Bad at Blogging

I realized this morning it had been a week and a half since I had written anything. Never fear, I am still alive. There just hasn't been too terribly much to post about. I go to work, I teach, I grade papers, I come home, I eat, I sleep. My day is not to terribly different from anyone else's, I just happen to do my day in a slightly different location.

News: JoAnn (from previous post) started school this week! She is going to a French school in the city. I'm thankful for Jill & Kellyanne's faithfulness in this situation and for the Lord's goodness in providing a school for her to go to as well as the funds to make that happen!

This past week we had our third volleyball match. Our girls played against a French school here in the city. The school we played against is known for being fabulous at volleyball, and they were. We had played them before, but their margin of victory was smaller this time around. We play them at our school next Wednesday and I think the outcome will be different.

Creole classes started up again this week. There is nothing more humbling than sitting in a classroom for two hours and not really knowing what is going on. The number of people in the class has dropped significantly due to busy schedules and life getting in the way. I am going to try and stick it out for the next four weeks. I have learned a lot. This session of the class will be taught mostly in Creole and I am surprised by what I am able to pick up. At the very least, I am better able to understand some of what my students go through. I feel a greater bit of sympathy for that one kid in the class who is behind and struggling to catch up. Its frustrating and exhausting all at the same time and I will never look at "that kid" the same way.

This afternoon we are heading to the beach for the weekend for our QCS staff retreat. Another perk of teaching in Haiti...the beach is a short two hour drive away. Friday-Sunday at the beach. I'm excited to get there and swim, play, read, relax.

That's about all that's happening in my world right now. There are some fun things coming up in the next few weeks: I'm going with our senior class on a hike up to Seguin. The next weekend I will be meeting up with Watermark's family team coming in on Thursday the 16th and joining them, as well as my friend Roseana and the team she is bringing down, at Mission of Hope for a few days. Then, our spring break is the next week and a few of us are going to attempt to hike to Jacmel and spend a couple of days there.

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. 

Obligatory “Long-Term “Missionary” posting about Short Term Missions” Post

First, notice the word missionary in quotations. I don’t know the full meaning of this word or what makes you qualified to own this title. I typically don’t refer to myself as a missionary; not because I think it is a negative thing or has any negative connotations, I just don’t know what I think a missionary is or what kind of person typifies that word. I’m a teacher at a Christian school. I teach middle school history, technology, and P.E. I just happen to do so in a different country. Anyway, thats not what this post is about. 

With a shortage of movie theaters, restaurants, coffee shops, bowling alleys, and cars to get to those kind of places, the group of teachers and friends I roll with (yeah, roll with) end up spending quite a few evenings sitting around talking. Every once in a while the topic will turn to short term missions. Most of us here are the product of a short-term mission trip; we wouldn’t be at this school if we hadn’t visited Haiti on a trip, fallen in love with the country, and felt called to return. But, just because our position here is the result of a short-term trip, we aren’t at all times in full, gung-ho favor of them. 

I’m not going to post my exact thoughts in this blog, mostly because I don’t really know what they are. I am still desperately searching literature, minds of smarter people, and the scriptures to try and figure out where I stand (not that it really matters all that much except that I really want to figure out what I think and feel about them). In this post I just wanted to share a blog I had found in my search that has helped me begin to form my thoughts. 

The title of the blog is “jamietheveryworstmissionary”. How can you not find gold in a blog with that title? A while back she wrote a satirical, and rather snarky, story about a fictional mission trip of people from “super duper rich church” to a middle class neighborhood. The post generated a lot of slap fighting arguments discussion that actually led to her writing a few follow-up posts which I think are really great. 

I just wanted to share this for anyone reading who is thinking about short-term missions, is going or has been on a short term mission trip, or who is bored at work and needs more to read to pass the time. 

In the link below is the initial snarky post (“Are we calling this a “win-win”?) and the 4 follow up posts addressing specific things raised in the discussion. 

http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/2011/12/whole-can-of-worms-at-glance.html

Back in Haiti

After a wonderful two weeks in the states (see, I’m one of those people now calling America “the states”) I am back in Haiti. It is snowing in Texas and I am sitting at a picnic table outside in shorts and a t-shirt with the sun on my back and a nice breeze in the air. 

Going back and then returning to Haiti wasn’t as full of emotions as I was expecting. Or I guess I should say it wasn’t filled with as much of certain emotions as I thought it would have been. I didn’t experience a whole lot of culture shock when I got back into America. Before this, I had only been out of the country for, at most, ten days in a row. After spending 5 month in a third world country I thought I might have been shocked by everything American that I would see again....but I really wasn’t. I enjoyed the convenience of getting coffee at Starbucks, drinking from any water fountain I wanted, being able to order food or ask for directions and understand everything, walking out to a car and hopping in and driving where I wanted. I enjoyed those conveniences.

I also found myself noticing very strange things. I could understand all the conversations happening around me. It was a little overwhelming to go from usually ignoring conversations around me (because I can’t understand them) to being able to eavesdrop on each and every word that was said within hearing distance. 

