Monday afternoon

This afternoon, the guys have been down at the roof building site, and the trusses have all been notched and put up on the frame, as shown in this picture.

But now they need to be marked at the peak, drilled so they can be bolted together, brought down, and cut on an angle, and the consensus was that for the next hour or so, "It's a two-man job," so Jake and Tom are working on it while Mark, Eric, Matt, and I have come up to the guesthouse to take a break.

Cross-cultural contact

When the kids were out at recess this morning, we were encouraged to interact with them, so I wandered over, and they were attracted to my laptop like moths to a flame. Then they'd hold out their hand to me, and ask, "What is your name?" I'd say, as best I could, slowly, AL-LEN. Then they'd howl with laughter and repeat it back, with exaggerated slowness, AL-LEN!

Monday morning

We decided to rise early today so that we could breakfast before taking in the 700 student chapel service down at the church. This was nearly all student led, and featured charming a cappella singing of several songs by the children. However, the message was given by an energetic young man in a tie and carrying a Bible—a future principal of the school in training.

After chapel was an outdoor ceremony called Flag. Mary Jane tells me it is similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, but they sing a different verse of a song for Haiti each day of the week. The children stand outdoors at attention for this brief ceremony. The first photo below shows this; the second shows our team watching them.

This morning, Mark is working on photographing the children. These photographs will be sent to the sponsors, as well as used for occasional other special purposes by Mary Jane. In the photo below, Sveta and Eric are visible behind Mark.

The Single men are working on the roof this morning. (Well, Jake and Matt are single; Tom, while not single, is Single.) I was with them for a while, but eventually decided to come back up to the guesthouse to blog for a bit while the wifi was available (because the generator is running to power the drill). It is not my first trip back up here this morning. and Mary Jane remarked, "You're making a lot of trips up that hill!" It's true that it's a fairly significant climb, and the several journeys we make up and down it each day provide us all with a good workout. The following picture shows a portion of this trail we're coming to know well.

Easter Sunday

We have had a good day, though I daresay our Easter Sunday worship (8:00) was different from what we Michiganders are used to. There was a relatively small turnout, as the children of the mission's school, who must attend church during the school year, are excused from it on holidays (we were told that attendance is similarly low on Christmas, unlike in the states). As the service began, Mary Jane distributed printed bulletins to us, which provided the song lyrics and the scripture readings (in Kreyol). She also translated the sermon Andris gave, sentence by sentence.

During church I was sitting beside Emily Gunderson, and drew a chuckle from her when I typed out, "Too bad you don't know Kreyol, or you could hop up there and jump in with their praise band!"

After the main service concluded, several of the portable pew benches were placed into a large U shape at the front of the sanctuary, and then roughly thirty of us participated in communion at 9:15 (as shown in this photo). Once again, Mary Jane translated into English both the words of institution, and the brief additional remarks Andris made. When communion was finished, we were told it is their tradition to greet others with a hug or a handshake, and a "God bless you!" In this we were happy to participate.

The predominant impression I came away with was joy over the universality of God, and the worship of His people everywhere, far beyond our little insular experience in the pews in Ann Arbor. This was a very great joy, as was the energetic singing of the young children, whose jubilation was abundantly clear.

After church some of us relaxed until lunch; however most of the men began a project. This week, as his Eagle Scout project, Jake Single is leading an effort to put a tin roof on a second grade classroom under construction. The Haitians had already erected a framework of sturdy metal pipes, roughly two inches in diameter, which were interconnected and braced, as well as had the construction materials pre-delivered. These pictures show, first, an initial survey of the site, and then Jake beginning to drill one of the attachment holes.

For Easter dinner today (and also Tom Single's 40th birthday dinner), we had a magnificent meal that the men returned to the roof building site, and others prepared for the children's Sunday School class at 3:00. I spent some time at the roof site and then returned to the guesthouse to blog about the day, since the generator had been turned on in order to provide power for the drill. But I wrote a lengthy and complex blog post, and was just ready to publish it to the blog, when the generator went out, eliminating the wifi, and wiping out my post. This was a great example of Mary Jane's frequent saying: "That's Haiti!"

More pictures from the afternoon roof session include Tom and Jake doing more attachment, and Mark doing some drilling.

After the 3:00 Sunday School class, there was a youth group meeting down at the church, which our team led in crafting pen toppers. Mary Jane offered me the opportunity to do one, but I told her, "I'll pass." I later added, though, "My wife Michelle would be all over this, as she loves crafting!" This picture shows Katie, Marissa, and Jake helping with the crafting. Although Mary Jane told me that the youth group continued students between 14 and 24 years old, clearly a couple of the observers in the picture are much younger than that.

 For dinner, we enjoyed leftovers from our grand midday feast, as well as a couple of pies (pumpkin and peach) that the girls/women had made in the cooking room after church. They also brought out a small sample of the peach, with birthday candles in it, while we sang to Tom.

