Immediately after dinner last night (white rice, chicken, bean sauce, watermelon, passion fruit juice), we played "Wheel of Kreyol." That's the game where every day we learn something in Kreyol to present to some of our non-English speaking neighbors. It's men versus women for the chance to win Digicel phone cards for our muckers at the end of the week.
Last night, both teams tied with 500 points, even though I thought I knocked it out of the park by saying "Mwen renmen Ayiti" ("I love Haiti") after being awarded 100 points for my mini-conversation with the judges. Madame Pastor taught me well!
Tonight our challenge is to recite a Haitian proverb for the judges. Madame Pastor is going to teach me, "Beat the dog; wait for the owner," meaning every action has a reaction and you always have to pay the consequences of your misdeeds.
After Wheel of Kreyol, I had about an hour and a half for Frisbee with the little kids. Church was scheduled to start "promptly" at 7 p.m., but of course it was closer to 8:15 when we actually got rolling. We pack away our cots every night and set up lots of benches and school desks for people to sit on, but it was still standing room only once the congregation finally arrived.
And what a church service! After getting used to Haitian services, I might fall asleep at church when I get back to the States. I've never seen a more lively group. People were dancing all out in their seats and the aisles and wherever there was room to move. Jeff said this was the first time ever that they've had a speaker system, so people were excited for the added decibels. Leading up to the service, the Haitians blasted a radio station through the speakers to draw people to worship. That got a full house just with people coming to see what was going on and to test the new instruments for themselves.
The service was mostly music - loud music! Everyone was dancing. Then there was a brief message in Kreyol before our group took the stage to introduce ourselves and give our first impressions of Haiti with the aid of an interpreter. (The services are entirely in Kreyol as very few people here speak English.)
There was a chance for members of the community to speak, then a teenage girl sang a beautiful solo. Jeff finished the service with a brief sermon, then the band really got into it and people went wild.
Finally around 10 p.m. church ended and there were hugs and handshakes all around. A few English speakers from the community introduced themselves to me. And did I mention I did the whole service with various children on my lap and babies in my arms? Every time I sat, someone wanted to sit on me and every time I stood, someone wanted held. The kids are so freaking adorable and they are everywhere! I have no idea who any of them belong to. They just appear and disappear and wander around like pint-sized adults who know exactly where they're going.
I slept great after that service and even successfully used the outhouse by myself in the middle of the night (with aid of a headlamp.)
Breakfast today was porridge with cloves, fruit, coffee, passion fruit juice, and bread with spicy peanut butter. After breakfast, we started construction on the guesthouse. We stood in a line to pass buckets of gravel from inside the house to outside. Then we went around the other side of the church to pass buckets of water from the pump to mix cement. The men mixed the cement in a divot in the ground outside the main church doors, while I went to fetch water with Claudette and a few of the other women. We crossed the street, then took a dirt path down through the jungle to a little stream where a woman was washing clothes. I was nervous about carrying water because I'm weak and can't carry a mud bucket full of water on my head like the local women. When Madame Pastor tried to send me off with them, I protested, but she ultimately won, and I was curious to see where we would go for water. Luckily, Lenord met us at the stream as we were about to leave and carried my water back to the church for me.
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| Lenord, bucket on shoulder, saving the day. Photo by Haiti H2O. |
After that, I tried to watch the kitchen ladies slaughter a goat for dinner. They tied it upside down from a tree branch and slit its throat into a bucket. Its tail wagged the whole time I watched. Michael made dying goat noises that freaked me out until I realized it was one mischievous boy making the sounds and not one half-dead goat. Still, that was too much for me, so I went back to the church to play soccer with some of the kids.
Eventually we had a team meeting to debrief on the trip so far and to talk about the agenda for the rest of our time in Plain Matin. Tomorrow will be our early morning hike up the mountain. Right now, we have some free time just before lunch. Heavy fog rolled over the trees this morning, but that has since moved on and it's clear now.
I've suddenly found myself surrounded by children tugging on me and trying to steal one of my last remaining pens (they keep disappearing into tiny little hands and pockets), so I guess I'm back in the soccer game.
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