School on My Mind…Haiti in My Heart.

                As I sit here tonight (the night before the new school year starts), tons of questions are floating through my mind. Checklists with seemingly no end are reeling through my mind like the credits from a major motion picture, and the nervousness/excitement of what this year may hold is as real to me as the night-before-Christmas-jitters we all experienced as children. Though the results of this year’s relationships, the educational successes, and the individual struggles are yet to be written, the expectations are there. The goals have been set. The plans and prayers are in place to achieve everything we (my students and I) set out to do.
                Despite everything that’s couch-potatoeing in the forefront of my mind right now with simple and menial concerns of my first-world mindset, I can’t help but revert back to what I experienced this summer in Haiti. The heat. The sweat. The amount of water I drank. The bugs. The bug spray. The huge roach on my pillow in the middle of the night. The fear and sleeplessness that followed. The no-running-water. The braided hair. The bucket showers. The food. The beans and rice. The hotdogs-and-spaghetti for breakfast.  The sweet (gross) porridge.The crunchy goat. The tasty fish. The Coca-cola in reused glass bottles. The precious women that gave all day and all their hearts to prepare food for us…
               
The children.

…the way they smiled. The way they laughed. The way joy danced through their eyes. The way they hugged. The way they held my hands. The way they danced. The way they said my name. (“Wwwwosemawie!!”) The way they sang at the top of their little Creole-speaking voices. The way they worshipped Jesus. The way they received love. The way they gave it back in unprecedented portions.
                Tears sting my eyes as I write this, knowing that tonight, although many of my “kids” (ahem, students) are getting ready for warm showers, cozy beds in air conditioning, soft-glowing nightlights, and bedtime prayers all around Lynchburg tonight, a large portion of my heart resides half-a-world-away, in the-middle-of-seriously-nowhere, Tiburon, Haiti. Because, you see, my kids are there, too. Preparing for cold-bucket-dirty-water showers (possibly walking to the nearest river to do so). Laying down in ultra-uncomfortable lumpy beds (maybe made of piles of dirty clothes). Playing with lightning bugs (perhaps?). And pouring out sweet choruses of bedtime prayers that ascend up into the Heavens and touch the heart of an Almighty God, Who sees and hears.  
                With all said, I hope and pray you sleep well tonight, my beautiful Haitian kids. While I have school concerns racing through my mind, know that your faces have captivated my heart. Your sheer existence has altered my very being. Thank you for teaching me what it’s like to be a student of your good example.  I cannot wait to see you again Summer 2012.

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