Haiti

Gumbo and Haiti Talk

/ esteban

Last night, I was privileged to attend a dinner hosted by the pastor of my parish, Fr. Jack.  The event was a meeting of FIAT (Faith in Action Team), the name given to our Haiti mission group.

Fr. Glenn Meaux, pastor of the SOLT Mission in Kobonal Haiti (see my mission blog at haiti.everythingesteban.com) is making his yearly visit to our parish.

The purpose of the meeting/dinner was twofold.

First, to get the members of the mission team preparing to visit the mission in November together.  There is much work still to be done to pull off this particular trip, and it was important for them to meet Fr. Meaux.

Second, to sample the gumbo that Fr. Meaux prepared.  Being from Louisiana, he is adept at preparing gumbo and other Cajun cuisine.

It was fine fare, along with grilled asparagus, potato salad, bread pudding and pecan pie.  Coupled with a little red wine and ample talk about mixing cement, making bricks and building houses, it was a solid 3-Napkin dinner.

I’m not planning to make this November trip to Haiti, but the one scheduled for the end of February is definitely calling my name.

Haitian Journal

/ esteban / 1 Comment

Some of you may know that I am planning to visit Haiti in November.  I’m going as part of group from Tulsa’s Church of St. Mary.  The parish has had a relationship with the SOLT Mission in Kobonal, Haiti for quite some time, but has decided to expand that relationship to include direct involvement of the parishioners, utilizing the particular time, talent and treasure that they possess.

This upcoming trip is something of an exploratory trip, to determine how the parish can best serve the mission.  I will be going along to document what we find there through the use of photos, video and audio recordings.  I intend to be very busy, doing my best to capture not only the facts as we find them, but also the essence and spirit of the people and the work of the mission.

I will be using this blog as a way of documenting how I am personally preparing for this mission.  I will document what I’m reading, what I’m finding on the internet, perhaps some of the technical issues that I’m trying to solve, and my personal thoughts as we go along.

So, if you’re interested, follow along with the journey.  You may find a little bit of everything here, things written, things recorded, and things filmed.

I will appreciate your feedback!