Haitian Women in Mizak

The last few weeks have been an interesting study in women in Haiti for me. I have not yet comprised my words all together to fully understand the depths of what it means to be a woman in Haiti. Heck I don’t even think I would have the words to tell you what it means to be a woman in the United States. A series of things have happened and I feel the need to share a few of these observations with you. A few weeks ago Lee and I started working on a project to start 2 small creative women’s groups from the Creole literacy class; one of the classes for writing and one for visual arts.

First we brought the ladies together for a meeting to talk to them about what we were going to do. We had chosen some of the more advanced students from both the 1st year Literacy students and the 2nd year Literacy students. We shared our information but this also became an opportunity to share what the literacy classes have meant to them.

“People think we have no value because we cannot read or write.”

“We are looked down on and disrespected in the market because we never went to school.”

“A friend of ours went to a church in Jacmel and a rich sophisticated women gave her a religious book to share with her about her faith. The women cried all the way up the mountain because she felt less then this other lady – she could not read the book she gave her.”

“But now we are stronger.”

“People look at us differently.”

It was powerful to hear these stories. The next week we met to introduce the class a bit to them and introduce our selves and share a bit more about ourselves. We had them share their name and what makes them unique. Something struck me as the women were sharing. I could tell who the first year students and who were the second year students. The first year students couldn’t wait to stand up and share about themselves. You could see in their faces and body language how proud they are and their confidence level. It was…

In our English class last week we had a few visitors for Drew University. They shared some English with our 2nd and 3rd year students then they shared some of the reasons they are in the community. They were here to talk about violence against women in the community. They asked the question if people saw that here. A couple men answered not really, it’s more in the city, and others agreed. We had 3 women in class that day and one shared about how a woman was beat on the way to the well. Some of the guys laughed as the woman was talking and it was also contagious laughter. When asked why he laughed he tried to say it was just the way she told the story not about the woman being beat. But you could tell there it was uncomfortable to talk about with the men and the women.

The next day one of Drew University’s professors let the discussion with women of the community to share and talk about violence against women in the community. The women talked and shared many stories. Many things they have observed and experienced in this community in Mizak of violence against women. Finally one of the women said there are just too many stories to tell you them all. The women also shared about how they celebrated International Women’s Day. At the end of telling the stories they shared a song they had wrote about women standing together.

The women in Haiti continue to amaze me with their perseverance and strength and love.

Women of Mizak

The last few weeks have been an interesting study in women in Haiti for me. I have not yet comprised my words all together to fully understand the depths of what it means to be a woman in Haiti. Heck I don’t even think I would have the words to tell you what it means to be a woman in the United States. A series of things have happened and I feel the need to share a few of these observations with you. A few weeks ago Lee and I started working on a project to start 2 small creative women’s groups from the Creole literacy class; one of the classes for writing and one for visual arts.


First we brought the ladies together for a meeting to talk to them about what we were going to do. We had chosen some of the more advanced students from both the 1st year Literacy students and the 2nd year Literacy students. We shared our information but this also became an opportunity to share what the literacy classes have meant to them.

“People think we have no value because we cannot read or write.”

“We are looked down on and disrespected in the market because we never went to school.”

“A friend of ours went to a church in Jacmel and a rich sophisticated women gave her a religious book to share with her about her faith. The women cried all the way up the mountain because she felt less then this other lady – she could not read the book she gave her.”

“But now we are stronger.”

“People look at us differently.”

It was powerful to hear these stories. The next week we met to introduce the class a bit to them and introduce our selves and share a bit more about ourselves. We had them share their name and what makes them unique. Something struck me as the women were sharing. I could tell who the first year students and who were the second year students. The first year students couldn’t wait to stand up and share about themselves. You could see in their faces and body language how proud they are and their confidence level. It was…

In our English class last week we had a few visitors for Drew University. They shared some English with our 2nd and 3rd year students then they shared some of the reasons they are in the community. They were here to talk about violence against women in the community. They asked the question if people saw that here. A couple men answered not really, it’s more in the city, and others agreed. We had 3 women in class that day and one shared about how a woman was beat on the way to the well. Some of the guys laughed as the woman was talking and it was also contagious laughter. When asked why he laughed he tried to say it was just the way she told the story not about the woman being beat. But you could tell there it was uncomfortable to talk about with the men and the women.

The next day one of Drew University’s professors let the discussion with women of the community to share and talk about violence against women in the community. The women talked and shared many stories. Many things they have observed and experienced in this community in Mizak of violence against women. Finally one of the women said there are just too many stories to tell you them all. The women also shared about how they celebrated International Women’s Day. At the end of telling the stories they shared a song they had wrote about women standing together.

The women in Haiti continue to amaze me with their perseverance and strength and

Scared and thinking differently

I read of on a friend of mine’s Facebook status one day in passing. “Do something every day that scares you.” He was talking about how he had been fighting cancer and the scariness of that. Having that fear of not knowing if he had tomorrow taught him to appreciate what he had more. But after he was in remission, he realized it was this really this sense of fear that taught him to live more fully.

This idea runs through my head often as I live in Haiti; especially when I am flying down the mountains on a motorcycle. Every time it scares me I am always thinking what if a large truck meets us on the road or the rocks or slick and so on. Lately I have diving into teaching. I never imagined myself as a teacher; I never had any intentions of being a teacher. But I am working in Education here; Education is what people need to change their futures. I have observed many times the various classroom dynamics here. I have watched teachers both at our Primary School and our English teachers with Living Media. The teaching process in Haiti is memorization. The teacher puts the words on the board and the students copy them down. Then they memorize, the same with their lesson books they sit and read the books like a chant memorizing every word. It is definitely a different style to learning then I am used to. But it works, but does not necessarily promote creative thinking.

