My old roommate,L, leaves this week. Her stay in Haiti is as long as mine. She has been the reason I have maintained sanity. Her wisdom eases me. She has been my debriefing that is vital to understanding or trying to understand everything here.
Another lady, T, comes the same week. She is here for a year with her great aunt and young daughter. Her daughter will be my new friend. Haiti attracts all kinds of personalities. Yet we’re all unique in our own way put under the umbrella of religious, left, or hippie. Something unites us, outside of our service for Haiti whether it be our experiences on life, our views and thoughts or our passions in life. Each person I have met, that is here to serve has helped me grow on my journey in some way. I’m not sure if I could bounce ideas and thoughts back in forth in my head without many of the basic conversations I’ve had here with other foreigners. I cannot explain myself to everyone on a normal day, let alone the Haitain people when there is a massive cultural and language barrier. However my conversations with the director on monogamy and life’s journeys and woman’s rights get interesting. I love those nights.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
God's plan is perfect
10 children show up to my English class offered for 2 hours a day for next two weeks while I’m still in Jacmel. Their attendance is voluntary. I finally get to use all the books we brought them. We review conversation and greetings again. We review colors. I start developing their vocabulary. We look at a picture of bunnies in a cottage. They learn new words. We then do a picture of a neighborhood on a hill. One of the older boys, M, my TA takes over while I travel for a few days. The first day he told me in English class on his paper he wanted to be an English teacher. I told him let’s go. I tell him he’s a better English teacher than me.
Sustainability and consistency are integral here but rarely found. I pray whoever comes will continue to teach English and work with the boys and all children who really want to learn from the school. I hope God answers my prayer. I am calm, I know he will. He always does. God's plan is perfect, it is us, we are imperfect in our understanding of it.
Sustainability and consistency are integral here but rarely found. I pray whoever comes will continue to teach English and work with the boys and all children who really want to learn from the school. I hope God answers my prayer. I am calm, I know he will. He always does. God's plan is perfect, it is us, we are imperfect in our understanding of it.
One of the boys
I have started doing much of what the boys do. I play basketball with the boys again. I am afraid if one of them bumps into me hard enough I’ll fly against the wall. I smack into one of them. Another one glides against me, my arm is overed in his sweat. Not so gross. The ball hits my face. I pause for 2 seconds and continue. Another one tries to knock me down. They are all taller than me, the older boys. All the boys here are stronger than me. I have no upper body strength. I can carry buckets but not without water splashing out. I can shoot hoops I can snatch balls not not as aggressively as the boys. They eat three times as much in their plate as I do. Even the eight year olds. Maybe if I was here long term they could be my trainers.
I start to bond further with the younger boys. I take the small ones to the beach often, all of a sudden I become in charge of them too. Half of them speak 2 lines of English so it always becomes interesting. They start asking me everyday if we can come. I don’t swim. I just sit around, I lie down. I don’t even contemplate. I stare out into nothing. Thinking nothing. Nothing is contemplating enough. It is exact opposite of my life before. Where I thought about everything and more.
I start to bond further with the younger boys. I take the small ones to the beach often, all of a sudden I become in charge of them too. Half of them speak 2 lines of English so it always becomes interesting. They start asking me everyday if we can come. I don’t swim. I just sit around, I lie down. I don’t even contemplate. I stare out into nothing. Thinking nothing. Nothing is contemplating enough. It is exact opposite of my life before. Where I thought about everything and more.