Two Haitian children carrying yellow plastic water buckets on their heads. Behind them is a small water supply building with its door open. In the background are more people carrying yellow plastic water buckets on their heads.

Great Unexpectations

Why does the world exist the way it does that a people confined to a third of an island in the Caribbean are seen as less-thans? How do they grapple with the faith that comes from white people to their land, given to them to give them hope, and yet used as a tool by those same white people to call them despicable names and degrade them?

Man sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper

What I’ve Learned in 2023

I wanted to reflect upon what I learned this year, and also think of how my knowledge will affect my choices and behaviors in the new year…

My First Foray into the Field

I had already decided to make my order entirely in Haitian Creole. Which was a good choice, because the staff at the restaurant were not speaking English.

AI generated image of a black tea kettle and several black pots

When the Pot Gets It Wrong About the Kettle

The oppressing side in its acts of oppression is doing wrong by nature. There is no “just” oppression. Whether it is cruel or superficially “kind,” oppression is wrong and cannot be redeemed either by language or a reduction in cruelty.

Eighteen Months In

Well, I will continue my journey. It’s been a wonderful adventure that not only has helped open up a language and a culture and a people I never knew before, but also has changed me in how I see the world and understand those who live in.

Seeing with a New Tongue

in those decades of following Jesus, I’ve listened to uncountable sermons and Bible studies, often led by people with great earnestness, who have said “oh, if you only knew the Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic you’d see stuff in the scriptures that are hidden to you because you only know English.”

Ki kote m ye?

It is weird to me that I can read these materials and kinda get the gist of them, but golly they are way more complex (to me) as an English-speaking student who has so little comprehension of Haitian culture and idioms.

Nou monte ansanm

Another update on my language journey: Last night I was given a text to read that I’d never seen before. … More

So much more

Listen, this is hard work. Not just the language. That’s hard because it’s new. Learning a new language means learning … More

Thoughts about the past six months

More than 190 days now of learning Haitian Creole.
A few things I’ve learned along the way, in no particular order:
#AprannKreyòl #KreyòlAyisyen

I are progressing!

Learning kreyòl ayisyen is a challenge, no getting around that. But eventually, it does come together!

To learn a language is to see a new world

Creole is the language of the people, made by the people. It’s not a language that was developed by the elites. It’s a language hammered out to help enslaved people from Africa find a way to communicate to each other as they were deliberately isolated from their own people to keep them incapable of resisting their enslavement by building a movement to overthrow their enslavers.

Am I fluent yet?

“Am I fluent yet?”
The answer is, of course, “No, not yet.”
But I did have a good session with my instructor today. I am learning kreyòl and I am speaking kreyòl.
And I will take that and hold onto it.

Not so fast there!

Now, I’m not dekouraje paske mo yo se difisil pou m konprann, Ignorance is part of learning, and I look forward to it. But this stuff still surprises me. Well, I’ll keep plowing/ploughing through this book, and I look forward to feeling ignorant again when the next book comes.
And I know I would drown in any secondary school in Haiti. Tèt mwen anpil chaje.

Almost half a year!

Learning to speak/read/write/hear Haitian has not only opened a door to a new language but also opened a new world of culture and history and social organization and food and music and art and religion that I simply wasn’t aware of. #Haitian #Kreyòl

More and more mountains . . . sigh

The more I dig into this language the more I find that I do not know anything at all. My initial appraisal of the language and the way to learn it is nearly entirely false. The initial methodology of saying simple phrases is helpful to build confidence, but Haitians do not talk like that.

Get off my lawn!

And as language is used to mark who’s in and who’s out, so it is used in context between those who are within the culture of Haiti and those who are, like me, without.

The fun of learning

The best way to learn is to simply do. I’m trying that. I first must try out the first moments of wobbling on this bicycle, afraid to hit the ground, but determined to go on ahead.

What is fluency?

Goodness, I am so tired. I feel, again, like I just can’t absorb any more, and it’s all mush in … More

I have mo words, yo

I’m pretty happy with hitting another level of understanding. The lessons are enjoyable again, even though yes they’re still tough.