Friday Evening...

Later that evening we had a youth group meeting at the church with the youth of the town. There were about 40 of theme and "youth group" there meant about 14-24 range of ages. Some elders also attended, as did Paster Jean-Philip. We each had to share a verse or story and speak to the group (via interpreter) for about 5-10 minutes each. I spoke on the very first passage I started this journal with while I was on my flight over: Romans 12:6-8. I think it was well received and fit in with the overall theme which everyone else coincidentally covered as well. After service, their group prayed over us. Afterwards, 5 of the elder women gave a presentational plaque to our group leading, Carrie, as a "thank you" for all of her hard work across the weeks. They then unveiled 2 tables STACKED with deferent fruits (melons, bananas, mangoes, papayas, etc) and sugar cane. And they said these were a gift for us. It was WAY more food than we could eat and certainly we felt guilty even taking this from them...but they insisted so we each bagged them up with intentions to donate to Michael's house and others. They were under the impression that we'd be able to take them with us to the US and were unaware of custom's laws. We returned to the house at dark and there was cake and dinner and guests there to celebrate Michael's 24th birthday. His parents came to celebrate, as did his younger sisters and his brothers. Knowing that this was our final night with these people, you could feel the energy of everyone trying to take in every second. I spoke with a guy named Daniel, who was Michael's childhood friend. He's 28 and we were talking about my family....I asked where are his kids and wife. And he said he lost his fiancée in the earthquake inside of the university. I asked if he'd still have kids later and he only replied that he would see his love when he dies. Broke my heart to hear that.

After everyone had left from the birthday celebrations, we had 1 final meeting as a group. It was a meeting to reflect on the overall trip and the positive feedback that we had for each member of the team. There were some touching moments of sharing and everyone was quite candid with one another. Because we were a decent sized group, coupled with the ever consistency of A.D.D., the meeting went a little long. By the time we were finished, we needed to head to bed, because we were to wake up for 4:30am to be ready for the bus at 5:30am to take the morning flights (all but 6 of us) to the airport and the other 6 of us to the staff house until time to head to the airport. As I laid down I thought about how 5:30am would be too early for the 2 neighbor children, whom I had gotten to know, to be awake. So, I realized that I would be leaving without saying "goodbye" to Defronzy & Esther. This actually bothered me so much that I couldn't sleep. So, I got up to retrieve my notebook and wrote both of them individually lengthy letters. I will really miss our daily interactions: my soccer games & mathematics & creole lessons with 10 year old Defronzy and my discussions about our families with the ever-glowing smile that belongs to 14 year old Esther. 2 very wonderful children. I slept like a rock after writing these letters.