October Trip Recap - Further Afield

The day after our work at the future site of the auto mechanic school, we went on a special trip to the countryside outside of Jeremie.  Accompanied by Pastor Carl and others from the church we were taken to visit a couple of "satellite" churches that are sponsored by Eglise de Dieu Vivant to minister to the local communities in these rural areas.  Pastor Carl has mentored and trained many of the pastors at these churches.  If you drive a ways outside Jeremie, after awhile the road ends and you are on your own!  It was a bumpy ride to say the least, up the mountain, down the mountain, and across the river....but it was SO worth it.  Here are some pictures to tell the story...

Country church it took us over 2 hours to reach

 

The congregation was gathered in an outdoors chapel and singing when we arrived.  In Haiti it is not uncommon for women to have their head covered in church.

 

The pastor of this church is in his 70s and walks into the nearest town once a month for supplies

 

On our way to a second church we stopped the van and got out for awhile to eat some lunch and admire the scenery.  Across the street was what looked to me like an abandoned building.  I went over to it and looked inside to find a blackboard on the wall with the date from a couple days prior written on it.  It wasn't an abandoned building but a functioning school.  We hear so much in the U.S. about underfunded schools with minimal resources, but that is a lot more than students have here.

 

Twisting mountain road

 

 

Simply beautiful...

 

School building

Interior

 

Some curious local children came up to the back of our van.  We asked our Haitian friends Wilbens and Guimy to give them the leftovers from lunch.

 

 

 

Andrew, Megan, and Wilbens with the local crew.  Notice the women in the background carrying sacks on their heads.

 

It was a long journey!