Page five
June 2008
Sarah's Haiti Journal
Saturday, June 21

Today is Micial's wedding day!  He's to come by here this morning, then he and David will
go to town to get the wedding cake from the bakery.  We will clean and set up the dining
hall, then dress up for the wedding.  It's again hot and muggy today; David is looking at his
suit with dread.

It may be a challenging afternoon.  The wedding is in the church building on the corner of
the school property and the reception is in the dining hall.  During the reception, Sister
Marie will be cooking the American group's dinner.  The artist yo (Mdm. Duchange, Ronal,
Suzette and Tabita) will be by the front gate with their souvenirs to sell to the American
group.  Yes, it is a recipe for disaster, but we'll all survive.

What's really bad is that the poor bride has pink eye!

Update:  Yes, the whole day was working on the wedding preparation and going to the
wedding.  It was a lovely celebration.  I took over 200 photos, in hopes of getting enough
good ones to make a little book for Micial.  The weather turned off windy, then cloudy, so
it was just perfect for dressed-up people.  I'll put a few photos at the left for you to
click on.  1) Micial and Pharah, 2) Pharah and her maren (like the godmother of the bride),
3) David and the maren, 4) David, as paren, speaking at the reception, 5) David, Micial and
I at the reception.  Many more photos to come of guests at the wedding like Janet,
Daniel's aunt, Mdm. Lemartinye, Los Amigos, Altagrace and others. Click here for more
on the wedding and photos.

Friday, June 20
Today was a "sick of Haiti" day.  Many frustrations from the past sprung up, alive and well.
 I did feel better physically, and I was able to teach this morning.  That was great.  My
main frustration was living in a situation in which David is always in demand -- no chance to
sit, no lunch, no break.  I know part of it was just getting over feeling ill and being tired.   
David just occasionally has days that are so demanding that it really wears him down.  It's
after several of those days that he has a hard time being as patient and giving as he wants
to be.  The kids really know what those days felt like, because there was none left for
them.  

Today, David got things ready for the group to go out on clinic, went to chapel, translated
for my class all morning, went to pick up Sister Marie (school cook) from town, came back,
went to town again....  However, this week has been a bit more because Fonrose, Bellot
and Richard (the Haitian directors) are all busy elsewhere this week, as is Moise, who is
driving for the group.  David did speak very sternly to Sister Marie this evening when he
found that she had put her frozen hamburger meat in the group's ice chest for drinks.  
That's just the sort of thing that comes up when your resistance is low, and you have to
have enough in reserve to deal with it well.

Late this afternoon, we did manage to get away for a ride on the motorcycle out on the
country roads by the river.  We got some heckling by young men on the way through Katye
Morin, but then we were out by the river and the people were lovely (although amused to
see two old blancs on a moto).  I did mention to David (when we narrowly escaped hitting a
goat that ran out in front of us) that it would be humiliating to die in Haiti of goat-related
injuries.

To counteract my negative venting above, I would like to say what a joy it has been to
have our long-time friend and associate, Enok Dumorne, in this class of students.  He is 52
years old and he married in December for the first time.  He lived with his mother all her
life, and took care of her in her last years.  From the first time we heard him preach, we
were really impressed by his respect for his mother and his value for the family.  We
knew him first when he preached at the orphanage congregation occasionally.  Later, we
hired him to be the gate keeper here at the preaching school.  He did that with the same
seriousness and integrity that characterizes his life.  No one ever got in unless David
needed to see them.  He often advised David about needy folks coming, helping him not to
have to turn people away when he didn't have time to sit and listen to their story.  They
were a great team; David felt like it revolutionized his life.  I think he made a difference
to visitors too, to have someone help control the crowds of folks coming to see them.  
Anyway, it was his turn for me to interview him last night (while he was ironing his chirts).  
Among the things I asked was what had been difficult while he had been at school.  He
responded that it was difficult when his new wife had to be taken to the hospital at
Pignon, but her mother stayed with her so that he could continue his studies.  Also, he
admitted it was a bit difficult to ride his bike to Lagosette (where he preaches) (it takes
about an hour) (I think he's using a bike our kids gave him when we left), because he
couldn't take anyone (like his wife) with him.  If she comes, he has to pay a moto taxi.  Are
you keeping in mind that he is 52?  Talking to him is just like talking to a wise old owl.  He
thinks and speaks very deliberately.  He is not a flatterer, but one thing he said really
touched me.  When I asked about learning to get along with the other students, he
admitted that they all came from different places and had different temperaments.  He
said if some were "a little bit prone to arrogance", then it was his obligation to get along
and help them to be better.  He said God and Brother David had given him the chance to
receive training here, and it was his job to help all the group succeed as a unity.  He'll
never be an exciting preacher, but he will always be a sound one.

