Tuesday, November 2, 2010

It Clicked!

Nick and I have been working on our Creole for the past 4 months, struggling everyday to communicate with our staff, community, and the people of Haiti.  About 2 weeks ago, God must have decided that we had suffered with this language barrier enough and decided he would allow us to speak and understand Creole much better than we had before.

Literally, we just woke up one day and it seemed that we were able to communicate much better than we had the day before.  I walked away after having a conversation with a nanny one day and said to myself “whoa, I actually understood ALL of that and not just bits and pieces.”
We are by no means fluent, and still have a lot to learn each day, but we are able to communicate so much more effectively.  One night we needed to talk to the nannies about an upcoming event, and sat in the Zandolit room for probably 15 minutes talking with them about it and laughing a lot.  We were able to make jokes and tease each other a bit which was fun.  Nick and I even pulled a map out and showed them where our parents live, where other long term staff are from, and where kids have been adopted to.  They loved it.  Often they will know that a child lives in Maine, but won’t have any idea where Maine is.  It was fun to be able to show them these things.
Nick has thought that it would be a good idea to tell all the nannies that I don’t like to cook and therefore he does most of it for our family.  Half the nannies lectured me about the fact that I need to cook, and the other half thought it was awesome that he does it.  One nanny told me that Nick is a great guy because no Haitian men would ever cook.  I told them that he is great even on US standards!!!  It’s fun to be able to communicate other things than just work related topics.
We have been going for walks lately and spending time talking to people outside in the community.  We went to Sampson and Michou’s (yard guy and nanny) new house and were able to just visit with them.  The more we learn the better our relationship is with them!

1 comment:

  1. Good job Nikki and Nick, on your creole. Can't imagine how hard that must be to not know how to speak their language and have things you need to beable to communicate with them about. How are all the puppies? Haven't heard much about them lately?

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