Language, Visiting, the Market and Teaching

Pictures to come for this entry!

It is hard to believe that I am drawing closer to the two week marker of when I came to Haiti. Time has passed quickly with each day holding new experiences and challenges of their own. I must admit that I am still trying to find my bearings here, but each day I feel more settled then the last. So progress is being made!

The largest challenge of each day is the language. Many times a day people will ask us questions or make statements and all they get in return is a deer in the headlights look. This is not completely true, as I know enough basic vocabulary now to get the jist of things. But answering questions is a whole other thing. Jenny, Carolyn, and I have a language teacher named Mary Noel, who comes to help us three days a week, and this is really helping. However, I am finding that I am good at understanding Kreole on paper, but I blank out when I try to speak it. I don't think my brain moves that fast. Please pray that I would think faster and have more confidence to speak this new language.

Last Friday, we were invited over to another missionary couple’s house for dinner. Their names are Christi and Jean Jean. Christi is a former ECHO intern and Jean Jean is Haitian. They have two beautiful little girls, Tona and Kari. We walked about 15 minutes to their house and sat on the front porch drinking sodas and talking. Then we ate dinner and sat to visit a little more. They have a swing hanging from a mahogany tree in their yard, so I pushed the girls on the swing and they pushed me a few times as well. Then they showed us their garden where they were growing mostly corn and cabbage and one watermelon plant. The watermelon plant had two watermelons on it and the girls wanted to give us one as a gift. They gave us the bigger of the two. It was pretty cute and sacrificial on their part. I could tell they were a little disappointed to see the bigger of the two be given away, but excited to give it. I could learn a lot about that kind of giving.

Saturday, we woke early and had breakfast so we could go to the market in Pignon. We got into the HAFF truck and drove over the horrible roads about half an hour into Pignon. We parked and walked to the market. The market was crazy. People all over the place were pushing each other to get around and walking from one open vendor’s booth to another. We had to go to probably 10 different vendors to buy the food we needed for the next week. It was a challenge trying to hear what they were saying for prices, figuring out the Haitian money, and making sure we go the right amount of change. Thank God Paige was there to help us!

After the market we walked to the Haitian hospital where there is a snack bar. We sat and had cokes and ham and cheese sandwiches, which they put catsup, onions, and tomatoes on as well. I must say, the food here is pretty good, but everything is bread, fried, or rice and beans. Good food for now, but I know I will begin to crave fresh vegetables and fruits.

One of the big highlights from the past two weeks is that I taught in a classroom setting for the first time in my life! There is a man who lives down the road from the mission named Durrano who speaks English well. Durrano teaches classes in a make shift classroom in his front yard. In the past interns have gone to help him, so I let him know that I was interested in helping if he wanted. He said that he would welcome my help and invited me to stop by when I had some time. So Tuesday of this week, Carolyn and I walked to Durrano's house to help with his 10:00am class.

When we arrived a little after the class had started and tried to sit in the back, not to disturb things. Durrano stopped his class and introduced us. He had us come in front of the class and talk a little bit about who we were and what we were doing here in Haiti. After the short introductions Durrano took a seat and asked us to teach them. Apparently what he meant by helping was having a native English speaker teach a lesson. Having no lesson in my head, Carolyn and I asked if the class had any questions. There was no response, so we decided to teach question words (Who, What, When, etc.) We formed questions on the board and the class helped us translate them into Kreole. After questions, one of the students wanted to know the difference between like and love, so we explained that. Then on into plurals. Adding a s or es to the end of words, and irregular plurals such as tooth and teeth. All in all, it was a lot of fun to teach something that I knew and that they desperately want to know.

At the end of the class the kids thanked us for coming and helping them. They were so appreciative. I must also say that I have a much higher respect for the English language. It is very complicated. Those who learn it and are not native speakers should be applauded for the work it takes to learn!

Durrano invited us to come and teach again, so Carolyn and I went and taught on Wednesday as well. Wednesday we taught them the Hokey Pokey so they could learn parts of the body and right and left. It was a fun lesson. Challenging at first because the class didn't know the melody of the song at all, so we taught that, then the words, then the body parts, and tried to put it all together. I hope they learned something. If not, they had a real good laugh watching Carolyn and I shake our arms and legs and spin around. All in all, it was really fun. Durrano's class ends next week but he will begin another class in September, so I hope to help him some more. We will see.