week 1 is in the books :)

It's hard to believe how fast the first week flew by. I have officially begun work at Centre Lumiere. On Monday, Olga gave me a tour of the grounds (beautiful, as you can see by the photos below), and we met with Marcel, another staff member, to discuss my responsibilities. Most of the week I designed lesson plans for the teacher training, but I have also helped with color matching for production and taking photographs to update their files. The students have been hard at work in class learning how to make patterns and sewing the final product. I will begin teaching English in February, and Karen, another missionary, will begin teaching a course on women of the Bible at the same time.

Aside from work, I have been spending time with Olga and her family, who left yesterday to return to Germany. Pray for safe travels for them, as it is a long trip! I will miss all of the German goodies that Olga's mother made for us. She was always baking something while the men were at work on the building project. The photo below was their last day in Les Cayes.

Tuesday evening, I attended a ladies tea with all of the missionary ladies of Les Cayes. It was a great time to get to know many of the women who have been here between 2 and 36 years, although I couldn't meet everyone (there were about 20 there)! All of the missionaries met together on Wednesday night (as they do weekly) for a devotional service. We had a special speaker in town from Canada who had worked in Haiti many years ago, and comes back every January.

This week has been fun. By far, my favorite thing happened yesterday morning. When I came into work, Esther (a staff member) informed me that we were going to surprise Louisa for her birthday. Louisa and her husband, Johannes, were the first missionaries who came to Les Cayes and started Saint Lumiere (all of the ministries, including a school, clinic, mechanic, etc.). A group of women who worked with Louisa had put together a gift basket for her with avocados, bananas, fried bananas, and other goodies. We walked about a mile to her house and “broke in” singing a song. We sat in her living room and chatted for about 2 hours. Each person had the opportunity to share about their family and life... very much a typical Haitian conversation. It was nice to get to know each of the ladies better.

I'm still working on my Creole. Picking up more and more each day as I communicate with Marie Joe, one of the workers that lives in the MTI house. I'm pretty sure I will remain tongue-tied for the next 5 months when you say phrases like “li li liv la” (She reads a book). It's been fun, though, and everyone's willing to help!

Photos of Centre Lumiere:

Some of the students studying in the center:

Ladies in class learning how to make patterns:

Jacob and Olga (Olga's parents), Olga, and Horace (a family friend):

American Girl doll sweaters matched with fabric:

My office mate :)

Louisa with her gift basket:

All the ladies that surprised her: