Flag Day

May 18th is Haitian Flag Day.  It is a day filled with national pride, blue and red, and parades.  One of our teachers organized a parade with a live band!

Our students were very proud as they marched all throughout Jubilee.

We gathered quite a crowd by the time we got back to the school.

What do you do for fun?

People often ask me what we do for fun here in Haiti.  Its hard for me to answer that question because we do so many fun things.  Motorcycle rides, trips to the beach or the river, watch movies with friends, cook together, play board games, ridiculous theme parties, and of course playing with dozens of small children in Jubilee.  But we do lots of other crazy things too.  See Kez's blog for example....

http://myhaitiankids.blogspot.com/2013/05/word-to-wise.html

Grow Little Garden

One night while watering the trees in our garden, my little helpers broke out into spontaneous song.  Thankfully, I had my camera to capture the precious moment.  They love our garden so much.

Teaching is hard.  Teaching in Haiti is harder.  Teaching in Jubilee often times seems impossible.

Out of necessity, you get thick skin.  Things that would bring many American's to tears don't faze you anymore.  As you go throughout your day, you tend not to notice just how many difficult things you deal with.  Then, as you are cleaning up your classroom at the end of the day, you suddenly start to cry for no apparent reason.  You almost laugh as you are crying because you don't understand where the tears are coming from.  You think to yourself, "What is wrong with me?!  Why am I crying!?"

You reflect on the day....Hm, nothing too out of the ordinary.  There was the usual degree of being ogled by men.  You've been cussed at by strangers.  Your students neglected to do the simple things you've taught them a hundred times (i.e. pushing in their chairs, walking quietly in line, and sitting up straight).  People spoke negatively about the work you are doing in the garden.  

Then you remember a couple other things...

A pre-k student and her mama came to get a clinic pass because they were beat up by the father last night.  The mother of two of your students explained that her husband only comes around when its her pay day to beat her up and take her money.  Last night he threatened to burn the house down, broke a glass bottle over her head, took her money, and left her with no means to provide food for her four children.  You found her son crying on the ground during recess because he hadn't eaten in two days and had hunger pains.  

Normal people don't cry without reason, but as far as you know, it also isn't commonplace for most people to face these types of situations on a daily basis.  So much of life seems to be out of your control.  You're faced with things that make you feel helpless.  You realize that once again, you've bottled up your emotions day after day until you reached a breaking point.

So, you do the only thing you can.  You stop fighting it.  You stop being strong.  You let the burden on your shoulders push you down until your knees hit the ground.  Then, you lift your eyes to Heaven and turn to the one that wipes away the tears.  You ask for strength.  You ask for comfort.  You ask for wisdom.  You praise Him through the tears.  You hope for the future, and you ask for impossible things to be made possible.

Then, you take a deep breath.  You put a smile on your face, you hug the nearest small child (not because they need it but because you need it), and you keep going.

A Revelation: Power

A common thing that I see in Jubilee is abuse.  It comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms: neighbors verbally abusing each other, parents physically abusing their children, husbands beating their wives, and the list could go on for days.

After a recent event that I witnessed, I began thinking about why people chose to abuse others.  The simple answer is that it is a show of power.  As I thought about it more, I realized almost everyone wants power to some degree.  But why is that?  Why do so many people struggle to gain power in their careers or in the finances?

I feel that God revealed something to me as I thought about this idea of power.  The Lord said to me, "Humans want power because that is how I created them.  All people are created for relationship with me.  In that relationship, I give you the Holy Spirit which enables you to even more than Christ did while he was on Earth (John 14:12).  There is power in my Holy Spirit, and outside of relationship with me, there is a void that leaves you feeling powerless.  In an attempt to recreate the Holy Spirit's power, people try to find power using their own strength.  But, that never truly fills the void and only leads to more suffering.  True power can only be found through Me."

