We were back at the site this morning. We ran out of rebar so Andy and I ended up doing some painting and thus I ruined another pair of trousers! Was a nice colour blue though... One wonders what the other hotel residents think when we walk across the complex covered in mud and paint?! funny how people don't ask...
Today was our last proper bit of free time as we were doing our ministry work in the evening so we all headed down to the beach. Spent ages floating in the sea, messing about, judging the boys' silly competitions (sorry boys, i mean, um, entertaining competitions e.g. most painful entry into the sea) and just generally chilling out... Though chilling out isn't exactly the word for it! The sun was ridiculously hot, i burnt my feet on the sand and well, i also burnt my shoulders. Take note, the sun can burn you through the sea... Must invest in waterproof suntan lotion. Bother!
We met at 5:45 having bypassed dinner to head out to a Haitian slum. I can't remember the name of it. The aim was to show the Jesus video in their language. This is a massive big deal for them as they rarely ever get to see films in Creole! Arriving at the village we went to the square where there were loads of kids playing and adults hanging out.
Some of the team set to work preparing the projector and sheet and so teh rest of us tried to distract the kids with silly action songs. I think we exhausted our entire repertoire! We then did the hokey cokey with them - it was hilarious. I don't think they really understood it, but they certainly enjoyed pushing each other around.
We then were taken through the village to the church to carry the benches to the square - this was no easy task! it was quite a way and the benches were heavy... We lined the benches up and people started flocking in. The kids gathered on the benches, the floor and our laps and we sat amongst them as always. There were even people sitting on the flat roofs and staircases.
Tom gave a bit of a talk and then we rolled the film in Creole. People were so amazed to hear a film in their language. I think they thought we understood Creole though and it was very difficult to explain that we only spoke English. I felt so frustrated - am going to learn Creole and Spanish before going again... This adorable little girl came and sat on my lap until her mum came to get her for bed.
The film was over 2 hours long and the locals were captivated. At one point I looked behind me and discovered there were loads of people standing at the back... I reckon there were 200 people there. I was amazed that people would stand to watch a film...
We had to leave as the film finished and the people departed. Not speaking Creole I have no idea what people thought about it. I think the most amazing thing though was to see the people eager to watch something they could understand, to see them coming together as community, to again have the privilege of holding their children and playing with them. Sadly we commented that this village was no different to so many we had been in. Same poverty, same problems, different location... You almost get used to seeing it but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier...
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