There is a team from north Alabama leaving today with a group called Mission Firefly, which installed the AMAZING new water filtration system here in February. They only arrived on Monday, but most of the team went up to Cornillon with Ms. Sherrie and David on Tuesday and came back yesterday. One of the teachers here at CLS is from Cornillon, a remote village up in the mountains. Some of the older boys here at the children's home have made trips up there in the last year or so as missionaries to a community that is now the home of a budding satellite school of Christian Light. David took an EMT team up there last summer, and people returning from Cornillion always have exciting and entertaining tales to share. If you're an adventuresome traveler with a servant's heart, you might consider coming to Haiti and heading for the hills! The harvest is plenty but the workers are few in that area of the country.
The team was ready for a change of pace by the time they got back from their long and arduous journey, so they treated us to dinner out last night at a beautiful restaurant in Petionville, a suburb in the hills above Port-au-Prince. The air temperature literally drops as you travel higher into the hills, with vegetation so lush that you see how this half of the island once was a tropical jungle. We ate at La Reserve, a really lovely restaurant and hotel. The food and the company were wonderful, and it was a delightfully refreshing way to spend the evening. We also stopped by a gorgeous hotel/resort called IBO Lele. I messaged Scott last night that we might have to schedule a getaway up there sometime! It's easy for people to miss the beauty of Haiti, which is truly abundant. There are many places here that would be the ideal setting for a tropical vacation! I'm grateful to have gotten a few more glimpses of that last night.
Tuesday and Wednesday were good days here at the school. The last few days here are no different from the last days of school in the States: barely restrained chaos! I think seven CLS teachers have been out sick this week - chikungunya being the likely culprit - so things were particuarly rowdy. After the last few weeks of school at Discovery Club, I felt right at home! I spent a good deal of time with the 11th graders - both of them. :) The 11th grade is normally a class of four, but between Kadmiel and Franciscot being in the States (along with Marc, who is in a larger class of 10th graders), & the shortage of teachers, there wasn't much going on in the their classroom. Tuesday they practiced guitar with Kadmiel's brother Jean Elden (who is also in 10th grade). The amount of talent concentrated in those three boys is extraordinary. I could have listened to them all day.
Oh, and they gave me Creole lessons! I still have a lot - like, a LOT - to learn, but the guys very patiently allowed me to ask a lot of questions that helped me decipher a few things I don't think I would've figured out on my own.
Yesterday, these students and I watched The Long Walk Home, which I just happened to toss in my bag before I left home. That gave us the opportunity to talk about the Civil Rights movement in America and the value of peaceful protests. We also discussed racism and the way many people confuse socioeconomic issues with racial issues. I shared with them about the situations that Mark and I have witnessed on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota when we have served there, about the poverty cycle, as well as the way that hopelessness can become cyclical in oppressed people. So, we had something that resembled class for awhile yesterday!
Also: we watched fan reactions to the 2013 Iron Bowl on YouTube, and then they showed me similar videos of fans reacting to soccer games. I think we can call that Social Studies and leave it at that!
The past two days have also been a blessing in my time with the Late Bloomers class. They had a substitute teacher on Tuesday, but I told him that I would be their substitute. I didn't even think about a translator, so that was a bit of a challenge! But we worked some more on English, and then I taught them some of the songs that I teach the kids at AUMC preschool. After that, they asked to dance, so I played some music on my little bluetooth speaker again - and then we played musical chairs. But that didn't last long because it was in danger of turning into a wrestling match! :) Katy and Allex took a few of the older boys in the class to the sewing room to make some braided fabric bracelets with some beads that she'd bought at the ApParent Project, so we did the best we could to keep everyone busy.
Allex is another friend in the 10th grade class. He is intelligent and hardworking - the kind of student who is disappointed not to have made it all the way through their history textbook this school year. But he's also very generous with his time and energy, so he's someone that you you know you can truly depend on. He has developed a close relationship with Harris family in Auburn, to the point that he and Katy pretty much function as siblings when she's here at CLS.
Yesterday, Katy & Allex worked with a few more kids on bracelets, while I played a games and hung out with the others. Their teacher Mr. Brucely was there, so his authority made things quite a bit easier in the classroom. It was also helpful that Luc, who lives at nearby Coram Deo, hung out for awhile to translate for me. I had met him briefly when we dropped by there at Christmas, so it was nice to spend a little more time with him. But the very best thing about the LB class yesterday was that Stevalove was there! Of all the kids in that group, I have worried about him the most. He has the sweetest, gentlest spirit - but when I saw him last spring and summer he always seemed so hungry and so, so tired. He's probably 14 or so but has just always seemed so vulnerable to me, and I've cried quite a few tears over him, both here and at home. He wasn't at CLS at all over Christmas because the family he lives with was traveling in the provinces for the holidays. So, I can't begin to describe how happy I was when he walked into the classroom yesterday! His skin tone seemed healthier, his hair is thicker and darker, and he is almost as tall as I am! He still fell asleep in the classroom - which he often did last summer - but it was a true gift from God for me to be able to see him with my own two eyes and know that he is okay.
Stevalove is in Mr. Elionel's class, so I tried to explain to Mr. Brucely how I've worried about him - and of course I started crying. I had to leave the room for awhile so I could pull myself together, which might be an overstatement when you see how wrung-out I look at the photo below:
In between all that, we've still had several sick kiddos to tend to, both in the school and children's home. With David in Cornillon, Tammy and I have been the nurses/mamas for someone most of the time over the last two days. Miseléne and Exaline are better, but Wilderson and Rosemarline seem to have come down with chikengunya yesterday. Magdala has fever on and off, along with a belly ache, so we're not really sure what she has. The older girls seem to be waiting for me to get sick, because I've spent so much time been tending to the ailing ones - but Emmanuella assures me that she'll come take care of me when I do. ❤️
The only other thing I can think to share right now is how remarkably few pictures I've taken. (A) I forgot my camera and only have my phone, and (B) I feel like in order to take a photo, you have to stop what you're doing and become an observer of it instead. I've been too busy to feel much like an observer on this trip, so I don't have a lot of photos to share yet. I'll try to take some more as I go, though, knowing that there are friends reading this blog who are eager to see the sweet smiles here that they hold dear, wherever they are.
I've managed to sit here for an hour and a half, blogging in the yard, pretty much without incident! I don't want to press my luck, though - so I'm going to wrap this up and "get while the getting is good!"
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.
Grace and peace,
Lindsey
With each new post I yearn more to return.....soon!
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