Thursday, June 19
Today was not my best day.  I got up to teach class, but turned out to be too ill to teach.  
So I slept off and on much of the day, and David taught both the morning and afternoon
sessions and completed Joshua.

At the end of Joshua is the "Choose you this day whom you will serve" speech, with the
rock standing as a witness.  David had the students memorize the whole passage (Joshua
24:14-27) for this class.  After class, David took the students out into the yard, and they
set up their own stone.  If you've been reading along with this journal, you may remember
when we first arrived and we "bought" this rock from some guys at the voodoo ruins (who
probably didn't own it, but were happy to sell it).

The rock was really heavy.  It took 10 of the students and David, working really hard to
get it moved across to the hole David had dug in front of the dining hall.  They set it up,
then Raphael Jonathan recited Joshua's challenge to the people, and the students
responded with the people's part.  Then David spoke a little about the challenge that lies
before each of us to choose.  The students were ready and eager for this experience,
because they'd re-enacted Joshua 8, with the blessings and cursings, the other day.

I enjoyed visiting with the North Carolina group that's here.  It's helpful to hear their
perspective on Haiti and the preachers from the fresh perspective of the first-timers,
and the experienced perspective of the those who've been coming for years.

David and the students went to the orphanage tonight for devo.  Edouard and Celigny did
the singing and lesson, respectively, and David said it was much more age-appropriate and
lively.

Wednesday, June 18
I received my lovely wedding invitation from Micial this morning.  You can click on it at the
left, to read it in French.  David doesn't need an invitation, because he is in the wedding
as the paren.  Micial told him that he and David will come in behind the little girls dancing
in.  The maren (bride's representative) and the bride will come in behind the dancing little
boys.  It should be fun, except for the sweating part.  The wedding will be in the church
building here, with the reception in the dining hall.  Guests can only come into the school
compound from the church building if they have a stamped card for the reception dinner.  
I didn't get one, but I think maybe I can still get in as the wife of the paren.  I was asked
to be maren at Dumorne's wedding, but I couldn't be here in December when he got
married.  His wife still refers to me as maren.

Today's history class was on Phoenecia and Assyria.  All the child sacrifice and skinning
people alive, respectively, helped to keep the students' attention.  Yesterday, during
Egypt, I have a couple who dozed off, which I found discouraging.  Today, David asked
them how they were sleeping at night, and they said, "Not much."  So I guess with the
heat and humidity (and they don't have fans after the generator goes off), they haven't
gotten much sleep the past few nights.  We also had a night or two that mosquitoes were
really bad, so if you sleep under a net, you're hot; if you don't use a net, you get bitten up.
 If I have a couple of nights that I don't sleep well, then I finally get so tired that I have
a great night's sleep.

Here are some of the students studying under the mango tree:  Guman, Raphael, Pecival
and Val.  Besides the danger of falling mangoes, it is a favorite place for the students to
gather after classes.  Because the big mango tree is getting old, we've planted 2 new
ones.  One, a batis, is in front of the water tower building;  it has a few mangoes on it this
year.  The other, a twa dous, is in front of the students' classroom; we hope it will provide
some shade to the classroom in a few years.  Trees here grow so quickly that it is fun to
plant a little sprout and have it become a tall tree in just a few years.  The leaves that
Dennis had the students pick last week are sprouting roots in their vase.

David is teaching the book of Joshua.  He had them re-enact Joshua 8, when Joshua was
following the commandment that Moses had given to put half the people in front of Mt.
Ebal (the mountain of cursing) and the other half in front of Mt. Gerazim (the mountain of
blessing).  As he read the laws and commandments of Moses to them, the people
responded and said, "Yes, we agree with that."  So David had 6 students stand towards
the mountain where the Citadelle is and six stand toward the mountain behind Cap Haitien,
and he read Deut. 27, which says God will curse the people if they sin in various ways, and
the students responded as the people and said, "Yes, we are in agreement with that."  And
then he prayed that God would give them strength and courage that they would not fall
into temptation and that they would help each other along the way, because they want to
live on the mountain of blessing, not the mountain of cursing.

