BETON! A Haitian 'barn raising'

In rural Haiti, when a family builds a cement house, there is one special day in the process. It's called BETON. It's the day they pour the cement roof. It's a task that requires many many hands. You need people to mix the cement. You need people to put it in buckets. You need strong men to hoist the buckets up a ladder. You need people to pour the cement into place. You need people to catch the flying empty buckets (my job) and return them to the beginning. And, you need women to prepare food for everybody. (Excuse the 'sexist' point of view...it's a cultural thing.)

I own gloves. Work gloves. That makes me a candidate to be the guy who stands on the ground and catches empty buckets being tossed down. On November 11, a neighbor of mine (our church's pastor) was pouring the cement roof on his house. BETON! I took my position and caught nearly every bucket used that day. I dropped a couple.

BETON is a community event. If you help people on their BETON day, they will show up to help you for yours. There are lots of jokes. There is lots of food...juice, coffee, tea, and bread...and a cooked meal at the end. And there is always a lot of noise. Men working under pressure to be speedy will cry out : "BETON!" or sometimes "BUCKET! BUCKET!"

It's an honor for me as an outsider to be part of a BETON. I was delighted to help our Pastor have a better house for him and his family. BETON isn't really a part of ASAPH Teaching Ministry, but it is part of being a community member. It's part of being a brother, a Christian.