School Rocks!

A few weeks ago two fellow QCS teachers,  Jill & Kellyanne, met 3 girls and began talking with them. Their names are JoAnnn (the oldest, 12), Cassandra (about 10), Fideria (I would guess about 7, maybe younger. I’m really bad at guessing ages). The girls live in the ravine close by our school. After a couple of conversations, Jill and Kellyanne found out that the girls were not in school. (Sad fact, 50% of primary school age children are not enrolled in school (UNICEF)). Miquette, founder of TeacHaiti, found out about the girls and wanted to meet with their mother. She had the girls tested and the two younger siblings, Cassandra and Fideria, were accepted to the TeacHaiti school. Unfortunately, JoAnn was not. You can read more about it at Jill’s blog here.

JoAnn & Jill

A few weeks ago, my parents decided to sponsor a TeacHaiti student. Normally, the big push for sponsors is done in the summer with the cut-off around August 1, because that is when school starts. I didn’t know what would happen if someone began sponsoring mid-year. Now I know. I was talking with Miquette last week and she told me that my parents would be sponsoring one of the little girls, Cassandra or Fideria! How sweet it is that it would work this way. The girls’ first day of school at the TeacHaiti school was on Tuesday. 

JoAnn in the white, Cassandra in the middle, Fideria in the pink, Jill...the blan.

Yesterday, Jill and I went to the house where the girls were staying to see how their first day of school was. JoAnn (older sister) had met us at the school and walked us to her house and let us in. Joseph, the man of the household (not sure what his relation to the girls is) was hemming jeans for the girls to wear to school (the TeacHaiti uniform rocks: Jeans and a brightly colored t-shirt). Cassandra and Fideria came out from behind a curtain and greeted us with big smiles, even bigger hugs, and a kiss on the cheek.

We spent an hour or so with them. We danced, we played musical chairs, and best of all, the two girls who were able to go to school that day showed us the books they had gotten. 

Cassandra reading to us from her book. 

Cassandra read me a story from her Level 4 book (in our Creole class we read the Level 3 book and I don’t understand it. That was only slightly humbling for me…). Fideria showed us the words she had written that day and all the worksheets in her “premye” grammar book. They were both bubbling over with joy as they pulled book after book out of their bags and then turned the pages in the new treasures they had gotten. The books themselves didn’t matter, it was what the books represented. Education. A chance. They may not realize it now. Right now they are just writing the names beside pictures in beautiful cursive (that’s right, a 7 year old with really good cursive. Impressive). They’re just reading about the antics of a fictional character named Bouki. But today they learned. Today at the school they ate lunch...and breakfast! Today they came home with more knowledge in their skulls than they did when they left that morning. It gives me goosebumps.

If you want to help a student, visit the TeacHaiti website at www.teachaiti.org

Maybe you can’t sponsor a student this year, make a donation to the General Fund. 

$31 per month! Per month! I could do the math and figure out how many grande lattes that is and do one of those guilt trips that people who write stuff like this do, but I don’t want to do the math and that stuff doesn’t usually work anyway. Instead, I will show you a cute picture.

No sure what Fideria (on the right) is doing. Being silly for the camera , I think. 

These two girls got to go to school yesterday, today, and will go tomorrow and the next day. That’s cooler than a grande, vanilla, non-fat latte anyway :)

Join me in praying for JoAnn, Cassandra, Fideria, Joseph, Fabian, the rest of the family, TeacHaiti, and the entire country of Haiti. 

Running in Haiti

Aside from family, friends, and fast food, one of the things I have missed most here in Haiti is running. I’m not a crazy awesome runner, but ever since college running has become one of my favorite hobbies and is my go-to way to relax. When I was preparing to move here I didn’t know if there would be any areas where I would be able to run. I assumed running on the streets was out (due to safety and cultural insensitivity). I had resigned myself to workout videos and playing soccer. However, upon arrival I found two avenues to satisfy my running urge. Our school takes up a large block and is surrounded by a wall. There are sidewalks all around campus and 4 to 5 laps around equals a mile. Not ideal for distance running, but much better than nothing. Also, over the summer someone had donated a treadmill to our school! I have made do with these two running options the last five months but at times I have felt trapped inside the walls wanting to get on the road and stretch my legs. I wanted to run more than three miles at a time (that’s about as much as I can take running in laps around the school or on the treadmill). I wanted to go up hills and down hills, see the neighborhoods and more of the city that I live in.

