Youth Interviews: Kyle, Audrey, Kate, Josh

This was an interview with teenagers Kyle Purnell (Buck Creek UMC), Audrey Mallard (Statesboro FUMC), Kate Brunson (Statesboro FUMC) and Josh Lee (Sylvania UMC).

Q: What are your most significant memories of the trip and our work this week?

Josh: I was really looking forward to the construction, but I think working with the kids was the best. It was really touching. They all look up to you and it was just fun playing ball with them.

Audrey: For me, it was so many things I can't pick just one. All the kids, they trust you all of a sudden. They just see you and latch on to you.

Kate: At our Bible schools at home, the kids are so shy and don't talk the first day or so, but not here. These kids are always laughing and smiling...

Kyle: And grabbing you!

Audrey: Singing with Celestina and her neighbor was a memorable experience.

Kyle: We sang Amazing Grace like five times.

Josh: Church last night was wild! Long, but it was interesting.

Kate: The songs and the music and the shouting for the preacher... it was so different. It would just go on and on.

Audrey: The songs were so simple. Just a couple words.

Josh: Yeah, and we'd sing it for like thirty minutes.

Audrey: It was neat how they were not concerned about the instrumentation.

Kyle: At my church people just stand for one or two of the songs. Here they would stand for anything... and almost everything.

Kate: And the people would just throw in phrases with the preacher in the sermon.

Audrey: Going into the schools for Bible school was neat. We could just go in and nobody really cared. And they would see us and be excited and shout "white girls"!

Kyle: It was weird how we come over here and we're from a different country and ethnic group and all that and if somebody came to us and did that, we would be suspicious. They were all so welcoming.

Kate: If people came into our town to do something like that for us, it would seem kind of different.

Josh: We've got that where we live and don't think about it.

Kyle: Like our regular Sunday isn't their every Sunday. Plus, I'll also remember Jorel.

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Jorel is a young man from Haiti who works with Raoul. Jorel has gone through the long process to legally be allowed out of that country. He has a wife and child still in Haiti. They are currently working through the process to join him. They still talk by phone everyday and look forward to being together again. He was around all week helping serve our dinners and doing much of the "behind the scenes" work.