Fr. KeKe's right hand man

Nixon performs many jobs for the parish, but first, a little about him.  He is a grand cousin of Fr. KeKe's.  Now I am not exactly sure what a grand cousin is, but they are related in some way.  He, too is from Maissade where his mother, aunt and three brothers live. His father passed away.  He came to work for Fr. KeKe two years ago, after he completed studies in Hinche dealing with electrical stuff.  It was the time right after the earthquake so studying in Port au Prince wasn't possible.  I asked him to tell me what he does.  He told me that he is in charge of electricity, construction and transporting various goods to Cerca Carvajal.  Now the electrical problem is reaching a critical juncture.  We were very excited when we learned that government electricity was coming to Cerca Carvajal earlier this year.  Unfortunately, it has not come without problems.  The current is neither sufficient nor stable.  This has created problems in particular for our new computer lab.  Discussions are underway!  During construction of our new church, Nixon was in charge of day to day management, making sure that all necessary materials were procured and then secured.  I asked him what he liked to do for fun.  He said he liked to play volleyball, but that at present, they didn't have any volleyballs.  I promised to put it on our list for our trip in February.

Out of my comfort zone

You may wonder what it is like to be alone in a foreign country with only a slight grasp on the language.  I have to tell you, sometimes it is hard.  I am on the shy side an introvert, and some days it takes real effort to make myself go and try to communicate something to someone.  I am nearing the end of my time here, and there is so much more I would like to accomplish.  It is difficult to force myself to summon the effort to try to explain, and then to understand.  Sometimes I don’t!  Sometimes I think I do, but I have misunderstood.  Sometimes I pretend to understand because I think I have gotten the gist of a conversation.  I am writing this because I am trying to help my readers experience Haiti through my experiences here.  Most have been wonderful, but I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t share my difficulties too.

Sometimes, many times, I just don’t understand, and it is not just the language.  I don’t understand why Haitians build fences around everything.  I know, security is an issue but...  I don’t understand how even small children can sit still through a two hour mass.  I don’t understand how Haitians manage water when they must carry it home in order to cook, wash and drink.  I don’t understand how people get by when they don’t have jobs that pay.  Some make money by selling things or growing things, but how do the rest survive?

I am reading a book called Travesty in Haiti: a True Story by Timothy Schwartz.  It is indeed a most distressing book told by someone who worked for an NGO.  It is a story of how, well-intentioned or not, the US and Europe are responsible for many of the problems in Haiti.  What you say?  Impossible?  Aren’t we the most generous country in the world?  Don’t we give so much to countries like Haiti?  Unfortunately, most of this largesse benefits our own agriculture industry but actually hurts Haitian agriculture.  He writes about how we and Europe ship food to Haiti after a hurricane or whatever.  Unfortunately, the food arrives 6 months too late when the Haitian harvest is in.  The food is given to various NGOs (like CARE, CRS and World Vision).  They “monetize” the food by selling it on the market, thus depressing the price of food which actually takes food out of the mouths of farmers.  The NGOs use the money to pay their staff.  The NGOs have known for a long time that this aid is not helpful.  Unfortunately, no one gives money to buy Haitian food which would actually improve food insecurity in the long run.  And this is only one area where our actions have been very detrimental to the Haitian economy.  Haitians have had to remove tariffs on US goods including rice.  Haiti used to produce more than enough rice to feed itself, but US rice, heavily subsidized by the US government, is cheaper than Haitian rice; the Haitian rice industry is nearly dead.  Haiti used to be a leading producer of sugar, but again, our subsidized sugar lobby has managed to clobber Haitian sugar producers.  If you don’t believe me, please read the book.  There is documented evidence of all of this.

As you can see, I am feeling a little blue today.  Hopefully my next post will be more upbeat.  I struggle to remind myself in the words of the prayer of Oscar Romero “I am a worker, not a master Builder”.  All will be well! (I think those are words of Hildegard of Bingen.)

The Big Day - The Patronal Feast of St. Jude, patron of Baptiste parish

As I waited for the celebration to begin, some children noticed I had a camera.  They were only too happy for me to take their pictures!  

But let me explain: celebrating patronal feasts in Haiti is very important.  It is a big occasion for the village and many priests from around the diocese and even beyond come to participate.  In addition, local bigwigs, politicians (senators and deputies, mayors and magistrates) police and members of the judiciary are also present.  This Patronal Feast was no different.  It began with liturgical dancers dancing up the aisle

The procession of about thirty priests, not counting seminarians and altar servers followed.  The church had been beautifully bedecked with ribbons and fresh flower arrangements. 

The choir and the band filled the church with beautiful sound.  Another offertory procession flowed down the aisle.  This one included live chickens and a collection of what appeared to be mops. 