Well, this last week I got that chance. A friend of mine who grew up as an MK in Haiti, and who also likes to run, let me join him for a run outside the walls. If you aren’t a distance runner you may not understand the crazy feeling of freedom I felt as we meandered around the streets, stretching our legs, exploring our neighborhood. I discovered what I already knew but hadn’t fully experienced while riding in a car: Haiti is hilly. We (ok, maybe just me) huffed and puffed up hills and then ran as fast as we could down them. I figured out the lay of the streets a little better; they seem clearer when you see them on foot than in a car. I returned to the school exhausted but feeling satisfied and a little more independent.

Then, on Sunday, I went with another friend on a run in another part of the neighborhood. This time it was just us two females running together and I didn’t know what to expect. Anytime there is not a male in your group (and sometimes when there is) you will attract a lot of attention (more than you normally do just being white). I’ll admit, I was a little nervous. Honestly, I was afraid of getting negative attention. Not the negative attention that we normally get (the stares, “hey blan”, “give me a dollar”, the kissey noises), but negative in the sense of “I don’t have enough food to feed my family and you are out here burning calories? Seriously?” Surprisingly though, we didn’t get that at all…ok, one lady said something but she seemed more mad at the world than at us specifically.

As we were running, my friend told me that Haitians are a very encouraging people and I got to experience that firsthand. As we are huffing up a hill we get shouts of “w ap kenbe?” (Are you holding on?) and “kouri, kouri, kouri!” (run, run, run!). Smiles and greetings and encouragement, not at all what I expected.

This country continues to surprise me at every turn. It’s different, it’s got its problems, but it’s got its charms too.

Going back to Texas the day after tomorrow. So excited!!

A Photo Diary of Recent Happenings

Visiting the TeacHaiti school over Thanksgiving.

There is an orphanage next to the TeacHaiti school so we went over and played with these fabulous children that afternoon. Sweet girls.

 

This is how I spent my Black Friday.

Our trusty old friend the Jin Bei van. This old guy needs a little help sometimes.

Thursday during Spirit Week was "Twin Day." Here are two of my fantastic 7th graders.

We had our Christmas Bazaar last weekend. Many local vendors came out and displayed their wares. This is a great organization!

Our soccer team (in Black uniforms) playing against our rival school, Union (white uniforms) at Union School.

  

Teacher vs. Students Flag Football game.



Haitian Thanksgiving

Well, today it’s back to the grind. Thanksgiving weekend is over and we had a blast! I won’t write every detail, so if you want a more detailed account, check out Larissa’s blog here.

Wednesday:

Picked up my friends at the airport, had a quick tour around the school and then headed to the Child Hope feeding program. This was also the day that Christmas happened early in our apartment! Larissa and Roseana brought me tons of goodies from home including…a Christmas tree!! We had a nice dinner at Epi D’or and then called it a night

Thursday:

We got up and took a taptap up to Petion-ville in search of three places: Marie Beliard (best bakery ever), Giant grocery store, and Rebo Coffee shop. We got lost and ended up at Giant which sells coffee and bakery treats from the same bakery we were searching for. Win!

We got back to school and went with MIquette to the TeacHaiti school to check out all the awesomeness she has going on over there. You should check it out too, click here.

After we returned from Teach Haiti we spent a couple of hours resting and baking in preparation for Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner with 40 friends, new and old, at the O’Kelley’s house. It was great to meet new people and laugh and fellowship over a veritable feast of turkey, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, salads, green beans, desserts, and so much more

Friday:

We went to Kaliko Beach club. We sat in chairs and did nothing all day long. It was glorious.

Saturday:

We wanted to go up the mountain to Hotel Ibolele however, taptaps don’t go up there and I don’t have a car. What do we do? Take a mototaxi. A man that works for Mrs. O’Kelley drives a moto and had two friends who agreed to take us up the mountain. It was scary and fun all at the same time, but I don’t think I’ll be making this a regular form of transportation.

