Birthday love...

In my family, birthdays are always a special time for loved ones to shower extra love!  It was no different this year.  Today was my 31st birthday and though I'm miles away from home I felt the LOVE!

I want to thank all of my friends, my family and Wilson for making me feel special on my birthday.  This blog is a tribute to you.

Here it is...

My friend Kerry started off the birthday love last week.  She bought me a beautiful necklace from Apparent Project. 

 I love the work they do at AP.  Check out their website; if you want to place an order on something I can deliver it when I next visit Oz.

I received many birthday emails from family and friends.  Thoughtfulness scores high on my "feeling loved" list.

I was also excited to receive 2 birthday packages in the post from Laura and Jane.  Once again, it was their thoughtfulness that made my day!

I was able to Skype Greg, Maria and Julian!  Which is always a highlight of my week or month! 

Lastly, I had a relaxing day at the beach with Wilson. We shared a picnic and swam in the warm Caribbean Ocean.

Thanks for bringing laughter to my day!  I enjoyed our Karaoke sing-a-long on the way home

... and I love my new necklace.

Today's Creole lesson... Appearance management

Once a week (or thereabouts) I have a Creole lesson with Myrlande.  She is more a friend than teacher.  Myrlande has taught me a lot about Haitian culture and I love her warm heart.  Today in our lesson I counted to 100 in Creole.  We hadn't revisited numbers in a while.  After that we had a conversation in Creole (or attempted to).  I spoke about my day with the kids (ti moun) and about the food (manje) I ate.  Myrlande spoke about her family and how five of her children didn't go to school today.

Poukisa? (Why?)

Because there was no electricity at her house this morning.  This is not unusual for Haiti.  The average Haitian will only have power from some late hour in the evening til early morning, but not today.  (I'm not living so tough, my house has an inverter which gives me power after 9pm til 6:30am.  The rest of the day our house is powered by a diesel generator.  I always have power! Unless something tragic has happened to the inverter or the generator is out of diesel)

Anyway, back to Myrlande's children not going to school today.  What does electricity have to do with getting children to school?  No electricity = no ironing.  The children couldn't go to school today because their uniforms could not be ironed!!  (I almost laughed...)

In Haitian culture, it would be unheard of to go anywhere with unironed clothes.  I suppose that's true for some of us in Australia too... though most laid back Aussies wouldn't put ironed clothes on the top of their priority list.  Which leads me to my observations of Haitian pride.  It is evident that Haitians take pride in their appearance.  Though the streets of Port-au-prince can be dusty and often lined with trash, there are always shoeshiners that line the sidewalk (in fact, there are two shoeshiners who work just outside our  front gate).  To add to this, my Haitian friend informed me that manicures and pedicures are popular in Haiti (at a much reduced price than back home).  It is not uncommon for Haitian men to get a manicure once a week!  There are plenty of barbers around too.  Most men have short hair styles, closely shaved to the scalp. I haven't seen any afro styles!  School girls always have neatly braided hair with cute ties and ribbons.  

On Sunday you see everyone bring out their best dress or suit.  Going to church is an occasion to look your best.  Most Haitians dress smartly and on Sundays it's hard to tell the rich apart from the poor.  They don't often have the latest fashion, but their clothes are always clean and neatly ironed.

Furthermore, Haitians often bathe two or three times a day because: 1) the weather is always hot and tropical here, with an average of 35 degrees celsius everyday it doesn't take long for your body to sweat; 2) walking on the dusty unpaved streets of Haiti always demands a regular foot washing.

I've had conversations with my Haitian friends about the pride they take in their appearance.  It sounded something like this, ME:  "I don't understand why Haitians would care so much about cleanliness and their appearance when they're just going to get dirty as soon as they step out their front door?  Why bother?  Why bathe three times a day when you're just going to sweat immediately after?"

Their response: "Just because we live in a trash can, doesn't mean we have to accept it." I was taken aback by my ignorance. But it makes sense.  Most Haitians live below the poverty line; maintaining their outward appearance is the only thing they have left for gaining dignity and respect from others.

What is it that you do to feel worthy of respect?  

Must you have that newly furnished, double-storey house; the shiny car; a prestigous job; a great social life; adventurous travel plans; the latest fashion?

I learned something cross-cultural about the human race.  Everyone wants respect; to be held in high esteem of others.  Westerners often turn to material things; but Haitians maintain their outward appearance.

What guides your heart?

Being the reflective person that I am, I've been thinking a lot about "feelings"... I've always been afraid of my feelings and other people's feelings.  Life has taught me that your heart can deceive you; that your heart cannot always be trusted.  Feelings are not constant, some days you are happy and other days you feel sad; feelings can change like the weather.  

Important decisions should not be made impulsively, based on one's feelings. I've always been one to think through things, logically. I've been accused of having no feelings, and of thinking with my head and not my heart. I've seen the consequences of people's decisions when they've followed their feelings and hurt others with their choices.  Sometimes our heart leads us into sin, which hurts God, hurts others and can hurt ourselves.  Growing up with all of these warnings and cautions I've felt afraid of feelings, to the extreme that I didn't want anything to do with my emotions.  I would despise feelings. I would supress my feelings, hopes and desires.

By locking my feelings away I feel that I have missed out on loving others well or experiencing joy in serving God. If God is the Creator of feelings, I don't believe He created them for me to lock them away.  For so long I've thought that feelings were evil.  But I'm learning that it's through feelings we can connect with people and with God.  Yes, I still believe our feelings have the potential to lead us onto wrong paths, that is if we allow our feelings to LEAD our lives.  But if we choose to surrender our hearts to God, to be guided by His truth and His Word, we can be lead to do compassionate things, to serve others before ourselves, etc.  The promise of joy will follow when we love others as Jesus commands.

I'm learning that God created feelings for our enjoyment. But if our heart leads us to disobey God then we should not follow our heart's advice, but rather His truth and wisdom.  It sounds complex and I'm still processing my thoughts about how my "feelings" can be used to bring God glory and honor.

It would be so easy to ignore and neglect God's way, by doing whatever I feel like doing, when I want to... by following every suggestion from my heart.  It might feel good for the moment, but where would it lead? Jesus be Lord of my heart and mind. Continue to lead me by your Word, which is Life and Truth.  Continue to show me your purpose for "feelings".  May I use them to serve you and others well, and not for selfish desires.

It's a question worth thinking about: What guides your heart?

For more thoughts about this topic visit this blog post.

The children I teach...

I haven't really blogged much about teaching in Haiti.  It's what I do the majority of the time!  You must be wondering whether I made it up.

I often read the blogs of other colleagues and they will have endearing comments about their students and their love of teaching...  It's not quite the picture-perfect story for me!  Teaching is hard... it's emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting!  Sometimes I wake up unmotivated to go to school... please don't get the wrong idea, I do enjoy teaching; that is, to a class of students who are respectful and want to learn. There are some beautiful students in my classroom... and then there are some that just tire me out!

I loathe disciplining students or giving them a stern word... of late this has been my story, everyday!  My main frustration is that my students love talking!!  This may be cultural... but probably universal.  Now, I don't expect a quiet classroom all the time, but I do expect respect when I'm talking; I do expect my instructions to be followed the first time, without back-chatting or defiance.  It's not all doom and gloom... I hope my next post is more positive.  Please,  send up a prayer for a tired teacher.

Some of the precious ones I'm talking about....