Rich Gosser

Today I hired William, an old friend and a good "chauffeur" to drive my friend Rosemary and me to Montrouis, a pleasant town about an hour and a half North of Port au Prince along "Naitonal 1", one of three national roads in Haiti. (It's hard to believe that there are so few roads in Haiti until you try to get somewhere here!)

The road isn't too bad for the most part and much of the drive is along a beautiful coastline dotted with beaches. We made pretty good time and I enjoyed getting out of Port au Prince!

We spent most of the day with Fr. Antoine Charles, a Haitian priest of the diocese of Gonaives. Fr. Anotoine's parish is "twinned" with the parish of St. Barbara's in my own diocese. Several years ago - after a lot of coaxing (well, maybe a bit of nagging) - I persuaded my long-time friend Fr. Paul Fitzmaurice, the pastor of St. Barbaras, to come to Haiti and visit St. Jean Baptiste parish in Montrouis. He and Fr. Antoine "hit it off" and I got to play "midwife" to the birth of "twins"! The relationship has been a good one and it's been a delight to watch it grow. Fr. Antoine is pictured below next to a new vehicle he got for the parish through a German organization that helps Catholic missions.

When I first visited Antoine I brought a translator because Fr. Antoine doesn't speak English. It turned out that the translator was so shy that he couldn't speak English in front of the group I had brought with me! Being shy myself I could understand, but that didn't help the situation! I struggled to communicate and Fr. Antoine never once made me feel self conscious. He only encouraged me. The next time I came I didn't bring a translator and ever since my Kreyol has improved "piti piti" (little by little)! Mesi Pe Antoine! (Thank you Fr. Antoine!)

rich • Jan-Feb 2007 1 comment