Greetings after our little excursion to the village of Gallet-Chambon. On Wednesday, we packed our bags and spent a short morning at the Children’s Home while Father and a few missionaries went to buy the supplies we would need for our overnight in the village. They came by around 11:00 to pick us up and we took our first excursion out of Port-au-Prince and enjoyed the countryside which was beautiful to see!
Our drive took us a good 1 hour and 15 minutes (which was great because with traffic sometimes it can take up to 3 or 4 hours!) As soon as we were in sight of the parish all of a sudden we heard a distinct noise. A high-pitched squeal greeted us as the children from the parish school spilled from their classrooms to welcome us to the town.
Gallet-Chambon has a parish that Mission Youth has been helping for the past few years. Their pastor, Fr. Wathner, has been very welcoming to our missionaries. This time we were helping to dig the hole for the wall that Father wants to surround the parish (to make it more secure), we painted different parts of the church rectory, and had a lot of time to play games with the children. The older boys really enjoyed playing a rousing game of soccer, while the little ones got a kick out of Duck, Duck, Goose and learning how to play baseball.
We spent the night there and we realized how spoiled we had been at the Guesthouse because, boy, it was HOT! The girls were in the rectory and fended off the bugs and the boys the boys spent the night in the church (on the benches that the group from January helped to make). It may not have been the most restful night, but it did help us to understand a bit from the inside of what the Haitians live every day. And made us appreciate the showers once we returned to the Guesthouse.
We had a good moment of sharing tonight about our entire mission experience and we hope that you ask us all about it when we get home. Pray for our safe travels and we are so excited to see you all very soon!
