relationships

At the Tlucek household, we have devotions every night. During the week, we also have a morning devotion before camp. One of the volunteers who was here this week and gave the devotion talked about relationships. Besides God, there is nothing more important than people. I've never been so convicted in that statement than in my trips here to Haiti. I've always believed in the power of friendship and love, and I've been blessed with the best friends in the entire world, both from home and from college.

However, the true meaning of investing in people has always become clearer to me while I'm here. Maybe because there are less worldly distractions, maybe because it's so easy to talk about important things when the unimportant things are removed from the equation, or maybe because people here seem to genuinely care about other people more than in America. Whatever the reason, I can confidently say that some of the strongest, best people I know are people from this country.

There are children who warm my heart with their courage, joy, and love every day, but this post is more about the older people and adults I encounter and interact with. For example, Emmanuel is my translator but he also quickly became one of my best friends. When you think about the fact that we spend 10-11 hours a day together, and have all summer, I guess it's not really that surprising. But he's one of those people that I could, and do, talk to for hours. He always makes me laugh and we joke around, but I think he's also the person I've had the most serious conversations with too.

His five brothers also work at English Camp as translators - Rehuel, Agape, Benjamin, Jean Elie, and David. Hands down, I can't think of a family I love more. Every day camp ends at 2, but the Remys often don't leave until 6 or 7. Those hours hanging out after camp has ended are among my favorite memories. We play basketball, soccer, or just goof around. Each one has such a distinct personality, but they also are so alike in so many ways. The other day, when some of the volunteers went swimming after camp, Benjamin decided that we both needed to go swimming, so he jumped in, grabbing me and bringing me with him. That led to a full out war, and at the end, I was in the pool along with Bethany, Emmanuel, and Benjamin, and Jean Elie and David both got soaking wet hugs from us.

It's little things like that, where you can just have fun and be living completely in the moment, that make every day I spend here completely worth it. It would be wrong to say that those moments I forget the greater poverty and need that exists all around me, but I do choose to focus on the here and now of what I can do to enjoy the people that have been placed around me. It's far more rewarding and productive than trying to think about all the people that I am not able to help.

Besides the translators, I also enjoy every moment I get to spend with the ladies who work in our house. So often I wish that there was no language barrier, because they're just so funny and also so sweet. The little communications we're able to have are always so special to me.

There are so many people who have been such blessings in my life that it would be impossible to describe each and every one of them. Rose, Alexander, and Schneider from the children's home who come to the camp preschool every day are constant joys. Rivenca, Rochelle, Gaelle, Yva, Annie, Ismaelite, and Rosedarline fill me with happiness every day when they hug me and kiss me and refuse to let me walk away. Garensley, Nery, Charlins, Alvin, Adelson, Obed, Daves, and Wenshelove all bless me when they pretend like they're too tough to be cuddled, but run up and hug me and tickle me when they see me.

Dominique, the 9-year-old adopted son of the family I'm staying with, will probably be the hardest person for me to leave. Last year, I grew close with him and didn't realize how much he cared about me until he cried and hugged me at least 20 times the day I left. This year when I came back, he acted like he was too cool to be friends with me, but after a week or so he latched on to my side and has never left. I make his plate for dinner every night, I went to extreme lengths to find him pop-tarts since mine ran out and they're his favorite, I play with him when he's left out of the older kids games, and I love him more than anything. The other day he asked when I was leaving, and when I told him, he didn't talk to me for the rest of the night. The next day he came up to me and told me that he thought I should stay here forever and not go back to school and he would find me a job here.

It's that childlike innocence and love and pure spirit that are embodied in more people here than I could even name. That is one of the reasons that it will be so hard to come home when it is time for me to leave, and the main reason that I think part of my heart will never leave this country and these people.

white group

This past week, we had a group of 14 people come in from Colorado to help out with English Camp! One of them really wanted to teach my P.E. class so I spent the week helping out Emily, a girl who has been living and helping here since January, with white group, the 4-6 year old boys. It was the most stretching, but also amazing, week I think I've had so far. Monday was a day of crazy and hectic activity, but I love those boys more than words could ever describe. White group was my group last year when I helped with English Camp, so I knew and loved some of them already, but there were also kids I had never met before that I fell in love with just as easily. 

