Friday, March 13, 2009 - Day 8

After breakfast we watched a coral performance from the school children at the Trinity House School. They were wonderful. I also had the opportunity to walk Richie to class, a kindergarten student I had made friends with the day before.

Then we heard the story of Jacky (see photo), the dance group's choreographer. Jacky lived with his mom for 9 years until she died of malaria (treatable in the US). His father had left ot have another family whne he was a baby (not very uncommon). After his mother's death, Jacky lived as a restavek (child slave) before coming to St. Joseph's at age 11. He said that he was mistreated by his aunt and uncle because he was not their own children. He came to Trinity House to teach dance in 2003 and to educate kids about how much better life is at Trinity House then on the street. His hope for Trinity House is that the boys believe that they can build a future. After hearing Jackie's story, the boys at Trinity House sang us a farewell song and we hit the road.

It was an hour up to the mountains of Fondwa. We passed amazing views and a roadside market. We stopped in Fondwa and from there walked a mile and a half because the road was too steep to the convent (see photo of convent, church on the way down, and pictures of the hike) we were staying at. After arriving at the convent we walked down to the neighboring school just as the students were getting out for the week (see picture of the school, a classroom, and their new library). We also met Jamilyn who is a Duke Divinity School gradute who moved to Fondwa for two years with her husband following school. They now live in Indiana and make visits to Haiti.

We walked back to the convent and the nuns had graciously prepared us a wondeful lunch of plantains, chicken, black beans, rice, and eggplant. The nuns definately practice radical hospitality -- we had planned on pbj's. After lunch we walked to the orphange down the road. It was down a very steep incline off the main road (see photos). We hiked down and played with the children. There were at least 20 kids there. The are 3 nuns who live there and the older girls who are not married or in school help out. I played with a 4-year-old named Jobie and I talked with Linda, a 15-year-old who spoke incredible english. She was very nice and thought it was cool that our names are similar.
For dinner the nuns sang Happy Birthday to Nicole in Kreyol. After dinner, Jamilyn told us her story. She was back in Haiti for one of several visits she makes a year. She explained her hestiation at moving to Haiti and how a trip there during Divinity School had been her visit out of the country. She described the culture shock at going to the grocery store for the first time when she got back to America and saw all the food choices. She felt overwelmed by all the choices in America not afforded members of third-world counties. She encouraged us to pick a practice to alter in our lives to honor Haiti. She explained that she felt that the Haitians wanted nice things and so we shouldn't shun nice things. However, they took good care of what they had and that was the practice she chose to adopt. It's overwelming the thought of returning to life in the US, a life of major consumption after seeing life in Haiti. That night I fell asleep early but began hearing sounds of people walking to the market, an hour's walk away up the steep hill, shortly after 3 am...