Last full day in Haiti

As Is write this, I am in the Port au Prince airport, where my flight has been delayed.  Guess I will be spending the night in Miami!  Yesterday was the patronal feast of St. Martin dePorres school in Hinche and Fr. KeKe and I attended.  The celebration began with a kind of marching band, that is they carried their instruments, but they didn't actually march.  The played the school's anthem as well as other music.  They had a number of trombones and at least one saxophone, and drums.  The mass was lovely, with a liturgical dance by some girls and boys.  After Mass, they had the investiture of the student government for the "country" of St. Martin.  All in all, there were about 20-30 "officials" including a prime minister, a president, ministers of education, the environment, culture and some others that I didn't catch.  Msgr. Jethro delivered a speech about the importance of democracy.  It was wonderful to see the pride in the students' eyes.  

Today, we drove from Cerca Carvajal to Port au Prince and ran quite a number of errands all around Port au Prince.  Fr. KeKe took Sr. Oxilia (whom we picked up in PAP where she has been with her family since the death of her sister last week), Nixon and me to a very nice restaurant near the airport.  It was delicious!  Haitians are such a welcoming and generous people.  Even though I don't understand much of conversations, I enjoy listening to the give and take and frequent laughter as they kid back and forth.  They always seem to be in a good mood!  It is wonderful to be around them.  Obviously I am generalizing; not all Haitians are so joyful all the time.  But I have been deeply touched, yet again, by their constand consideration of me.  One man always tried to find me at mass and sit next to me.  Every time I had to get up from a kneeling posture, he was there with his arm under my elbow, helping me up.  Part of me wanted to argue that I was perfectly capable of standing by myself, yet I knew he was only trying to be considerate and helpful.  May God richly bless the people of Haiti as he has blessed me in knowing them!