Holy Thursday experience in Haiti

I have to tell you about my "Holy Thursday" experience in Haiti. 

It was last Friday, Day 7 in Haiti and our last day at the bench building site. We were getting into our truck, saying tearful goodbyes to the children and new friends we had spent the week with, when I stepped right into the sewage that runs along the roads. (And I was wearing sandals!) I don't know if you have ever seen sewage like this, but it is their only means of waste disposal, if you know what I mean. 

Not wanting to put my foot into the truck like that, I was asking anyone if they had a plastic bag to put my sandal in and I thought I could scrape my foot off on some rocks, when one of the Haitian carpenters we were working with came out of his home with a bucket of water and parted the crowd that was forming around me. He held the bucket low and just as I thought how wonderful it was that I could wash my foot off in the bucket, he looked into my eyes and shook his head no. He instead, picked up my foot and scooped water out of the bucket and with his own hand, very gently washed the sewage off my foot. I was speechless. A very humble feeling came over me that this man who I thought poor was so rich in his heart!  He didn't think twice, came to me in an instant, willing to serve his sister - me. 

Haiti is a place where God is present all around us. It is a place that teaches me over and over again what it means to love unconditionally.  As I attend Mass on Holy Thursday in a couple weeks and watch the 12 men have their foot washed on the altar, I most assuredly will be reliving my own personal, humbling experience - one act I will never forget. 

Have a Blessed Lenten Season in preparation for a Glorious Easter!!