Fete de Dieu

Thursday was one of my most enjoyable days in Haiti. It was the Fete de Dieu (Party for God)

This means no school, no work, and there is lots of celebration. The night before the Fete de Dieu, the neighbors across the street began this crazy regime of decorating. There entire house suddenly was covered with blue and white blankets, streamers, paper, and many other creative forms of decor. They set out a beautiful pathway of sugar cane heads along side the road and by their front door. I wasn't exactly sure what they were decorating for.... but, it was beautiful. The family worked well into the blackness of night cleaning the trash from around their house. They swept and cleaned like crazy.

Well, Thursday morning around 7:00am I heard the most beautiful noise. I was not being waken up by a rooster crowing, but by singing! And, Haitian singing is nothing like American singing...Haitians sing with their nose, and they sing soo passionately. They sing loud and off key...but, at the same time the sounds are so in tune and wonderful.

I threw on some clothes and rushed out to the balcony. And, the sight I saw was so unexpected. There were about 200 people crowded around the neighbor's house singing praises to God. Some people were dressed in their Sunday bests, some ladies wore great hats, some people wore tshirts, some wore sandals, some wore no shoes. It was sure a Church Under the Bridge sense of worship. People were dressed as they could. It was such a pure praise too. The songs were sung with their hearts.

After about a good 30/45 minutes, the huge crowd moved on down the street...I think they were going to another house.

I later found out more about the Fete de Dieu. People start at their church in the morning, and then walk to different houses to worship and sing. Wow. What a beautiful representation of Jesus' life.

When the crowd left the house, the sight on the street was wonderful. There was a huge heart drawn on the ground with chalk-like material. There was also a great crown of thorns (which could have just as easily been a sun) drawn on the ground. Wow. What a beautiful sight.

Well, as the day went on the crown of thorns painted on the street was trampled. With the many cars, bikes, and people eventually the crown disappeared. How similar is that to how so many people treat Christ. Our own selfish lives can so easily destroy something so beautiful. We go about our daily lives sometimes so unaware of what beauty we might be missing.

God and I have had some hard conversations here. He's been showing me a lot of Truth and that has confused me so much. But, I feel that He is holding onto my hand so tightly here. I'm seeing somethings in my life that are just so ugly. It makes me appreciate and understand the grace of God. Grace is a concept I don't think I pay enough attention to.

Grace.

There is a Creole/French saying that is "grace a"....this means "thanks to..." For example, you would say "I got this meal "grace a" my family." What a great translation of the word Grace.

Grace. I still don't think I even understand the pure power behind that word.

Lyrics I'm Humming:

I'll Fly Away

Lavarie!

So many things have happened lately! I have no idea where to even start explaining. But, since I love details so much, I will concentrate on one particular event.

Here are some recent highlights:

-Mathilde (the French girl) came on Sunday and she is teaching a French class opposite of my English class.
-I play soccer with a bunch of guys almost every day and we drink sugar cane and coconut juice when we get thirsty!
-I eat spaghetti and hotdogs for breakfast sometime.
-I think my sweat it starting to smell good...hmm...
-I wrote a song for the first day of class! It went really well! I love teaching kids.
-The kids are so cute in my class!!

However, I want to talk about something so simple, so overlooked, yet such an incredibly beautiful art.

Laundry (In Creole...Lavarie)

MaryLoud does the laundry and cleans the house. She comes everyday with her two darling kids, LouLou and Fabienne. (LouLou and MaryLoud are in the picture together).


She did my laundry the first week, and I have never had my clothes so clean! There is this one stain on my tshirt that has been there since at least Junior High...well, not anymore! The stain has disappeared...however, my shirt is a completely different color..."grace a" all of the bleach!

Well, most of you know...I have this naive/ideal mentality of "I can do anything I put my mind to." And, the other day, I asked MaryLoud if I could help her do my laundry. After all, it is MY laundry. And, I think it would be good for me to learn how to do my own laundry by hand.

MaryLoud is so kind. She has great dreadlocks and wears a straw hat and a light blue rosary around her neck everyday. She has such a beautiful smile and is so humble. Well, when I asked her, she smiled and said "Sure, dear, you can help me." Her eyes twinkled, for she knew that I had never washed my own clothes by hand!

Well, we first began by making the soap! Yes! That's right! She made the soap with a huge machete. Her fingers glided around the slippery stuff, with no fear that the knife would sever a limb. I watched in amazement.

Then the washing began. We scrubbed and scrubbed, but I could not get the suds to come up like MaryLoud did! So, after I "washed" an item, she redid it for me! Haha. But, she was so patient.

But, what a dance she was doing. Her hands moved to a beat. It seemed as if she had choreographed a beautiful routine and was performing it. Her black fingertips worked so fast and she grinned slightly during the entire process. I on the other hand was incredibly off-beat...struggling to find any melody or any notes for that matter! MaryLoud's arms sang and her muscles were so gracefully humming along.

We both sat down on these little chairs...my back and knees and feet totally killing me. MaryLoud looking very comfortable and peaceful.

After a good hour of scrubbing my clothes, I was soo happy to be finished. I had cut my fingers up, my arm muscles were burning, my fingers were prunned up, and my legs were now pretty much completely asleep.

Little did I know, there was more washing to do! We then took this really powerful soap and did the entire process again! No way! I was in shock!

