MORE ABOUT HAITI
Mayombe Chapel
Our first visit to Mayombe came in December
of 2001. Only five of us made that first two-hour ascent from Pendus. Upon our
arrival, several of the elder women of the village told us that we were the
first Americans they could ever remember coming to Mayombe. They had a small --
20-foot by 20-foot -- dirt-floored chapel. The walls were part tin, part
palm-woven barrier and part holes (where the wind had caused damage). The tin
roof also had some places where the gusts had wrecked havoc as well. Before we
left, those women told us: (in Creole but translated for us) "What God has
brought us today, no flood can take away.” What she was referring to was Hope
-- hope that someone now knew and cared about them up on a fairly isolated
mountain in north-central Haiti.
We began collecting money for this project at St Mary Cathedral and by August
had sent $15,000 to Father Ronel Charelus. Despite the early fall being a rainy
time of the year, Father Cha Cha helped to organize many local residents to
carry the many bags of concrete and other materials up that same hike from
Pendus as well as to help gather the necessary sand, gravel and water . The new
chapel was completed by our next visit in December 2002 and the first Mass was
celebrated there at that time. The new chapel measured about 50-feet by 30-feet
with a small sacristy addition to the left of the altar area (with a bed so a
priest could stay the night if needed). The entire building was made of
concrete, the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Now the wind would not be able
to be so disruptive to the chapel or those inside!
One interesting story concerning this chapel involved the paint used. We had
sent some top-quality interior paints (both white and blue) to Pendus on a sea
container in late 2002 to be used to renovate the interior of St. Joseph Church
in Pendus -- and the colors matched the white and blue paint used in the
recently renovated Cathedral in Lafayette. When we arrived for our first visit
to Mayombe, we realized that they had also use that white and blue paint for the
exterior of the Mayombe chapel. Even after five years of the sun, heat, rain,
and wind of this remote mountaintop, the chapel still looks very nice!
As is customary, there was a wall built around the chapel and courtyard area as
well. There is probably a 4-6 foot drop off from the elevation of the courtyard
from the chapel to the entry gate on the west side.
On the next visit to Pendus in 2003, we brought a set of Stations of the Cross
and hung them in the chapel in Mayombe. When St Mary was renovated in 2000,
photos of those Stations of the Cross were made. We had 11 by 14 inch copies
made, dry-mounted and framed to be used at Mayombe (and eventually at each of
Pendus' six surrounding chapels).
Click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture. Use the arrows to the left and right of the thumbnails to see more pictures in the gallery.
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