I also felt like most everyone I saw was a little on edge. Blame it on travel or the holidays, or the combination of both, but everyone seemed to be stressed, or angry, or in a hurry. 

I enjoyed getting to see all of my family and catch up on what everyone has been up to that hadn’t been relayed through email or skype. It was good to sit and just be. Sitting in front of a fire, drinking coffee, reading a book, watching a movie. Although I got bored at times, it was still nice to even feel bored. 

I was able to ring in 2012 in Dallas with some good friends and spend several days visiting and hanging out around Dallas. 

I wasn’t sure what I would feel when I arrived back in Haiti. I knew I would miss the people that I had seen in Texas as well as eagerly anticipate the return of my friends and coworkers here in Haiti, but I didn’t know what I would feel about being back in this country in general. I know it was only two weeks, but it felt like longer. 

When I landed I really felt like I was at home. This is home for now, but it was still a very comforting feeling. The cinderblock walls topped with barbed wire looked familiar and the road was comfortably uncomfortable. But one thing that was shockingly different from the states, one thing I hope I never get used to, is seeing the poverty all around me. 

I don’t want to be unaffected by the poverty and chaos around me. I want my heart to always break as it does now when I see a child wiping down windshields for spare coins when he should be at school learning how to add up those coins. It’s a weird thing to say you want your heart to break, but it’s true. I never want to be unaffected. 

Twenty Weeks Ago

Twenty weeks ago today, this very minute, I was repacking my bags trying to get those 3-4 pounds of extra weight out of my bags, the two bags I had packed to move to Haiti. I can’t believe that it has been twenty weeks. That sounds like such a short amount of time, but in some paradoxical way, also a long time.

Twenty weeks ago I was unsure of what awaited me in this country. Would I like my job? Would I like my coworkers, my roommate? Would I get sick, eaten alive by mosquitoes, kidnapped, it by a motorcycle? Would I ever learn more than a few random words in Creole? Would I have a panic attack a couple of weeks into the school year and hop the first flight back to Texas? I had no idea what God had in store for me here, even in this short time.

I love my job. I love my coworkers. I love my roommate. I love my church. I love my neighbors. I have been sick, but not severely. I have been eaten by mosquitoes, but they didn’t get the best of me. I have been neither kidnapped nor hit by a motorcycle. I have learned quite a bit of Creole and not once have I wanted to hope on the next flight out of here.

I have fallen in love with this country: the people, the culture, the sights, and yes, even the smells. But even more, I have fallen in love with the rich community here. I am loved, supported, encouraged, amused, and taught daily. I admire these fabulous people I get to call friends because of their strength, faith, love, and for being exactly who God made them to be. The intertwinedness (spell check says that isn’t a word; I disagree) of our lives here has created a sweetness of friendship that would be hard to develop unless you lived in something similar to a commune. Sure, we get on each other’s nerves sometimes and need a break, but at the end of the day we know that a listening ear, a hug, and a laugh are not far away.

Twenty weeks have passed since I hopped on a plane to move here; twenty short weeks. I am excited to go home and be assaulted by American culture, to see my family, and to hug my friends, but I will miss my friends and family here. Yes, even in two short weeks I will miss them. I am thankful that my trip back to the states is not on a one-way ticket.

Look out Texas, here I come! N a wè Ayiti! (See, I learned some Creole)

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!!

Need vs. Want

In chapel the last couple of weeks we have talked a little bit about what Christmas is and what isn’t. This topic as discussed in conjunction with a food drive we were holding for our national workers and a toy-drive for TeacHaiti. We showed a couple of videos from the Advent Conspiracy which really make the point. Here is one of those videos.

Then you see photos like this one popping up on facebook. How true is this? What do we “need”?

This year and last year I’ve really been thinking about that. What would it look like if we gave instead of got? That sounds so pithy, but it’s true. Please don’t hear any self-righteousness in this post. I am one of the worst at this. I constantly have to define for myself what is a “need” and what is a “want,” and often I fail at rightly distinguishing between the two, but I'm trying. This year I want to give more, not just at Christmas, but all year long.

In Haiti, education for children is essential. It’s easy to read that and think “yeah, education for all children is essential.” And while I agree with that, I look outside my window at any point in the day and count half a dozen kids in a single glance selling random crap on the street because they don’t have the money to go to school. Education is essential, vital, necessary, (insert other synonym here), not only because it opens up more opportunities than the child would have without it, but also because most kids get at least one meal a day when they go to school that they might not get at home.

Here are the links to two amazing organizations that are feeding and educating children in Haiti. They are doing incredible work and providing hope to families here.

TeacHaiti - Miquette's organization. They are doing amazing things and always accepting donations. Check out the awesomeness that is TeacHaiti.

Mission of Hope - Mission of Hope has started an initiative to get 1,200 students' education sponsored by 2012. They are 30% of the way there.

Yes, it’s an investment, and yes, it’s not something you can wrap in shiny paper and see someone open on Christmas morning.

It's so much more.