But, by this time pretty much all of our neighbors were crowded around me and MaryLoud...for they wanted to see this white American girl who had never done her own laundry by hand before! They laughed and joked at how bad I was doing! It was pretty funny... The little kids were all trying to show me how to do it...but, my fingers were cut up from all of the rubbing... I eventually found a method that worked and I got lots of suds...but it hurt my hands!!!

After now at least 2 and a half hours...MaryLoud separated the clothes into "needs to be washed again" and "can be hung up to dry." I helped her hang up the clothes to dry (see picture at top)...and she told me to go grab some lunch! Haha! She did the whole process over again with the clothes that "needed to be washed again." I was in awe!

My fingers are still red and cut up...MaryLoud's are strong and soft. Oh goodness...

How inferior I am to MaryLoud! I so often think that because Americans are so crafty, creative, inventive, and have money that somehow we have the answers and that we are superior in some way to a culture like Haiti. Oh do I have so much yet to learn!

It was so obvious how superior MaryLoud is so me! She washes clothes as an art!

I've been thinking so much lately about Economic Development and what Christian's role is in that subject. How do we preserve a culture, and provide basic needs such as food and clothing. Do my ideas of Economic Development only involve creating more jobs so that people have more money. Can Economic Development exist without increasing a country's wealth?

How would Jesus see Economic Development?

Lyrics I'm Humming:

So Fresh and So Clean! Clean!

Makendy

There are about a dozen people who live in the house I'm staying in, and there are about a dozen stories as to why each of them are residing there.

Makendy (pronounced Mackenzie) is one of the stories I first heard about. He is an orphan boy about 16 years old who Yoleine adopted. She was by the sea one day buying fish and she found Makendy. His dad died and his mom, who had too many children to handle, had left him. Yoleine heard his story, fell in love with him, and searched out his mom to ask if she could adopt him. She, happily, agreed.

Makendy is quite the kid though. He seems to always be getting in some type of trouble! But, he is so dang cute. He's a total flirt and I just adore the kid!

So, during the day, I really have no idea what to do with myself. So, I found a friend in Makendy. We've had such a fun time!!

We cleaned the upstairs of a restaurant yesterday. It was sooo gross though! There were bugs crawling from every nock of the building...urg... I had a pair of gloves so I told Makendy we could share them... He said "No! I'm Haitian. You're white! Use the gloves." Haha.

I feel like he is kinda like my watchdog. He's very concerned that I'm not hungry, thirsty, tired, or uncomfortable. It's funny.

Makendy is very competitive though. And, sometimes he is a total punk. Almost every day we play soccer. (Allie, the balls you gave us are a total hit!!!) However, he always calls faults and penalties and is the first to call a goal "No Goal!" if he thinks it was somehow unfair. I just laugh at him. He's pretty good at soccer though, and I think he knows it.

The other night I was talking to him, and he told me that he's always been a problem...that his whole life he's caused problems. I felt so bad for him. He's got such a great heart, but sometimes I think he's just a little immature.

Lyrics I'm Humming:

Macarena (It was totally on the radio during dinner!!)

Voodoo

I'm not sure I have a good understanding of religion in Haiti. I understand what the CIA has to say in its Factbook...but, the reality is still unclear to me.

First, all of the taxis and buses (pick-up trucks with dozens of Haitians piled in!!) all advertise the Glory of Jesus Christ and the Salvation of God. Every truck has some religious message to send. They glorify the sacrifice, live, and death of Jesus on the sides of their cars!

However, I am skeptical of the reality of these messages. I read once that Haiti is 90% Roman Catholic and 100% Voodoo. This is a very interesting, and humourous, statement!

I researched that stat a little and discovered that many Voodoo gods are actually Catholic names...such as Mary, Jesus, Paul... For every Catholic Saint there is an equivalent Haitian Voodoo god, with the same name.

So, the conclusion that could be made is that this ultra-religious appearing country actually embraces the falsehoods of Voodoo and not Christianity. The challenge now arises when you ask someone in Haiti if they know Jesus Christ, everyone will say yes. However, is this the Jesus that Christians embrace??

Well, today I went with Mackenzie to a choir practice for a local church. It was a small room with about 20 little kids. And, the songs they were singing were so beautiful and pure. They sang some in French (which I could understand) and some in Creole (which...well...I'm working on...) And, I really think they were singing about the God I know. It was such a refreshing time for me to be around people who could sing praises with me. I sang with the kids and some of them laughed at me...they all smiled at the least!

I'm really struggling with how to approach this contradiction. Many of the Catholic churches are infliltrated with Voodoo ideas and the culture has taken a forward placement in many of the churches.

But, isn't this what we do in America?? Our middle-class culture often overpowers the basic message of Jesus. We are so blinded by money and things and our ideas are so often because of our culture and not because of Christianity.

So, what makes us different than the Haitians? We are all grappling with the simplicity of Christ against the loud and vivacious cultures in which we live in.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to church. I'm really looking forward to hopefully finding a glimpse of the Christianity I know and adore.

Lyrics I'm Humming:

This Little Light of Mine...I'm Gonna Let It Shine!

Off to the Sea!

So, today I got to go the sea! It was wonderful!! Bernadette, Francia, and Pernel (a Canadian man) took me out there.

We basically just chilled and did nothing. It was way nice.

Francia and I swam for a little bit...the water was hot!

After a while some guys came to the shore and started fishing. It was so peaceful watching them.

However, the pollution was terrible around the beach. There were shoes, plates, socks, food..it was such a sad sight.

There is so much potential in this beautiful country.