We spent a few hours at Ibolele swimming and eating before heading back down the mountain. We spent the evening at a local basketball game. One of the teachers at QCS coaches a city-team and they had their first game of the season. This game deserves its own blog post and might get it, but here are some pictures until then.

Sunday:

My friends were incredibly patient this weekend. I have had a nasty head cold, now turned sinus infection, and by today I was beat. We went to the house church, had lunch at Epi D’or and then sat around. I wanted to take them to the waterfall, but couldn’t manage it. I thank them for their patience. Thankfully, they were both engrossed in reading The Hunger Games series so they were kept well entertained by Katniss Everdeen and her antics.

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and I’m excited I got to share my world here with my friends from Dallas! I am also thankful no one got food poisoning or killed on a moto. Win!

Recent Happenings...

I’m not good at being consistent with this thing. Mostly because life here is not too different than it is from life in Dallas. Sure, it’s hotter and I have more mosquito bites than I have ever had in my life, but the routines are very similar. Go to work, teach, grade, plan, hang with friends, rinse and repeat.
Here are some random photos from what we have been up to the last few days…

On Friday our school, Quisqueya, had a game against another school in our league.

Quisqueya campus was crawling with students all night long on Friday night with our high school all-night camp out. There were movies, smores, volleyball, capture the flag and more. Several teachers chaperoned. I got lucky and had the early shift so I was only part of the action until about 1 am.

Saturday, a fellow teacher took Jill, Kellyanne and I up to the Baptist Mission in the mountains. You enter a completely different world when you go up the mountains. Beautiful, lush farmland and green as far as you can see….green!

They have a little restaurant with very American food, a gift shop with handmade items, and a bakery with the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had. Afterwards, we went to a little restaurant in an area of town known as Petionville. This is the nicer area of Port au Prince and the price of things reflects that. Still, the ice cream was delicious and it was great to see more of the city.

Monday was a rainy day. So, what did we do…Played in the mud. After a long Monday of meetings and teaching, what better way to unwind than throwing a football around in the mud with two good friends.

Child Hope International

This past Friday we had parent-teacher conferences. This happens once or twice a semester and, when it does, it goes a bit like this. Students don’t have school. Secondary teachers have three chairs set up them in an area of the chapel, and parents come in throughout the morning and you talk with them. It was my first experience with this and I wasn’t sure what to expect. All in all it went well. I got to see a lot of parents and most of those visits were very pleasant. I got to see some parents I was excited to see but several parents who I hoped would come were not able to make it…

After the morning of conferences we had a couple of things to do, but were done by around 2:00. We took the opportunity this short-day afforded us to visit an organization I had been wanting to see for a while. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, an organization called Child Hope International has a feeding program where they feed anywhere from 100-200 orphans. This starts about 3pm and is about a half-hour walk away so most of us on campus are not able to attend regularly because school ends at 3 and there is the usual clean-up and re-organization at the end of the day.  But, with the early work day, we were able to attend on Friday.

When we arrived, we were greeted by dozens and dozens of kids, several of whom climbed up our legs like little squirrels and hugged our necks like we were long lost family members instead of the strangers we were. I had seen this building once before on a walk around, but it was empty. Now it was crawling with children of all ages playing basketball, soccer, jumping around and generally having a great time being kids.

Around 3:30, the children started to congregate around the plastic tables set up in the shade. A man got up and began speaking in Creole. My Creole is not very good at all, but I got a general idea of what was going on. They began with some lively, bouncy songs sung in Creole and continued with a memory verse and went step by step through the verse with certain kids being called out to say a couple lines. The leader then grabbed a small white board and told a story, but I honestly have no idea what story it was or what he was saying. The kids seemed to understand and shouted out responses when questions were asked. He closed in prayer and then the food time began.

A few of the older children were up and in position before the prayer was over. They formed a line and began passing plates loaded with rice, beans, and some sort of meat & vegetable concoction down the line and to the tables where the children were eagerly awaiting their dinner. Large buckets filled with cups of water were brought out from the kitchen and passed out until each child had a plate of food and a cup of water. The children voraciously cleaned their plated and stacked the bowls and cups in the middle of the table for the older children to come by and pick up. This program operated with efficiency that I haven’t seen in Haiti! It was wildly impressive.

