The greatest misnomer in Haiti is the name for the Home for the Dying. After our experience today we could rename it: the Home of Joy, the Home of Peace, the Home of Life. Certainly, there is much suffering that occurs there, but our experience today has shown us that suffering does not have the last word!
We arrived at the Home just after 9:00 in the morning and after morning prayer and finding a place to put our water and bags (and another group photo with #flatfrancis), we made our way (with some trepidation) up to the wards with the sick men and women.
The fear of encountering sick people and wondering how to deal with them in the right way was in the forefront of our thoughts in our first moments, but this soon wore off as we discovered the humanity of the patients. Our women missionaries had an experience almost like a slumber party in that we had fun giving the women a spa treatment, singing and dancing and playing games. The men, for their part, jumped right in with some Creole lessons from some of the men patients and continued with a bit of dominoes and soccer (with the kids who were a bit stronger).
The time passed in the midst of a lot of joy in self-giving and encountering Christ in the patients. Before we knew it, we were being asked to leave since it was time for the patients lunch and rest time.
We took advantage to have our own “lunch” and tried to take a nap on the concrete benches in the shade while we waited for the time that we could rejoin our new friends. We had a lot of time together in the afternoon and enjoyed playing “Mafia” together before we went up for one more hour with the patients.
Our ride home brought us through a different part of town than we had seen before and we thought you’d like to see a bit of what we have gotten to see.
Tomorrow we will have a short morning at the Children’s Home before we drive out to the village of Gallete-Chambon where we will stay the night and help with projects in the parish. Most likely we won’t have wifi there, so we will send the update as soon as we return!
Please continue to keep us in your prayers!
