Well, my first month in Haiti has officially come and gone, as i finished my 5th week of teaching today! I can't believe I have been here that long already; yet at the same time, I've grown so acclimated and really assimilated to life here on the base quite quickly. I've really come to love my new life as a blanc (foreigner; literally "white"), and feel like I've been here forever. I wanted to thank each of you for your love, prayers, encouragement, financial support, or just even allowing me to vent or chat your ears off about all the transition!
Transitioning to life here in Haiti, I was really concerned that it would be difficult to adapt to all the life-changes at once. I was fully ready for an emotional breakdown to take place within the first three days, but rather than having to intervene as my Comforter, the Lord was definitely my Protector the entire time. I landed and really hit the ground running, starting teaching less than 24 hours after arriving in St. Marc! I lived in the dorms for about 10 days before moving to my current residence in the apartments towards the back of campus. I live with two wonderful girls, Anne-- 21 from Lancaster, PA, and Farron-- 22 from just outside of Chicago. They were wonderful and dear to me when I got some sort of stomach bug that rendered me useless for a weekend, and were not bitter in anyway that my sickness kept them up all night, too (our walls are more like partitions, and we don't have a ceiling). For as much as living in a third-world country can be, it feels like home. I have my own room, I've baked two cakes for new friends, made homemade salsa one night, and cooked an Easter supper with vegetables I got from the open air market, about a 15 minute walk from base. The adjustments were rather seamless; something I originally doubted because of the changes the nation underwent because of the earthquake
Although just about 70 miles north of Port-au-Prince, St. Marc did not experience any damage, praise the Lord! However, the effects of the earthquake were felt in St. Marc and beyond. Fortunately, YWAM's reputation here for 20 years has given them credibility as a NGO, and they have partnered with several different ministries, a plethora of pastor's, and even the UN. One of our volunteers here, Ben, is in charge of shipping containers (think: semi-truck trailers), and getting them to the right places and organizations within St. Marc-- the UN was even here yesterday and today for food distribution, in which we head up the efforts for internally displaced people (and there's an estimated 20,000 living here) in St. Marc. YWAM was also responsible with doing practically door-to-door personal interviews with those claiming victim status to ensure that they were indeed victims and not just those looking for a handout. Needless to say, the staff and long-term volunteers here have been staying very, very busy! Dave, in charge of all communications and arriving/departing volunteers/teams, has placed all the current volunteers (about 50 in addition to the staff and YWAM students living here already) on duty unloading two shipping containers today and sorting through for distribution. In addition to that, Mike, a volunteer in charge of leading outreach teams and the tent cities that YWAM has established here for the internally displaced, meets daily with area pastors to determine the need of food, clothing, and shelter for people that may have recently joined their congregation after leaving Port-au-Prince. I went out to Pareese, a small village just south of St. Marc, with him and a team of people on my school-holiday Monday and realized how important and stressful his job is in coordinating relief efforts and setting up/constructing tent homes and communities.
In addition to what YWAM is doing in the city, Liberty Academy, where I am serving as a pre-k/kindergarten teacher, serves as the educational means for just about 40 students in the community. My mixed class has 9 students, ranging from age four to a boy that is turning seven next week. Two of my students have a functional knowledge of English, and maybe two more have at least a quaint understanding without the ability to respond in English (which is a requirement for admission; a lot of parents lied). The language has proved to be the biggest challenge in meeting comprehension and even in maintaining attention and addressing behavior issues (which, there are a ton of currently!). However, in spite of the language barrier, we have made quite a few strides in breaking the mentality of rote-memorization! In the past month, they have all learned their letter sounds and short vowel sounds; and just last week we began blending the two! Today, we worked on word formation and they were able to READ!!!!! I can't tell you how exciting this is to me, because it lets me know that I am doing something right, and that even in spite of their moments (which seem to be daily) that they are getting it! So, that is definitely encouraging! One of the most challenging things for me has been that we have no curriculum. So there is no scope or sequence to follow; however, I've been trying really hard to align what I do with age-appropriate principles and standards from the states; but without a well-spring of teacher editions, or even student editions for that matter, to draw from. It has also been a challenge with the lack of resources, especially since I felt apply prepared to create and laminate just about anything after leaving college! But, in the challenge, I am definitely feeling the Lord stretch my capacity, patience, flexibility, strength, and reliance on Him alone! And moments where they clobber me with hugs, bring me birthday cake, or are even able to read the word t-u-b on the board, I am totally feeling the love and reward of teaching these children.
