Staff Class

My classes with the staff of HOM went by the wayside after about 3 of them when I arrived. Things got busy with two to three groups in at a time. But since I’ve returned from my South Africa trip we have started up again. We sometimes have had double groups in but the classes have been given a priority. I’m not sure how well I’m doing in a priority standard but I answer questions and we do some reading for pronunciation and vocabulary. I’ve also found a YouTube series that we are enjoying right now. Sometimes I feel that it is too easy for them but then I change my mind because we are getting so much vocabulary out of it and getting to ask questions about the things they are talking about doesn’t come easily. I think it is good for them to have to listen to it as well (a voice and dialogue other than mine). It is made for an Asian learner I think…at least they talk about being in Asia and sometimes there are words in a different language on the screen. The story last week was about going to a tea house, ordering at a restaurant, etc. If you are interested you can look it up—“the best English” series. We are also working on when and how to use ‘could, should, would, might, must, etc.’ These are tough questions!

not from classes but just hanging out--
Woodley (lives here), me, LJ (pastor Luc's son), Patty, Gloria (pastor Luc's daughter)

Shapes

In the first, second, and third grade classes we have learned (roughly) the alphabet (English pronunciation), numbers (to 10), and colors. Now we are working on shapes and I think I might have figured this out—a little. I only introduce 2 shapes per class. I’ve done square, circle, triangle, heart and star. We go over them and then I give them paper and crayons and have them draw the shapes…I try to get them to also follow directions but so far that only goes so far…to draw a blue square—it seems to start with the blue crayon but quickly changes to using any different color that they have. And if I ask them to draw 2 I have to be pretty lucky to get them. We are also working on Thank you and You’re welcome…each time I give them paper or crayons or pick the crayons up after class…very very very repetitive. I have flash cards to quiz them with and the favorite game so far is boys against girls on who can get the most answers correct…the problem is that when the round is over chaos (very loud chaos) ensues and I get admonished by the office! But I think they are learning so I take it (usually).

A well taught Christian education raises man's dignity and  brings him closer to his Creator.

Leaving

Patty has left. She was at HOM when I arrived and stayed 7 months of her 6 month commitment. She helped lots with the teams and she worked with Madame Sterling on sales and ideas for the gift shop and the vocational school here. We lived together for my first two weeks here and then were next door neighbors for the rest of the time. I appreciate her friendship and how she showed me the ropes in the beginning. It was sad to see her go, but she’s promised that she isn’t done with Haiti. God put it in her heart and she’ll be back.

On her last weekend we went to the beach. She invited Madame Sterling and Mathanie to come. We went to Moulin sur Mer (Windmills on the Sea). I’d never been there before. It is very pretty. It has a hotel, museum, beach resort, restaurant, putt putt golf course and more. Jude drove us in his tap tap. We swam (I use that term loosely as the water wasn’t deep enough to need to swim), lounged, ate lunch. The others checked out the pool but I still don’t see the allure of a pool when you have the ocean right there. I tried to find deeper waters and swam out to the rope that surrounded the swimming area—my hand hit bottom about 3/4ths of the way out! Then it was time to head home. We got to ride in the official golf cart back out to our vehicle (oh we felt special!). I came home a bit pink but very happy with my day at the beach with some very fun people.

Jude, Patty, Mathanie, Madame Sterling, Jessi

The Tuesday night before Patty left we went to La Maison for ice cream. A nice send off for her as ice cream is always good. She is now back in LA, missing us but enjoying the food, hot showers and ease of getting what you want/need when you want/need it…

Ambler

We had a team down from Ambler, PA. It was a large group and they spread out to do some education, construction and medical work while they were here. I didn't get to know the medical team that well. They worked very hard at the clinic and put in some long days. But I got to paint with parts of their construction crew on Tuesday and Friday mornings. On Tuesday they were finishing up the house they had started on Monday…I started as the supervisor since we didn’t have enough space inside for all of us to paint and not enough paint to start the outside. But don’t worry—they didn’t put up with that for long and I was put to work. On Friday we painted the inside of one of the associate pastors of the church here at Terre Noire. There were a lot of us on that job and we got it knocked out pretty quickly. They were a fun group. 3 of them had been down in January on a scouting trip for their church so it was fun to see some familiar faces. Each night after dinner there was an UNO run with at least 5 people playing and sometimes up to 10. Lots of trash talk and also apologizing for the special cards…I didn’t quite understand the apologizing but then I only had them around for a week and they were going home together—maybe that had something to do with it.