Here is David, surrounded by the parts of 4 non-working fans, trying to get one fan to
work to replace one that has died in one of the students' dorm rooms.  They have been
patiently waiting for a couple of days, so David is hoping the old one in our boys' room can
be combined with another to make one working fan.

David's account:  Preske Pa Di Lakay (Almost is Not Home)

I learned this new Haitian proverb above.  We went to transfer the title on two vehicles
Friday.  We started at 9 o'clock.  My name in on the papers, and we needed to transfer
them into Fonrose and Maxi's names.  In the States, that would mean you go to a notary,
sign the car title, get the notary stamp and then the new owner goes to the tag agency
and gets a new title made.  That's not quite how it works here.

We went to the office to get the papers transferred.  We were told that I would have to
get my I.D. card renewed, since it was expired.  Then we went across town to the office
that does that, and they said we'd have to wait, until someone came back with gas for
their generator, so they could turn their computers on.  Then we were told that, since
I'm a foreigner, I would have to have a permanent visa to get that I.D. card.  The
permanent visa is for people who are living "permanently" in Haiti.  I explained to them
that I was just here for a few weeks, so I didn't need a permanent visa, but that didn't
seem to matter.  So we went downstairs to the immigration office, to see what they
could do to help us about the visa problem.  There was a girl behind a window with a hole
cut in it to talk to her.  The hole was about 6 feet off the floor.  Fonrose was explaining
the problem to her, but Fonrose is only about 5' 7", so he was standing on his tiptoes,
trying to speak to this girl through the hole that was still a little above the level of his
head.  She couldn't hear him very well, so he was yelling at her through the glass.  She
finally understood that we needed a permanent visa, and she simply said, "You have to go
to Port au Prince for that."  Fonrose then asked to see the director, so perhaps we could
get some answers to our questions, and she said he wouldn't be in for a couple of hours.  
Fonrose went back upstairs, explained again to the man who does the I.D. cards, offered
him an added incentive, and the man agreed to make a card, minus a few details, so he
wouldn't get himself in trouble.

Back to the transfer office, then we were sent to the police station to get some papers
there.  In between all this, we made several photocopies -- after the copy shop pulled out
their generator and started it up, so they'd have power.  We then went back to the police
station and found out that there was one other paper that we needed copies of, so
Fonrose went to make more copies.

When we got the papers done at the police, we went back to the transfer office again.  As
far as we could tell, everything was now ready, except that they said the person who signs
transfers doesn't do that on Fridays.  So we were told to come back Monday morning at 8
o'clock and they would take us upstairs and get the papers signed so we could be finished.  
So the first day finished at 3 o'clock.

So, in brief, here's how the rest went.  8 o'clock we arrived at the transfer office. 9
o'clock enough employees showed up to actually start working.  Found out my name was
misspelled on some papers; had to go back to police station to correct that.  Policeman
responsible for doing that wouldn't be in for another hour.  Went back to the transfer
office to get the signature on the one title that didn't have misspelled names, and got my
part of that completed.  Back to police station, and got misspelled name corrected on new
forms.  Back to transfer office and, while waiting to sign those papers, the power went
off.  The director went to the gas station and got gas for the generator, once the power
was on, he looked at our papers.  He realized the vehicle inspection form was missing, and
even though he'd confirmed with the office downstairs that it had been done, we had to
get an original hand-written form.  While we were doing that, the director went to lunch.  
When he came back, we got to see him again and sign the papers.

That finished my part of the process.  There are a few more steps for Fonrose and Maxi
to do to finish everything, but the satellite system was down, so they couldn't access
their computer records.  Fonrose has spent two more days on this.  Still no signal.  He
went again today and we don't now if it's done yet....

Thus, Maxi said to me "Preske pa di lakay."

Note:  By Wednesday evening, Fonrose had completed the paperwork on the school truck.  
On his own vehicle, he got everything done until the last step, when they told him he would
have to start over and go to Quanaminthe (the border of the Dominican Republic, where
he had a new engine put in a few years ago), because someone there had not stamped a
paper correctly.