Moving to Haiti made a lot of changes in my life, in terms of lifestyle, learning a new language, making new friends and then losing one.
The day I arrived in L’asile, I was introduced to a lot of people that lived in the church compound and I met this one guy, whose name was Amerique. He was somewhere in his 80’s and he was one really happy person. The minute I met him he was so full of joy that it was contagious. For the first few weeks, my team and I lived in the church rectory, and I would meet Amerique on a daily basis. All I saw in him was joy and happiness that radiated out of him. I thought he was crazy at first, but then later I realized he was a true missionary for Christ. He did not complain about anything, all he did was say “Mwen Kontant” in Haitian creole which means “I’m Happy”.
I’m not sure what his story was, but I was told that in his earlier days he wanted to become a priest. So the mission of his life was to be a servant of God and share the happiness that was within him, the happiness of Christ. For whatever reason he was not able to become a priest. That did not stop him from continuing the mission of sharing Christ with others, and he spent his life working with Catholic priests. Now I do not know why he did not become a priest, but one thing I know is this: he did not give up! He made it his vocation to serve God in whatever way he could.
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| He gave me the best mango he found with the biggest smile on his face |
So my friendship with Amerique initially was a simple one. I would just sit with him and listen to whatever he would say. All I had to tell him was “Dance avec mwen” which meant, "Dance along with me" (By the way Haitians love dancing) and he would do just that to cheer me up. At first there I could not understand anything he said due to the language barrier, but later on as I began to understand the language, I realized he was saying such simple things. He would usually tell me how happy he was for simple things like mangoes, and his friend cat who he would call “Chat” (which means cat, lol). Whenever I was sad or upset about something I would just go to him, and he would cheer me up by just telling me how happy he was and dance.
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| Amerique with his friend "Chat" and some random puppy |
So a couple of weeks back, my friend fell ill and his situation did not get any better. Then, suddenly, he passed away. The day before he died I went to see him and he was so weak as he was barely able to lift his hand. He opened his eyes and saw me, and I said “Dance avec mwen” and he lifted his hands and moved it the way he always did. That was his way of cheering me up, and somehow I knew that was the last time he would be doing that. One thing I know is he passed away a happy man and right now, he’s dancing with joy with Jesus.
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| Our last group pic with team haiti |
