July 13,1998 in Haiti

In my previous post on Haiti, I said that I would be blogging about my experiences in Haiti twelve years ago when I spent my summer helping a missionary friend.  This is what I emailed back home on July 13, 1998.

July 13, 1998   Flannelgraph items, crayons, coloring pictures, attendance sheets, yarn, name tags, prizes, Bibles, prepared lesson, songbook, thermos and cups . . . one by one, Joetta crossed off the items on her VBS checklist--and we were on our way.  Today was one of our first day of VBS at one of the churches in Caphaitian.

The church was only about 15 miles away, but it took over an hour to get there.  The roads are so bad--pothole after pothole--you hardly know where to drive.  It's certain that you will have to drive right over potholes, the challenge is to find the smaller, less deep ones!

As we drove up to the church, a group of waiting children came swarming to the car, running, shouting, and smiling.  My, what a welcome!  And the children kept coming until there were over 100--the benches were already filled and overflowing.  Joetta says the attendance increases every day, and we can expect 200 by Friday.

Those children sang and clapped with gusto and a good rhythmical beat.  They emphatically recited their verse for the day; "loudness" seems to really count here!

The church was just a roof with four corner poles, wobbly wooden benches, no backs.  Instead of seeing walls, you could look out and see cocoa trees, banana trees, mango trees. Mother hens were scurrying around clucking with their chicks, scratching in the dirt.  Pigs were grunting and digging; goats were roaming in and out.  Cows were grazing.  Very picturesque; I couldn't stop looking because I wanted to implant all of it in my mind so I'd never forget it!