One of my favorite things this week was getting to experience all of the different classes. I love teaching my own class because I get to see all the kids instead of just one group, but I'm thankful that I had this opportunity to observe all the different classes being taught. Since they are younger, my boys had some trouble staying focused and paying attention during all the classes that we went to. But for the most part, they amazed me with how smart and eager to learn each and every child was. The best part of the day was just getting to hold and love on them and how happy and joyful they were to have me there.

The first bump in the road came Tuesday morning, when Emily was too sick to leave her bed. Along with another girl who's here for the summer, she ended up having to stay in bed for two days, which left me alone with my 3o crazy children. It was stressful to say the least. Luckily, I think that white group has some of the best junior counselors around. Peterson and Telus make my job so easy. In the morning, while handing out name tags, Peterson stayed with me the whole time and made sure every kid was matched with the right name - something that may not have happened if I'd been on my own! Both of them are so good with the kids, and the kids love them.

But my second bump came when Tomy Lee, a junior counselor from last year, finally showed up to camp in the fourth week. He got placed with my group and from the second he came, all he did was cause trouble. I remembered him as being sweet and helpful, but this year he was anything but. In fact, after one day with him in my group, I had to talk to Andrew, who gave him several chances before eventually having to ask him to leave camp. That was disappointing because we try so hard to touch the loves of all the children who come here, whether they're campers or junior counselors, but no matter how hard we try, they have to be responsive or else it doesn't matter.

After Tomy Lee was asked to leave, my week improved significantly. Emily got better and came back, and I got to refocus on just loving my kids. They are completely rambunctious, but as soon as you give them something to do, whether it's a craft or tinker toys or coloring, they're completely absorbed and so determined. Seeing how much English they learned in class, and how excited they were to watch Planet Earth in science, it was all the little things that made me realize how blessed and lucky I am to have these children in my life. Also, my 4-6 year old boys sang Justin Bieber to me at least 3 times, which was one of the best things I've experienced since being here.

And while I absolutely loved every second I got to spend with my boys, this week also reminded me of how much I love what I do every single day - that I see all of my kids every single day and play with them and just have fun with them. I also selfishly was happy when all my kids and Emmanuel asked when I'd be back and told me they missed me. My yellow girls, who I sit with at assemblies and eat lunch with when I'm teaching, were so angry at me because they thought I didn't want to be with them anymore. Every time I walked by them, they told me I should just go back to white group. And then Emmanuel thought it would be funny to tell them I was never coming back instead of saying that I would be back next week!

It was a great week of loving on kids, but I was excited to go back to teaching and working with Emmanuel and Jeff and being able to finish camp the way I started. This was a nice break and it was good for me to see how other teachers run their classes, but there's nothing I'd rather do than play with kids all day.

daily life.

Days in English Camp are anything but routine. However, considering that camp is officially halfway done after today, it only seemed right to try and give an insight into what a day of camp is like for me.


We start early, with a morning devotion around the pool at 8 am. Some days, like today's water balloon fight, require more preparation early in the morning. We started filling balloons at 6:30 am today. Usually though we have a short devotion and then have time to collect our stuff, fill water bottles, and grab breakfast before we start letting kids in at 8:40. We serve each kid a breakfast of an egg, a banana, and water that comes in a little pouch. Then morning assembly starts at 9 am, where we gather around the pool and have the kids stretch, do jumping jacks, sing songs, and hear a Bible story that's usually acted out by us. Almost every story can somehow incorporate one of us falling into the pool because the kids love that. 


Meanwhile, it's important to remember that camp involves 290 kids, plus 60 preschoolers who stay at the house all day. So there are 350 kids that come to the compound every day. After assembly, the kids get dismissed to their first class. So for me that means I bring my yellow girls (7-9 year olds) to an abandoned field where we have P.E. We play a lot of games, but their favorites are sharks and minnows and any kind of relay race. My translator, Emmanuel, is literally my savior. The kids all love him and he knows all the games we play so half of the time I don't even need to explain it to him, he just sets them up to play whatever activity we have for the day. Sometimes he even comes up with games they'd like whenever they get bored of what we're playing.


After forty-five minutes, we switch and I get my next group, the 7-9 year old brown boys! They're crazy and energetic and wild. They make me exhausted after every day but they can also be fun when they're not trying to beat each other up. Their favorite game, like most Haitian boys, is soccer. They love whenever they get to play, but they also get really into any kind of tag game. The hardest thing is getting them to listen and obey but Emmanuel is usually really good about knowing how to get through to them.