After the plates and cups were gathered the children headed back to the court to play or out the gate to return home, while volunteers and older children helped wipe down and put away the tables and clean up the dishes.

A couple of high school students from QCS joined us for this even though they didn’t want the service hours. It was refreshing to see these students so excited to serve on a Friday afternoon. If you want to check out more about this fabulous organization, visit their website at http://www.childhope.org

This little girl was kissing her face off! Love hurts...

A Cure for FOMO

I woke this morning with a slight case of FOMO. Yes, FOMO. For those who don’t know, FOMO is Fear Of Missing Out. Another girl on campus told me about this and I honestly hadn’t felt it in the last few weeks until today. FOMO is when something is happening and you are afraid of missing out. Maybe something happening back home that you don’t get to be a part of because you are here or even something as simple as having to stay home and work when others are having fun. The cause of my FOMO is the Watermark Young Adults Annual LAUNCH retreat happening this weekend. Launch retreat has a very near and dear place in my heart. When I moved to Dallas, I went on this retreat knowing about 3 people and walked away with the most amazing of friends. God used that one weekend in 2009 to really change some stuff in me and to put some amazingly wonderful friends in my life.  Last year, I was a leader at Launch, meaning I had a group of people that I led discussions with and help them get connected at Launch and at Watermark after Labor Day weekend. I love Launch.

This morning as I was looking at everyone’s Facebook statuses about heading out to Sky Ranch for the retreat I got the FOMO. But, loving God that we serve, he cured my FOMO with a day full of Haitian fun!

First stop: Robbie & Irene’s apartment

Irene is a fabulous cook and both her and her husband Robbie are two of the most hospitable people I think I will ever have the pleasure of meeting. They made French Toast this morning and warmly welcomed their neighbors in.

Second stop: Child Hope Orphanage

Josiah, Robbie, Irene and I walked a couple of miles down to the Child Hope orphanage run by a family here in Haiti. They have students that go to our school and several staff have helped out down there at various times. I hadn’t been yet, so I was glad for the opportunity to visit. We stopped by the boys’ home, but no one was there. We then went to the girls’ home and spent about an hour holding and playing with some kiddos and talking with a couple of ladies who work there.

After that we headed home to re-hydrate and rest up a bit before heading out on another adventure.

Third Stop: Petionville

The plan was this: change some money at the grocery store, Eagle, then hop on a taptap and go up to a large market in Petionville (another area of Port-au-Prince). After changing money at Eagle we walked across the street to catch a taptap. I’ll stop here…a taptap is a small single cab truck (think Ford Ranger) with a cage over the bed with benches on it. Paint the cage in bright colors and then cram as many people as you can into it and you get a taptap. I was pumped for this. But, as we waited, each one that drove by was full, or at least too full to take 5 more people. So, we decided to walk with the hope of finding a taptap along the way that was less full. A few minutes into our walk we see a city bus. Irene asks the driver if he is going to Petionville, he says yes, so we hop on. It cost us each about $.25 for the ride, well worth it when it’s about a mile and a half uphill and its beginning to rain.

Now this bus is similar to busses in cities in America, but there were some distinct differences. Instead of putting your money in a little machine, you give it to a guy holding a bucket. You can sit on the floor. Instead of pulling a cord to stop, you just yell “mesi” (thank you) when you need to stop. There are chickens on the bus. Yes, chickens. A couple in a cage, one on a big plate thing. Chickens. Live chickens.

We hopped off the bus at the general area of where we thought the market was. We all had certain items we were hoping to find, and a couple people wanted a Creole bible and a Creole hymnal. Well, right as we stepped off the bus, there was a stand selling both! I decided to go ahead and get a Creole bible as well (New Testament & Psalms). People learn English using the bible, why can’t it help me with Creole?

We kept walking and at one point, a man and woman holding chickens (live chickens again) were trying to convince Robbie & Irene that they needed to buy them. Irene promised to come back when they had enough courage to tackle the task of taking a live chicken and turning it into dinner. I don’t think I will ever have enough courage for that.

We entered the market about 15 minutes after a gentle rain had started falling. The market runs down this hill and the street is paved with very slippery stones. Of course, right as we get deep into the market I fall. The only thing hurt was my pride as dozens of Haitian vendors and shoppers laugh and smile. It was all in good humor and I’m glad I was able to brighten their day a little.

