Haiti, Day 6

Another day gone.  This trip is going by pretty quickly!  Anyways, we hit the bus at 9:15am and headed off to church.  We went to a chapel called Quisqueya (I’m 80% sure that is how it is spelled…) and attended their services.  When we arrived we all piled in to the church and found some seats.  The service started and general announcements were made.  Then, anyone that was new to church that day was asked to stand up.  We stood and were welcomed and then were given some time to meet some of the other members.  It was nice and a lot of people came over to shake our hands and ask us where we were from.  Afterwards we sang a lot of songs, listened to a sermon, had communion, and then sang a closing song.  It was pretty interesting to attended church here in Haiti.  I would say about 10-20% were foreigners (including the man that gave the announcements and the man that gave the sermon).  Afterward, we all wondered if it was a Haitian church that many foreigners attended, or if it was a church set up by foreigners that many Haitians attended.  The sermon referenced many things related to the United States, such as US Presidents and C.S. Lewis.  We all found that to be pretty odd.

Anyways, after church we headed to a market.  Attached to the little shop was a restaurant where we ate lunch.  They did not have many vegetarian options so I may or may not have eaten a side of fries for lunch…. Whoops.  While we waited for our meal, Greg, Ang, Olin, & I all sat at the same table and worked on our Creole.  Olin doesn’t speak much English, but was really nice and tried to work with us.   He is pretty darn funny.  After our meal we all wandered next door to the art/gift shop.  They had many things which I would have liked to purchase!  However, we have to be conscious of multiple things.  First, money.  We only brought a certain amount of cash and there are no ATMs here in Haiti.  Second, weight and size.  We have to be able to fit stuff in our suitcases and we don’t want to pay a fee for having a heavy bag.  So we got a few things, spent some money, and then got back on the bus.  Because it is Sunday we learned that other shops in the area were closed.  So we went back to HHH for the rest of the day.  I did some reading before dinner and then we had a group discussion about how we were all feeling and what we had seen.  Afterwards, we played Bananagrams for a little bit.  And guess what?  Greg won two games!  We got him that game for Christmas and this is the first time he has won!  Hooray for Greg! 

Well, I just got out of the shower and am trying to get my hair to dry a little bit before I go to bed.  Sleeping with wet hair is never fun but it is even worse in high humidity areas.  But alas, I have to get some sleep as we have to be on the bus by 6:45am tomorrow.  Goodnight!

Ang probably wont appreciate this but.... Language lessons with Olin!