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!