Beth's Post: Haiti Trip Day 2

April 4, Easter Sunday:

Slept in until 7am and put ourselves together for the day. After breakfast Willem, our host, and the two boys, Stephen (13) and David (9), drove us up the mountain to Gramothe, the site of the church, a school, and the medical clinic. It was an awesome ride up. We took 4 wheelers and Stephen (AKA Speed Demon) was my driver. The path up the mountain is rocky and uneven at the best points, apparently impassable at others, and we raced up it like it was Mother Nature's newest roller coaster. It was wild and an amazing amount of fun. Oh, and I was very glad I'd added leggings under my dress... Especially on the way down when we broke all the posted warnings and added a third passenger to our vehicle driven by someone under 16... Did I mention it was awesome?

Gramothe school.

Up at Gramothe Stephen gave us a tour of the campus. Britney pointed out how much it has changed since she visited 10 years ago. It's a pretty nice facility considering, but still a lot to be done there. We got a peek at the clinic we will be helping at this week. Pretty well stocked right now. As Beth said, a lot of medical and cleaning supplies have come into the country right now and there is enough hand sanitizer to bathe in. Not that this is bad, but right now it's a storage issue and will it still be here in 6 months? Anyway, back to events of the day...

Soon it was time for the Easter service to start. Of course it was all in Creole so we didn't understand any of it. I think I'm up to about 8 different languages I don't speak that I've attended services in, so nothing new for me. The music seemed to go on and on since all the songs were just strung together. I recognized one and a few others sounded familiar. I'm still not entirely sure what went on in the service, but we had Willem explain one part later because he was dancing during his sermon and that could not just be overlooked. At one point Willem brought me and Britney up to the stage to introduce us. He mentioned Britney has visited 10 years ago, but for me he just asked if I was married and then told the crowd that interested parties should speak to him. (Incidentally, I really think this is becoming a thing. All the married men in my life are trying to marry me off.) He claims he had 2 interested parties come up after the service, but I'm not convinced.

Britney talks with David while we wait for Willem to finish his meeting.

After the service Willem had a meeting so we hung out with the boys. It was definitely hot out in the sun. When the breeze came up it was nice, but otherwise it was brutal seeing as shade is hard to come by. Haiti has a huge problem with deforestation, which has affected many other things including shortening the rainy season and creating potential for drought. Anyway, after about an hour and a half we finally headed back down the mountain to lunch.

Sunday is traditionally a sabbath in Haiti so we just chilled for the afternoon. I tried to read a little and ended up taking a little nap instead, but was woken up by the arrival of more members of the team. It was kinda nice having the house to ourselves, but tomorrow more of the team arrives and the house will be packed to the gills. So the chill evening chatting and playing card games was nice. Tomorrow we head up to the clinic to get it all set up for the medical staff arriving tomorrow afternoon.