Vist from Friends

Last week we welcomed a group from LongMeadow and North Hampton, Massachusetts to Haiti.

Like many of CONASPEH's faithful partners, this group has a long history with CONASPEH, becoming involved when the school and headquarters were simply a dream and a blueprint. Through the years, their partnership has witnessed the construction of the main CONASPEH building, rooms filled with children as school rolled into session, a seminary and nursing school begun and many projects dreamed up and set into action. The most recent cause for celebration is the successful purchase of a large plot of tree-filled land neighboring the CONASPEH school.

This group of people has a special place in Patrick and my heart as well. A year ago this week, they arrived and were our very first group to welcome a mear three weeks after we stepped off the plane. Of course so early in our time here, we were worthless hosts. We couldn't speak the language, had a skeleton idea of what was going on at CONASPEH, and were still stumbling through ideas of how our work would manifest. We were struggling with the initial emotions that come with observing life here, and this group did as much ministry to Patrick and I as they did to CONASPEH and the people of Haiti.

We enjoyed greeting them this week, marking another milestone in this year's anniversary of living in Haiti, remembering their visit last year and feeling like we've come a long way.

The week was packed with activities including hiking to a hill-top church, visiting an orphanage and several CONASPEH schools, driving through the Artibonite valley and up the mountains to Kenskoff, touring the National Museum, the Cathedrals of the city and eating lunch at the historic hotel Oloffson. The group added their energies and talents with lots of work in the school holding 5 classes in the seminary, 3 classes in the nursing school and several sessions in the secondary school. One of the members shared bagpipe music with many groups of children and students, sparking awed silence at the bizarre instrument many had never seen before. Some of the CONASPEH students worked with the group to create a mural to be shared with partner schools in the States, and pen pal letters were exchanged. The end of their visit was gifted by a program put on by the children of CONASPEH who benefit from scholarships this particular group raises for them. All enjoyed an afternoon full of singing, dancing, skits, poetry readings and topped off by a Haitian feast.

We receive many visitors to Haiti. We welcome those who come for the first time, digesting new sights, smells, tastes and interactions, working through the emotions and contemplations sparked by experiences and observations. We also delight in visits from those who've made a well-worn path between their homes and Haiti, who can remark on changes seen, celebrate the evolution of projects, and stoke the hopes and inspiration of CONASPEH's work with their own determination and excitement. This is what partnership is all about. The solidarity of friends who come, who share, who listen, learn and open their arms to receive the gifts of their partners. In such partnerships we lift each other up, we tackle projects with the strength of many hands lent and prayers raised up. There is no one benefactor, but instead a sharing amongst all. Both parties walk away stronger, challenged, changed. This is how hope is maintained and progress made, both in developed and developing worlds. This is our particular formula for changing the world... one visit, one project, one class, one interaction, one hand-holding, one mind, one heart at a time.