Gauvreau en Haiti

ENGLISH BLOG

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
― Mother Teresa

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

It seems more and more difficult to write my blog. It seems that there are not enough new things, but there are a lot of things happenings. I do not really know how to put it on paper.

Marie-Claude and Luckenson’s wedding was very nice and we had a lot of fun; except for the bride and the groom and the parents of the bride who were stressed from the beginning to the end. You will tell me that it is normal, but there were a lot of little things that made their wedding day not as pleasant as usual.

The day before the wedding ceremony, the practice was at 2 pm, but just a few showed up at 7 pm at the church. The day of the wedding, the cook did not show up to make the wedding meal. So, Louise Charbonneau, Assenique and her husband prepared the meal. They were supposed to attend the wedding. Then the master of ceremony was not there, they chose someone in the crowd to do it. The songs and the music were mixed up.

For the meal, the bride and the groom did not know how they were going to the hotel. The brother of the groom had already prepared a car for them, but he forgot to tell them. At the hotel, the guard was supposed to let in only the ones with the invitation cards, but we ended up with 200 people instead of 85.

The room for the meal was not prepared. And this is when the newlyweds and her parents started to prepare it all. The groom was looking for the ones who were not invited at the meal. (We must say that in Haiti everyone who was at the wedding goes to the reception after, but there is a separation between the guests and the others.) For this wedding, it was only the guests who were supposed to be there. Pastor François, Georges and I helped them to prepare the room for the reception and the verification of the guests.

It was supposed to be a wedding half Haitian and half Canadian, but most of the things were done the Haitian way. Even during the meal the generator had stopped and we were out of light. The hotel director did nothing. Grace be to God, 10 minutes later the EDH (hydro co.) was back. And we did not have water because the director kept shutting it off; it took 30 minutes to run again. It was a nightmare wedding. I comforted Marie-Claude who was crying and her mother with her. They were exhausted and very disappointed.

Tuesday, August 13

Kathiana, who just graduate as a teacher, cannot find work because they hire only the ones who have finished their Bac 2 (grade 13), even if the minister of Education has granted her their teaching diploma. She even has experience as a teacher. So she has to go back to school. We must laugh about it, otherwise we will cry all the time.

Tuesday. August 27

Last Saturday, we went to the wedding of Kim (Canada) and Abraham (Haiti) in Delmas at the church of Pastor Michel Charbonneau. It was simple, but beautiful. It is Abraham’s father (Pastor in Haiti) who married them.

There were a lot of Quebecers we knew and it was really nice to talk with them. We talked with Yoldi and Emmanuel, Emilie and Victor, and many other we knew. Some of them are friends with my son and daughter-in-law.

There was no reception, because of the difficulty to have only the guests at the meal. Everyone who knows them will go to the reception. You might have as much as 300 to 400 people to feed. When you eliminate the meal, the cost of the wedding is a lot less.

Friday, August 30

We picked-up Louise at the airport. It was going well until we arrived in Delmas 75, near where Louise lives (Hostess of a house and clinic for Time Square Church). The Town Hall does a lot of roads repairs. The first road we took was blocked by machinery and a hill of soil. So, we took the second option, this road was blocked also, they were digging to place new pipes for rain water. So we tried the third option, where the little bridge is very narrow and without railings. There are large holes on each side. I am glad that Georges is good at driving in this type of road. I was panicking and Louise found it “cool”.

After supper, Georges thought that the car had battery problems. We went up from Delmas to Fort-Jacques, in the dark, with intermittent headlights. This was stressing. At Laboule, there was a police check point. I prayed God that they will not see us. When we were closed to them, two were busy and the third one turned his head back. We were able to go through without them seeing that we had no lights. Thank you God! When we arrived at home, Georges look under the hood he saw the two alternator belts broken. Now it is fixed.

This is the end word:

“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.” 
― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Cordially,

Jocelyne and Georges