Fé Travay Li - Make it work!

Day 4 - Rule #2 - Learn to run with your camera!

I woke up this morning after the sun came up for the first time this week. So I had renewed energy which was good because today was a full day of shooting.

The ladies making Pumpkin Soup for Breakfast:

After breakfast we went out to the courtyard to begin the building project. This year's project was building benches for the school. Best part was, we actually had power tools. As the team began working on the benches, I had to break off and go with Serge, one of the Haitians who work for RMI, plus two others, to go pick up the 20 goats for which people in the states had donated money.

We started our 1 hour trip, back over the mountain to Chambala where the goats were. The guys would grab each goat, tie their front legs to their back legs and wing them into the back of the pickup. Now, I have heard a goat make its "baaaaa" sound, but I've never heard one scream. That was a new experience. The footage is pretty interesting as well.

A typical Haitian road:

The view from along the way:

Once they were loaded, we began the hour trek back with the goats bleating and scream all the way. That was something i wasn't ready for. I hate to be cruel, but it was actually kinda funny. We started up the mountain when Serge came to a dead stop, the doors behind me opened and the two guys began to run!

One of the goats had come loose and had made its get-away! (Thanks Pat Tanis - i blame that on you!) The goat ran about a quarter mile down the mountain before the guys caught her trying to go over the edge - all the while with me running with the camera behind them. I felt like I was on an episode of Cops. (Note from Darcie: Kris always said he wanted to be a camera-man on The Amazing Race.)

A cow along the side of the road:

Once we returned we were able to get back to helping the team with the benches. By this time they were painting them. I figured that it was time to put the camera down and help. Problem was, having no running water makes it really hard to wash your hands.

After lunch, Pastor Guy Glass had a meeting with the teachers of the school were he presented them with two suitcases filled with school supplies. He also gave them maps and charts for their classrooms.

At about 3:00 was the children's service led by Pastor Jeremy Stephens from First Baptist Church of Toms River. The kids began the service with songs and readings. I had to get pretty close to pick up some of their voices because some were kinda shy. Needless to say though, they were extremely cute!

After that, we had the presentation of the goats to the families. They were very happy and very thankful. So on behalf of them, thank you very much to everyone at home who donated!

We ended the night with a wonderful meal and a nighttime stroll down to the water front. It's kinda of an eerie beauty to walk through a town where there is no power and if you don't have a generator, it's all candles. The pastor of the Haitian church lead us around town. There is an outdoor movie theater that runs first run bootlegs. You wanna see it, we got it!

We also took a walk through the old church that this congregation used to use. As we walked through the streets, we saw kids out reading under the solar powered street lights. After all, it's free!

We only have one more full day here and when we think about it, it's sad. These people are great and life here, although it can be tough, is simple. It makes you realize how much "stuff" you have and how much of it you probably don't actually need.

It's really easy to fall in love with this place and with these people. They are a hearty people who know how to survive. If you don't have exactly what you need to get the job done, Fé travay li - make it work!

Kris King
www.EVideoProductions.net
kris@evideoproductions.net
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As an addendum, here's the video that Kris showed in Haiti of our son Ryan.