Moun Yo

Moun means “person,” so moun yo means “people” and ti moun means “little people – kids.” The people here are beautiful in every sense of the word. I know how trite it sounds to say that people who have very little are the most joyful, but here it is true. The people within the school community are friendly and quick to smile and laugh. They relish conversation – after dinner, sitting around playing cards, during a break in the work day. People talk to each other for hours. The other night we started talking Haitian politics and 2 Haitians and three Americans talked for about 2 hours. And in case you’re wondering, there’s still no consensus on what actually happened to Aristide in February 2004. Seems that no one really knows ….!

The language skills of the people in this community are absolutely humbling. They grow up speaking Kreyol, then learn French in school. When they come to Louverture Cleary, they learn English and Spanish too. I guess I was expecting the level of English that would reflect the level of Spanish that most American high school kids learn in 4 – 7 years. Wow, I was wrong. Many of the staff of LCS graduates, and most of them speak English with ease and sophistication. They grew up here with American teachers every year, and they love American music and movies, but their fluency blows me away. Then I discovered that many – though not quite as many – are as conversant in Spanish. My language loving brain is having so much fun here bouncing around among 4 languages over dinner!

The other 8 American volunteers are wonderful. They’re all 22 and either 2 months or a year out of college. But they’re smart, enthusiastic, creative and eager to do excellent work. I think there are a few natural teachers among the group and I’m looking forward to watching them in action once school starts!

The other group of people here aside from the Haitian staff and the American volunteers is the Moynihan family. Patrick Moynihan is the President of the Haitian Project and over the last 12 years has been involved in some capacity or another within the school. He had his wife Christina, and their four kids ranging in age from 16 to 9, have just moved back to Haiti after 2 years of living in the states. The kids are so helpful to us because they know the things that are hard for Americans about living here, but they have already mastered them. On my first night here, Mariana the nine year old helped me hang my mosquito net. This afternoon Michaela the 14 year old helped us wash our clothes and shared her expertise with us. Robby the 16 year old knows where things are and how things work and is quick to help us find things or retie our first pathetic attempt at hanging a clothesline. Timmy the 12 year old is about the most social being I’ve ever seen and he just hangs around and offers commentary on whatever we’re doing – sharing his wisdom about life in Haiti and offering warnings or encouragement as the situation calls for. It’s really humbling to know that they have given up their life as a typical American family to be here and be a part of this community – not just for a year, but for the foreseeable future. The older kids obviously were frustrated to leave their nice American high school and teenaged social lives, but they know that this is their family’s work, and that they’re all better people for it. I keep telling the older kids whenever I come up with new angles or topics for their college application essays: “why my family’s not normal,” or “my life as the only white girl at a boarding school in Haiti,” or “50 uses for a five gallon bucket.” Their lives are way more interesting than most American teenagers!
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