Sunday has been an absolute smorgasbord of events here in Haiti. But first of all, before any of them, today and last night are the Silent Auction for Haiti, our biggest annual fundraiser at St. Paul's in Annville, my home church. So last evening, after they had put everything away for the night, they called me from Annville. I got to talk -and wave-to Dr. Mortel and Father Peck and all the wonderful people who work hard all year in our parish to raise money and awareness for the people here in Haiti. It was great talking to you, and isn't Skype just wonderful?
Last week Father Alcide at St. Marc's said that I could ride along with him this weekend to two of the chapels that Saint Marc's serves. These are not very far as the miles go, but require a long time and a good four wheel drive vehicle to get there.
The first mass was at La Louwère. I hope I have the spelling right. This is a beautiful chapel, in the foothills of the mountains, I would guess not more than six or seven miles from town. It has trees around it and is in a pleasant setting. The dirt road was washed out in many places, and we crossed a stream where the bridge had been destroyed in a storm some time earlier. Several times we were in mud up to our axles, but Father persevered up and down and sliding sideways until we got there. On the higher parts, instead of the mud there are often clouds of dust. Above you see two pictures of the front and the back of the chapel. That's Father Alcide in the blue shirt on the back porch waving it's time to go.
The second chapel was Barbe. Barbe is an open church, a pavillion, really, wood frame with a corrugated tin roof and woven palm fronds for walls. The floor is dirt and during mass a few geckos ran up the center aisle. The music in Haitian churches is always spiritual - lots of a capella singing and always some drums. This service was especially beautiful because they had a group of eight girls dance. It was a very moving service in many ways; I noticed, on all the open beams, all around the chapel, were verses and sayings: Be not afraid, I come that you can have life, Welcome, Peace. It was humbling to see so much devotion, hard work and faith all in one small place.
After mass, Father took us to see a plot of ground he has received as a gift from a parishoner. He hopes to build a high school for St. Marc on this land. Here he points out the site.
For family members, Father Alcide reminds me very much of Father Canal, an old family friend from Spain whom we all met through Aunt Clare. He is very personable, dynamic, and can work a room. And he is also a scholar like Father Canal, having studied at the college in Rome. Of the five languages he speaks, I think English might be his weakest, so I usually talk to him in French. He and Sister Mary have great conversations in Créole which include a lot of laughing; I think they talk about some of the humorous situations that exist here in Haiti. Today in the car, coming down off the mountain after the mass at Barbe, we went over a bridge and on the other side was seated an elderly white-haired man, dressed in a black suit. They waved and exclaimed over seeing him there. I asked, "Is he someone who sits around the church?" Yes, he is. It was probably one or two miles away from Saint Marc's. And the street leading into town, Pivert, is very busy with very few sidewalks. After seeing him, Father showed us the high school land, and then he stopped at a parishoner's house and we got to walk out back and look at the Caribbean (Sister must have told him we were dying to see it again after our walk last Sunday.) Then we went to the rectory and had dinner. After dinner, as Sister walked me out through the churchyard, there was the man, in his black suit, sitting in the shade on the church steps! Out and back was sure a long way to walk for a person his age.
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