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Two things: culture is a very, very strange thing, and language barriers SUCK. Let’s give some snippets of what I’ve learned. Don’t walk down the street eating food because people think you live on the streets. People will look down upon you in the cities if you are wearing anything less than nice suit pants, a button-down shirt, a tie, and some nice shiny loafers. I can’t say I’ve ever worn that in my life…oops! Things you take for granted in our culture are different here, as with any new country. People are aggressive and assertive and it’s not uncommon to see little kids fighting or throwing rocks at each other. Also, it is not uncommon to find men walking down the street hand in hand. This is not a form of homosexuality just part of the culture. They are just friends! I can’t even think of other aspects that I am forgetting now. The differences are too numerous to count!
Haitians are officially my favorite people group on the planet. They are vibrant, animated, over-the-top, but at their core (if you find the right ones) caring, eager to help, and servant-hearted. Luckily on my base the Haitian brothers on staff and going through Discipleship Training School know English very well so I can be great friends with them. However, in dealing with any local people I feel nothing more than a dumb tourist. Wherever I go the children yell “blan blan blan!” (pronounced blah blah blah) which means “white white white!”. I can say so little back to them. I discovered just how much I hate the language barrier this morning when I was teaching Preschool. I know little Creole and they know little English. Needless to say not a good combination. They are little children and have no attention spans and it is so difficult to maintain order. I really didn't not come here wanting to teach such small children, and have to pray each morning to not in a way dread coming, but it is truly where i'm most needed her. The present teacher Rodiz who is from the Dominican Republic, her husband is in the U.S. waiting on surgery. He has Lyme disease and is not doing well. Rodiz and her 3 children are living on base. She is sooooo stressed from the preschool children as well as thinking about her husband. I am truly happy that I can help her out because she needs it a lot. Any day now she will be called to her husband to take care of him. In that event I will be in charge of the class. Please pray for me because I am pretty worried about this. It'll be fine I'm sure, but I want to do a good job!
I do like the teaching staff here though, three young ladies from Pennsylvania, because they are earnestly trying to learn the culture and language. In Mexico I helped teach for a day at a school run by Americans. I was frustrated because the retired ladies who were teaching (God bless them for giving their time though!) made no attempt to understand the culture or the language. They were forcing American English down their throats and it made me so sad. This is no joke they called a boy Jose (obviously pronounced hoe-zay) joe-see. I could not believe it. There was no reciprocity. I truly believe that to truly be able to teach, you have to learn equally from your students if not more.
That brings me to my dear friend here Estime Elage. He is 38 years old going through the Discipleship Training in order to start a church and feeding program. He is graciously (and doing a great job) teaching me Creole. In exchange I am teaching him how to type quickly and efficiently and how to use a computer. I’ve only been here for 4 days and our friendship only grows and grows and grows. He loves to have fun and I value his friendship so much. I must also mention that he looks EXACTLY like Eddie Murphy. I’ll supply pictures to prove it.
That’s it for this post, I’m ready for bed! Goodnight and Godbless!