FARMINGTON – Three members of St. Joseph’s Church in Farmington and St. Rose of Lima in Jay said a recent trip to Haiti taught them that the people of the Caribbean country remain generous and gracious despite endemic poverty.

Tom Caton of Phillips, who had visited in 2005, noticed improvements in some of the country’s infrastructure, he said. “Everything was good, very good,” he said Monday of their trip taken at the end of February.

Caton along with Lori Richards of Strong and Janet Brackett of New Sharon spent a week visiting with the people, he said. The local churches provide donations to pay a staff of 12 teachers at a secondary and elementary school in two small parishes in Haiti and also help with construction of a medical clinic.

The three shared their experiences with the congregation at St. Joseph’s on Sunday after Mass and plan to hold a Haiti session at St. Rose of Lima after 8:30 a.m. Mass on May 18, he said. They plan to display crafts purchased in Haiti with some for sale, photos that they took, and plan to give a carved wooden Haitian mask as a door prize. All are welcome to attend, he added.

“While poverty is severe and rampant and the food situation is not good at all,” Caton said he “came away with a feeling that some of the bad press that Haiti gets is a little extravagant.”

Part of the problem is the land is so depleted, there is nothing to fall back on, he said.

A first impression for Richards as the three flew into Port-au-Prince was how the mountains looked liked brown velvet, she said. All the nooks and crannies of the land could be seen as it was stripped of vegetation and trees, she said.

A driver/interpreter told Caton that if families are able to buy food, it is all they can buy. A bowl of rice, a small bowl that would hold about a cup and a half, sells for $1.30, he said, with people there only making $1 or $2 a day.

Many Haitians have small gardens and try to sell produce in the markets but the question is whether residents can buy the food. Wheat, rice and corn prices have risen about 130 percent over the past year there, he said.

Despite their poverty, Brackett, also on her first trip, found the people open, hopeful and hard-working, she said. They are so generous even when they have nothing. If they have six bananas, they’ll give you three, she said.

“It was a life-changing experience,” she added. “I always knew we live in a privileged society but I guess it brought it home to me how much we could do without and still be pretty privileged.”

The three took school and medical supplies with them as well as lap quilts and diapers made from old T-shirts, she said. Both churches hold a monthly collection to help pay teacher salaries and build the clinic. Other fundraising activities at St. Rose of Lima were held to raise money for the parishes in Haiti, she said.

Currently women from both churches are knitting and crocheting small bears that can be sponsored for a $1 donation. The bears will be sent to children in Haiti, Caton said. All funds raised from any of these events is used to help Haiti, he added.