Language study week

Hiya everyone,

As many of you know, this past week was a full week of intensive Creole language study from 9am to 4:30 pm each day Monday through Friday. With a 1 hour drive or more each way in thick traffic, the days were pretty long. Obviously from the photo below, the stunning beauty of the school’s setting made the trip well worth it. Again, soooo very thankful for a 4wd pickup with low gearing. Those steep mountain “roads” are not for the faint of heart. Despite many times saying “Oy my head is FULL”, we are so glad we took the time to do this. Since moving to Haiti, we have picked up a decent amount of vocabulary, but our spoken Creole had little structure or organization to it. It didn’t take long for us to realize that our Haitian friends and co-laborers have been showing us a tremendous amount of grace. It also didn’t take long to realize how much English grammar we had forgotten much less how little Creole grammar we knew. Wait…. What’s an indefinite article again??? Anyway, the program was great, and with us being a class of two, we got all the custom tailoring and individual attention we ever could have hoped for. Pictured below, we are with Souloque (French spelling) or Soulouk (Creole spelling) or Soo – loo – ck (Gerritt spelling) He was our head instructor and trainer for the half dozen other instructors in the language institute. He is a natural teacher, and has a great personality – we had serious instruction but also plenty of laughs with him.

 You can see from the other picture what a gorgeous setting we got to look over every day. The school is at about 3,000 ft above sea level and the air is so much cleaner and cooler than the greater PAP area. There was even a wild poinsettia bush blooming on the property just in time for Christmas. It was a good reminder that Haiti isn’t just the rough and tumble city of Port-Au-Prince, but also includes many beautiful landscapes and also many beautiful, smart, helpful people.

That kinda covers our whole week this time. Momma and Poppa Gerritt will come to Haiti for the first time this coming Thursday and we are really looking forward to some great family time as we show them not just our corner of Haiti where we serve, but also some of those beautiful places not enough people outside Haiti ever get to see.

Blessings from Haiti, Gerritt and Julie