It was a pretty hot week that they were here and many of them set up on the roof to sleep. I was tempted but couldn’t find the desire to move a mattress up and down each night and morning so I stayed in my room. They just had to wait for the evening sprinkle to come and go which it did almost every evening.

Your Life Will Change

At the end of the year the 6^th grade classes go on a retreat with a youth pastor from the states. She’s been coming down for years…I don’t know much about it really. It is called the FROG retreat (Fully Rely On God) and they sing lots of songs…I’ve been asked to teach them the songs since they are in English—that way they have some more understanding of the words and better pronunciation…so that is what we’ve been working on. I don’t know most of the songs (well I kind of do now) but we put the words on the board, translate them, repeat them, read them and then Wahite Frick (translator/English teacher) sings for them. The first one we did was Your Life Will Change.

From the page to your heart 

God’s Word is where you are; 

Read it now and your life will change! 

It’s exciting, surprising each and every day-

Read it now and your life will change! 

God’s Word will surprise you; 

God’s Word will amaze you! 

God’s Word will surprise you! 

Read it now and your life will change! 

Oh, how your life will change!

younger than the ones I was singing with but very cute!

Toffee

When I left Haiti to go to South Africa one of the guys who works for HOM asked me to bring him back an elephant…then he changed it to two elephants so he could breed and raise them. Then he changed his mind to lions and finally said even a snake would be fine…well I knew that wasn’t going to happen by any stretch of the imagination…I also knew that I couldn’t get something for just one or even a couple of people…so I thought about it and thought about it…when I got to Bloemfontein I asked Reinette about something like candy that is typically or at least quite South African…she suggested biltong which is kind of a meat jerky with special spices. I like it a lot but I wasn’t sure about getting meat—even dried meat—through customs. Then she suggested toffee made by Champions. Sounded good to me so we went to buy some. The store we went to is bulk store and the only way to buy toffee was to buy at least 120 pieces of it (already boxed). There were many different flavors. We were so indecisive that we ended up buying one box of the original, going outside to open and try it, and then going back in to buy more…I bought 3 boxes—there are a lot of people to give to…and so far it has been a big hit! (I’ve shared with all of my teachers and staff) But something I’ve noticed when watching different people eat it…those of us from US, Europe and SA put the whole square in their mouths in one bite…about the size of a Laffy Taffy and much stickier it is a real work out for your mouth and feels like you might pull your teeth out. (Dentists don’t like this stuff too much). When I got back to Haiti and gave it to people, they would unwrap it and take a small bite of the piece and continue to kind of nibble at it…This way it didn’t really hinder conversation or wear the person’s jaw out…just an observation (this observation has not changed the way I eat the toffee)

2 of the 3 boxes

Concrete

This is actually a couple of months late but this is a good time as any to share it.

Half of what was poured as seen from the roof of the existing building

The school out at Repatriate started 3 years ago (I think). It has 2 PreK classes, 2 K-1 classes and 1 K-2 class…and the building they have isn’t big enough for next year when they will add another 2 classes of children. So they started building the second building in February. A long-time friend of HOM’s came down to oversee the pouring of the foundation concrete. He is a mason and has poured most of the foundations for HOM buildings. First they had to dig very large trenches to pour the concrete into and when that was done they filled it with iron rebar for strength and support…bent and tied together and sticking up for the columns…strong enough to walk on. 

I'm in the background in red--watching!

All the concrete was mixed by hand (no big trucks for us-though I think they are available here). 7 small mixers placed around the square foundation…over 150 Haitians working carrying buckets of sand, cement, water, gravel to the mixers then shoveling it around to even it out under all the rebar. I went out with the team as it was one of my mornings off. I thought I would just watch and see what was going on with the team as some of them were headed to different worksites but we all wanted to see what was going on. It was such a hive of activity! People moving everywhere and no one running into any one else (until all of us visitors showed up) and then I was asked to hold something so they could measure to make sure a column wasn’t out of place…and then I was helping shovel the concrete flat…and me in my flip flops! They loved it (I was pretty happy with it—not having to wear shoes) Many Haitians wear flip flops or go barefoot on a construction site as they do not have proper footwear…I think they were getting a kick out of me in my flip flops.

Grace and I stirring and moving the concrete