PART 1:
This post could also fit into the old “neighborhood characters” category, but Olgens has gone way beyond being just another face in the crowd. I first met Olgens on one of my earliest trips here, and he made an impression on me one night after youth group. We had a pretty serious study/talk that night about sin, and afterward I offered to pray with anyone who needed prayer. Olgens came up and asked to talk. At that point all I knew was “bonjou (good morning), wi (yes), and mesi (thank you)”, and Olgens didn't know any English at all. We needed a translator, and faithful Kiki stepped in to help out. That moment will always be a definitive and treasured memory of Kiki for me.
Olgens got right to the point. He confessed to me that his heart was filled with sin. I asked him if he wanted to share anything specific he was struggling with. After a little bit of hemming and hawing, he said, “Okay, I'll tell you. Sometimes when I look at girls I want to have sex with them.” I had to force myself to suppress a little laugh. This is one of those moments when you just have to cherish the relative naiveté and near-innocence of most young people in Haiti. At this point Olgens was about 19 or so, and I assured him that those temptations were very normal for a boy of his age, and in fact it is an issue that almost all men have to deal with throughout their lives. I tried to give him some practical ways to deal with this situation, and he seemed relieved to have confessed to someone.
After that I always remembered his name and called to him on the street whenever I was in town with a mission team. He was always so happy that I remembered him. It was easy to see that his life was hard. He always wore the same old jeans, his head was too big for his body (which generated plenty of ridicule from his peers), he was only in 5th grade, he tended to mumble when he talked, and let's just come out and say it...he was kind of a homely lad. Speaking with Lynn one day, I jokingly compared him to Quasimoto. That's terrible, I know, but it was done in love, believe me. But the real turning point for Olgens was when Lynn came to visit with me last May. That was the beginning of something new for him.
When girls come on mission trips to Ti-Rivier, all the young men get really excited. No big news there, of course. Sometimes teams will come with a group of cute high school or college girls, and without fail our youth group always doubles or triples in size while they are here. Olgens has always wished that he could hang with the big boys in those moments, the Elyse and Junior-types who are confident, funny, smart, good-looking, and know quite a bit of English. Those are great guys, and Olgens sees them striking up conversations with the cute American girls and gets jealous. But then Lynn came and he found someone who he could talk to and be heard. Of course she was already taken, thank you very much! But that really didn't matter to Olgens, because it was never about the romantic side of things as much as just feeling some kind of self-respect and confidence.
Since that time Olgens has become a great friend to our family and even works for Mission Haiti carrying water every day. He loves to push Lynn's wheelchair when we go out in the community, which is really nice for me. He is still only in 7th grade at age 21, and may never finish school, but he has a future with us, anyway, as an incredibly loyal and hard worker who can be trusted. One day Mike gave me $20 Haitian ($2.50 US) to find someone to wash the truck. I asked Olgens to do it, and afterward I offered him the money. He said he didn't want it because he didn't do it for money. This is a pretty rare thing in Haiti, let me tell you!
PART 2:
Recently Olgens has gotten pretty good at English, so one day I was planning to go to Les Cayes to run some errands. Normally I would take Chelo or Patchouko with me, but both were busy on this occasion. Olgens was sitting there talking to Lynn, so I invited him to go. He was excited for the opportunity. On the way I asked him if there was anything he needed to buy or do while we were there. He asked if we could stop and visit his mom.
After finishing the errands we headed over to her neighborhood. This was a new place for me to go, and I was so happy for the opportunity to see a whole different type of life I had nver witnessed before. We turned off the cement street and headed down a dirt/gravel road. At this point the houses were quite small, but made of finished cement, with doors and everything. There was a few feet between the houses. Soon we went as far as we could go on motorcycle and had to park. At this point quite a crowd gathered around us. They were obviously impressed that Olgens was was in cahoots with some Blanc (American).
We proceeded on foot. Now the only space between homes was about the width of a hallway in most American homes. The homes shared walls with each other, and most of the “doors” were simply a blanket draped across an opening. The cement of these homes was sometimes unfinished, just bare cinder blocks held together with a bit of mortar. Naked babies and toddlers were everywhere. One 18-month old (or so) pointed at me at said, “Blanc! Blanc!” It makes me wonder how they learn that so early. It must have been her third word after “Mama” and “Papa.”
We reached the home of Olgens' mother, but unfortunately she was not there. Later she would call him and rebuke him for not letting her know ahead of time that he was bring an "important" visitor to her home. I had to laugh. We decided to drive across town to visit some of Olgens' cousins instead. There was an adventure waiting there for us as well.
The next place we stopped provided quite a contrast. It was a nice home with a metal gate out front, bedrooms, a bathroom with toilet, tiled floors, and a nice private garden in the back. I met a few of Olgen's cousins (a very loose term here for any kind of distant relative) and we had a few laughs together. One boy there looked about 11 but his sister said he was 14. He had the TV turned up too loud and was fiddling with some string and sticks. His head wobbled around like there was something wrong with him. He would mumble something and laugh to himself. I remember thinking, “I wonder if this kid will ever doing anything worthwhile with his life.”
I started looking at the variety of paintings up on the walls, assuming they had been purchased from some local artist or shop or whatever. Some of them were quite nice, and definitely interesting in content. After a little while the boy asks me in Creole, “What are you looking at there?” I said, “I'm just looking at all these paintings. They're pretty good.” He kind of giggle to himself. Olgens points at the boy and says, “He painted all of those.” I was dumfounded. I asked to clarify, “This kid right here? He painted those?” Olgens confirmed what he said. The boy giggled a little more.
There were interesting paintings of Bible scenes, nature scenes in Haiti, and many other things. One that really stuck out was a painting of a vase with flowers with three burning candles nearby. Somehow he was able to capture both the glare of the light on these objects and the shadows behind them, and the flowers were very detailed and beautiful. It looked like a blown up photograph. I had to repent of my earlier dismissal of the boy and think, “This kid could do great things.” I wonder if he was autistic or something. More importantly, I wonder who will guide him on this strange and potentially-wonderful path on which God has placed him?
We headed home. Olgens and I had a few more laughs and returned back to our everyday lives where the adventures always continue. Just yesterday Olgens and I met up in the nearby market. It was cloudy and breezy and I asked him, “Eske lapli ap veni? (Will the rain come?)” He said, “No, not now.” Predictably, after about five minutes we got hit with a small monsoon. All we could do is laugh, help people pack up their little stands, and find shelter on someone's porch for 20 minutes. We can never say for sure how long God will allow us to serve here, but we feel like Olgens will be a part of that story for many years to come. He fits well with us, and it all began with a little prayer together a couple of years ago with the help of Kiki.
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| Olgens and Lynn |
God Bless Your Adventure Today!
-Grimm Family Adventurers
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