Creole Lessons with Sanite

I absolutely love my Creole lessons. I have had two weeks of them know and they are often times the highlight of my day. Now, here's why...

In the evenings of most days I try to either complete a Creole lesson from my book, bring my flash cards to the cafeteria for some fun quizzing with the kids or friends (this helps my pronunciation), or I make new flash cards with new—almost always more difficult—words to learn.

When I walk up and down the hill to and from school, I walk flipping through my flash cards, pausing at the ones I don't know and trying to think of a way to remember them. I try to be very careful as the back is very rocky and I am very clumsy! I get through them about two times as I walk. Now, to get an idea of how many times I walk up and down the hill, let me give you an example from one of my days this week:

-5 am: up and at it to pray for Haiti

-6:58 am: walk halfway down the hill to the cafeteria for breakfast

-7:24 am: walk the rest of the way to the school for prayer and singing with the teachers before opening exercises

-8:47 am: already have had coffee, juice, and water but there is no bathroom at the school for us to use, so up the hill I go

-10:05 am: the kids have break, so now would be an excellent time to walk up the hill to use the restroom

-12:00 noon, on the dot: rushing up the hill before lunch again!

Okay, so that's only half the day, but see how many times I can get through my cards in a given day? Making sure I watch where I walk and greet everyone I pass with a “Bon jou!” and a smile, is actually more challenging! The fun part is not knowing words at the beginning of the day, but being able to know them very well at the end. No time is wasted!

School gets out at 3, but I am usually finishing up a project or something of the sort until 3:30, so by the time I get up to the house it's almost time for my Creole lesson (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).

Marthe, Me, and Sanite in uniform.

Sanite is my Creole teacher and I am her English teacher, so it's a great trade off. We walk further up the hill and sit in the shade on a cement wall. One of us prays to begin our session, then we figure out whether to start with English or Creole. She quizzes me on my flashcards and has my make sentences with each of the words that I know or reads English sentences to me so I can translate them into Creole using the proper contractions and usage of the word “the”.

For the English lesson, I read her sentences in Creole and she has to translate them into English using the proper pronunciation and tense of each word. Then, my favorite time comes! We choose a passage of Scripture to read. She reads it aloud in English working on building vocabulary and sounding out words. Each time she finds a word or phrase she doesn't know, we take time to talk about it and use it in other ways.

We both love the Lord and love to worship Him, so after we finish reading the Scripture and learning more about our God, we spend some time learning worship songs in both English and Creole. It is a beautiful time! Worshiping the Lord, having to think and explain who He is to each other and what different Scriptures reveal to us! It's such a filling time of study! One of the highlights of my day!

Each time I see Sanite we greet each other with a big hug and a smile! I know that she is a blessing to me here and she has told me that God has brought me here for a special purpose—to be a blessing for her. A beautiful friendship. A beautiful way God works. It is amazing.