is slower than “Revenel time”.
We had a good Bible study during the week based on Matthew 4-7, the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry and the Sermon on the Mount. Our last night in Haiti was the most profound as we reflected on the week and prepared to come home.
Some of the food quickly became favorites of ours. Creole sauce was an instant hit. The oatmeal that we had one morning was also a favorite.
The worship service on Thursday evening was beautiful as we felt the Spirit moving. It was awesome to sing together in two languages the praises of our Lord and Savior.
On the way home, we had a long lay over in Ft. Lauderdale. Jonas and James took naps on the floor, using their backpacks as pillows. When it was time to check our bags, at the prompting of me, Bob went over to Jonas, kicked him and said, “Security, you need to get up and get moving”. Jonas woke up in a start and looked around confusedly.
I’m sure there are more stories to be told, but at least this gives you a flavor for the trip.