In closing, Fr. Cassa thanked all of the dignitaries, priests, seminarians, choir, band, honored guests (he included me in this!), sacristans and people who had come from the chapels.  If you ever have the opportunity to participate, it is surely a great blessing!

Learning to cook sos pwa (bean sauce)

Rice with black bean sauce is one of my favorite dishes, so I asked to learn.  A woman whose name is “My Dream”, one of many cousins of Fr. Cassa came to get me.  I asked if her name was English, and she said yes.  I asked why she had an English name, she told me because her mother chose it.  When I asked if her mother spoke English, she said no!  Anyway, they were already in the process of boiling the beans.  Now I don’t know if they soaked them first or not.  After they were boiled, the beans were strained out of the water, keeping the water.  My Dream then showed me how to mash the beans with a wooden  masher. 

After mashing, the water in which the beans were boiled is added, stirred and passed through a sieve.  The remaining solids are mashed again and the process in repeated a total of three times.  The remaining solids are given to the pigs.  The sauce is then heated to boiling again (over a charcoal fire of course!).  Vegetable oil, chicken bouillon, and margarine were added.  A bunch of parsley was tied together at the stems with what looked like dental floss and added to the bean sauce.  Several habanero peppers were studded with about a dozen cloves and added to the sauce.  This was allowed to cook together.  Voila!  I also tried peeling green plantains.  They make it look so easy, but it wasn’t easy for me!  First them cut off the top, and make a slit on the concave part of the plantain.  From here it is all technique which I clearly did not master.  You have to pull the peel away from the plantain, but it is stuck pretty hard, and just kept breaking.  They, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem1

Novena Masses and Sunday Mass at Baptiste

First I have to explain that there is a novena (9 days) of Masses before the patronal feast.  This does not include Sunday Mass, thus Friday and Saturday were the 8^th and 9^th days of the novena. Friday, Mass was to start at 7 pm with Fr. KeKe as the main celebrant with Fr. Cassagnol (Fr. Cassa for short)  co-presiding.  Before Mass, a young man spoke to parishioners, kind of like at a revival.  He would ask a question and they would respond enthusiastically waving their arms above their heads in adoration.  The energy in the congregation was palpable.  Mass began closer to 7:30 when the choir entered, followed by beautiful liturgical dancers, showing their love for God in their dance.  

The readings were different than the readings in the lectionary.  The gospel was the story of the centurion asking Jesus for the healing of a member of his household, telling Jesus that he wasn’t worthy for Jesus to come to his house, but he knew that Jesus could just give the command and she would be healed.  Fr. KeKe gave a homily about faith, that there are three kinds of faith: faith in family, faith in material things and spiritual faith. Now perhaps faith is not the only translation of lafwa, but, as I understood (or maybe didn’t), he said that while all three are necessary parts of life, spiritual faith is the most important.  That is all that I can be sure of in his homily.  The rest of the Mass proceeded with beautiful, energetic yet devout singing, accompanied by a keyboard, a couple of electric guitars, tambous (Haitian drums), a drum set and a saxophone.  At the end we sang “Alleluia Jezi   Fos!” meaning “alleluia, Jesus my strength!”  I could not help feeling richly blessed to be in the middle of these sisters and brothers, sharing their faith and their celebration.

Saturday’s mass was also scheduled for 7 pm.  I arrived early so I could get an aisle seat, prized territory as many people had already claimed seats on the aisle.  I sat toward the back, hoping to be able to take some photos in the waning light.  When I arrived, the people were saying the rosary. Vibrant, up-tempo rhythmic singing surrounded me.  People were so joyful in the Lord!  Across the aisle was a mother with a toddler, a little girl who kept escaping down the aisle.  

I enjoyed watching her antics, remembering when my children were that small and just wanted to be on the go.  Other mothers helped by catching her and bringing her back to her mother.  One mother in the choir handed her baby of to a woman who beckoned for the baby.  Everyone seemed to know everyone else.  The offertory procession was truly that, the works of the people's hands, fruits and vegetables and even a goat!  

Near the end of the Mass around 9:15 the rain began.  It RAINED and RAINED so hard that it was difficult to hear anything else.  I wondered what would happen: would people make a run for it or wait out the rain?  Fr. Cassa began a song which the congregation took up.  Soon, there was dancing in the aisles, with joyful arms raised in praise to God.  About 45 minutes later, the Mass ended and we walked quickly back to the rectory when the rain had lessened somewhat.

