03 Feb Canada Goes to Haiti: Day 3

A team of 8 persons from UB churches in Canada is in Haiti right now. Joan Sider, from New Hope church in Toronto, is sending back daily reports. Here is her report for Wednesday, February 1.

Joan Sider, New Hope Community Church, Toronto, Ontario

Before I tell of today’s work, let me mention the school associated with this Gonaives church. There are 5 classes of children ranging in age probably equivalent to our K-6 schools. The pastor’s wife is the director/principal and there are 3 female and 2 male teachers. I went into each classroom, took pictures, and greeted the children. They stood to their feet as I entered. They are dressed in their school uniforms and the female teachers have vests made of the same material as the girls. The older classes had scribblers and appeared to be doing a lot of work from the blackboard. There is a lot of rote teaching, and in the mornings when Audrey is doing the quilting with the ladies, it can be quite noisy. One of these 5 classes meets at the back of the church and we’re at the front.

It was very interesting to notice that the children taught by the ladies, had an extra long break because the principal and the female teachers wanted to quilt. So, as kids do, they were playing and not being too quiet about it. I was surprised when two of the teachers started into a second round of quilting–it was a lucky day for those children. The principal and one of the teachers each won a quilt in the draw. The others received sewing kits.

Now to start today. The owner of this hotel and the pastor drove us back and forth to our work sites–Audrey, to the old church and the men to the construction site. I floated between the two places.

At the construction site, the work began slowly–the men were looking for things to do. However, it wasn’t too long before each found a job–carrying blocks and mortar to the block layers. The remaining 6 courses were laid on the east wall first, leaving the window spaces open, and then the same was done for the west wall. Lots of trips were made by our men–back and forth, back and forth.

A load of blocks arrived–305 to be exact (Pastor told us the number). Watching the men form a chain and pass the blocks along to the final guy who piled them was something. They were out in the open sun and it was hot work. However, there were no complaints.

Boards to make the column forms were finally finished and two of the columns were prepared for the concrete to be poured from the top. These boards needed to be cut, so they used the new generator to power up the electric saw. This generator will be left in Gonaives when we leave.

When the forms were ready, some of our guys helped carry concrete from one end of the outside yard to the other to fill the columns. What a task! The sad thing is that one of the column’s boards did not contain the concrete as it should, and it had to be fixed so that the concrete would remain. This took quite a bit of time and was somewhat discouraging to the pastor. Hopefully tomorrow, when we return, we will find that all is well and the column is solid.

The men who do the mixing of the mortar and concrete are busy at this hard job without much of a break all day. No one complains. Water has to be carried from a place nearby, and keeping the two big barrels filled with water is quite the job, too. You don’t want to see them run out of water on the site or else the work has to stop, since water is a big part of mixing concrete/mortar.

The timing of everything being done is something to watch. No one is waiting around for another to complete the job he has.

Audrey had another great day. As usual, four quilts were done in the morning and three this afternoon. Today for the first time, she gave a brief devotional. Well, Audrey wrote the devotional in French and the pastor’s wife read it out to them. It was the story of Dorcas from the Bible. Michel had been asked to come translate Audrey’s French into Creole, but all the ladies knew French.

After the reading was finished, Michel said, “I want to ask some questions to see if the ladies were listening.” He asked, and some answered. It was obvious to me that some had not been listening too well. He asked if they had questions. Several did, so a good little discussion followed. They really seemed to enjoy this time.

154 women have quilted in the last 2 1/2 days. Not all are new–many participated over and over. But that is a lot of women to have around. They are extremely fast workers and Audrey is thrilled that so many quilts are getting done.

When the day’s work is over, all the equipment must be returned to the pastor’s house for safe keeping. Audrey doesn’t have to take her stuff far–just across the courtyard between the church and the house—but the guys have to travel a little further. Sometimes they’ll take a bin and walk the distance, but something like the generator has to be taken in one of the cars.

We come back to the hotel for lunch each day. When we arrived back at the hotel at day’s end today, cokes and other soft drinks along with sugar cane was waiting for us to enjoy. After showering and cleaning up, we had supper—salad, many items from which to choose, and then spaghetti with shrimp. The sauce on the shrimp was quite spicy.

Following our meal we sat around the patio and the snack box was brought out, along with some more sugar cane. It isn’t that we needed anything more to eat, but something sweet seemed to finish off the meal.

The men were very tired today–this physical labor is not something they are used to doing–but again, no complaints are heard. This is so amazing.