Well, I woke up this morning and got a Valentines card from my very thoughtful wife. Her not very thoughtful husband did not have a card :( It slipped my mind in all the preperation until we were already in Haiti. There is a severe shortage of Hallmark stores in Haiti!
I felt so bad for her because I could tell it stung her some. She really deserved better from me. She is a WONDERFUL wife.
We had an early morning today. Breakfast was served and then we left at 7:45 for VBS at the school in Ansefoleur, about 10-12 miles east of St Louis du Nord. After the VBS, we were to have a prayer time at a spot called Voodoo Mountain a former voodoo sacred hill just outside of Ansefoleur.
Our morning got off to a rough start as just outside the mission, our tire started going flat. We stopped on the edge of the road in the town square and had it repaired by a roadside tire vendor. It took him a lot of mud scraping to find the source of the flat so we were delayed 30-40 minutes.
Of all the rough roads we travelled, this was the most brutal. The roads, if you want to call them that were atrocious. There were 18 of us sitting on the bed of the truck along with 6 (100lb) bags of rice and beans. We were jostled and bumped something fierce! It was the most scenic drive we had as well. Shortly after crossing the river where the market sets up we were going through Laforge and drove up to a huge, deep, long, wide waterhole. There was no way around it, only through it!
Everyone held their feet up and the diesel started chugging through. Very soon, water started filling up the bed of the truck as we were driving through nearly 4 feet of water. Right in the middle he got held up momentarily on a rock and we thought we would stall our and be wading through the muck for sure. But steadily the driver drove through and out of the mudhole. We immediately stopped to let water out of the cab and bed of the truck! We Michiganders think we have pothole problems. We got nothing on Haiti!
The remainder of the 70 minute drive was through gorgeous countryside up and down cliffs along the ocean. The view was spectacular! The road was not so we had PLENTY of time to soak in the sights.
We arrived in Ansefoleur about 9:30. It is a beautiful little town, hard by the ocean across from the far east tip of Tortuga. The school was well run and we presented the program to 100 kids ages 8-10. It went very well. The kids were very excited and well behaved. They really liked the program. Once again, Roland led them in a raucous worship song time to get them fired up.
Before we left for Haiti i had wondered "why VBS programs"? I thought there were much better ways to serve than this. However, I now understood how important this was. The kids (and Gran Moun) really responded to it and it showed them that God is the Father of the white man and the black man. All men are equal and we are here to serve and praise him! We had touched over 700 kids, the future of Haiti. Thank you God for allowing me to be part of this!
The ride back was equally uncomfortable to seemed a bit quicker and the water hole a bit shallower, though we had to stop again to drain water out of the cab and bed of the truck. After we got back, Mom, Lisa, and I had dish duty.
That afternoon I made a couple of brief sojourns into St Louis du Nord that I won't forget! That's up next.
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