So we started our Sunday off with church, which is a big concrete building with some fans and windows right on campus. It technically started at nine but because they take so late to start, we all arrived by 9:30. I first felt somewhat uncomfortable, sitting in the back with all the Haitian families there in their Sunday’s best. That was, until this tiny, wizened old woman, maybe 4’11 at most, sat in the row in front of us and kissed us on the cheek in welcome. She was so excited to be there, and you could tell that she had walked a long way very slowly in what could only be described as a heavy felt Irish dancing dress and cracked shoes. She was absolutely precious.
Church was relatively short at only 2 1/2 hours. We sang in Creole, listened to the message (which was much harder to follow in Creole), and then introduced ourselves to the congregation. Silver lining of having my name mean “bouillon cubes”- everyone remembered me and excitedly came up to me and repeated my name after church.
Us interns got a special treat and got to go into Port-au-Prince. We loaded up on the tap-tap and drove into the city. Unlike my initial reaction after landing, I was able to discern between truly impoverished and better off. Having that perspective was incredibly helpful. We went to the UN (I was a total nerd seeing the Blue Helmets) and ate at their restaurant, which was very nice. We even got ice cream! After we visited a developing artisan area, where they made beautifully intricate metal decorations and art, the heat index reached 102 degrees so we bought 7-Ups from the street. Fun fact- the lids were salted because the Haitians like the clash of flavors.
After our very exciting day, we had downtime and even got to watch the thunderstorm hit the mountains. It was really fun to get off campus for a bit but I’m also extremely excited to start working in English camp in two weeks!