Working on my tire gardens
Posted by Hello

Time does indeed fly!

It's amazing how time flies! Looking back, it is hard to believe that I have spent the last 11 months in Florida. It seems like just a few weeks ago that my friend Jelena and I rolled into town, took a deep breath of the humid Florida air, and realized that we were definitely moving into the next stage of life. Now I find myself preparing for the end of my internship, and the opportunities for the future lay before me. I confess that I am a little stressed (understatement of the year) about what my next step should be. Yet I feel an amazing peace that God has amazing things planned that I can't even begin to imagine! Oh, how great is our God!

This weekend Carolyn, another intern here at ECHO, and I had the opportunity to sit down and work out the exact dates for our trip to Haiti. Carolyn is from Idaho and already spent a year at ECHO as the Tropical Lowlands interns. She is currently a 2nd year intern working as the Assistant Seed Bank Manager. Neither Carolyn or I have traveled outside the continental U.S., Mexico, or Canada, so I think this will be a great experience for us both. We have decided to catch an American Airlines flight from Miami, FL to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on August 8th. Then take a connecting MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) flight from Port-au-Prince to Pignon (near the central plateau of Haiti). We will travel in reverse order back to the U.S. on October 31st.

I can't even begin to express the excitement that is building within me when I think of going to Haiti. God has used this last year to grow my heart for His world, and created a longing to serve overseas. I am excited for new relationships with the Haitian people in the community where we will be, and to see God in new and exciting ways, outside of my own cultural view.

This past week I had my first lesson in Haitian Kreyol taught by Beth Doerr, an ECHO Staff Member who worked in Haiti for a number of years. I learned that Kreyol is an unwritten language, meaning that even though there are books written in Kreyol, the language is lacking official rules as to how things are spelled. Therefore, the same word may be spelled a number of different ways, and none are considered wrong because there technically is no right way to spell that word. Some of this is beginning to change though. There are various groups working to create consistency and standardization of written Kreyol, an effort that I am excited to see taking form. As of right now all I know is "Mwen rele Lauren". I hope to share more as I dive deeper into my historical, cultural, and language study of Haiti.