As I mentioned in my last newsletter (#3), I’ll be staying in Haiti a little longer than I had originally planned.
If you’d like to help me stay longer in Haiti, please visit:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
SunMin
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Haitian Courier #3: With Creole Comes Power...
...and you know what comes with power.
Bonjou Mezanmi! Kòman nou ye? (i.e. how are you [plural].)
Once again it's that time of the month when I must take a break and update you on what I’ve been doing in Haiti.
As you can guess from the subject line, I’ve been given more and more responsibilities as I continue to sharpen my Creole skills. Every morning except on Sundays, we have a Bible study with the workers at the orphanage. I read from a devotional book in Korean, translate it out loud in English, and then explain everything in Creole. Then every evening except on Fridays, I prepare and give a short sermon in Korean. After the service, I give the sermon again in Creole to Jude. Jude, a native here, is studying to become a pastor. On Sunday mornings, I emcee the Creole service (in Creole, of course), which involves leading French/Creole hymns. On Friday evenings, we have a late night prayer meetings, where I lead the prayer session, explaining each prayer topics in Creole. All these activities have helped me to learn a lot of Biblically relevant phrases in Creole.
I’ve been teaching as well as learning. After the morning Bible study, I read couple chapters from the Bible in English, and everyone else repeats after me to practice English pronunciation. Then I teach them English conversation from a book. It’s a lot easier to teach English now that I can explain things in Creole if I had to. On Sundays, I teach English songs to the kids (they’re crazy about “Making Melodies”). Also, now that I can speak descent Creole, I can lecture the kids more effectively when they need to be disciplined.
In my last letter, I mentioned about Fontain, the land the missionaries bought for a new orphanage. While Rev. Baek is gone raising funds in Korea, I’ve been in charge of looking after the land. Once or twice a week we visit Fontain and, if needed, fix up gates and fences or hire some neighborhood boys to helps us cut grass and shrubs. The little kids who are always there also helps us by gathering grass and trash. Building a good relationship with the neighbors is also an important part of my job here. Otherwise, they would dump trash in our land, cut barb-wires, or destroy gates... All of which they have done several times already. It’s been improving, so I’m hopeful.
Originally, Rev. Baek was going to come back by early June, but it seems she won’t be back till early-mid July. The only other missionary here is Mrs. Kang, and it would be too difficult for her to manage everything by herself. I was going to stay until June 28, which is fast approaching, but I’ve decided to stay longer, at least until Rev. Baek comes back. Once she is back, we’ll start the construction of the new orphanage right away, so I could be helping with that as well.
Some other things that happened since the last update:
• Earlier this month, I visited University of Fondwa (http://www.unif2004.org and http://www.unifusa.org), which is the first university in the mountains. They had the Haitian Bleu coffee factory next to it, so I got a little tour of that too. It was all in all a really cool visit.
• May 18 is National Flag Day in Haiti, so I got to see a local parade just outside our alley.
• Sometime in May, I visited the border of Dominican Republic, only to find out that it costs $35 a head to enter (so I didn’t). I also learned that we should never ever give passports to solicitors, or they would go get exit stamps for you at the immigration and demand money for their “work”.
• One day, a team of young missionaries came from New Jersey and visited the orphanage briefly. It’s always refreshing to be able to talk with people in English!
• I cut my hair really short again, this time with a 1/8” comb all the way around. I’m beginning to really like the convenience of short hair.
Now, for medical school, I’ll be going to UCSD School of Medicine (that’s University of California, San Diego for those who are not from the States) at the end of August! I’m very grateful that God has allowed me to move forward in this path. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the application process! Speaking of San Diego, if anyone can help me find a place to stay (any suggestions), I would really appreciate it.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for keeping in touch, those of you who do. I imagine many of you have just graduated college, so let me know what your next move is. No, I’m not that lonely anymore. I have Haitian friends now! But I’m always happy to hear from friends in other parts of the globe.
