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??
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