It’s been a day of celebration and sharing from beginning to end today. 

We all made it to mass with Father Romel at the Emmaus Retreat Center at 7am where the entire liturgy and song was in French. During the consecration of the host, the four Haitian priests sang the prayers together in a harmony that captured the solemn nature of the action and what we are doing in Jesus’ name. 

After eating breakfast with Father Romel, he showed us around his campus and some of the future things he wants to build. He’s done so much and has a beautiful vision of more to come. 

Eventually, we hopped into a van and went to Hinche to have lunch and meet with the normale school’s teachers. We spent hours chatting with them and listening to their successes and hardships at the school. It was a real hot for all of us to be in this room together and feel like true partners in improving life here through education. Similar to the United States but even moreso, the most common difficulty that the teachers faced was that the students arrive at the school at different skill levels for each course. For example, in French, many teachers have to give extra lessons to get them proficient at speaking and writing in French even though they were supposed to have been learning it for 14 years of education!! 

Following the meeting, Gene spoke to the students about the water quality of the well and sampled more water to improve confidence in their well. He even drank the water in front of them to prove the point (the students were shocked).

We then proceeded to the library to go over more of the Internet-in-a-box but with more students. The students themselves setup the system and had it up and running. We then gave them a demo of its capabilities which are as follows: 

• Wikipedia in Creole, French, Spanish, and English 
• Over 2000 Ebooks in Creole, French, and English 
• Instructional video lessons in French from Khan Academy that cover many subjects ranging from math and science to history and language. 
• Typing lessons 
• A world atlas and maps
• Haitian geography
• Health videos 

The students were very eager to learn more and we could tell they simply wanted to expand their knowledge! We have high hopes for this and so does everyone here. 

Finally, our night concluded with attending the school’s weekly Sunday Night Open Mic night. These students are a talented bunch. They played original songs, jammed together and improvised the beat, danced to traditional music and drums… The list goes on and on. Clearly, the students are extremely talented and we were all honored to see how much fun they have on a weekly basis. The joy was palpable and infectious. 

Because this week marks the start of in-school teaching for the second year students, the night ended with a powerful prayer which they sang in unison. They had a beautiful harmony and the feel of the prayer was both pleading and somber since many were nervous. 

I can tell that this school takes their profession very seriously and so do the students. Future kids in Haiti will be blessed to have a graduate of the papaye normale school – that much is clear. 

Thanks for keeping up with us and for sending your prayers, he’s working through us every moment of every day. 

God bless, 

Joe Cuadrado 

What a long day… 

Today’s objective: Visit the farm up north run by Sister Moline’s order ( Little Sisters of St. Therese) and make it back in one day. 

We did it. Let’s just say that making it up north and back in one day is a challenge in good conditions, let alone running into roadblocks of sorts. 

We had to wake-up at 4am and leave the campus. We made some stops on the way and got up to the Sisters around 9am. Their property and location is beautiful! We saw the lush and green side of Haiti that paints a picture of a tropical paradise that is perfect for agriculture and relaxation. These sisters have been there with a farm for close to three years and they’ve done a wonderful job with it. They compost and use drip irrigation systems to maximize yield while minimizing water usage. 

They fed is lunch with food from the farm and it was delicious. Every aspect of it literally homemade, down to the chicken. Some students came with us on this trip to experience it since for all of them it was their first timer in this part of Haiti – pretty remote. While we waited for the meal, many of us learned some Creole from the students and we taught them some more English. I spoke Spanish with a couple of them and that was a real joy! I didn’t think I’d use my Spanish that much on this trip. 

After that, we started heading back but we went by the second biggest city in the country: Cap-Haitien 

It was busy and made quite the impression on us. You know those Captain Planet scenarios that teach you not to litter otherwise your world will look like this: (insert a littered world that looks like a landfill but is really a beachfront). This city looked like that. People crowded the streets and trash was piled all around. Businesses and street vendors of all sorts filled every space of the city. It was overwhelming. 

Luckily, we were able to stop at Sister Moline’s old convent and we met her Aunt, who is also a Sister in the same order! Beautiful. This was a nice and relaxing stop in a small slice of calm surrounded by plants and trees, I loved it. 

We were then on the road back and experienced a flat tire in the town of dondon. Yes, Don Don. They had a sign on the side of the mountain in case you forgot, kind of like the Hollywood sign, Luckily, our wonderful drivers changed the tire quickly and we were on our way. Along the long road back we experienced some interruptions, some bigger than others that delayed us considerably. So, we made it back quite late. 

But, by God’s grace and blessings, we made it back safe and sound. 

It was a beautiful day full of monotonous and great moments that made us appreciate our homebase of the Papaye Normale School. 

Thanks for reading today’s entry and God Bless! 

Joe Cuadrado