I arrived at my apartment after school and found that three of my students from last year had beaten me there and were eagerly waiting for me (as if I had not just seen them 20 minutes prior). My motorcycle had a flat tire and I figured asking them to help me push it to my tire repairman down the street would be a good way to channel their neverending energy. I had no idea it would turn into a little adventure!
I live on the same street as the city cemetery. Most Haitians that I've met are afraid of the cemetery, zombies, etc so they don't like to go in or near it. I don't know what got into the boys today, but they began begging me to take them inside. Knowing this would be highly entertaining (and not wanting to disappoint), I agreed.
So in we went. I noticed as we walked through the cemetery gates that I suddenly had three small boys clinging to my arms and sides but all the while saying, "We're not scared! We believe in Jesus!" That became their mantra as we wandered around the empty cemetery.
Ifocoeur said that he wanted to look around to find his little brother's grave (among hundreds of unmarked graves) so we wandered around as the boys asked me question after question. David became thoroughly freaked out when he saw a grave with the name "David" on it. He claimed he was going to change his name, and ironically he sudden began complaining that he had to pee.
"We want to see some bones," they said. If you've ever been in the Gonaives cemetery you know you need not look far to find broken caskets and skeletons laying around. Sure enough just a few minutes later we saw a pile of bones up ahead. The looks on the boys faces were priceless. "Well, do you want a closer look?" I asked them. They responded, "You go first, Katie! You first!!" as they shoved me in front of them. I could tell they were loving that "haunted house" feeling of being completely terrified but also enjoying it at the same time. Somehow in my attempt to explain to them that there is no reason to be afraid of bones, I got roped into proving it to them by touching one. I guess that's what I get (add that to my list of things I've never imagined myself doing)!
Eventually, Ifocoeur realized that it was impossible to find his brother's grave so he gave up and announced, "This one looks like it might be his. Let's stop here and talk to him." I asked him, "Do you want a few minutes alone with your brother to talk to him?" He looked up at me like I had three heads and said, "WHAT!!!! NO DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!" So the four of us said a few words to his brother before deciding to leave and head back to the tire repairman.
I know that the boys were mostly afraid of someone (aka a zombie) coming up out of a grave and chasing them. That is something that I tried to teach them many times in class last year: You don't need to be afraid of zombies or evil spirits. If you have Jesus, you have the power of the Holy Spirit...that means you have authority over all of those things that scare you. As much as their mantra of "We're not scared because we believe in Jesus" made me laugh, it also made me proud to know that they listened to things that I taught them last year. I'm not sure whether our impromptu field trip to the cemetery helped the boys conquer their fear of the cemetery, but I do think that is an adventure they will remember and laugh about for a very, very long time.
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