Fr. Cassa had informed everyone on Saturday that Mass on Sunday and Monday, the day of the Patronal Feast, would begin promptly at 9 am.  I arrived a few minutes before 9 to a nearly empty church which allowed me an aisle seat near the front.  Fr. Philogene was the celebrant.  Fr. Cassa introduced me and told me that Fr. Philogene works with him, and with Fr. KeKe on the Pastoral Commission for Youth, of which Fr. Cassa is responsible at the national level, and Fr. KeKe for the diocese of Hinche.  Fr. Philogene had traveled all the way from Cap Haitien to be here, a very long way!   Surprisingly (for me), when mass finally began near 10 am, it was not as packed as it has been for the last two days.  Still the music was so beautiful, it seemed to embrace me.  The cantor:

The lectors at all of the masses were children:

Fr. Philogene’s homily on the Pharisee and the publican centered on the importance of humility for everyone, including the officials of the church.  Another beautiful celebration!

A start of the new school day

Every morning, I hear the children at the school.  The secondary school children begin at 7 am so theirs are the first voices I hear.  The primary school students begin at 8 am.  This morning I decided to go and watch the beginning of the school day.  Just before 8, I saw the secondary school kids heading toward the soccer field in front of the primary school.

Next, I saw primary school kids.  Here are a few of the preschoolers, easy to spot because only they wear pink.

Then the children lined up by class, with the boys in one line and the girls in another.

Note the ruffly socks some of the girls are wearing!  The flag was raised amidst singing.

Finally, Sr. Oxilia, Principal of the primary school, and Edary Isaac, principal of the secondary school spoke to the children and the school day began!

A trip to Baptiste

We left Cerca Carvajal around 10 am, with Za and Nicole and their things.  We stopped first at Colladere, to return a microphone that had been borrowed.  We made our way to Hinche and made many stops: first we dropped off Za at her home and then Nicole.  Then it was time for a little shopping.  Finally, we stopped by the presbyte (the rectory: the main rectory in Hinche.  Each of the 4 parishes in Hinche also have their own rectories.)  We picked up Fr. Robert who is now the pastor of Maissade.  Fr. KK informed me that we would now have a new chauffeur.  I wondered at this, because until now he has not allowed anyone else to drive his new (this year) car.  I later learned that Fr. Robert’s legs are long and he has more legroom in the driver’s seat.  Our trip to the lower plateau was uneventful since the road is paved and smooth, with a few speed bumps in places.  At Mirebalais we turned to head toward Lascahobas, Belladere and finally Baptiste.  The road to Lascahobas is a good one, but after Lascahobas the road became very rough.  I had forgotten that most of the rural roads in Haiti used to be like this, including National Route 3, the road from Port au Prince to Cap Haitien by way of Hinche.  They are working on the road in places, but they have a very long way to go.  In some places it appeared that the road had been paved in the past but the pavement had deteriorated so that all that remained were small sections of patches of pavement.  We climbed higher and higher.  The land has much more vegetation and the crops are different.  Here, coffee is an important crop.  Apparently coffee requires cooler and more moist conditions.  At any rate, we finally arrived in Baptiste around 5 pm.  I was shown to a room with 4 mattresses on the floor although I have the room to myself thus far.  As dusk came, I could hear beautiful choir music coming from the church. I was only able to take a picture of the church as the sunset:

A Visit to the clinic for Fenis, one of the workers in the parish

First, let me tell you a little about Fenis.  She has been working in the parish for about a year and a half.  She is originally from Hinche and has 4 brothers and 7 sisters.  Here she cooks and cleans, does laundry and all of the other tasks it takes to keep this place going.  There are altogether between 3 and 6 women who together take care of the people in the rectory, depending on how many guests are here.  It is not always easy for me to know who are guests and who lives here.  Nurse Elvita, for example, lives here at the rectory from Monday through Friday and returns to her family in Hinche for the weekend.  Za, another friend of Fr. KeKe's often comes when there is a large group, like when our parish group comes, or for the Patronal Feast.

Anyway, back to Fenis.  Yesterday she showed me her foot.  right where the toes join the foot, there was an oozing sore.

I told her she should go to the clinic.  Today I asked her if she had gone, since she was limping noticeably.  She said no.  I then took her hand and told her I would go with her.  She insisted that she didn't want to go; when I insisted, she wanted to wash her foot first.  I talked briefly with Elvita, and she told me that Fenis did not want to go to the clinic, because she was afraid.  I was afraid that a bigger infection would ensue if she didn't go to the clinic.  Now I had expected Elvita to be the one who took care of her.  Instead, a man who I think is kind of like an LPN put gloves on, examined the foot, carefully put iodine on the affected area, put triple antibiotic on it and proceeded to bandage it with gauze, carefully taping two of the toes together.

Elvita gave me Amoxycillin pills for her to take daily and more triple antibiotic.  Hopefully she will improve rapidly!

A Visit with my godchild, Juva, and her family

This post was actually from last week:

Today I went to visit Juva, a beautiful 7 year old girl who is my godchild.  