Jubilee Garden

"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another." --Mahatma Gandhi

Jubilee is bleak.  It is not beautiful to the physical eye.  It is barren and dry.  It is either dusty or muddy with no  in between.  It is brown.  There are no trees.  There are no plants.  It looks like a desert with ground so salty is it white.

I grew up in a family of green thumbs.  My great Gram, Marie, was known for her beautiful garden and my Grandma Bobbye had the biggest most beautiful hibiscus that I've ever seen.  Growing up, I didn't appreciate it like I should have.  Now that I live in a place without anything green, I miss plants more than you wouldn't believe.  Since moving here, I've had a dream to make Jubilee green.  

Thanks to the help of my students and friends, we decided to make that dream a reality by planting a garden.  May 1st is Haitian Tree Day.  We used that day as an opportunity to teach our students about trees and how to take care of our planet.  We read the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax.  The kids even got to watch the movie in French!

To help our students appreciate all the wonderful things trees do for us, we had a mango eating party.  It was a special treat for the kids and they all had sticky sweet mango juice dripping down their faces!

A Haitian organization donated 75 tree seedlings for our students to plant in our Jubilee garden.  My students were overjoyed when they saw the crates full of plants sitting on the tables in my classroom.

Class by class, the students went to the garden to learn how to plant trees. 

I taught the children how to water the plants, just like my Grandma taught me when I was a child.

 Then, they were each given their own to plant.

Their excitement was uncontainable and I could physically feel hope in the air.

"Did you pray for your tree when you planted it?" I asked.  My students responded with a chorus of "YES!"  One little girl in my kindergarten proudly smiled and said, "I prayed for my tree and I kissed it, too!"

That evening as I was heading to the garden to water the trees, I saw several of my students sprinting to the fence asking to come in.  When I opened our tin garden gate, I saw that one of my 1st graders was holding a bottle of water that she had brought from home.  "Can I come in and water my tree?" she asked.  Seeing my students so excited about their trees made my heart burst with joy.

That evening, my two American friends offered to help me water the garden for the first time.  Since we had not yet perfected our watering system, we had to carry five-gallon buckets of water 100 yards from the school to the garden to water all 75 seedlings.  As we watered, dark clouds filled the sky and it started to sprinkle.  I looked up to the sky to see a huge rainbow directly above the garden.  I knew God was reassuring me of my dream to make Jubilee green.  With the rainbow above us, my friends and I began to walk in and around the garden praying silently for the trees.  As I was pacing and praying, I felt the Lord urge me to walk around the garden seven times while praying.  I thought that seemed a little silly until a moment later my friend said, "This might sound strange but I feel like God is telling me to walk around the garden seven times and pray."  Needless to say, we immediately began circling the garden in prayer until we had made seven full circles around.  As we did this, my other friend said to us, "I feel God telling me that this is going to be a prayer garden."  Walking around the garden, covering it in prayer, and claiming it for God's glory was one of the most hope filled moments I've experienced since I started working in Jubilee.  

Caring for the garden has been a labor of love.  A labor that I am more than happy to do.  It requires watering the plants everyday before and after school and going to Jubilee on the weekends to work.  It requires working in the hot sun to build wind barriers for protection.  It requires trust that our stick fence will protect the trees from thieves and goats.  It requires faith even when I see another plant has died.  It requires patience as I teach the children how to properly "wouze" or water their trees.  It requires thick skin as I listen to dozens of nay sayers standing outside the fence telling me the many reasons why we won't succeed.  

Despite the struggles and hard work, the garden is hope to me.  It is our school working together united.  It is investing in the future of Jubilee.  It is faith that the impossible is possible.  Planting seeds, watering them daily, and fighting against opposition is symbolic of what I do everyday with my students.  I plant seeds in them that they are smart, loved, beautiful and capable.  Everyday, I water those seeds within them with love, patience, and encouragement.  Even when people in their lives fight against me, we push forward.  And just like our trees, the hard work we put in won't be obvious today, but after years of faith and watering, the fruits of our labor will be evidenced.  Jubilee will change.  

Isaiah 32:15

Till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.