The next hour or so was spent wandering down aisles and aisles of stands set up with any kind of produce you can want, clothes, shoes, rice, beans, meat, corn starch, pots, pans, bowls, utensils, more chickens, everything!

Everywhere we went people shouted out “blan, blan!” hoping we would stop by their stand. We meandered through the market getting our goods until it was time to go. We headed back to the street and caught the bus like pros back to our neighborhood.



Flip-flops, Haitian Bible, and Plantain Smasher: my purchases of the day!



Exploring the city and getting a little Haitian culture = the cure for FOMO.

The Sights & Sounds

(Disclaimer, this post turned out long. If you can only commit to a small amount of blog reading tonight, read this instead and come back and read my post later) J

In the last two days I have seen more of the city than I have in the last 2 weeks combined, and most of the “sightseeing” was done by foot. For a long time I have wanted to live somewhere where I could travel by foot, bike, or public transportation; somewhere that I didn’t need to depend on a car. Now, Port au Prince isn’t that place, but, because I don’t have a car, Haitian license, or the guts to drive here (yet….) walking is the best option. On Friday night, a few of us on-campus dwellers were heading to another neighborhood a couple of miles away for a movie night at another teacher’s house. It’s only about a 30 minute walk, but a 2 mile walk here is not like walking most places, even big cities, in the states. I’ll try and paint a picture for you as best I can.

When you step out the school gate onto Delmas 75 your senses are assaulted with Haiti. Sight: all around are people: people walking, people selling, people buying. All along the street are vendors set up selling almost anything. Radios and various electronics on this little table; cold cokes in this cooler, various vegetables in this basket, toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo on this sheet; brooms and cleaning supplies over here; any and all items you could want. Often you will also get to see a wide variety of animals on your treks; goats, chickens, dogs, and babies of each of those varieties. My favorites are the baby goats, so cute! Sound: the sounds almost never stop; motorcycles, car horns, big trucks with big engines, bigger trucks with bigger horns, people yelling, people laughing, more engines revving, more horns honking, all the time noise, the soundtrack of Delmas 75. Smell: this is the fun one. The smells run the gamut from delicious to disgusting. Walking down the street you smell car exhaust, fresh mangos (coming from a large truck where a lady sits and hands them out in exchange for the small price of 10 gourdes), urine, old rotting trash, corn grilling (smells amazing, haven’t gotten the courage to try it yet...someday), oh the smells.

Walking along the road is really an experience. There don’t seem to be any hard-and-fast traffic laws so you can pretty much pass at any time, especially if you drive a motorcycle. We were talking this evening about how our friends back home were worried about robbers, malaria, earthquakes, and cholera ending us all when, really, all our friends need to worry about is the motorcycles!

As we were walking along on Friday, night began to fall and we could see the lightning flashing in the sky and just as we arrived at the house the rain began to fall. This was a quieter neighborhood on a dirt road and it was almost peaceful watching the lightning, listening to the rain.

This morning, Josiah and Jill and I went on another walk but to a different area. We walked through a relatively nice neighborhood down a well paved, smooth street and turned the corner onto a street that was half-taken up with a soccer game and half taken by a couple dozen tents. These tents were interesting though, because they appeared almost new (well, new is relative…they had less holes and were all mostly in one or two pieces). We continued past this area and into a small area of homes, about 10-15 but these houses were very different, even from the tents we had passed. They were put together with tarps, spare wood, tin, and a smattering of blue “Samaritan’s Purse” tarps. We went to the family that Josiah knew and several kiddos ran out to us and we walked in a big circle around the rest of the neighborhood. When we got back, they brought out three chairs for us to sit in so we sat and talked (well, as much as possible with Jill and me only understanding every other word) and played for a while. The little girls played with my hair and styled it in a very interesting way. The kids taught us Creole and a couple of small games. I am constantly learning here. Learning names, games, words, culture, everything.

I learn so much from these kids. And not just words, from them I learn Haiti. I have not once felt unwelcome here. As we walk along, three blans (tourists/white) all in a row, we say bonjou/bonswa to people we pass and they respond with a smile and a greeting. People let us sit and talk with them and play with their kids. They want us to see them and learn about them and get to know them.