After brown, we go to lunch! For lunch and free time, as well as assembly, I stick with my first class - yellow. The Haitian ladies who work in the kitchen make lunch for the 350 kids plus volunteers every day - I don't know how they do it! But depending on the day, we have different things - rice and chicken, egg sandwiches, Haitian spaghetti (pasta with ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato), or even hot dogs on Friday! We spend most of lunch making sure each kid has food, drinks, and a cookie for dessert, so I always end up eating pretty fast.


Then it's off to free time! We rent an unfinished house that's used for 5 classrooms and that's also where we usually have free time. Each day comes with a different activity. My girls love 7-up and they'd probably play every day if I let them, but they also play 4 corners, play-doh, charades, etc. Luckily I keep Emmanuel with me all day and they love playing with him during free time. 


After that, I have white group - 4-6 year old boys. They're by far the most rambunctious, uncontrollable, frustrating group I have, but they're also adorable and a joy to play with every day. They run around and don't really get any kind of organized game, but they never lack energy. What's tough is trying to control them enough to do anything.


My last class of the day is orange - 4-6 year old girls. Again, like white they don't really have any interest in organized games, but they could play duck duck goose all day long! They also love jump rope, and yesterday I spent most of their class teaching five little girls to play soccer. In Haiti girls aren't supposed or allowed to play soccer, so teaching them was so much fun. For both white and orange, I run P.E. more like recess than a class.


After orange, it's time for closing assembly. We walk back from the field to the pool and the kids get to sing another song, hear announcements about the day, and most importantly (to them, at least) hear how many points they earned. We use points to motivate classes to behave well, and they can earn up to 5 points in every class for good behavior. We give them a point each for being orderly and on time to class, listening, obeying, getting along with others, and participating. The group with the most points at the end of the week wins a pool party! It's a lot of fun to see how into it they get. Blue group (12-14 year old boys) won the first two weeks, but my girls beat them this week and they just finished their pool party. It was so much fun to watch them enjoy themselves.


After assembly ends a little after 2, the kids are dismissed and they usually hang out in the carport for awhile, so we play with them until their parents come pick them up or until they leave to walk home. There's also a man outside the gate who sells ice cream, and sometimes my kids will buy me a popsicle, which is always great. It's only 5 hours, but I'm exhausted at the end of every day, usually because I've been running around in the 100 degree heat all day long. However, even then, I usually stay after camp to help run activities for junior counselors. 


Junior counselors are kids that are too old for camp (15 and up) but they've usually been to camp before and act as mini leaders for whichever group they're placed with. There's often 1 or 2 junior counselors that are placed with each group to help with crowd control and make sure the kids are doing what they should be. Since they don't get paid like translators do, we feed them and let them do fun things after camp, like swim or play basketball or soccer at the house. They're all so funny and entertaining and full of life that I love being around them. 


After junior counselor activities are over, I usually either start helping with dinner or just take a nap until dinner! Once we make dinner (there's 30 of us when teams don't come in to volunteer, and last week there were 56 for dinner each night!) and clean up, we have a nightly devotion out around the pool and then free time until we go to bed. Days are full and busy and hectic, but 100% worth it and I wouldn't trade what I'm doing here for anything! I can't imagine any place I would rather be.

sophie

Sophie is a 5-year-old girl who goes to preschool at the house during the year and also comes to camp during the summer. She's absolutely adorable, and always comes running up to me whenever she sees me throughout the day. She's very playful, and her laugh is one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard. Sophie is also a restavec, or a child slave. She often misses several days in a row of preschool or camp so that she can work and earn money for her family. She's also abused by her family. Haitian culture in general places a much higher value on their sons than their daughters. Male children will receive the best education and the majority of a family's care and financial support.

When Sophie comes to camp, she just likes to be cuddled and held, because she doesn't receive any type of love from the family she works for. She also frequently falls asleep, and we let her sleep whenever she does because restavecs are overworked, especially children. Every day when Sophie is picked up from camp, she cries and cries. She refuses to let go of me and has to literally be pried away. It breaks my heart to send such a perfect, innocent little girl away to such a horrible home life. However, there's also nothing that we can do about it.

