Rain, rain, go away

It's raining in Boston. A miserable day, cold and wet and raw. And I am studying for a midterm and a quiz that I have to take tomorrow. If only I was in Haiti, where rain is a reason to celebrate, where people dance in the street when they see the clouds gathering, where you can run and dive into the foot deep water that accumulates on the boys' roof.

Stev and Peterson playing "motor boat" with the skateboard on the boys' roof during the hurricane in August.

The cutest derriere in Haiti

This is Fedlens.Fedlens is one of the cutest little guys in New Life Link.

And he has a HUGE belly.

On this particular day, Jessica was playing with him and pulled his pants up to cover his huge belly.

He didn't really like the new style, so he took charge.

He really took charge.

And was so pleased by all the laughter and cheers that he got from the 30 teenage girls that were watching, he decided to show off those little cheeks a bit more.

Such a precious memory of a precious boy and the cutest buttocks in Haiti.

Fedlens went home to France this fall to live with his lovely mother, Valerie. He was my baby, my tiBlan, the whole time that I stayed at the orphanage. We spent a lot of time together when the older kids were in school, looking out the window at people in the street, eating Rika cookies, drawing scribbly pictures, and playing catch with my volleyball. He was the only toddler who would come to my room of his own accord, even though he knew that the nannies didn't allow it. It didn't matter - he was such a little flirt that the girls were always bringing him upstairs and playing with him. They dressed him up in my sunglasses and bandana, they danced with him, and once, Merline Jean taught him to say "I love you" in English. But my favorite memory of Fedlens will always be the day of the derriere.

Exams

The majority of our kids will be having their first exams of the year later this month. (Stephanie, Argentine, Kattia, Alex and Evens Auguste will have theirs at College Maranatha on Oct 22nd-26th). At Marion G. Austin, the school that is run by HFC, exams are held 4 times a year and they are essentially the only determinants of a child's grades. All the material that has been covered in each class over the past quarter will be on the exams, and in typical European style schooling, a lot of memorization is required, especially for the younger children. Last year, our kids did reasonably well on the October exams, and then horribly on the December and February exams. In February, only 9 boys passed their exams! For the younger ones, this was bad, but for the older kids, it was catastrophic. A few boys were "put on probation" - told that if they could not pass in school, they would be kicked out of the orphanage. Emmanuel was one of those boys, and Dr Bernard charged me with the project of helping him succeed. I started tutoring him every day after school, although he honestly didn't need tutoring as much as he needed someone to push him and motivate him to try.

The week of April exams was one of the craziest weeks of my life. I would study with the girls in the early afternoon and then cross over to the boys' house to study with Emmanuel and the other 9th grade boys. They had so much material to learn and Emmanuel was so poorly prepared that I ended up spending the night with them all week so that we could study right until 10pm and then start again at 5am when we woke up. It was exhausting, but in the end, absolutely worth it: Emmanuel not only passed, he got a 7.51 average and was 6th in his class of 18 students. At my going-away party in May, he thanked me and promised that he would succeed all year and for the rest of his life. He did quite well on the official exams in June, so now we see whether he can continue fulfilling that promise. In addition to helping Emmanuel, the tutoring and that one week of intensive study really solidified my relationships with the older boys. It was miraculous to be able to spend that much time with them without the girls getting jealous and to get to know their personalities a little better. I have so many mental snapshots of that week: Mathurin, so incredibly smart, writing math problems on the board for the others to solve; Jacques, also ridiculously smart, sneaking looks at his notes while I was quizzing them; Argusto, reciting 4 pages of biology notes word for word; Jefthe, laughing hopelessly at my illustration of how a mushroom and algue make a lichen; Drisk, complaining that I wasn't giving him enough attention when he already knew his material inside out; Bernadin, running downstairs to get me a drink when I started getting hoarse from talking too much; Peterson and Renick getting my futon ready for me to sleep on; Richecarde and Stev running by to whack me on the head and yell "Zoklo!"; all of the boys crowding on my bed for a study break when the lights went out...Priceless.

Emmanuel is not the only one who has trouble with examinations. Job, Richecarde, Stev, Reginald, and Camille always struggle. For the girls, Nadia, Merline Jean, Carmelle, and Wislandy have had difficulties. Often it is simply a matter of too much memorization and not enough hands-on practice or comprehension. Sometimes, it's a lack of motivation or structure during study times. Chrystel, for example, was the only girl in her class who failed her exams in December so she put her foot down and ended up 2nd in her class for the next quarter. But then she lost her push and failed the exams in April. Others, such as Jessica and Jefthe, who are very smart kids, failed one set of exams last year because they did poorly on just one subject. Please pray that our kids will be able to help one another prepare, that they will understand why school is so important and that they will find motivation to persevere. Pray for patience for the nannies who have to listen to hours of recitation, and pray for fair grading.

Up and running

My friends, I am pleased to announce that the internet is once again up and running at HFC! Several people received emails yesterday and I hope that this means we will finally be onto the Saturday emailing schedule. I'm so sorry that it took this long and so sorry that many of you did not receive anything yesterday. Keep praying for their typing skills to improve exponentially!

Joyeux Anniversaire, Alex Jerome!

Happy Birthday, Edline!

One of the sweetest girls ever - I still can't believe that she is only 14! She could easily be 16 or 17 from the way she acts with me and with her siblings. Edline is one of the "keepers of the phone", so I get to talk with her nearly every time I call the girls and she is always so cheerful and polite. One of the greatest things about Edline is the way she cares for her friends. Myriam is one of her best friends, and when Myriam was ill and upset, Edline would be right beside her, helping to keep her calm and cheering her up. Every night, the girls would line up to kiss me good night. I created a one kiss only rule because otherwise, the ritual could last an hour. Sometimes, things got wild with girls fighting each other for a place in the kissing line, or grabbing me from behind. Edline, however, always waited very calmly till the others were done. Then she would take my hands and lead me to my room. She would open the door for me and then quietly accept her good night kiss. It was one of my favorite moments of each day.

I didn't forget you, Stephanie!

Happy Birthday, you little princess!

She was the first girl to latch onto me when I arrived in January. I had already been good friends with Jessica and Merline Jean, but because they were in school longer each day, it was Stephanie who had first dibs on me. She would appear in my room at all hours of the day (I'm still not sure if she was skipping class!) and just sit on my bed with me. We couldn't really talk because her French isn't very good and my Creole wasn't good either, so we laughed a lot. I remember specifically taking turns drawing pictures and then grading each other's drawings. She would give me a 10/10, so then I would go higher and give her a 25/25, so she had to go higher and give me a 100/100, and so on. Of course, neither of us is really any good at drawing so it was probably a good thing when we moved on to playing cards and teaching me Creole. She was the first person who told me that you have to throw a "nan", "la", or "an" after each noun or possesive pronoun. I still haven't totally mastered that skill.

Time went on and I got to know Steph better. She stopped being "cute" and became one single word: "BLAZE!" She is one of the silliest little girls ever, and she absolutely loves it when grown ups like me and her adoptive mom are blaze too. She is a mischief-maker, very happy to hide in the hallway with a baggie of water in her hand so that she can squirt me when I walk by, or to lie on the floor behind my bed so that after I finally get everyone out of my room at night, she is still there. I always caught her, but she usually got an extra kiss and a good thump on the butt out of it. Dancing and singing are passions of Stephanie's - she will sing High School Musical songs at the top of her lungs; never mind the fact that she doesn't know any of the words. She is very close with her family: her 3 biological siblings with whom she fights but is very protective, and her biological mom who comes to visit regularly.