Our RC Missionaries have been working in a remote village the past couple days — all safe and were welcomed in the village by 50 little children. They spent the first day with the children and got started to work on the pews for the church. They had a very large Haitian meal for dinner and they unrolled their sleeping bags and got to sleep.
They finished all the pews the second, so 11 pews were built and ready to be brought to the small chapel on the mountainside. They also had time to have a very long soccer game with all the village children.
Some of the missionaries were not feeling well because of the sun (86 degrees today!). So they stayed inside and worked with some of the children making blue and white rosaries for the village. The plan is that the village priest will teach them all the rosary once we have enough rosaries made.
Very early in the morning they had their ash Wednesday mass with all the villagers. Even a full choir showed up for mass! Fr Thomas was able to say mass in French for the people while the village priest, Fr Wathner gave the homily in Creole.
Construction of a wall around the church property is also underway, so lots of rock moving and foundation digging has begun as well.
Thursday around midday we came back to Walls Guest House, in Port-au-Prince, with tired bodies and full hearts. These days at the village of Gallete Chambon were very enlightening and enriching since we were able to interact with older kids (than at the Children’s Home) and also with adults; with some we were able to communicate in very broken English, and with others in French; and if it was not with words we communicated through our actions: working, playing or singing with them. We had the afternoon off and realized how much we value a shower and a bed. At night we had half an hour of adoration to pray for those we’ve encountered these days.
