I have written a lot about my thoughts and feelings towards Haiti in general but I haven't really told you much about what we did on our last trip down. My goal this trip was to spend money. I have been saving for a year the donations I have made from selling bracelets and it was time I put some of that money to good use! And until about a week before we were scheduled to leave we had no idea what we were going to do. The call came from Mona, and we packed our bags, ready to paint!
Since the earthquake, over two years ago, Papa Ernst Casseys School had been undergoing subtle changes. Some areas of the school are over 3 stories tall, and miraculously none of the structures on school grounds were damaged beyond repair. They have gone from having school and church services beneath tarps they had hung from one building to the next, to services being held in a large warehouse type building, to finally being able to go back to classrooms. However there is still a large part of the school's buildings that are not being used, and that includes their Cafeteria and Library. Since the earthquake school days have been shortened due to the lack of these facilities. If they can't feed the kids, they can't ask them to stay late in to the afternoon.
We were asked to paint the Cafeteria, and I happily gave what I could to buy gallons upon gallons of yellow and turquoise paint. The first day we sanded the concrete walls, and thankfully we brought enough sunglasses and rags to cover our nose and mouths and eyes because the dust was awful! We sanded everything from the ceiling to the floors, we sanded until our sand paper had no sand left on it, and by noon we all looked like the kid in The Sandlot who came stumbling out of the tree house after his attempt to retrieve the baseball resulted in vacuums shorting, and dust exploding everywhere!
On the second and third day way primed. We painted everything over and over again in white. In Haiti things are usually run a little different, and the delineation between being male and female, and what males and females can and can not do are still alive and well! Apparently Females can paint with small brushes, but when it comes to painting with rollers, or painting the ceilings, that was left to the men, so the guys usually left covered in little white specks, while the girls left with minor splotches and drips.
On the fourth day, Mona took use to a beach just outside of the city. The water was beautiful, and refreshing, and we had the opportunity to see a lot of sea creatures. Especially jellyfish, and starfish! Fortunately there was a fearless man who came to swim that day, and no qualms with picking jellyfish up by their tops and throwing them over the concrete walls! I think we all missed working that day, knowing that more could have gotten done, but at the same time I think it is important to see all sides of Haiti. It can be very difficult to go to a place where everything seems to be so rough, you can some times lose sight of what kind of beauty can still exist for the people who have to live there every day. Haiti is a beautiful country, and no Haitian I have met is ashamed. Happiness can be found sans extravagance, and I would say our beach trip was just that. I am sure that we all still wished the kids could have been there with us, but school is always important. And with us not being at the school, they probably actually learned something that day, ha ha!
On Friday we went back to finish painting at the school, and to our surprise almost everything was already done. The yellow parts were yellow, the white parts we touched up, and Erik I think reluctantly let Chloe, Juliet and I help finish the turquoise.
As for the afternoons we tried to do a Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids, but it usually just ended up being a bible story followed by crafts, followed by chaos.
Although I wish that we had had more time to do more in the quick and short week we were there, I believe by just being there for the kids, and repeatedly coming back I, and the others, show a deeper kind of love and caring, regardless of whether or not we have anything to give them, like candy, or toys, the fact that we keep showing up tells them that they are important and not to be forgotten, in our eyes or the Lords.
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