Sunday, September 30, 2007

Today after a wonderful night of rest in the rain but in the tent, I got up and got ready for church. After breakfast, and when everyone was ready, Janeil, Heather, Ne Ne, Josiah, Tailan, Mislin, Na Na, Roland, and I went to La Fonte for church. It was about a 30 minute ride and a gorgeous morning so very enjoyable. When we got there we found a crowded church and a few of the gentlemen went and got us some chairs from, I don’t know where, and in we went. It was a really nice service and Janeil got to preach, which was really impressive because he switched between English and in Creole during the sermon. He preached from Ephesians 2 about being dead and having no purpose, living a life without Christ. After church I got together with the preacher and we took pictures of all the children that attend school, because their school is getting ready to open and their pictures are going to be sent out to get sponsorship for them. This was in interesting process for several reasons, the first of them being, the fact that lighting was a very difficult thing to get right. Second none of them would smile, except 2, so they look like prison photos. And lastly, because no one from the church is really associated with the mission we had to figure out a way to remember what child is which, and the system they came up with makes it look more like prison photos. Oh I forgot to tell you that after church Janeil and family left because he had to be at the airport at 2 to fly to the states for a convention. So it was me, Roland, and a slew of Haitians. Well we finished at about 1 and the preacher was nice enough to call us a taxi (moped), and since it was like a 5 mile walk, only 30 Haitian for the 2 of us, I was in my Sunday best, and had my computer bag, I was ok with that. However, when the driver showed up, and according to Roland, saw me he said it would cost 100 Haitian for the ride. We said, no thanks, and started walking, and when he saw that he was going to lose the business he dropped it to 40, but we still kept walking until he said ok 30. When we got on this moped, we went about 6 feet and were walking again. He was a bad drive and almost tipped the bike, and the part of the seat I was sitting on was slippery and I about fell off. Oh well, walking is ok with me and it only took about 2 and a half hours. On our way back to Miss Pats we passed these boys who were directing a donkey with coal on its back and one of them was talking and watching us and the donkey lost all the coal all over the road. We went over to try and help and they did not want any, so we kept on going. When we got back to the house, we found that everyone had been sleeping and that Mike, Teresa, and Vogley had just shown up on the 4 wheeler. After showers and lunch, we all went to the bay for a little swim. Vogley was very excited for this because it was only the second time he had ever been swimming, and it was a very nice day for it. We were at the bay for about 90 minutes, floating around chatting and playing with some children, and just relaxing, when the rain clouds rolled in and we had to leave. We got back just in time to clean the salt water off and get dinner ready. After dinner and clean up we sat down to play Shanghi, and man what a good time that is after a long day of working. We were lucky that we got to finish the game right before the solar went off. After that it was time for bed, but I was not tired so we once again went to this night club to hang out, and I almost got the dance with some of the locals but Roland would not let me. I had a really nice conversation with a drunken guy about what was going on with him; all he really wanted me to do was buy the next round though. Too bad for him, because I did not, however I did see something very interesting. A few of the guys were playing dominos and the guy that was losing had a cinder block tide around his neck and was standing; NO THANKS. Well, after getting some more pitas it was time for bed. Peace.