A Whole New World!

Teaching in Haiti has taught me so much about the culture here. I love being right in with the Haitian people everyday. It strikes me as surprising, really, that Haiti is so close to America, and yet it often seems as though America hardly even exists, when it comes to the average Haitians’ knowledge of American culture. In teaching the English alphabet, A is not for apple, since an apple is a foreign fruit. In Haiti, M is for Mango. Everything is about mangoes here. They don’t just eat one mango, when it’s offered to them… they could easily eat twenty mangoes in one sitting!

Even my students’ transportation to school is culturally different. I don’t have a single student that drives to school, or even that gets dropped off in a car. They all either ride their bikes, or walk to school… with the exception of the guy who sometimes rides his four-wheeler to school. Double riding on a bike is very common here. It’s no big deal at all for me to see parents, giving their kids rides to school, on their bikes every morning. Everyone in Haiti seems to consider it common knowledge that the bar in front of the bike seat, is meant to be used as a passenger seat. I’ve even seen a man give his wife and small baby a ride to church on the bar seat of his bike! Julihomme, one of the pastors at Haiti ARISE, considered it a privilege to give me a ride on his bar seat last Sunday. I’ll be honest, at first I was pretty scared I was going to fall off, but after awhile, I realized that it’s actually pretty fun. The people here have started to tell me that I’m almost Haitian… whatever that means! Haha!