A Little Voyage to Cap-Haitïen!

As many of you know, I will be returning to Haiti for a second year of service with the Young Adult Service Corps.  I will be returning home in August for a few weeks to catch up with family and friends, and then at the end of September I will be flying back to Haiti.  When I return I will be working in the northern part of Haiti, so two weeks ago I traveled up to Cap-Haitïen again.  

This trip to Cap served many purposes: 1) To meet and plan with Bishop Ogé what my work will be next year. 2) To drop off some luggage to make travel home a little easier in August. 3) Check out my new living arrangements. 4) Take a little vacation from Port-au-Prince before the music camps started.

My trip was off to a great start on Wednesday.  Three partners from Episcopal Church in the US traveled to Haiti to check out new potential project sites and I had the pleasure of traveling with them.  You can only imagine how excited I was to learn when they arrived that they were from Richmond and the Diocese of Virginia!!!  

Unfortunately there was not enough room in the car for me to join the partners on their trip on Thursday.  So after a good night’s rest, I hung out with Serette, Bishop Ogé’s wife and my adopted Haitian mom!  The two of us had a wonderful day baking, sharing meals, and enjoying each other’s company.  It was so nice to feel like I was with family again and enjoyed the relaxing day.

On Friday there was room for me in the car this time!  We first headed to Trou-du-Nord where we looked at potential project of building the rectory for Saint Luc.  Then we visited the church and school where we saw the preparations going on for their summer camps. 

We then drove to Terrier Rouge to see the Episcopal agricultural school, Saint Barnabas.  I have to say I’ll always be a city kid, but it was super exciting to be walking in the country through grass again!  Everything is so green up north!        

In the afternoon we returned to Cap-Haitïen and took a trip to the plot of land that will be used for the new Diocesan center of the north.  The plot of land is another potential site as it needs a fence around it to avoid squatters.  It looks like it’s going to be a great place for the center; lots of land and a beautiful view of the mountains.

Afterwards we took a quick trip to the Episcopal vocational school which is the location of my new apartment.  Myself and Kyle, another Episcopal missionary, will be sharing an apartment there and it will also be the location of my office.  I’m excited because as you can see the view from my patio is amazing!

Next stop was on to a soccer game.  It was a game between the local priests and pastors of the Cap-Haitïen area.  Bishop Ogé had the honor of kicking the soccer ball that started the whole game.  It’s not every day you get to see your future boss kick off a game!

On my last day in Cap-Haitïen, I met with Bishop Ogé in the morning to talk about my job next year.  I will be helping get a music program started in seven different Episcopal schools in the north.  I’ll be helping train the teachers of the program along with providing administrative help.  We had a great meeting and I’m super excited to start my work there next year!

All around it was a wonderful trip and I’m really looking forward to September.  But before then I can’t wait to see everyone at home to catch up!  Thank you for all of the support as this first year is winding down and thank you to my sponsors Greg Whitmer & Anne Wallinger, Becky Stern, my Grandma Bingaman, and Kathi Adams.  Stay tuned for an update next week about the fun of mini-camp!