Monday, Oct 21 - Lessons in cooking and setting the table

Colleen asked if she could help the cooks as she beginss to pick up a little Kreyole.  They were cooking "bouillon", a kind of soup.  They began with chicken broth and water, added green onions, and spinach, as well as carrots and potatoes and malanga (I still don't know what that is.  It looks like a root vegetable, maybe related to sweet potatoes?).  They showed us how they peeled the vegetables with a knife.  Colleen tried, but they were very worried that she would cut herself so they would not let her try.  Their way is different; they don't use cutting boards, but rather cut holding carrots or potatoes in their hands.  I know I would feel all thumbs if I tried to chop vegetables that way!  They tasted the broth by cooling a little in a wooden spoon and then pouring a few drops into the palm of their hands.  They added a spice mixture that contained salt, MSG, garlic powder and a few other spices.  Finally, they made a kind of dumpling.  Fenise showed us how to make them by adding salted water to some flour, mixing to a sticky consistency.  More flour is added until the dough begins to hold together when you roll a tablespoon full between your palms.  They come out shaped like little crescents and are put in the broth.  They make sure to boil the broth hard, both to cook the vegetables as well as to kill any microbes.  We stirred the large cauldron vigorously over the charcoal fire to make sure it didn't stick or burn and it was ready for dinner.

Learning to set the table:
In Haiti, because everything is pretty much open, everything is covered to prevent dust or bugs from falling in.  To set the table, first the silverware is placed in the middle of the placemat and this is covered with an inverted plate.  Next, if there will be soup, the inverted soup bowl is placed on the plate.  In the morning, saucers are placed to the left of the plate with the coffee cups inverted on the plates.  Finally a glass is placed to the right of the plate and a napkin is rolled into a kind of funnel and placed in the glass.  Voila!  Food is brought to the table and is covered with inverted plastic baskets which serves to keep any flies off.  Every meal begins and ends with a prayer, either sung (Mange sa a) or spoken.  Fr. KK begins ;by wishing everyone "Bon Apeti"t, and ends by wishing everyone "Bon Digestion" which always makes me smile!

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!

Celebrating the Patronal Feast at Bokaba Chapel

First an explanation: in Haiti, parishes have satellite chapels, where people gather for Mass when the pastor can come, for baptisms and weddings.  Holy Family Parish has seven chapels.  The poorest of these is Bokaba Chapel.  It is not accessible by road.  We drove about 20 minutes on a bad road and then walked the rest of the way.  For me, it was a challenging walk, since it was mostly uphill with a pretty steep grade in places and it was HOT!  I was usually bringing up the rear. 

My sedentary life style definitely caught up with me.  I wasn't sure I would be able to make it.  I began praying that I would not cause problems for the group, but they graciously waited for me when I had to stop and catch my breath.

The views were spectacular.

Finally, after climbing for almost 40 minutes (it would have been 30 if I had not needed to stop so much), we arrived at the humble chapel.

Now each chapel has a sacristan who is responsible for catechesis and for gathering the people.  Here the sacristan is pictured with Fr. KeKe.

The chapel was festively decorated.  In looking closely at the decorations, they were made out of small colorful plastic bags tied to the string that was hung throughout.  Balloons added to the festivities.

Mass began with music and liturgical dancing.

Fr. KeKe processed in sprinkling the congregation with holy water.

Then the altar, Fr. KeKe and the congregation were, what is the word? incensed?

What is deeply moving to me is experienceing this, our universal church, where we share the same liturgy, the same symbols even if our languages and cultures are very different.  Mass proceeded.  A collection was taken up.  A woman's hat was used as the basket:

An offertory procession followed with gifts of plantains and sugar cane.

A simple altar, the bread and wine, soon to be the body and blood of our Lord.

The music was simple. A cantor led, and two boys played the tambou (Haitian drums).

The congregation sat on very humble pews, fashioned crudely from wood blocks, with a narrow piece of wood forming the seat.

Fr. KeKe invited me to speak at the end of mass.  I attempted to tell them that I would tell the parish of St. Edward about them, that we at St. Edward are praying for them and we ask their prayers for us. After mass, there was a simple meal, and then more dancing, this dancing just for fun!

As usual, many people enjoyed having their picture taken.

What an incredible blessing to share Eucharist with these people!

A Visit to the "Lake"

Several years ago, Fr. KeKe took us (a group from St. Edward) to see a “lake”.  It is actually a kind of reservoir that had been constructed.  He had told us that the water would be used to irrigate nearby fields and that eventually there would be fish in it.  I asked Fr. KeKe to take me back to see it.  It is a short (10 minute) ride from the village.  Most of the way is more a path than a road but fortunately we had a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  The sun was setting and the light had a golden glow as we got there.  As we walked to the lake, we stopped along the way so the farmer could collect some baby chicks from a nest in a tree.

There were crops of peanuts, piti mi (millet) 

and corn, plus others that I couldn’t identify.  And sure enough, if I looked closely, I saw small fish perhaps one to two inches in length.   I asked Fr. KeKe who owned the land around the lake; answer: the parish does.  So who will manage it and who gets the produce?  Some of the produce goes to the rectory, some will be sold which helps to fund the parish.  He told me that there will be a committee in charge of managing the lake and the land.  As you can see from these pictures, it is beautiful!

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!