Today was a holiday, part of the upcoming festivities celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the school.  The family now had 4 children, the youngest, Chilina, only a few weeks old.  Alina, their mother has the exhausted look of new mothers.  

Chilina has been up all night and is sleeping all day.  Junior, the father, is the typical proud papa. 

The baby sleeps in a small laundry basket filled with blankets when she is not sleeping in bed with her parents. 

 The older children take turns touching and kissing the baby.  They offer me a beer, and it is only when they bring only one beer that I realize I should not have accepted because even a beer is an extravagance for this family.  I thank them, tell them that I cannot drink the whole beer and then they save it until Junior returns.  The baby sleeps in bed with her parents for now; she will move into the room with her older sister when she is older.  They are happy because they have finally been able to put a metal roof on the part of the house that was covered only with tarps which leaked when it rained.  Juva sings and dances the dances she will do for the Mass celebrating the school’s anniversary.  It is good to feel at home and to realize that loving families, at their core, are the same everywhere.

A visit to a dental clinic in Hinche run by Americans

Irene had told me of a group of Americans who come three times a year to have a dental clinic in Hinche.  Since we are trying to get our dental clinic off the ground, a visit seemed in order.  Today is the day that Colleen returns to the US.  I will miss her;  she certainly brightened my world and those of the people around her as well.  I hitched a ride with Fr. KK and her and they dropped me at Maison Fortune orphanage.  The orphanage's founder, Jean Louis, gratiously drove me to the site, next door to the Caritas office.  I beheld a large room with 8 dental chairs, all full.

Three dentists, three hygienists and a oral surgeon were all working on patients.  I chatted briefly with Dr. Tim Brown who leads the group.

We chatted briefly and exchanged information.  They are a non-denominational group from Wisconsin; they have taken a different approach.  They bring down Americans to do these dental clinics, but thus far, they are not working with Haitian dentists.  He told me of their concerns:

1. Tools and supplies will walk off.
2. Haitian dentists do not perform to their standards.
3. We have no way to pay their salaries.

These are all legitimate concerns, but it seems to me that the end goal is to have Haitians treating Haitians year round.  Now it remains to be seems how our dental clinic in Cerca Carvajal will work out.  Our main problem at the moment is to find a funding stream for it.  But at least we have a contact who might be able to recommend, or find equipment for our lab!

Sunday, October 20th Celebration of the 50th anniversary of Holy Family School

Colleen and I slept late, getting up around 7:30, to find that most had already eaten, and, horrors, there was no more coffee!  More priests and guests arrived.  Irene, who is also on the Haitian Education Fund board arrived with Fr. Romel.   Bishop St. Hillien arrived and we waited for the signal that he was ready before proceeding to the church.  We were seated in the first row.  Other dignitaries included the Director General of the Ministry of Education, the Director General of the Catholic Education Commission, Deputy A. Rondon, representatives of the judiciary and the police, and other government representatives.  The mass lasted nearly three hours with beautiful liturgical dances by young girls and boys.  

Children processed in with candles which were placed on the railing.

The choir was excellent, singing in French and Creole, with one song in Latin and one in English (He reigns forever.)  Here is a view of the altar with the bishop and copresiders.

After communion, it was time for speeches.  Fr. KK had asked me to say and few words which I had had Steven Werlin correct for me since I was speaking in Kreyol.  Each speech began with recognizing every dignitary present and honored guests.  The first person gave a history of the school as best as I could understand.  He told us of the sisters who came to Cerca and started the school.  The order, the Little Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, had just been founded when they came to Cerca, thus we were actually celebrating a double anniversary, of the founding of the school and the founding of the religious order.  We learned that Holy Family School in Cerca Carvajal was the first presbyteral school on the central plateau.  He apparently told some amusing stories, judging by the laughter of the crowd.  The speeches continued and seemed to get longer and I watched as the bishop and several priests close their eyes.  Near the end, after about 90 minutes of speeches I delivered my short speech greeting the people in the name of the people of St. Edward and thanking them for their wonderful hospitality.

Now I thought things would calm down in the afternoon after all of the guests had left, but I was wrong.  Apparently more festivities were planned for the evening.  Jenico told us that he was to be in a skit with Fr. KeKe (by the way, Steven tells me that spelling it KK means something different in Kreyole and that Fr. KeKe found it amusing, so I will change the spelling to KeKe!).  We waited as many folding chairs were set up in front of the stage in the school yard.  Here is a view of the stage:

While we were waiting, Colleen engaged the children, playing chase and games with them and dancing with them.  She managed to communicate without speaking Kreyole!  They clearly had fun with her!

Several groups of girls got up and performed some dances, but the skit never happened.  We have fun and were exhausted afterr a very full day!