Elections

I'm writing this from my kitchen table. Outside the sun is just setting, the temperature has dropped to a comfortable 80 degrees, and the sound of a man yelling on a microphone is drifting into my windows. His staccato speech is occassionally interrupted by smooth waves of cheers.

To be honest, in some ways it sounds a lot like a Sunday morning church service here where the worship leaders yell out phrases which the congregation echoes. But this isn't church; it's a political rally. Apparently one of the candidates is holding an event in the center of town. There's a crowd of people gathered in the sqaure, and political posters all over the walls in the middle of our city.

With elections only 9 days away, it's safe to assume, the whole country is covered with political preparations. It's definitely interesting to see campaigning in a country with limitted electricity (and therefore limitted televison/campaign ads). Last week we heard a band playing and a large crowd of people cheering and singing. We peeked out the gate and saw the crowd moving down the street, singing all the way. Apparently this too was a political candidate. This kind of campaigning feels a lot more lively than the endless advertisements we see on American TV.

Unfortunately election times in Haiti have also historically been a scene for unrest. With so much corruption in the government, times leading up to elections can become a little more unpredictable with high emotions and political protests. The country dodged potential unrest earlier this fall when Wycliff Jean was denied presidential candidacy, but since then there have been several protests happening in Port Au Prince over other issues.

During the next few weeks leading up to the elections (which take place November 28th), please pray for this country. Pray God would raise up the right leader to rebuild the governement and country. Pray that God's hand would be on all political events, and that his peace would reign. And pray that God would miraculously begin breaking the strongholds of corruption in Haiti.
(written Friday November 19, 2010)

Surprise Students

My first day back after being sick I had four surprise students show up in English class. Because my class is small, and I wasn't sure if new students had registered while I was away, I let them stay for one class, planning to kick them all out the next day.

I worked on a little "you're kicked out" speech and returned to class that Wednesday evening. When I arrived, however, I discovered that only 2 of the 4 had stayed. And after asking a few questions, I learned that one of them had been moved to my class from a lower level.

3 down 1 to go.

I turned my attention to the remaining surprise student, who was sittting straigt up in his chair notebook in hand, eagerly awaiting class. "Having him around won't hurt anybody," I reasoned, and backed down from my kick-em-out strategy.

A few days passed, and this student continued to arrive ealier than all the other students, armed with his pen and papers. So I started to ask him a few question. Where are you from? How is your family? General conversational English stuff.

I soon found out that this guy, who had heard about my class from the mayor, had been a university student in Port Au Prince last year. He had been visiting La Gonave when the earthquake happened, and when he tried to return for schooling found that his home had been destroyed.



Since then, he has been living on La Gonave, trying to find a way to return to Port Au Prince for University. And in the mean time, he's attending my English class. Though I'm very sad he has had to hault his education, I am so thankful that we can offer him an opportunity to continue studying at least one subject and that we get to have him in our program.

Summer Video Update

Back in August, we did a video for fundraising. It turned out great and is a good overview of my vision for Haiti. Here it is the link to youtube if you want to check it out.

Just Click on the title of this post, or copy and past this link in your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc6ofXrPicQ

Thanks Ken DePeal for all your awesome work on it.