My Best Moment in Haiti
Read: Luke 10:36-37
My best moment in Haiti was on the
evening of Wednesday, January 20th. We had completed a day of our
mission work and were waiting for dinner. We were sitting on the
front porch of the Reverend’s house. There were two young girls
sitting on the porch with us. We didn’t know who they were and they
didn’t know who we were. We were certainly an unusual sight in
Petite Goave Haiti. A team of 10 missionaries from Michigan was
surprising to these two girls who seemed to be about 4 and 5 years
old.
We introduced ourselves, using our
weak understanding of Creole. We found out the five year old’s name
was Shawnasa and the four year old’s name was Ruth.
We had some time to kill before
dinner. We took a soccer ball out to the drive way and started
kicking it around. Dan Hart quickly joined us. We soon had another
child join us and we kicked the ball for about ½ hour. We were
running around, laughing, and having fun.
The sun went down and a beautiful
Haitian moon came out. We continued to play soccer under the light of
the driveway light and the moon. It was obvious that Ruth, the
younger child was the better soccer player. The other, older girl
Shawnasa, was not as quick of foot or as interested in soccer.
But Shawnasa was chatting with us as
our team of Haitians and missionaries kicked the ball around and
laughed. Suddenly, Shawnasa started singing.
Her singing voice was wonderful. We
had spent time and discovered her talent. She was sharing her special
gift from God with us. We all encouraged her. We cheered as she sang
a few more lines of a Haitian song in Creole. I walked over to her
and danced with her for a moment as the team laughed and cheered at
her dancing and singing.
Suddenly Shawnasa looked up and me
and hugged me. She looked up in my eyes and said “Amis!” I don’t
know creole, but I know Amis means friends in French. Creole is based
on French and everyone knew that this meant that we were friends.
Everyone knew that we were all friends. This was my happiest moment
in Haiti.
It may seem silly to travel
thousands of miles and spent lots of money to go to Haiti to make
friends with a 5 year old girl. It is not.
I learned later that Shawnasa
doesn’t attend the school where we were working. She is a neighbor
of the Dorceleys' who stops by the Reverend’s house because her
family can’t afford clean water. The Dorceleys provide her with
clean drinking water.
Shawnasa is very poor. She will
likely grow up without electricity or an education. But she will
always be my friend.
Tom Cobau
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