Gordon Barlow

My over-the-road neighbour here in the Caribbean grew up in Manitoba, in a Mennonite family. It's a Christian sect that began in Holland a few centuries ago, and under persecution from mainstream denominations (I'm told) its members moved to north-western Russia and parts of Ukraine, then over to Canada in the late 1800s.

As far as I can gather, it's not a proselytising kind of sect, and I'd never heard of it before sitting next to a chap on a plane from Jamaica to Haiti back in the 1960s. He was on his way to stay with his brother at a mission-station in the centre of the country. The brother met him off the plane, and I was invited to tag along. He got my visa extended on the spot, and drove us to his mission up in the mountains. They let me stay for a week there, and we saw all the sights, most memorably Henri Christophe's famous Citadel. Lovely people! Lovely people!

bats

So if they weren't proselytising why were they missionaries?

Gordon Barlow

Taking care of their existing flock, I suppose. Or maybe just "doing good". The station was in the middle of the jungle, pretty much; not much scope for street-to-street proselytising there.

bats

Isn't a missionary someone who promotes their religion? Street to street isn't obligatory, missionaries lure the locals in with free education, healthcare and the like while lobbing a a prayer or two.

Gordon Barlow

Could be, bats. You'd better take it up with Head Office.
This was back in Papa Doc's day; maybe he called them a mission and nobody dared correct him. Graham Greene published a book ("The Comedians") about Papa Doc's Haiti in the same year I visited. Well worth reading!

dbd33

There are many Mennonites in Ontario. Old order, progressive, 70hp, every flavour.

bats

Yes I've come across them and I'm not impressed.

scilly

There are a lot in BC, as well as across the Prairies.

Gordon Barlow

Just to finish off my story... I spent a week at the mission (nobody tried to convert me!), then they drove me down to the north coast for the early morning minibus going back to the capital. It was a full bus (all locals, none of whom spoke anything but Haitian patois, and none except me was coloured anything but jet black). So I chose to join three other young men on the roof. At the occasional stops for food and bathroom necessities during the ten-hour trip, we passed luggage down and packed luggage thrown up to us. As the outsider, I was the guest of honour; everybody made sure I knew what was going on, and I had to fight to pay my own way. The driver went out of his way to drop me at my ratty hotel, and the whole busload waved and shouted a warm farewell. "Au voi, blanc!"

For anybody here thinking of taking a vacation in Haiti, spend as much time as you can outside the capital. The people out there are all desperately poor, but not city-poor. There's a huge difference. And, they're as friendly as you could possibly hope. I don't know if the Mennonite mission is still in business, but if it is, give the people my best regards!

HGerchikov

Why? We deal with them quite a bit as they own a lot of the farm supply businesses in the area. We have found them great to deal with. Also the horse and buggy parking lot in the local hospital makes me smile every time I see it.

BristolUK

Doesn't it get in the way of ambulances queuing to admit their patients?

bats

i came across a few at work, as patients. They were aloof to the point of rudeness, the boys arrogant and dismissive of women, or maybe it was just non Mennonites. Anyway, not impressed with that community.

Dorothy

I thought the BC ones were Hutterites, not Mennonites.

scilly

Many Mennonites in the Fraser Valley., near Vancouver

Hutterite communities in the Peace River area, north eastern BC.

Almost Canadian

Ethnocentrism at its best!