Friends, Neighbors, Farm animals

The last couple days have been pretty good. I think I’m going to enjoy teaching middle school (ask me again in a month or so). There really isn’t much to report on other than school. Terribly exciting, I know.

Last night we had a mini-game night across the street at Kellyanne & Jill’s apartment. On campus, in the building I am in, there are 5 apartments (I’m pretty sure). Miquette and I share one, Josiah is in another (his roommate, another teacher, should be here next week), the Pruitts across the way, and another two couples live downstairs. Across the street there are three apartments in one building. Ben & Katie share one. Jill and Kellyanne in another. And Art lived in one and, after an October wedding, Miquette will join him. (these are the details you get when there is nothing else to report J ) So game night, last night: what started out as Bananagrams turned into “domino fun” with the Bananagram tiles.  Then Ben & Katie came over and we all talked for a little while and then everyone split up to go to bed. Seems like a non-eventful evening, but was really a lot of fun. I can’t say enough how amazing the community of teachers here is. It’s incredible!

This afternoon, Josiah told Jill and me that he was going to be heading back to the ravine where we had gone on Sunday and asked if we wanted to go to which we eagerly agreed! We went back to the ravine area where we originally went and we hung out with the family that Josiah knows. They have 9 kids and all are the cutest thing ever…I know that’s impossible (as well as grammatically incorrect) but it’s true.

We left there and wandered a different direction in the ravine than we had been. We ran into a kid who said “Josiah, mache?” (mache = walk) We said alright and began our tour. He took us all over the area. Up out of the ravine, down a road, and into a river bed. A woman and her baby started walking with us and she began begging for money. Jon Pierre (our guide) told her to go talk to the pastor of a church we had just walked by (has this kid read “When Helping Hurts” because he is speaking the lingo). We saw beautiful sights, heartbreaking sights, and lots of farm animals all in only a couple of hours. Good afternoon. I took my iPod (has a camera in it) but wasn’t really planning on taking many pictures. I want to walk around with these kids, talk with their parents, hold the babies and then come back and do it all again the next day. It feels weird to take pictures of them. How often do you take pictures of people around your neighborhood national-geographic-style? (I will throw in there that the kids absolutely LOVE having their picture taken, but the adults, not so sure). So, for those that are wanting lots of pics, they will come (maybe) but definitely not soon. I did take a couple around the streets and of us walking around.



taptap!!

 `

Our little tour guide is leading the way!

This evening most of the teachers who live on campus gathered at the Pruitt’s apartment on campus. Robbie & Irene (the Pruitts) cooked a delicious vegetable soup with veggies bought on the street and had some bread and butter and best of all (not that the soup wasn’t delicious, but nothing tops…) sweet tea! We had a great evening talking about school, students, other stuff outside school and students, and laughing a lot. I love living in this little commune J

Sean Penn's Favorite Restaurant

Today was the last day before the kiddos start school! Today is technically a holiday in Haiti, but a work day for us teachers. It was quite a productive day (for me at least). I got lesson plans for the next two weeks done and, a little more than that for one class. Ready to go!

This evening Jill and I were bored (the internet was out…this post is being typed sans internet and will be posted if and when it comes on J) so we decided to give the market down the road another try. Fail #2.  We went too late and everything was packed up. As we were heading back to my apartment we ran into another teacher who said He, Miquette, and a friend of hers were going to walk to a restaurant up the road and asked if we wanted to come…sure! Miquette’s friend works for an NGO here in Haiti, JPHRO, which is Sean Penn’s organization. Instead of walking, we hopped in the bed of the truck and drove by the restaurant…closed. We forgot about it being a holiday here. So we continued driving up into an area, a suburb-ish, of Port au Prince called Petionville (I pronounce it Pay-shawn-ville, which may or may not be correct). Riding in a car anywhere in the city is an experience. Riding in the bed of a truck is double the experience. But, it is a lot cooler in the breeze and you get to see all around so it is worth the risk of a serious injury.

