Lounges and Lines

Re-posted from March 30, 2011.

Tonight, my brain hurts. Seriously. It hurts. Trying to understand French all day requires lots more brain power than I remember. Gives me great appreciation for all our ELL students who have to think in a foreign language all day every day. Not only do they have to think in a foreign language, but they are also expected to learn in that foreign language and navigate the social customs of a fickle adolescent world. No wonder they sometimes tune out . . . it’s just easier! I know that if I even didn’t focus for a couple of seconds today I completely lost the focus of the sentence. Not the conversation, mind you. But the sentence. I had to concentrate that much in order to converse just a little bit. Like I said, my brain hurts.

          My friend Oriol drove me to the school in Cite Soleil. Gertrude had said that it was within walking distance, but I think that’s just crazy talk! I did explain that I thought “walking distance” was about 3 miles, but this was way more than 3 miles away! For those of you who don’t know, Cite Soleil is the poorest area in Haiti and very well may be the poorest area in the western hemisphere. It’s hard to believe that people live in such poverty. But, in the midst of that poverty, the Sisters of Charity have created an amazing oasis of safety and calm in the violent storm of Cite Soleil. I entered the gates of the compound and felt as if I had walked into another world: shade, quiet, cleanliness, order. They don’t just run a pre-school. They also run a hospital, a malnutrition center for undernourished children, a trade school for the mothers of the kids who attend the pre-school, and an elementary school! It appears to run like clockwork. While the kids are in school, the moms are at the trade school sewing and making cards in order to learn skills that will make them money. Then, when the school day ends at 1:00, the moms go to the classrooms to pick up their kids. In fact, pretty much all of the kids are walked home by a parent or an older sibling . . . sounds a lot like in the U.S.A!

          I had lunch with the sisters in their home which is also very calm and peaceful. The sisters cracked me up . . . they’re a funny bunch, and they come from all over: Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, and Colombia. My plan is return on Thursday so that I can observe in the classroom more.

          Sunday during my layover in Fort Lauderdale, I overhead a disgruntled man say, “I need lounges. I need lines.” He appeared to like the airport about as much as I did! The place was chaotic. There are not many sit-down places. The number of people filled the place to capacity. I bet he really felt that he needed lounges and lines. I’ve been thinking a lot about his comment since I’ve been here in PAP. Don’t we all need our lounges and our lines? Don’t we all want order and comfort? What that looks like for each of us, though, is going to be very different. For the man in Fort Lauderdale, it probably really meant a lounge with comfortable seats and order to the whole process of finding a place and getting one’s food and drink. And that’s okay. For the children of Cite Soleil their lounge was the small cafeteria where they are fed two meals a day consisting of rice and some chicken. And on weekends they don’t eat because there is no school. Their “order” looks like sitting silently while they eat because that is the discipline of the school. Neither perspective is right or wrong or good or bad. They are just different. Both provide comfort to the people experiencing them. I keep wondering whether we (the people of the world) can bring those two experiences closer together. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to have the same . . . that wouldn’t work in a world with such vastly different cultures. But, what can we do to help ensure that everyone has enough to eat, a secure place to live, and access to education that will help them earn a living? What can we do to make sure that all people have their “lounges and lines”?

          As I keep trying to figure out what my role is in this process of making sure that people have “enough,” I am meeting some amazing people who are doing amazing work. I am able to experience life in ways that have changed me profoundly. Every day I am humbled with the understanding of just how blessed I am: with family, friends, work, home, health. Don’t know when—if ever—I’ll understand my role completely, but in the mean time, I thank God for what He has put in my life.

Time to say good night.

Jamie