After a much needed night’s sleep, we awoke at 5:00am to get ready for our trip to Petit Goave in time for church. We were treated to another wonderful meal of fried eggs, peanut butter toast, bananas, and coffee. We said goodbye to our friends at the EMH Guest House and headed west to pick up our translator Leonard. Leonard will be spending the week with us and is able to speak excellent English. He is also a great tour guide, answering tons of questions that we had about the country.
We had about a two hour drive out to Petit Goave. It was an exciting and tense ride. With cars and motorcycles weaving around each other, we were lucky to have such a good driver to get us around! As we drove along, we saw everyone out walking to church in their Sunday best. We arrived in Petit Goave at Pastor Dorcely and his wife Mode’s manse. Pastor Dorcely was preaching in another town, so Mode made us welcome and showed us to our rooms. We dropped off our things and quickly loaded back up for church.
The church quickly filled up and we were greeted with many smiles and “bonjou’s”. We were blessed with beautiful choir songs and enjoyed singing along with the hymns in French and Haitian Creole.
After church, Mode drove us back to the manse for a lunch of hot dogs, chips, cookies, and ice cold sodas. We had the opportunity to spend time at the beach, so we got on our sunscreen and swimsuits. We were picked up on a boat by a friend of the Dorcely’s named Robinson. After we pushed out from shore, the boat motor wouldn’t start. It began to look like we might not make it to the beach at all. Robinson paddled us back to shore and we hopped off to wait for a second boat. It wasn’t too long before he was back and we were on our way again. The boat ride was a wonderful treat and we were amazed by how blue the water was. The beach had soft sand and warm water, well worth the wait. The property owner paddled out to where we were swimming with a canoe full of conch. He offered to grill them for us if we wanted. We all agreed….how often does one get to eat conch?
We had a fun and refreshing day, but then it was time to head back to the manse. Mode picked us up at the dock and when we arrived home, we were fed a delicious meal of chicken, rice, tomatoes, fried breadfruit, fried plantains, and green beans. After we finished dinner, we were surprised when they brought out run raisin ice cream for dessert! We are looking forward to a full day tomorrow working at the school.