As I write, it is 8:00 p.m., and we have enjoyed a most blessed Easter. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

POSTSCRIPT - We concluded with a devotional led by Mark, centered on the story of Jesus on the Emmaus road on Easter night (as told in Luke 24: 13-35).

Saturday evening

We had a lovely day today in Jacmel, about which Wikipedia says, "Jacmel is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census. The town's name is derived from its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel.

The buildings are historic and date from the early nineteenth century; the town has been tentatively accepted as a World Heritage site and UNESCO reports that it has sustained damage in the 2010 Haiti earthquake."

Upon arriving, we ordered our meal immediately, with the majority of us choosing seafood or fish dishes, and then enjoyed some swimming while the food was readied. Once it was prepared, we sat down to a delicious meal at this long table. Not totally visible in the large group picture were Mari, Katie, and Marissa, who were behind Mary Jane.

Before we left, Eric Veenstra helped me out by taking a picture of the blogger at work, since I had not been able to appear yet except for our first photo at Detroit Metro.

After our meal there, we left about 1:30, and arrived back at the mission about 4:00. The trip took longer than this morning's because we had a flat tire just as we were leaving the town of Jacmel. A young man on a motorcycle passed us and pointed it out to us—very fortunately, as it turns out, before we got up onto that dramatic Jacmel Road through the mountains. But Felix soon had the tire changed and we were on our way again. As we were leaving town, another notable incident occurred, again highlighting the crazy traffic. With the narrow road packed with both motor vehicles and motorcycles, as well as a heavy number of pedestrians, we suddenly came upon a little old man in a wheelchair, in our lane, but facing our way. He was propelling himself backwards down the road as quickly as possible, and after Felix tapped the horn to let him know we were coming, we eased around him and soon left him behind.

After we exited the Jacmel Road and were on level ground once again, another interesting incident occurred when we passed a big truck towing a trailer heavily loaded with agricultural products, and Mary Jane told us, "That's sugar cane—they'll make it into rum."

Since getting back we've sorted the checked supplies that we brought, and are now (5:15) relaxing with cards and such, getting ready for a simple dinner of hot dogs and Rice Krispie treats.

LATER: Before turning in, a few of us went "up to the roof"—a large flat area accessed by sturdy cement stairs with handrails, and affording a splendid 360° view of the surrounding hills, covered with dwellings, and, to the west, the Atlantic Ocean. The following pictures show Katie Abraham gazing out off the roof; Mark Gunderson enjoying his water bottle (not a liquor flask!); and the view of the ocean.

Jacmel

We are at the resort in Jacmel, which we reached by a nearly two and a half hour drive this morning (leaving the mission at 7:30 and arriving here just before 11:00), over the dramatic and sometimes disturbing Jacmel Road. Crossing the mountains, it is full of switchbacks and curves, and not overly wide, by any means—Mary Jane said it was built by American engineers back in the thirties or forties—and even though Mary Jane reassured us that our driver, Felix, is a very good driver, I was not convinced that the same could be said of all other drivers we saw. At one point, Mary Jane noted the several vehicles backed up behind us, but not long thereafter they beeped their horns in frustration and passed us, on mountain curves (!). In fact, at one point, there was a double pass, as a vehicle passed us, while a young man on a little motor scooter passed him.

When we could bear to look, though, the scenery was spectacular. As this picture shows, we saw clouds in the mountains.

Once we got here, swimming in the Atlantic was presented to us as an option, and though I was eager to update my blog, I decided I needed to get into the ocean first. The view below is from the upper area where we first arrived, with a significant drop along paths down to the "beach."

 I decided to get the ocean plunge done first, and so changed and made my way down to the cove. It was quite rocky, and, as I told Mary Jane, I grew up on a lake and was outdoors barefoot all day every day from June through August—but it's amazing what a half century and a couple of hundred pounds has done to my ability to walk barefoot on rocks! Anyway, I did get out into the water for a while, and was the first one to do so—after my brief encounter with the Atlantic, others followed me down there. Mary Jane went down with me, and kindly offered me her arm to help me across the rocks. Though the following picture looks fairly sedate, there were some fair waves crashing in once I waded out into the water, knocking me down a couple of times.

Anyway, the first thing we did when we arrived was to order our food, because Mary Jane said it takes them a couple of hours to prepare it. So now, we are all relaxing, resting from our time in the ocean, and awaiting our meal.

Saturday morning

We are beginning to stir—it is now 6:15, and there are only a couple of us out here in the dining area so far (myself and Tom), but everyone has been awakened, in anticipation of an early breakfast and a 7:00 departure for our fun day at Jacmel.

I wouldn't have thought this possible yesterday, but Mary Jane told us last night where there were some covers in case we needed one, and about 3 a.m. I had to make my way by flashlight over to retrieve a thin one, as it had cooled off considerably!