Haiti Day Five
The
start of our journey began at 5:15 in the morning when it was still pitch
dark. After making sandwiches and
packing all the gear and water, we left New Life with 11 New Life Children and
traveled to Respire, Haiti. The ride was
quiet on the bus, but the city of Port-au-Prince was very much alive. After capturing a few embarrassing photographs
of team members sleeping, we arrived! In
order to prepare for the festivities of the day, we had to sort the players’
gear into individual bags to efficiently and effectively distribute without
causing chaos. Each team received 18 of
the individual bags and the goalie also received goalie gloves and shirts. Each coach received a coaching soccer bag with
cones and a clipboard. Each team
received a bag of balls, one of the soccer balls was the Mission Ball and the
other was the “indestructible” One World Soccer Ball. The tournament to be
played consisted of eight total teams, four under 12 boys and four under 17
boys. Prior to the start of the under 12
and under 17 games, Pastor Bob shared with the players a message from the
scriptures, which was written on the Mission Ball Soccer Ball we provided with
each team. The purpose of this was to
remind the players and the community why we came to see them and spend time
with them: Go and make disciples of all nations.
The
games began with the U-12 teams from the area playing 20 minute halves, 9v9, on
half of a field. Will and James held down the sidelines as AR’s as Nick and
Pastor Bob were the goal line refs, and Patrick was the head ref for the first
two games. Respire and Equip Ruj won their respective games with the score of
1-0 and will meet each other in the final tomorrow. It was very interesting to
compare the youth soccer of what we know of in the states with that of what
Haitian youth soccer has to offer. They are very skilled on the ball, extremely
high intensity, but they fail to understand the concept of spacing, defense,
and the fact that high kicks with brand new cleats WILL HURT! In between each
game we fed all of the players on each team with rice, beans, pikiliz (spicy
coleslaw), and a chicken leg. We also provided each team with water. The next
portion of the day consisted of the U-17 games. They played on a full sized
field, 11v11, with 40 minute halves. Respire and Equip Orange won 1-0 and 2-1
respectively.
While
the games were being played on the field, relationships with fans and children
alike, and moments we will always cherish, were being developed. Ayla and Mr. Kibler served as human jungle
gyms for the children playing with makeshift toys. For example, one little boy was playing with
a “car” he had created by placing four wheels on the sides of a soup can. Whoever was not involved with the soccer
games, spent time entertaining the children and speaking with the locals.
Patrick had a special moment with a man named Osmin, who had many questions
about the word of Christ that Pastor Bob preached about earlier. He did not
understand how playing the game of soccer was living out God’s word. Patrick
did a bit of preaching while learning a bit of creole along the way.
After
leaving the fields, we went back to Respire and walked up the mountain to see
their property. Megan took us on a tour
of their schools and told us her story about how she came to Haiti and how she
came to start her program with Josh. She
also revealed to us that she learned creole after praying to the Lord to help
her find a way to communicate with the Haitian people because she was
overwhelmed after initially going to Haiti.
Megan and Josh are incredible people and they have expanded their
program immensely after starting the program 2 and a half years ago. The purpose of their program is to save,
rescue, and employ restaveks, which are basically child slaves. There are approximately 500,000 restaveks in
Haiti and therefore, this is a major problem she wants to raise awareness about.
Ready
to go back to New Life, we all packed back into the bus for a very loud and joyful
bus ride, in contrast to the morning ride. Ate dinner, the meal we were are
always looking forward to. Had devotions with the children and shared our
special “out of the boat moments” for the day amongst the group. Now trying to
mentally prepare for another 5:15am wakeup call tomorrow morning.
Patrick and Nick
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