Sometimes you can sense the moment when something profound happens. It was so last night.
Finding Joy
Parties and pictures
We've spent many hours this year prepping for parties and photographing people and places. Faces of laughing children mix with stories of struggling parents to blend into remarkable contrasts and reflect as always the story that is Haiti. We look forward to sharing with you Sunday at the Flavors of Haiti!
Home after Haiti
We've been home almost a week. We will gather together again as a group in a couple of days to share our reentry stories and to enjoy the safe harbor we created while traveling. The gift of traveling with these folks was one of the deep and lasting rewards of the trip.
Catching up and coming home
We have all arrived safely home. What a rewarding week--filled with challenges, smiles, stories, laughter and sighs too deep for tears.
Wednesday morning we met with the MPP leadership once again to clarify and contemplate and learn and consider. It was a good meeting. We have great partners and we all are working together for this project to be successful and the school to be sustainable.
After the meeting we loaded all our gear and made the long trip back to the city. The roads offer great challenges and the trip was not "fun", but we were safe and we arrived intact. In Haiti, this is a triumph!
Thursday morning we reflected on our many varied gifts, how the range of those gifts worked for the good of our tasks, and how we will move forward. How will we answer the question "How was your trip?" Give us time if you ask that question!
And now we are home. It is good to be home. It is good to have hearts filled with the joy of sharing this week with each other and with our dear friends in Haiti. It is good to have minds filled with questions, so many questions. And it is so good to feel the Spirit moving wherever we go.
At the school Tuesday morning
Today the children were happy to wear new uniforms which had been donated from St. Joseph School in Virginia. Several members of our group worked with three of the classes and their teachers to prepare art projects to bring back to share with children in Atlanta.
Bonjou! (good morning in Haitian Creole)
Four of the teachers
Art at work!
Our first day at the school -- Monday morning
Raymond, the school principal, proudly holds the framed photo of the children of his school taken by our travel group in November 2015 and presented on this trip
Children patiently waiting for all to arrive before praying and eating lunch in the newly built refectory
These children proudly wear their school uniforms sewn by village women on donated sewing machines.
Videographer at work
Our hardworking videographer/photographer David at work editing video for the Flavors of Haiti event on May 7. Y'll come!
Sunrise on Monday, April 10
A glorious sunrise yesterday at the National Training Center for Farmers of the MPP, which is our host for this trip. Unretouched photo from an Android phone taken by Scott.
Some assembly required
On Monday morning we split in two groups. Chris and Pat took the boxed up sewing machine to the community center in Village 1 and reassembled it with expert assistance from the instructor of the sewing class. Mike and Scott were there to observe and document. The last photo shows the presentation to the assembled members of the sewing class.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday we attended worship in a palm church across the road from the Eco Villages. Pastor Germail teaches in the school. It was a wonderful experience for all of us.
