Mission Haiti Neighborhood Characters: ANTOINE

Family and Friends,

Day 141 of our Haiti Adventure!

There are many aspects of Haiti that make this land memorable and endearing. However, almost everyone who has come here would agree with the statement that the best part of Haiti is the people. There are some real characters here, and I want to use this blog to tell you the stories of five of them over the course of the next few posts. The five I have chosen are simply a handful of the people who spend time in, around, or near our property on a daily basis. If people enjoy this short series maybe we will continue to tell more stories about the characters here including the stories of each kid in the orphanage, the stories of the staff members, the stories of key figures who work for us, etc…

So in the spirit of Mr. Rogers and his tradition of introducing his audience to the people of the neighborhood, we begin with…

ANTOINE

I thought it would be fun to begin with Antoine, because he just got married this past Saturday right here in the orphanage compound. It was an unforgettable event! With Antoine everything is an adventure, so the past few days were just like normal.

Antoine was born in Haiti and spent the first part of his childhood here for something like seven years. After that his family immigrated to Connecticut to start a new life. They were always a church-going family, but adjusting to life in the US was difficult at times. Somewhere in Antoine’s teenage years and/or early adulthood he got headed in the wrong direction. To make a long story short, after living in the US for 26 years he was deported on drug-related charges. That was about four or five years ago. His family remains in Connecticut.

I’ve never asked him to give any more details about any crimes he may have committed in the past, but it really doesn’t seem important anymore when you look at what God has been doing in his life. After spending some time in the prison in Port-au-Prince, Antoine decided to give his life more fully to Christ. He says jail put the fear of God in him. He was soon released and moved back to Ti-Rivier to live with his grandmother and start a new life.

When he moved back here he effectively had to re-learn the Creole language. You would never know that now, because Antoine is a very passionate teacher, tutor, translator and overall communicator. He has a way of getting kids excited about learning. Most afternoons he works with the kids in the orphanage on their French and Creole lessons, and he teaches English on the weekends. He also plays a very important role whenever teams come down here as one of our best translators.

I call Antoine “the bridge”, because he is truthfully the only person around here (besides Adrien) who completely understands both the American and the Haitian cultures. He told me the other day that when he came back here, at first people called him “Blanc” (white person).  He looks like a normal black person, but he had to reacclimate to the local culture and earn the right to be “Haitian” again. Now he is well-respected both in the community and in Mission Haiti. Pam absolutely trusts him with the kids, with money, and with any type of work that needs to be done.

The best thing about Antoine is his sense of humor. Many a team member has left here armed with funny stories about things Antoine did or said during the trip. For example, Sue has plenty of funny stories about Antoine making funny faces when he has to translate in the clinic regarding any kind of feminine issues. Also, he loves to purposefully murder various languages, especially Spanish and Chinese. His shouts of “Que paso, mi amigo?” and “No problemo!” can be heard all over the village. I think some of the kids around here really believe Antoine can speak every language!

So this past Saturday Antoine got married to Jesula, a local girl from the nearby mountain area. We have enjoyed getting to know them and pray they will do well as a married couple and as a Father and Mother.  Like I said it was a memorable event, and nearly everyone who attended got food poisoning as well!  Some of the food was cooked a couple of days earlier and brought from Port-au-Prince, apparently.

The team members who came to visit had a great time, and right now they should be arriving back in Sioux Falls.  We pray all of you are doing well back home, and just know that we are blessed down here in Haiti and enjoying all of the great relationships with neighborhood characters like Antoine.

Many Blessings on Your Adventure!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers