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Requiem
The funeral mass was to be in Kreyol, that much was certain. She wouldn’t have any of that pretension that came with speaking mangled French in Haiti. Kreyol pale; Kreyol konprann. Creole speaks; Creole understands. When she would go to government offices or fancy stores in the tony Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville, the clerks would greet her in their finest French and she would respond in her finest backwoods Kreyol. Whereas French in Haiti is the language of the educated, the elite, those who aspire to separate themselves from the teeming masses living in poverty out in the bush; she would only speak to them in Kreyol, the other official language, the one spoken by the other 90% of the country that didn’t go to school or drive cars or own land. Tout moun se moun. All people are people, and that was what Sr. Althea’s funeral was going to be about- the Haitian people.
Fourteen years ago, Sr. Althea Jonis and Sr. Martha Ann Abshire left their work in Louisiana to begin a new mission in Haiti. Their Order, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, agreed to let them go and see what needed to be done. When they first arrived the Haitian doctor who said he would help them start a mission didn’t show up to greet them. They waited for hours at the chaotic Port-au-Prince airport before he finally arrived and drove them over the horrendously bumpy Route National to Aquin, in the south of Haiti. Once they reached the town, he dropped them off on the side of the road and drove off. They didn’t speak the language, and they didn’t know anyone.
While they spent their first few months learning the language and the culture, they decided that they would start a medical mission to meet the overwhelming need for basic medical care in the area. They fed the proper paperwork to the bureaucratic machinery in Port and waited for their authorization. But the people in the area didn’t have time to wait for the government to say it was okay to treat them. When the sisters went up into the mountains to hold a planning meeting, the Haitians brought out their sick and dying. Martha and Althea said that they could not legally work until the government in Port authorized them. The people responded that they would be dead long before the government sent them a piece of paper. The sisters opened up their first aid kit and treated the sick with what they had. After that they went and bought medical supplies with the $230 that they had left. When that was exhausted they returned to Port to check their mail and tell their Provincial Superior what had passed. Upon opening their mail they found a check for $238 from a parish in Louisiana who had taken up a second collection and wanted a place to send it. The writing was not only on the wall, it was on the check, and the sisters knew they had found their mission.
Posted by Christy and Tim at 07:59 PM on September 29, 2003 :: Permanent link
Sr. Althea Jonis, Born to Eternal Life 9/9/03
Dear Friends and Family:
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we write this message. Yesterday afternoon, Sr. Althea Jonis, OSF passed away after a nine-day sickness. Even writing these words it is hard to believe it.
Christy and I are ok, and we are doing all that we can to help Sr. Marie Claire, who loves Althea like a sister and stayed in Haiti past her own retirement age because she did not want Althea to be alone. We are also being supportive for Sr. Uyen and Sr. Irlene, a novice sister who is Haitian and was planning on going to the States in October with Althea.
We will let you know more as we know. We are waiting to here from Althea's family and the from the order in Louisiana what the plans are.
Althea leaves behind her two parents in Florida, her sister and her brother, as well as the family she chose when she became a Franciscan Missionary of Our Lady. The people of Aquin, where she lived, and Ste Helene, where she worked, are devastated, and groups of them have been coming to the house since the news spread. Althea came here fifteen years ago not knowing the language and not even have a place to sleep on the first night. In that time she has built a school, a health clinic, a malnutrition clinic for children, and convent and started education, reforestation, micro-finance and other programs. She leaves behind a great sorrow and a great work that is a testament to her courage and vision and her downright stubborn nature. She is a remarkable woman.
Althea was born on October 23, 1947; and born to eternal life on September 9, 2003.
Please keep Althea, her family and the people of Haiti in her prayers.
God bless-
Tim and Christy Zahner
Aquin, Haiti
Posted by Christy and Tim at 05:56 PM on September 10, 2003 :: Permanent link
That Old Time Religion
Sundays in Haiti mean Church. Catholics, Baptists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Holy-Rollers, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, even Vodouisants, head to church on Sunday; or Friday, if you are an Adventist and your Sunday falls on a Friday. On Sunday it seems that Mon Sejou, our little section of town, takes a collective bath, puts on its collective best, and heads down the dusty lane to its houses of worship.
In the US, Sunday mass is usually dispatched in about an hour or so, and even less time in Green Bay in September when we* have an early kick-off. In Aquin, where the soccer games don’t start until late afternoon and there is no TV, Sunday services are the only show in town, and they don’t disappoint. From 8:00 to noon nary a soul crosses the main square, as the Aquinoisie are either in church praying to God or at home recovering from a Saturday night of ginnin’ and sinnin’, and doing their praying in bed.
As for the different churches, Salvation Army has the best band and uniforms, and they show ecumenical acumen by showing up for funerals no matter where they are held. Baptists win for sheer length, and the Evangelicals clinch on the voices. They practice, and it shows. The Catholic Church is the 800-pound gorilla. Any civic or official event begins with a crowded mass, with members of the other churches coming to listen to the mass, talk to their friends, and press the flesh with the mayor. During the coup years the former priest, an outspoken Frenchman, led prayer processions through town, defying the edicts of the army.
Underneath it all are the Vodouisants, ostensibly Catholic or another denomination, but also followers of Vodou. Vodou has been an embattled religion in Haiti, banned, then used as inspiration during the revolution, then banned again, then resurrected, banned again, tolerated, then co-opted by Duvalier as a method of control, and finally, officially recognized as a legitimate religion just a few months ago, giving vodou adherents a right to lawful marriages.
Continue reading "That Old Time Religion"Posted by Christy and Tim at 01:49 PM on September 05, 2003 :: Permanent link
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RequiemSr. Althea Jonis, Born to Eternal Life 9/9/03
That Old Time Religion
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