Haiti Lesson #17...A Simple Greeting Can be a Kiss of Love

Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. 1 Peter 5:14

Ok....I did not greet anyone with a literal kiss of love but in Haiti....everyone that makes eye contact with you should be greeted.... Bonjou - Good Morning! and Bonswa - Good Afternoon or Good Evening! It is customary to make eye contact, SMILE and greet the people that are making eye contact with you. I was amazed at how quickly this custom caught on for me....I felt a kiss of love when I got the smile and greeting returned!!

Each morning during the school week, I attended a Community English class. This class was held at the Son Center and was made up of local adults that were working on becoming certified in English as a second (or third) language. The first day that I attended the class....Mister Rob (Rob Shoaff) had me introduce myself to the class. I shared that I was married to Mister Joe, had 3 children and 4 grandchildren a dog and a cat....and Mister Rob IMMEDIATELY pointed out that "I do NOT eat my cat!" I did not realize that would be an important fact. It created some strange looks and laughing among the students. 

Mister Rob and one of his classes (stolen from Rob's Facebook page)

They were then encouraged to ask me questions so they could practice using the English that they were learning. They asked about my home, my job, and snow. One of the questions asked was...."Now that you have seen Haiti, what is the biggest difference that you see?" Wow!! There were so many things that came to mind of course....but honestly the first thing that came to my mind was that the Haitian people I had encountered where actually kind to one another. They make eye contact and greet each other. They do not walk through life with their head down looking at a smartphone or so self absorbed that they look right past others. They asked me other tough questions...."What advice do you have for Haitian women?" "What will you do to help now that you have been here?"

I noticed as I returned to the US and started looking through my photos that I did not have any photos of that class. I really enjoyed my time with the students in the English class. Although it was a very short time each day, Mister Rob's focus in the class is to teach the English speaking culture. He pointed out that for anyone to really learn and understand any other language, they have to understand the culture. He uses the Bible as his reading material for the students., many of whom are not Christian. I pray that the beautiful story of Jesus is getting through to them as they read to learn the English language. I have to note....my favorite Rob-ism is his forward shuffle to demonstrate  tenses in the sentence structure....LOVED IT!!!

One the final day that I attended the class, many of the students stopped at the end of the class to thank me for visiting. They offered to pray for my safe travels and that my family was healthy. They also offered to pray for Mister Joe....I am not certain how after just 4 hours with me, they determined that my husband NEEDED prayers??!! They also asked me if I have FACEBOOK! I was completely taken back by that. Smartphones have give them access to so much including Facebook (I have a couple of new friends now). I truly hope that they do not evolve to the distracted self absorbed people we have become and stop the lovely greetings they share with each other. I hope that on my next visit, I will still feel the kiss of love from every greeting!!

As to the other 2 tough questions....are you wondering what my answers were? What would yours have been????