A blue police light shining in a dark background.

Safety monitors

That Good Samaritan did a good thing to someone in distress, and if the story stops there, then we have learned a good lesson, right?

But what the story doesn’t tell us in the background, and doesn’t tell us “the rest of the story.”

Two matching windows, side by side, with matching shutters. There is a flowerpot in each window.

De Kestyon, Reponn (Two Questions, Answered)

This kreyòl version is blunt: “Lè Josèf leve nan dòmi an, li fè sa anj Senyè a te di l la. Li marye ak Mari. Malgre sa, li te tann jouktan pitit la fèt anvan l te antre nan zafè sèks ak mari. Li rele pitit ki te fèt la Jezi.”—“When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He got married to Mary. Despite this, he waited until the child was born before entering into sex with Mary. He called the child that was born Jesus.”

Short stories and lengthy processes

This week’s follow-up assignment was to write my own story, in Haitian Creole, using the grammatical constructions, and build out a similar example of dialog, interaction, and choices. Then, after writing it, I had to read the story and record it, and send the recording to my instructor.

A Haitian man wearing a plaid tan shirt stands on a hillside looking over the valleys and hills below him.

Ayiti se yon lide—Haiti is an idea

It’s hard to overestimate the effects of that quake upon Haiti and Haitians. Twelve years later and so much has not yet been repaired. It was an earthquake that traumatized people—some who today cannot even handle being in a parking garage when a large truck drives by because the floors begin to vibrate and shake.

A book cover for "Chita Pa Bay". An outline of a man With one hand he is holding a conch shell to his lips to sound an alarm, and with his other he holds a machete.

I begin “Chita Pa Bay”

So I’m really loving this book because I have to read it and understand it to know what’s going on – but even better than that is that the story is engaging and challenging and funny. I can just see the interactions between the valiant Mannwèl, who’s curious and active in solving problems, Jèvilen, who carries the anger of his family towards Mannwèl and his family, and Anayiz, who’s seen as someone who “belongs” to Jèvilen but who will make her own choices!

The Real 300

Haiti is called the first Black republic in the New World, and what is unusual about it is that it was not a nation established by colonizers (England, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and so on) but a nation established by the kidnapped and stolen population. Those who were treated as cheap and expendable labor found themselves and created their own nation, throwing France—their oppressors and enslavers—out of their own lands, setting up their own nation, a Black republic, differing in origin from all the other nations in the New World at that time.

Photo by Justin Heap on Unsplash

Looking back 300 days

I feel really good that I’ve gotten this far. I’m still quite incompetent, but there are moments when it clicks.

The Enchantment of Creole

I spent two hours transcribing what I heard, trying so very hard to get the meaning. It was good practice, and I think I got about 30% of the meaning. I just had moments when I heard a set of phonemes and syllables and thought “I have no idea what this is—it’s just a jumble of sounds.”

Liv kreyòl ayisyen fini!

So tonight I finished my first-year kreyòl book. I’ve been in it since April 2022*, and it has been a source of instruction and frustration as every single time in my lessons I discovered yet another perplexing element of Haitian Creole.

Duolingo fini!

I thought that perhaps learning Haitian Creole would be interesting. I did not imagine that it would be a transforming experience.

One thing more

There is a glass bubble around white people in America and elsewhere, a bubble that lets us see through to the lives of others, but that protects us from questioning the wisdom laid down in our schoolrooms and homes and churches about what events “really mean.”

Day 270 of the Infinite Journey

What better way to find connecting with people than to learn their language well enough to listen to them, understand, and reply in their own language with the full context of their culture?

2-3-5 are prime days for learning

So much of what I’m reading now in my materials assumes a deep knowledge of Haitian culture and history, so that a simple phrase like “tèt kale” turns into a discussion about Haitian leaders and how the phrase is used not just to identify them but to make a pèsonifikasyon

M sispann!

I so much want to be able to speak and understand this language, but if I can’t do this outside the classroom, then I just don’t know the language.

Pwofesè, tèt mwen chaje

Man, today was rough. My tutor and I talked lasted week about my lessons. (This is my third tutor.) I…

Nou monte ansanm

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

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…

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

man in yellow and black plaid shirt sits on bed looking at camera

History as Cassandra

Let me bring in a little history for you today. Let’s talk about Haïti . . . Haïti was once…

I are progressing!

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

Do This in Remembrance of Me

There were some who could eat right at the altar of sacrifice and restoration with hearts so hard that they would deny food to their own brothers and sisters in community because “well, if they wanted to eat, they should have brought their own.”