So Bishop Loverde, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, is here in Banica for five days to visit. What a trooper! It is the 20th anniversary of Arlington working in Banica and he is here to help celebrate that special time with us. He is accompanied by 4 priests (3 of whom served here in the past) and the editor of our news papers in Virginia. It has been absolutely amazing having them here. On Saturday we drove out to Haiti/the mountain campos called the "Loma" where we have projects set up. We took two of the hard core Hilux trucks and they were pretty packed between all of us. We wanted the Bishop to see JUST how far we go out and how much work we still have to do. The first stop was El Corte, in El Corte a parish back in Northern Virginia has a project called "Operation Starfish" which works out in Haiti. We help them with El Corte because it is so close (about 40 minutes) away from Banica. The mountain towns hit the cloud line and you are pretty far up without electricity and sometimes without water. Operation Star Fish took this poor town with their mud huts and thatched roofs and re-built ALL of their homes with cinder-blocks and cement. Cement is very expensive here so there is no way that an average Dominican or Haitian in the frontier would be able to afford it. They are all brightly painted and beautiful, but more importantly, they are warmer and dryer and safer for the residents living there. Made me think of WorkCamp and how I cannot wait to get back to WorkCamp craziness this summer...maybe/hopefully as a youth minister! This was a particularly neat visit for me because Nativity is the home parish of a very loving family I know. This family has poured out their love for me over the past four years that they have known me and I cannot wait to see them this December. They have talked about Operation Star Fish in the past and it was beautiful to be able to see it with my own eyes. I took a picture of the Bish and I in front of the sign to send to them.
We headed back in the trucks and were on our away after a short visit. We continued up the mountain road known as International Highway (aka International Dirtroad with lots of bumps, landslides, and hairpin turns) and watched Haiti pass by on our left and the Dominican Republic on our right. What a sight! This was my third time driving up this mountain road and it brought back a lot of memories of Marymount ASB trips along this road. Good times! About two hours later we hit the town of Guayahayuco (Marymount - big blug church?!) and spent most of the day there. The church has a huge welcoming for the group with songs and skits and it was quite beautiful. It is just such a poor area! Want to know the decorations they used to decorated the church and town with? Tree branches! So creative! Some of the group vsited houses and families and I...I played baseball. Machismo is a huge problem here so it was nice to show a group of Dominican teenage boys that girls can hit home runs too...several! It was a lot of fun! By 3pm we were in the car again and headed up to a small town of Billiguin. What a drive! The road changed from dirt to straight up boulders - hence the special trucks we have here. One of the sadest things happened here. I was sitting down on a rock against a mud house and couple kids came over to play with my camera. A woman brought her baby over and the baby kept crying. I held the baby and asked the mother what was wrong with him. Aside from only being in a shirt (no pants or a diaper) she told me "it is his stomache" and I said "what is wrong with it?" and she said "nothing, he is just crying because he is hungry." So I found out that she did not have milk and that the baby had not eaten in days because she did not have any more money for the week. She is a single mom and the father is out of the picture. I searched in my bag and bough a bag of crackers which I broke up and started feeding the baby. I wanted to cry! The baby, thankfully, stopped crying and I gave the mom a little bit of money and told her to please buy something for the baby to eat. The need here is TOO sad to even talk about. It breaks my heart...it simple breaks my heart. Eventually, it was time to head back.
I was feeling fairly car sick by the point so I decided to switch with one of the Banica kids that came up to the mountains with us and I moved from the inside cab to the bed of the truck. Bad idea! We picked up a ton of people on the way who needed a "bola" or ride and it got real crammed real quick. I was bored to I just kept singing my songs (mostly country hehe...sang Dirt Road Anthem a lot lol) and watching the mountains go by.Along the road groups of Haitian children will run along side the trucks and yell "dame algo" which means "give me something." They do not even know what they need but they do know that they need something...anything. That is what the picture is of. Then it got dark very quickly and we were a little scared. The stars ere absolutely beautiful because there is no light pollution out here and at 8pm we finally got back to Banica. One of the priests turned to me and said "wow...when I first arrived on Friday I thought that Banica was rural and poor...but after that this feels like civilization" and it is true.
What an adventure!
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