Sophie is just one of around 300,000 restavecs in Haiti. However, the sad part of Sophie's story is that she's probably treated better than most of them. The family she works for still pays for her to come to preschool and for her to come to camp. She is getting educated and she also has the opportunity to hear about Jesus and how much He loves her, as well as how much we all love her. One of my favorite things to do is just hug Sophie and carry her around with me in the mornings when she first gets here. She is so quiet, and then once she realizes she's in a safe place, she becomes bubbly and happy again. Sophie admittedly gets spoiled by not only me, but all the other workers at camp, but I'm glad that she has someone in her life who will spoil her.

While Sophie's situation breaks my heart, it also encourages me. Even though sending Sophie home at the end of the day is one of the hardest things for me to do, it also gives me great hope and inspiration to see that even though she leads one of the hardest lives I can imagine, she still carries herself with grace and happiness. Sophie loves everyone around her and isn't bitter, only a little sad sometimes. Whenever I get upset at some child at camp or just frustrated with another volunteer, it's easy to react in anger, but what I should be doing is following Sophie's example. She knows that Jesus is the ultimate example, and that above all else, He loved everyone, even when other people made it hard for him. Sometimes the circumstances and people in Haiti make it hard for me to see how I could love them, but Sophie proves to me every day that it's possible.

english camp!

Hi everybody! This blog is specifically intended for those of you who want to know more about what I'm doing this summer and the ways that God is working in my life and the lives of the children I get to hang out with every day. For those of you who don't know, my name is Sarah Pease and I just finished my first year of college at Northeastern University in Boston. Most of my friends are getting internships or working for the summer, but right now and for the next 2 months I am living and working in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.


I'm here along with several other people to help run a 6-week English Camp. For those of you who have been to a Vacation Bible School, it's very similar. Kids come 5 days a week from 830-2 and go to 4 different classes - science, English, Bible, and P.E. - as well as being fed breakfast and lunch and participating in various crafts and activities. There are over 280 kids who enter through our gate every morning. It's crazy, hectic, stressful work, but it's also some of the most rewarding work I've ever done.


We just started week 2 of camp, and there's starting to be a rhythm and flow to the way that things work. I teach P.E. to boys and girls ages 4-9. They're crazy, rambunctious and overly active. I'm exhausted at the end of each and every day but I wouldn't have it any other way. We play many of the same games that kids in gym class in America play - tag, relay races, sharks and minnows, duck duck goose, and more.\


The family that I'm staying with also runs an orphanage, and after camp each day we walk the 3 camp-aged children back to the children's home, where they live with around 10 other kids as well. These babies are so happy and joyous and playing with them after camp each day is one of my favorite things to do. Each one of them has a special place in my heart and almost every child has a heartbreaking story, as every child being adopted does.


Alexander is one of my favorites. He is 3 years old and has such a ready, easy smile. He's quick to laugh and is bright and intelligent. When Maranatha accepted Alexander, they did so after telling the people who brought him that they were sure he would die that night. Alexander had never walked, having spent his whole life strapped to his grandmother's back. In addition, his hair was orange, which indicates severe malnutrition. However, not only did Alexander survive the night, he grew stronger and happier with each passing day. Every time I see Alexander, I am reminded of how he is a living miracle.


Schneider is another 3 year old boy with a remarkable story. He was brought to us by Alex, the night guard who works at the house. Alex knew his mother, and knew that whenever there wasn't enough food, Schneider was the first to go hungry, and he also knew that Schneider's mom frequently abused Schneider. Maranatha was reluctant to take him, but Alex convinced them and now Schneider is a playful, happy child who loves to play on the trampoline at the orphanage.


It's these children, and these stories, that inspire me every day. Sometimes I'll get tired, or sick, and wonder why I gave up the comforts and pleasures of my life in America to live in the poorest country in the western hemisphere for my entire summer. But whenever I hold Alexander, or Schneider falls asleep on my lap, I'm reminded of why it's so important that I'm here. I'm here to love these children, with all my heart, and show them the kind of unconditional love that God shows us.


It's the incomparable joy and loving spirit of every single one of my children, whether they go to camp or live in the orphanage, that remind me just how blessed I am. And when they come running to me, begging for me to hold them or play with them, I realize that there is no place on earth I would rather be than with these children.