Today was the first day of our grand adventure. After we all
prepared ourselves for the day and ate our breakfast, we took off down the road
to Lanzac. We set up all our things in
the largest room they had and set to work. The children came with their parents
due to their preschool age. Most cried at first, some cried the entire time,
while others were docile and sweet, not shedding a single tear. Sharon, in
charge of checking feet, never seemed to fail in garnering a laugh or at least
a smile from the children she saw. She would blow on their little toes, and
they would spread them far apart and laugh while she looked them over to see if
all the little piggies were okay. In the meantime, Claudia would just play with
the littles while they were waiting their turn to be poked and prodded, and
make them forget all about the terrors they had imagined to come from these
strange,“blanc” people. While all the
laughter was falling on the echoing walls of the large room, the hearing tests
were happening upstairs in the principal’s office. This was the first stop for
the kids, and they came in the room unhappy. Most of them calmed down after a
couple soothing words from Vanessa and the translator. One little boy, Claendel
Nicholas, came in the big scary principal’s office stoic and skittish; he
glanced up at me (Rebekah), who promptly smiled at him. His face lit up with a
huge grin, eyes sparkling, he turned towards his mama and uttered something in
Creole. She giggled and turned to the translator and told him what Claendel had
said. Next, it was the interpreter’s turn to chuckle as he looked up and told me
that Claendel had said that he loves me. Claendel continued on to the others,
and the hearing people went back to testing other kids. All the while, Pam was
marveling over how much better all the kids were doing since they had started
coming to take care of them. Our work was interrupted by our midday meal, and after
lunch, it was time to clean up and move on.
Chardene
was our next stop. We hopped on the truck, crowded with translators. After a
short bumpy trip, we got to Chardene and checked up on the fourth graders. We
saw each girl and boy, yet we did not get to spend near as much time there as
we did at Lanzac. Only a couple hours after we arrived, it was approaching
darkness and the sky was looking stormy.
We packed up, and just as we were getting ready to set out, the sky let
loose in a torrent of rain. Rain and mountains and bad roads are not the best
things to be driving in, but we made it down the mountain alive, yay! We were
tired, wet, and being jostled from side to side and front to back, but we were
singing the whole way down. It may not have sounded the best, but we were joyful.
Happy to be were we are in the moment. Finally, we made our way back to the
mission center where we found a warm meal waiting. We ate, we had devotions,
and we talked about our day.
-- Bekah