Lee and I were discussing this one time and came up with the perfect analogy. It is like when we put the desks together at the school and the children helped. Brent Olson showed them how to put one together and it was like the kids had logged it into memory how to do it. They put together the others very fast and Brent even thought faster then they put them together in the States. They watched it once and had it. I have heard many people say this about Haitians – It is amazing how fast they learn something. They watched us and then they did it. But I think if you just set those pieces of wood in front of them I am not sure they could have guessed how to put them together. However if you showed an American how to do it, I think it would take longer to pick up. It would have for me at least a couple times of working with someone else and then I could probably learn it. However, if you left the desk there for an American to figure out – eventually they would get it and put creative thinking to use to assemble it. I remember this same illustration when I came to Haiti with the Solar Oven Partners. It took me several, several times of showing me how to put these ovens together. But my Haitian brothers and sisters they would watch someone do it – and then they had it.

Often times correcting me in the way I was putting it together. It is just different styles of learning.

Anyway – what does this have to do with fear? I want to figure out how to teach my Haitian students more effectively. And I realized that scares me this idea of trying to figure out how to teach and, also wanting to give some of the teachers some tools to also interject some creativity and critical thinking. Almost every day I have been ‘breaking the rules’ I have put my students in a circle in the classroom instead of rows. And the day we did numbers I didn’t even write anything on the board – we just practiced saying the numbers with each other. The student themselves look fearful at this thought of ‘changing the rules’ of learning. But after awhile I see them having fun and learning and enjoying. Without a little fear I am not sure you can continue to grow – so challenge yourself. Step out and scare yourself a little or maybe even a lot.

Spaghetti is for Breakfast!

Lately I have not been inspired to write. I am not so sure why exactly. I did start to think that one reason is seeing so many teams come down and watching them experiences ‘my world’ and the Haitian culture. There are so many mixed reactions from people who come. One of our devotions this week talked about judgment. We don’t normally mean to judge and yet we all do it. Because we grew up a certain way, our families did it This way; Americans do it This way, etc. We all come with biases on ‘the way’ something should be done. This is neither good nor bad but just a fact. The way we act on those ideas is what really matters. There are many, many things that are different from life in the United States and any other country; there are communities and cultures in the USA that are very different from each other. We need to be constantly challenging ourselves on what is the ‘right way’ to do something; there are many different ways.


Recently Lee came over to eat dinner at my house and I was really excited because I had figured out (with Gabriel’s help) how to make chicken alfredo. As we were eating Lee made a comment about ‘why is it Haitians think this is a breakfast food – its dinner’. Spaghetti with very little sauce and maybe a little cut up salami is a breakfast food in Haiti; which I have grown to love for breakfast. And I don’t know who said it first but we both thought wait who in the United States decided it wasn’t a breakfast food. It is just all about our perspective. It is just different, neither is wrong. In Haiti spaghetti is a breakfast food and in the United States it is a dinner meal. Why? Just because.

(picture of Lee and Sony eating Eggplant Parmesan a year ago for dinner - but it fit the story)

Too often we as Americans think we have all the answers. And I find myself often humbled and amazed by individuals from other cultures. I am inspired by my Haitian brothers and sisters on a regular basis. It is also a beautiful thing to watch mission teams unfold and discover this for themselves throughout a week trip. They come to ‘serve the least of these’ and soon they realize we are God’s children and equals. We are all living our lives and want the best for our families and loved ones, we just go about it a little different and we have different circumstances to work within our lives. We can learn from each other more ways to live in this world together.

‘Just like me’ You want a brighter future.

‘Just like me’ You feel pain and struggles in your life.

‘Just like me’ you have joy in your life.

‘Just like me’ you cry.

‘Just like me’ you want to be loved by others.

‘Just like me’ you are loved.

– You can fill in any ending to these thoughts that you want, this is just what came to my mind. But it is especially for people you don’t understand, don’t like, or may even be enemies of yours.

(Thanks to Joe for the ‘just like me’ prayer idea and this AmaZiNg team that is here right now from Iowa, Michigan, Texas, and England, hangin with a South Dakotan in Haiti that inspired me and helped me see things in a new way - what a combination - I am blessed.)

Learning from our Brothers and Sisters.

One day at my mother’s church in South Dakota , I teared up just a little bit. It was because two women coming down from the offertory were holding hands. Now some may think that is odd or probably would not even have noticed, but it reminded me of Haiti. When I first experienced this connection of hand holding in Haiti I was walking to the market with the pastor’s teenage daughter. She grabbed hold of my hand as we walked. I was of course thinking it was strange but also felt the connection and felt loved by her instantly. The next time was after I had been in Haiti for some time already. I remember two friends of mine, two guys holding hands as the group walked. One of the Americans asked me if they were gay. I laughed a little and said no, they are just good friends. Many Haitians hold hands as they walk just to have that connection to one another. This is what I saw that morning with those two ladies holding hands. It brought joy to my heart because I could see their love for each other.

After I had come back from Haiti I would have to be touching the person I was sitting with or maybe even hold their hand during church. Because we do have this physical connection in Haiti of holding hands with your friends or every time you come and great a group of people you shake their hand or kiss their cheek. I think we can learn from this. Have that connection with the people you love. Reach out and grab that hand of your friend, show your love for them. Don’t be afraid to look silly or have someone question you. You should always show love it’s what we are connected on this earth to do. Love is always something to be joyous about and not questioned.