Language

Summer in Haiti means many different things.  One of my favorite parts of the summer is spent being showered in other languages.  Daily I am forced outside of my "linguistic comfort zone" as I attempt to follow along with conversations in Creole and French.  This summer seems to be an exceptionally language rich summer.

Mornings are spent teaching children Engilsh reading comprehension as long as working alongside one of the Hatiain teachers to teach French reading comprehension.  Here is some of my fifth grade class enjoying their French lesson with Monsieur Prides.

After I bid my fifth graders farewell, I sneak into the teacher training.  While I've been privileged to be a part of the teacher training for the past five summers, this year the school is doing work on the Haitian system of their program and is having instructors come from the Ministry of Education to help ensure that the school is meeting expectations for the government.  These sessions are completely in French. Thankfully there are many packets to follow along with using my high school and college French.  Also, the teachers are very patient and gracious with me when I can't quite track with everything that's going on.

By early afternoon the teacher training is ending.  On some days, I am leading an optional doctrine/Bible study with the teachers and on other days one of the Haitian teachers has kindly agreed to teach a few of us visiting American teachers Creole.  So, as I push my language-weary mind to the brink, I sit through a few hours of practicing Creole pronunciation, grammar, and phrases.  It's fun to be able to do this in a room full of safe and friendly people, rather than stumbling around a conversation in broken Creole with people I meet in the street.

All of this focus on language and communication makes me wish I could flex certain parts of my brain. I so want to be able to speak eloquently and fluently and communicate clearly to those around me.  I look at my Hatiain teacher friends who smoothly and easily slide between French and Creole and English (and Spanish and Sign Language) and I'm admittedly a bit jealous of their gifts.  How God is using their language skills to develop relationships and also share His message of hope and grace!  

For now, I'm thankful for opportunities to expand my understanding of other languages, and also praying for opportunities to speak grace and truth by whatever means possible - in word or deed, in attitude and mindset!

Many thanks for following along with me during this summer in Haiti!  Even when I don't find the words to express it fully, I'm very thankful to know that there are friends and family and a whole church family praying for my dear friends in Haiti!  With much love in Christ, Jessie

Childhood

Yesterday my teacher friends Dawn and Sarah and I went with a friend of a friend to visit a children's program in City Soleil, one of the more infamous parts of Port au Prince, known for the poverty and instability that have thrived there since the earthquake. As we drove over to City Soleil, Lukens, a young Haitian medical student, explained to us that he went to visit the neighborhood a while back with a pastor who was working there and was touched by the needs of the children there.  He said he was surprised by the conditions that they were living in and also by how they didn't know anything about Jesus.  Again the heart of compassion and concern for others, which I have often seen in my Haitian friends, was evident.  There was a need, God showed it to me, and so here I am serving. 

On Saturdays the program usually has about 75 children for the Bible and feeding program and on Sundays they have church for about 2,000 children.  We spent the whole day with some of the most joyful, clever, silly, and welcoming children.  We shared stories in fractured French/Creole/English, sang songs, played games, drew pictures, and waited for a simple meal of rice and bean sauce to arrive.  

The children were eager to try to converse and ask questions of their new friends.  Where do you live? What is your mother's name?  Do you have work?  How old are you? (Apparently that isn't a cultural taboo here!)  Through the course of the day I had many different hair styles put together by the girls who thought this funny strawberry-blonde hair was something very strange.  We played a Haitian version of the game Jacks with little pebbles and made silly faces at each other.  It was a day spent simply enjoying childhood.

One of the children, a little boy with cerebral palsy, captured some of the moments of the day with my camera.  I think his photographs taken from the view of his wheelchair are a perfect glimpse into our day with the beautiful children of City Soleil.  A day of fun and joy and silliness - a day of childhood, which poverty and violence and instability has not been able to crush.

Thank you for following along with me on this summer in Haiti!  I'm thinking a lot about the children I am privileged to know and love back home and praying that they are enjoying their summers also and reveling in the simple joys that childhood brings, no matter where you live!

Much love in Christ, Jessie