A day with Christoph and his Family.

I was heading to the market today (Saturday) until Christoph showed up to get me to come to his home for the day. In Haiti you roll with the punches, so I said goodbye to my wife and son and was off. The walk was quite nice. You feel you are in a large campground except this is actually where many Haitians live, and there is every animal you can think of making noise and crossing in front or behind you. The sun was hot and the trees and mountains were great. It is actually an awesome way to live until the bad weather comes. I can’t imagine the torrential rains that come here so often.

When I was near Christophs I was greeted by 6-7 kids who seemed to know I was coming for the day. I tried a little brown fuzzy fruit called saptille. It was small but nice and sweet. I was then offered a cold coffee with lots of condensed milk.

As I looked around I saw meals being made and kids playing around at nearby tents. Christoph disappeared to go and buy our meal. He returned a while later with two good size fish for our lunch. Shortly after, madam Christoph came in from the market carrying some goods on her head. QDDX4EAZS (Sorry that was Dublin's input to the Blog). Madam Christoph had her daughter and friend help her prepare the meal. They cleaned the fish and then put lime all throughout the meat to kill bacteria. The meat was then cut to let the seasoning and marinade soak in. Soak in they did. This was quite an experience. I can say it is not too often a Canadian gets to share a meal in a Haitian village with a family.

The thoughts that went through my mind were that Christoph and his wife had happily spent money that they don’t have on me. Christoph offered me a 7-Up which I declined because I realize that 7-Up is a luxury. Christoph ignored me and bought them any ways. His son ran off and soon returned with four 7-Ups. We split them amongst 9 of us and all enjoyed them under the hot sun.

Dinner was great; I sat across from Christoph and his daughter. We did not have much conversation, only due to the language barrier. I wish I could speak Creole.

During the day we would walk a ways to different locations around Christoph’s house and he would check on his chickens and 4 new chickens that came from the market. We ended our time together doing something I have loved for many years. We went down to the field about 5 min. away and we walked his two horses, and even better, his two colts, to the watering hole. What a way to end my adventure. As I walked down the trails I looked around. You can see so much beauty in a very poor country. The time we had was good. Thank you God for what you have blessed me with. I can’t help but feel reminded to use wisely what God has given me.

Chad.