My first group

The first group of my time here came the week before Christmas. Sorry that was so long ago as I try to keep you more up to date. A group of 12 from Malibu Presbyterian Church, CA,—many of them Pepperdine students plus another couple from Wilmington, NC, joined them for the week. They had amazing energy and great attitudes—up for anything and everything. Their project for the week was helping to build a soccer field at Repatriate, one of the HOM campuses. It’s hard manual labor, spreading a thick layer of sand over a thick layer of gravel from piles at the edge of a large field. We thought that it would take them all week using buckets and wheelbarrows and it was pretty close. In the hot Haitian sun we encourage lots of breaks in the shade of the tent and lots and lots of water. There is also a school there with preK and K kids so the group would break at the same time as the kids and go to see the children who performed their song repertoire and introduced themselves with hugs and chants of I LOVE YOU. Each afternoon on their return they were ready to see other things—orphanages, a walk in the surrounding area, a drive around the city, anything. I would have been done for the day but they just kept going.
Most of the week I was busy at school but as the kids were taking exams and there really wasn’t too much for me to do, I went with them for 2 days…hot, heavy, fun, exhausting. They had a system down in filling up the wheelbarrows and dumping them and leveling the sand…taking breaks was no problem and they were hard workers! As careful as they were it did seem that each day another person or pair would be sick and in bed for the day but as soon as they could they would be up and join the group again. The evenings after dinner (food does get more variety with the groups though not a huge change—I’m getting ok with it) would be devotions and team time. The devotions were for everyone and the team time was a time where staff could excuse themselves while the group debriefed the day. And then came games if people were still up for it (and usually they were).

staff classes

This class keeps changing times as the staff is needed for different things throughout the day. The staff does speak English so this is just to improve English speaking and understanding. There is the habit to answer yes to everything here even when you don’t understand…so sometimes it is hard to figure out if they understand (when asked if they understand they still often say yes…and then ask a question that obviously means they didn’t understand). At the first class they said they want more praying vocabulary so that they could pray in English and feel comfortable with that so we did some different names for God. Our last class was on pronunciation of past tense verbs.
The other class I have is for the interpreters that work with the groups. More conversation. I’ve only had 2 classes with them. I had 4 the first day when I just kept asking questions to get them to talk. We got into a discussion of introverts and extraverts and whether one can change into the other…I’m planning on looking for some French podcasts or Haitian Creole ones to have them translate but the ones that I’ve found have been at what sounds like triple speed…The 2nd class only Rony showed up. I believe that he is by far the most advanced and really doesn’t need to come to the class. I told him so but also said that he was most welcome. We talked about pronunciation and how we run our words together. He’s actually been studying this (a lot) and is looking forward to taking his TOFEL exam so he can study or work in the states to help him get along.

Joyeux Noel

Merry Christmas!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. May you be surrounded with loved ones and remember the joy that the very first Christmas brings to all of us.

I’ve been reading about John the Baptist’s birth and the big plans for him to make way for Jesus. That is what we are called to do. Make way for the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Offer to Him the best of ourselves as the Little Drummer Boy did—not materially but with what we can. Love to you!

Stars

The evenings are long. It gets dark early but even more than that we have dinner at 5:30. That is early! I’m not saying that I’m not hungry by then but when dinner is over at 6 the question is what to do with the rest of the evening. For the first week I pretty much went back to my room and read or watched a movie on my computer or played computer games, but definitely wasn’t social. Patty, my roommate) would disappear for the evening. Then I decided I was done with that. But I still wasn’t social…I went up to the roof (they are flat here) and watched the stars. We are in the middle of Port-au-Prince so there is quite a bit of ambient light (even with power cuts they don’t seem to happen to the whole city or there are a LOT of solar and generator powered lights). But I’ve found some constellations and Jupiter and 2 shooting stars. I’ve started to use it as my quiet time. I set an alarm for 30 minutes and I just think or not. One night I thanked God for everyone I could think of…and I ended up thinking of people that I haven’t thought of in ages. It has been cloudy some nights but that doesn’t take away from the awesomeness of the night sky. I recommend it to you all either on your own or in the company of good people.
(I have also started being more social and watching movies with others in case you were worried about my being alone too much)

Cold showers

I’ve never been a big fan of cold showers. They don’t have to be hot but to not have any heat at all?! And yet after a day in Haiti, I welcome my shower. I feel dusty and grimy even when I’ve been in the classroom (shady) all day. I might have to do with the chalk that seems to get everywhere or the light colored dust that shows up on all clothing and shoes. Of course the temperatures here in Haiti also make it easier to get into that cold shower. So far the evenings do get a bit cooler when the sun has set and only 2 nights have passed that I have really dreaded getting under the water. One was actually a cool evening and the other was just very windy…
I’m grateful for everything that I have…and while maybe wishing for more, I know that what I have is often more than most of the world has. Thank God for my many blessings.

Food

I love food. I find that I’m also pretty easy to please when it comes to food. I was warned before I came that I would be eating rice and beans. At other times it would probably be beans and rice…so I knew what was coming…and yet I wasn’t ready for this. (I've been assured that it is better when groups are in the compound--I'll find out soon)

Breakfast: bread and bananas everyday (no problem with this)
Option 1: spaghetti with a tomato, onion, and sometimes sausage coating more than a sauce. (I haven’t been able to eat this yet…it is offered but it just doesn’t smell like breakfast for me and my stomach)
Option 2: porridge—it tastes like oatmeal but is smoother and runny. Not too bad with banana and bread in it.
Option 3: scrambled eggs—almost omelet style with onions, peppers. This is by far my favorite especially as it is served with fresh mango slices.

Lunch: rice and beans in some variation everyday
Option 1: Stop Hunger Now mix as this is what the children at school get each day and we are eating a bit of that. It comes with a bean sauce (really bean juice with a few beans in it) or sometimes an oily tomato sauce that sometimes has anchovies in it.

Dinner: fresh juice—orange, grapefruit, passionfruit, lemon—it is the best!!
And then usually (not always but mostly) rice and beans and an oily sauce with meat, onions and okra…not much extra flavor though sometimes they throw in some hot spice that is great! An occasional salad which is some green plant and sliced tomatos.

and no dessert...

where we eat--you can't beat the view

Teaching teachers

In the afternoons (and sometimes Tuesday and Friday mornings) I have classes with some of the staff of HOM and the teachers from school. These are some very fun classes. I had no real idea where or how to start so I figured from the beginning (as if I know where that is). I’ve been trying to remember my first French classes and learning some Spanish—start with greetings and introductions and go from there. Of course where to go from there is the big question. But it seems to be that was a good place to start. I was trying to get a feel for where they were in their English and of course they come all over the scale. The teachers are at the beginning so we are doing lots of vocabulary…using the questions of what you like to do, what will you do this weekend and then what did you do last weekend which led into past tense verbs and all their complexities. English is really an impossible language…

Example: For regular verbs, add –ed to the end to make them past tense. This –ed has 3 different sounds depending upon the last sound of the verb. It can sound like a , a , or a as after enjoy, wish, and need. Listen carefully when you add the –ed. Also for pronunciation the th is somewhat specialized in English—it is not found in French, Creole, Chichewa…taught and thought sound a lot alike. But they are fun classes with lots of laughter and smiles and questions. I will ask a question and then we go around the table…answer the question and then they have to ask the next person…as much talking as I can get them to do…