language is fun and people are generous

so i was in chichigua this morning, teaching a literacy class. on the surface it may appear that what i am doing is absolutely ridiculous. i know enough spanish to get by, but i'm not fluent by any stretch of the imagination. and the only word i knew in haitian kreyol (before today) was "bonjour." all of my students are haitian, speak kreyol, and very few speak even as much spanish as i do. and i'm trying to teach them to read? ha!

but even though God confused the languages way back during the building of the tower of babel in Gen. 11, that doesn't mean that he no longer has mercy on us as we try to learn one that is not our own.

today we learned the days of the week. and when i say "we," i really mean WE. thankfully, my students know enough spanish to be able to know the days of the week, so we could work from there. but since i work with so many people who speak kreyol, i decided i'd let them teach me, as well. so we had the days of the week on the board three times: in spanish, in kreyol, and in english. it amazes me how similar the kreyol words are to a mixture of english, spanish and french (yes, i do realize this is, by definition, what a creole language is, but i can still be amazed by it).

when a person first begins to learn a language, it often seems as if it is just a bunch of ambiguous sounds. but as you continue to study it's easy to see how so many things are related. God wasn't just confusing our languages, he was also creating thousands of new and beautiful languages that allow people like me (and all of my classmates and professors at Biola) to have something to do with our lives. some translate the bible, some teach languages, and some dissect them. now i know my true linguistic nerdiness is coming out, but this really is fun!

and to end my morning, i had two different people assist me in returning to the main road. i decided that i like to walk down the road from chichigua to the main road because, 1) it's cheaper, and 2) it's good exercise. dominicans and haitians both think this is quite appalling when you can simply take a moto for 20 pesos (20 pesos that i'd rather spend on avocate!). but i like to walk. so marigeo and her son francisco walked with me half the way so i would not have to go alone. less than 5 minutes after they turned back, carolina's (one of the little girls in Camille's class) dad passed by me and offered to take me the rest of the way for free since i'm a teacher.

though many things about living here can easily become frustrating, God continues to show his grace and mercy each day.

merci vocu a Dios (please excuse my misspellings and mixture of kreyol and spanish!)s