Please keep me in your prayers, for my health, safety, and faith. Let me know if there’s anything I could be praying for.
Bondye Beni Nou,
SunMin
Cell: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM:instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
Bonjou Mezanmi! Kòman nou ye? (i.e. how are you [plural].)
Once again it's that time of the month when I must take a break and update you on what I’ve been doing in Haiti.
As you can guess from the subject line, I’ve been given more and more responsibilities as I continue to sharpen my Creole skills. Every morning except on Sundays, we have a Bible study with the workers at the orphanage. I read from a devotional book in Korean, translate it out loud in English, and then explain everything in Creole. Then every evening except on Fridays, I prepare and give a short sermon in Korean. After the service, I give the sermon again in Creole to Jude. Jude, a native here, is studying to become a pastor. On Sunday mornings, I emcee the Creole service (in Creole, of course), which involves leading French/Creole hymns. On Friday evenings, we have a late night prayer meetings, where I lead the prayer session, explaining each prayer topics in Creole. All these activities have helped me to learn a lot of Biblically relevant phrases in Creole.
I’ve been teaching as well as learning. After the morning Bible study, I read couple chapters from the Bible in English, and everyone else repeats after me to practice English pronunciation. Then I teach them English conversation from a book. It’s a lot easier to teach English now that I can explain things in Creole if I had to. On Sundays, I teach English songs to the kids (they’re crazy about “Making Melodies”). Also, now that I can speak descent Creole, I can lecture the kids more effectively when they need to be disciplined.
In my last letter, I mentioned about Fontain, the land the missionaries bought for a new orphanage. While Rev. Baek is gone raising funds in Korea, I’ve been in charge of looking after the land. Once or twice a week we visit Fontain and, if needed, fix up gates and fences or hire some neighborhood boys to helps us cut grass and shrubs. The little kids who are always there also helps us by gathering grass and trash. Building a good relationship with the neighbors is also an important part of my job here. Otherwise, they would dump trash in our land, cut barb-wires, or destroy gates... All of which they have done several times already. It’s been improving, so I’m hopeful.
Originally, Rev. Baek was going to come back by early June, but it seems she won’t be back till early-mid July. The only other missionary here is Mrs. Kang, and it would be too difficult for her to manage everything by herself. I was going to stay until June 28, which is fast approaching, but I’ve decided to stay longer, at least until Rev. Baek comes back. Once she is back, we’ll start the construction of the new orphanage right away, so I could be helping with that as well.
Some other things that happened since the last update:
• Earlier this month, I visited University of Fondwa (http://www.unif2004.org and http://www.unifusa.org), which is the first university in the mountains. They had the Haitian Bleu coffee factory next to it, so I got a little tour of that too. It was all in all a really cool visit.
• May 18 is National Flag Day in Haiti, so I got to see a local parade just outside our alley.
• Sometime in May, I visited the border of Dominican Republic, only to find out that it costs $35 a head to enter (so I didn’t). I also learned that we should never ever give passports to solicitors, or they would go get exit stamps for you at the immigration and demand money for their “work”.
• One day, a team of young missionaries came from New Jersey and visited the orphanage briefly. It’s always refreshing to be able to talk with people in English!
• I cut my hair really short again, this time with a 1/8” comb all the way around. I’m beginning to really like the convenience of short hair.
Now, for medical school, I’ll be going to UCSD School of Medicine (that’s University of California, San Diego for those who are not from the States) at the end of August! I’m very grateful that God has allowed me to move forward in this path. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the application process! Speaking of San Diego, if anyone can help me find a place to stay (any suggestions), I would really appreciate it.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for keeping in touch, those of you who do. I imagine many of you have just graduated college, so let me know what your next move is. No, I’m not that lonely anymore. I have Haitian friends now! But I’m always happy to hear from friends in other parts of the globe.
Please keep me in your prayers, for my health, safety, and faith. Let me know if there’s anything I could be praying for.
Bondye Beni Nou,
SunMin
Cell: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM:instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
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