Good Friday Procession

>

View looking down the driveway from the hilltop site of new church, Notre Dame de Perpetuel Sécours

Today I walked in the Good Friday Procession through the town.  The church was packed at the end, so there were probably over a thousand in the procession; I am not good at counting. However many the church can seat, were seated in it, and the courtyard outside was full as well.

There are two Catholic churches in the town, the original parish of St. Marc, and a new parish they made by dividing in half, giving the original parish the church and the new parish the school, located a couple miles away on the south side of town.  The second parish is called Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Notre Dame de Secours Perpetuel.  (My own parish of St. Paul's in Annville is sending a committee to visit this new parish and their pastor, Father Antoine, on Monday the 13th.  I am looking forward to their visit.)

Not knowing where the other church was, I took a chance on going to St. Marc's, which is only 3 blocks from my apartment. When I got there, there were maybe a half dozen people there, and Father Evance was just leaving to go over to Notre Dame. He said he was going over by taxi (sitting on the back of a motor scooter). There was a tap tap there, that was taking the crosses over for the procession.  He ran over and asked, and said we could ride in that.

This turned out to be a great thing for me, because I rode over with a nice lady named Carol. These Haitian ladies are so graceful:  They can stand in the tap tap, just stand there, as though they are standing on the ground, and balance with one hand on the railing. As we go over potholes and bumps. Carol noticed that I was having a hard time managing myself and my hat, and she kindly reached over and took it, which left me with two hands to cling to the railing. Even using two hands, though, I still cannot stand in a moving vehicle on these roads as nicely as they can. But thanks to Carol I arrived with my hat, which I badly needed. There is not much shade here, and the sun can be brutal. 

By the time we got to the other side of town, there were about 15 of us in the tap tap, after starting out with 6 or 7. Every couple of blocks someone on his way to the procession saw us and yelled for the driver to stop.  Several men stood on the bumper; our muffler scraped on every dip. Plus I am sure they got splashed by some of the puddles we went through.

I did see several people I knew in the course of the morning, and a couple of my students. 

We began to walk around 7, and finished at 11 AM.  I wound up spending the morning with Carol and a couple of her friends, and they were all very nice to talk to. 

About halfway through the walk we had to cross the National Highway, Route 1.  I tried to get a picture to show you what the highway is like; sometimes there is a lot of traffic and then next time you see it, it's empty. While not all of it is paved, this piece here in town is paved, but you can see the potholes. There are not a lot of rules on the highway; faster things like motorbikes go out and pass the slower things like the tap taps full of people. All the traffic stopped for us both times we crossed over the highway, which was nice.

The twelfth station of the cross is the one in which Jesus dies.  For that one, the Bible reading and prayers were at the Place in front of the Mairie, or Town Hall. The woman directing  the stations said "Everybody kneel! Kneel down, everybody!" and we pretty much all did, right there on the stones in the street. We finished up inside St.-Marc's church with the fourteenth station, Jesus is buried in the tomb.

Here is a video clip from the final station. It shows what a cross-section of people attended the walk, and also gives you a picture of what the inside of St.-Marc's looks like: