From Mr. Brown :)

Gerritt and Julie tell me a lot of people ask about me, so I'm writing this blog - written by them of course as I can't type!!  My job at the guesthouse is to keep my people safe and I treat this responsibility VERY seriously.  During the day, I can usually be found sleeping in my bunker (kinda like a dog crate in the states, but made of concrete) or on my leash out front but at night I get to roam the property.  Sometimes the neighborhood cats tease me by hanging out on the walls around the property, but I usually scare them away by barking really loud.  Ever since G&J came, I've had some fun adventures - Gerritt takes me on walks around the neighborhood which I REALLY like - lots of smells to sniff and I make sure to drink extra water so I can pee on everything ... then just last week, they let me jump into the back of their truck which I've been wanting to do ever since it arrived here in Haiti!  Though I'm not very agile, so Gerritt had to give me a boost up :)  All in all, it is a good life I have here - thank you for everyone that asks about me (and thanks to G&J who give me 3 chicken hot dogs for breakfast every day!!!!)

Learning new things - (really Lisa)

So I learned something new today about Haitian culture. In the native kreyol language, there does not appear to be a word for “owning” something. You can only say you “have” or “possess” something.

I have heard many times that Haitians don’t take very good care of their belongings and I’ve always wondered why that is. I have certainly seen the girls at the orphanage treat things in a way that seemed unnecessarily rough and destructive to me. I have also seen the girls absolutely compelled to touch, pick up, or play with things that they know do not belong to them. I just wondered inside if they have had so little in their material experience that was of good quality and worthy of trying to preserve, but that does not seem to be the answer as they are equally hard on nice things that should be worthy of preserving. They sure know how to conserve and be resourceful in other areas.

I think I learned today that embedded in Haitian culture is a lack of the concept we know of as “ownership” It simply does not occur to our girls that the cell phone or sunglasses they are about to grab belongs to someone other than them. No one “has or possesses” it so it is fair game. It also partially explains the propensity for shipped items to disappear as they clear customs here. It also brings new meaning to the phrase used in the US – “possession is 9/10ths of the law”.

This then brings me to a new challenge. How do I show/instruct the girls a completely new concept?? How does one communicate the idea of “ownership” to a small group of 9 to 15 year olds who native language does not even contain the word ownership. This is what I was rambling about when I wrote about showing them a “better” way, not just an “American” way. Ideas about teaching the concept of ownership with limited language skills??

April fish

I thought I'd write something quick and funny. Yesterday was April 1 which we know as April fools day. They have something similar here in Haiti and the girls call it "poisson Avril" ( pwa-sahn ah-vreel - literally April fish - don't ask me why they just do) The object is to tell an unsuspecting person that someone else is calling for them and they need to go see that person. When you go to see what the person wants and they are confused and reply that they did not call you, the 11 year old girl yells "POISSON AVRIL" and bursts into hysterical laughter as if she has just pulled off the best practical joke in the world. I thought you all should know this. Thanks for reading. -G