We parked (by parked I mean drove the two passenger side tires up onto the sidewalk and stopped the car) and got out at a little restaurant called “Chicken Fiesta”. It had bright orange walls with former patron’s signatures in Sharpie all over the walls. A large mural of dancing chickens was painted on the back wall (my Watermark friends: the chickens on the mural looked like the ones from Gwo Papa Foul if that helps you paint a picture). The waitress handed us the menu and everything was in English. They served wings, fries, egg rolls, fried rice and various other Chinese dishes. I ordered the Sweet and Sour wings and a basket of fries J

The food was great, the atmosphere great, I loved it! The waitress spoke great English and was determined to get our names right (she wouldn’t take our food order until she had correctly written our names on the order pad). As we were leaving, Miquette’s friend told us “Now, you can tell everyone that you ate at Sean Penn’s favorite restaurant in Haiti.” Huh? Who would’ve thought.

School starts tomorrow! We only have a half day and then it starts full force on Wednesday. I am actually very excited (now that I have a couple weeks of lessons planned). I’m pumped to meet my students, learn their names, mispronounce their names, and start what will hopefully be a great year!

Pray: for my students, for the year at Quisqueya School, and lastly (because it isn’t as important) my computer. It is acting quite persnickety and if it chooses to die right now getting a replacement will be a nightmare!

Regular Sunday....almost

What began as a fairly uneventful Sunday did not end up that way. The day started pretty normally (well, as normal as I know. It’s only my second Sunday here), coffee, church, Epi’Dor for lunch, grocery store, lounging. Jill and I had planned on going to a basketball game held at the court on campus around 4:30. We met Josiah (another new teacher) along the way and walked over to the court. When we got there we found out we had to pay to watch the game, only 60 gourdes ($1.50), but 60 gourdes more than we wanted to pay for just a time killer. I’m so glad we are all cheap because the experience that followed was free and also priceless at the same time.

Josiah asked us if we had had the chance to walk around much. We haven’t mostly because we don’t know the area and aren’t 100% sure it is smart for two young American girls to walk around knowing very little about the streets and knowing even less Creole. So, he decided to give us a tour around the neighborhood. We walked down the streets about 5 minutes to the house of a teacher who lives here, but she was sick so we kept on moving. We ended up walking through a ravine filled with homes. Mostly broken, covered in tarps or spare sheet metal. Kids running around, flies everywhere. As we are walking, Josiah stops at an area where a group of men are playing a sort of Haitian domino game and several women and children are hanging around watching. He appears to know everyone. We keep walking, a couple of kids in tow and end up in a small tent village in the middle of what looks like an old parking lot. A building could have been here before, but right now it looks like an open lot. He knows kids and people here too! We keep walking a little ways, more kids in tow, and end up at a make-shift soccer field. Make-shift makes it sound more rudimentary than it was. They had smoothed an area that, I’m sure had been filled with large rocks or big holes, ground up old pieces of burned wood to make lines for the field, and had fashioned goals with old poles and chain-link fence. I was impressed. We stayed here for a while and attempted to talk with the kids and just play. My Creole is very very poor, but if you point to something a child will give you the name in Creole and then you tell them in English. We stayed here for a while until the sky started to get darker. It wasn’t too late in the evening, but the clouds that had hung overhead all day grew a bit more ominous. We began the slow walk out, with about 15 kids hanging on to all parts of us, asking us questions, and us (well, me) staring back blankly “pa konprann” (I don’t understand).

Then the rain started falling. And falling and falling. We went out the way we came only losing a kid here and there who had reached the end of his “wandering zone”. By the time we turned on to the street where our school is, all of the kids turned back and we ran in the downpour back to the campus.

Such a simple thing. Playing for a couple of hours with kids. I’ve done it so many times. I’ve done that in Brazil, America, Haiti too. But, the thing that was different about this experience, the thing that made it mean so much more to me. The thing that turned that hour and a half into something so much more awesome: I get to go back. I can go back and play with the same kids. Josiah knew these kids and this area because he had played soccer with the kids often after school and had gotten to know them and they took him to their house. He developed a relationship with these kids and their parents. I’m not, and don’t want to be, just another white person here for a while and then peacing out back home only to be replaced by another new white person next week. I can learn the language, learn the games, and learn the names because I’m not here for only 7 days. That reason right there is why I wanted something longer. Why coming back on short term trips just wasn’t what I felt was right for me.