Daily life has been a radical change in paradigm for me. I wake up most days at 6:30. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have prayer and worship from 7-8. I teach from 8-12 (kindergarten has a half-day; the rest of the school goes until 2), and TWTh have lunch duty/dismissal til 12:30. On Monday afternoons, I have a one-on-one meeting with my mentor, Sarah-- a 28-year-old fellow teacher from Canada, for an hour. On Wednesday afternoons, we have a teacher meeting. On Thursday afternoons, we have YWAM staff meetings from 4-5:15, dinner at 5:30, and then ladies group from 7-9. Usually two to three evenings a week, there is a corporate worship service held for about two hours each night. Sunday nights, we hold a community church service in both English and Creole from 6 pm til about 8. On top of that, we just launched a house of prayer on campus, and have had meetings leading up to that, and I've myself spending about an hour a day in there reading, praying, worshiping, creating, or even taking the occasional during-reading nap (whoops!). This evening, a team of 20 from YWAM Tyler, Texas arrives and will spend all next week putting up a huge circus-like tent at the back end of campus for community youth outreach. I've talked with Philipson, a Haitian staffing the Discipleship Training School (widely known as DTS) here on the base, about getting involved with this ministry a few afternoons a week, and he told me he talked to Wayne, (the director's son, also DTS staff, and raised in Haiti) about setting up a meeting next week to fill me in on all of what they are seeking to sow into. So I am excited about that.
As much as I knew that God was leading me here to work, I did not realize how much He wanted to work in my own heart and life. Overall, God has totally ratified even just my daily schedule so that He is the center and everything else just falls into place. I know that in the 9-5 of the real world, this is not only abnormal, but it's barely even possible. So I am definitely left at a crossroads feeling that God has called me above and beyond "normal," but not quite seeing the full revelation of what exactly that is. I feel and know that He is on the brink of something magnificent for me, and I keep hearing Him tell my heart to wait. I don't wait well! But the Lord has really been shattering my notions and conceptions about how to live a life for Him, and in that, I am finding that I've been growing so much in knowledge of and intimacy with the Lord. I am learning to be both fully dependent on Him, and fully satisfied in Him. He has proved so faithful in every area of my life, especially in providing all of my needed finances in such a short time and sustaining me while I am here. He has shown me that whatever challenge I hesitate at approaching, He can overcome in one fell swoop. I've learned so much about His faithfulness, and am still continuing to unveil just how very much He loves us!
And so, I want to thank you. For joining me in this journey. For speaking truth and encouragement over my life. For praying with me. For financially providing for me. For remembering me to the Father. For following my blog and staying updated with my day-to-day. Pray for the Lord to continue to bless YWAM's efforts in the community. Pray that anything we do will be only by the grace and favor of the Lord, and not be our own ambitions or strength. Pray for miracles and healings to continue to be done and seen for the glory of the Lord. Please continue to pray with me as I try to discern what God has for me next, after Haiti. Pray for patience on my behalf, as I wait on the Lord to reveal and work that out in His own timing. I miss and love you all more than you would know. And please know what an encouragement you have been to me. Just in the outpouring of your support has proved to be such a blessing that I am absolutely pursuing where God wants me to be. The Lord has been using each of you to speak to me and bless me, and I am forever grateful for that!
Blessed and encouraged,
Rhiannon
Good stuff. Pretty envious of the size of your vocabulary though.
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