comfort zones

Tuesday-

Remember yesterday when I said I was really excited about today because I would be ministering to high school students? Do you also remember that time that Jesus was really funny and asked me to do something I know nothing about that was entirely out of my comfort zone and not on the schedule? I do, it was today, you know, when I thought I was doing one thing and ended up doing another.

This morning we made our way out to the local high school. Side note- in Haiti, there is no such thing as public school. All schools require a tuition. This means a lot of people cannot afford to go OR you find schools that dont want to turn them away so they suffer the costs and have teachers that dont get paid. All my teacher friends, think about that one for a second- working in a "building" with students all day and not getting paid.

Anyways so we made our way to the school. We were led in by the principal who is from Haiti and started the school with his wife. When we arrived in the first classroom I was handed a piece of chalk and told I had a full 2 hours for this english class. That was it. He left. I stood there. I am thinking wait, what? I have to teach them? Because Jesus, principal man, I am not a teacher. My roommate, my friends, actually a lot of my friends, they are teachers. I dont know anything about this except I speak english and that doesnt really count, are you not coming back for real? 30 seconds later the students are still looking at me. Luckily and when I say that I mean Jesus, South African Jennifer had decided to come with me that morning. She is not a teacher either but has some training in something related to education, (I didnt quite get the entire jist of it). So we winged it. And it was really actually great and a lot of fun. I knew some creole and she knew some teaching so we worked together, teaching them pronouns, verbs, sentence structure (relating it all back to Jezi of course). And it worked. They walked out of class knowing more english than they did when they came in.

Here is the thing. It was great for me to be stretched, to do something that scared me, to try something new and to impact them in that way. But the reality of the day is that I was opened up to an education system that I had never witnessed before. As I stood in the classroom, I thought of Kate, of Christi of Martha, all the teachers I knew that worked so hard and had the privelege of teaching in America. I am not going to bad mouth the education system of Haiti. What I will say is that you should pray for it. I should pray for it. In one classroom there were students with ages ranging form 15 to 33. 33. That is ridiculous. Why is he in school at 33? It says to me that he didnt have that opportunity when he was younger for whatever reason but is now more determined than ever to get a good education. And that is what Haiti needs. I realized today it is this age group that needs our devotion, our dedication. They are the ones growing up to be politicians, police man, engineers and doctors. It was overwhelming if you cant tell by my sporatic writing. I was frustrated, excited and just a bit discouraged if I am being honest. I dont know where I am going with this except to say that I am so blessed. I am blessed I went to school for 21 years of my life. I am blessed that my parents paid for all 21 years of that school and all the things that come with it. 

I am not sure what to do with my day except pray for those students and for all those involved in educating the people of Haiti. It is a giant job that carries so much weight. To all my teacher friends, I carry a new found appreciation for what you do every day, just be thankful you speak the same language as your class :)

Tomorrow I will be at it again, so not exactly sure what to expect! Ps- pray for rain! We really need rain!  Pase bonwee!