Arrival and first days in Haiti

Greetings all!

I arrived safe and sound in Port u Prince on Saturday afternoon. I was escorted to a waiting room where I met my supervising priest, Oge Beauvoir. It was nice to finally put a face to a name. Eventually my bags were delivered and we went outside where I met my two room mates, Marie and Margarette. We then headed to Petionville, a suburb of Port au Prince, where we had a wonderful lunch while looking over the city. Then it was on to the Seminary and the beginning of a new way of life for the next year.

Apologies for the delay in providing my first blog entry. I was not able to gain access to the internet or obtain a Haitian SIM card over the weekend. I finally made some progress on Monday afternoon.

My roommates, Marie and Margarette, are wonderful young women. They are fully accepted by the male seminarians and lead the helm in initiative and commitment to their work. There are 14 seminarians in all, two of whom are studying elsewhere. One of the students is located in a Seminary in Cuba and the other is matriculated at Virginia Theological Seminary. The students are all great and eager to begin English instruction. As a result of everyone's schedule, we have formed two instruction groups. Classes will start classes next week. I have already given them an assignment- they are to write very brief biographies, including their call to the priesthood. I plan to post them on my blog.

The landscape of Port au Prince reminds me a lot of Guatemala City. Yesterday, I assisted Father Oge Beauvoir with some remarks that he made at the beginning of a fund raising DVD for St. Vincent's School for handicapped children. It featured a young girl, Dieumain
Cloristin who has no arms and fully functions with the use of her feet. Because the DVD is being shown at a conference in Tampa this week, I provided the English translation of her dialogue and that of the School Administrator as background on the DVD. The DVD is going to be completed today. I will try to post it on my blog next week.

November will be a full month. There is a large conference called the Haiti Connection that takes place the 12th-14th in Port au Prince. Immediately following the Conference, The Presiding Bishop of the National Episcopal Church, Kathryn Jefferts Schori, is making a visit.
This is the first visit by a Presiding Bishop since 1993 and the Diocese of Haiti is abuzz with preparations. I am helping with the written materials on the history and work of the Diocese of Haiti that are going to be presented to her. Upon Bishop Schori's departure, BuildaBridge's Diaspora of Hope Artist on Call art camp begins. It is exciting to experience this much activity at the beginning of my service here.

I must say that it was also a priviledge to be situated in an African country when the first African-American President was elected to office. It provides such hope and promise for the world. I think that the international community is as excited about Barack Obama as the U.S.!

That is it for the moment. Pictures are coming. I am having difficuty uploading them and suspect that they are too large. All is a work in progress for this technological novice.

More to come next week!