Monday, April 23, 2007
Learning Creole is becoming more fun as I understand more. A book called Let's Learn Créole by Dr. Edner A. Jeanty and Dr. O. Carl Brown has become my bible for learning the language. I carry it with me everywhere we go and read it while riding on tap-tap. I practice with my native friends. At this point I know how most of the syntax works, and I feel like I just need to learn more vocabulary. Learning a new language has never been this fun. After Creole, I'll have to tackle French, but I could always learn that when I return to the States. Besides, the way the people speak French here is a bit different from French-French (kind of like the way Kenyans speak English, I suppose), so I'd rather learn it properly. Anyhow, living in Haiti is definitely helping me motivate myself to learn. If only I knew what I know now back in high school... I despised French class back then, mainly because it seemed pointless to learn French (and maybe because I thought the teachers were a bit of psychos at the time).
I can't help but to compare myself with Paul Farmer. I don't really want to, but I keep doing it because I imagine he was in a similar situation as mine. He was 23 when he first came to Haiti, just before going to med school. That was 23 years ago, the year I was born (1983. Ok, 24, but I'm still 23). Now here I am, 23, first time living in Haiti, right before going to med school. (Incidentally, I have 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell of my body. And today is April 23rd! And there's a movie called 23, of which I've only seen the trailer.) I'm sure he knew a lot more French back then than I do now, since, if I recall correctly, he studied abroad in France for a year while in college. Of course there's a lot more differences than similarities, but these similarities make me think how I'm doing what I'm doing. Honestly, I'm probably not doing as much stuff as he did 23 years ago. If I could, I would just go outside and start talking to people in the neighborhood, and see what I could be doing. But since I can't, I'm focusing on learning the language. Well, I bet Paul Farmer didn't have a blog while he was in Haiti 23 years ago... probably not even a computer. Wait, that puts me in advantage, which means I'm supposed to be doing better... Argh! No more comparisons.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Haitian Diaries: Do You Know The Golden Rule?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
We went back to Fontain last Tuesday to see if there's anything that needs to be repaired. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I was. I couldn't believe how people don't have any respect for properties of others. For example, the back fence that we reenforced by making it taller. Kids still climbed over it, using the barbed-wire like steps on a ladder. Of course the wires were sagging due to that. There are many places in the neighborhood where they can play soccer, but for some reason they use our property. According to one kid who plays soccer here, there's really no reason. He's not even a little kid. He's a big teenager who seems to be listening to radio all the time (and imitates some English phrases he hears). What's even worse is the side fence with the gate, which we rebuilt last time also. Someone had cut out the wires on the gate so that people can walk through the gate without opening it. Seriously, since the water pump isn't working any more, there's no reason people should be going through the gate. Apparently the neighbors on one side would take a shortcut across our land to get to the neighbor's house on the other side. I guess the shortcut is worth trespassing and destroying other people's property... well, of course it's worth it, since it's not costing them anything. It's pretty crazy how people live here. One neighbor dug a hole on a wall that divides our land from theirs, so that their sewage (or water used for laundry, I hope) is drained into our land. Since that water can't go anywhere, it just rots away in a corner of our land. It's ridiculous. This is Haiti.
A young man came to church this morning. From the way him and Rev. Baek greeted each other, it seems he hadn’t been coming for a while. I was in the back yard before the service, and I saw him peeing on the wall by the trees where the goat is tied (we ate the other yesterday). I was debating whether I should tell him to stop, but it was too late since he started. So after he finished I told him “Twalet la! Pa fè sa!” “Toilet is there! Don’t do that!” Seriously though, he was peeing on a wall right outside the latrine. He just smiled and said “Eskize-m.” To think that I shook his hands after the service...
We went back to Fontain last Tuesday to see if there's anything that needs to be repaired. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I was. I couldn't believe how people don't have any respect for properties of others. For example, the back fence that we reenforced by making it taller. Kids still climbed over it, using the barbed-wire like steps on a ladder. Of course the wires were sagging due to that. There are many places in the neighborhood where they can play soccer, but for some reason they use our property. According to one kid who plays soccer here, there's really no reason. He's not even a little kid. He's a big teenager who seems to be listening to radio all the time (and imitates some English phrases he hears). What's even worse is the side fence with the gate, which we rebuilt last time also. Someone had cut out the wires on the gate so that people can walk through the gate without opening it. Seriously, since the water pump isn't working any more, there's no reason people should be going through the gate. Apparently the neighbors on one side would take a shortcut across our land to get to the neighbor's house on the other side. I guess the shortcut is worth trespassing and destroying other people's property... well, of course it's worth it, since it's not costing them anything. It's pretty crazy how people live here. One neighbor dug a hole on a wall that divides our land from theirs, so that their sewage (or water used for laundry, I hope) is drained into our land. Since that water can't go anywhere, it just rots away in a corner of our land. It's ridiculous. This is Haiti.
A young man came to church this morning. From the way him and Rev. Baek greeted each other, it seems he hadn’t been coming for a while. I was in the back yard before the service, and I saw him peeing on the wall by the trees where the goat is tied (we ate the other yesterday). I was debating whether I should tell him to stop, but it was too late since he started. So after he finished I told him “Twalet la! Pa fè sa!” “Toilet is there! Don’t do that!” Seriously though, he was peeing on a wall right outside the latrine. He just smiled and said “Eskize-m.” To think that I shook his hands after the service...
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