Monday report from Haiti

Today was a busy day. Half the group traveled out to a village 2 hours distant from Port-au-Prince called Gallet-Chombon. There is a church being built there to serve the farmers and villagers in that region. Last July we painted the inside of the church and now we are furnishing pews. At the moment the people basically sit on the floor and on broken down old chairs. Hopefully by January the pews will be built!

So this morning we went to the local wood store to purchase a very large quantity of wood, screws and varnish. Buying things in a third-world country can be a rather unique experience involving bartering and bargaining with lots of people. After two hours we managed to get all the materials and start off on the road to Gallet-Chombon.

When we arrived to the church we were greeted by a bunch of smiling kids and some men who helped us unload all the wood. The kids know we always bring soccer balls so we were immediately surrounded by eager kids asking for us to play soccer. We had 5 balls with us so a soccer tournament was quickly set uo. All the village came out to watch and enjoy the show. Production will begin tomorrow for the pews! Hopefully we will have some pictures of that for you.

The other part of the group stayed back to help with the babies in the clinic and to help at a wounds clinic in downtown Port-au-Prince. Tomorrow we will be passing out food all morning to the poor of Port-au-Prince. It promises to be a beautiful and tiring day. Please keep us in your prayers!

 

About Fr Michael Mitchell LC

Fr Michael Mitchell was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the second of 10 children. Presently, he works as a vocational director and youth minister in Chicago, Illinois.
This entry was posted in RC Live. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *