Everyone Smiles in the Same Language

"Everyone smiles in the same language." This quote was something I thought about a LOT while I was in Haiti. See, most of the people down there speak little to no English. Everyone speaks Creole, a French dialect, so communication was very interesting.

I went down there knowing that we didn't all speak the same language, but not really knowing just how much that would impact our mission trip. As much as I would have liked to talk about God, I just wanted to be able to talk about anything! But that's not the way it worked out. So I got very good at smiling at people.

It seems like I've heard multiple stories of people who were depressed with life and didn't feel that it was worth living, but then someone smiled at them or even just said hi and their perspective changed. So I decided to use the only common language I had: a smile.

On Monday, we woke up and had Mass at 7am, bright and early. After Mass, we ate breakfast and then went to help serve lunch to the children. I guess I should explain more about what the mission does. They run a school for about 800 children, from pre-school age up through 6th grade. School days are from 8am-12pm and each day the children line up in front of the main building to sing the National Anthem and then they proceed to their classrooms, grabbing a piece of bread to eat along the way. And as they walk to class, they sing a song that says "Thank you, God, Thank you."

The kids lining up and singing before school starts.

Grabbing bread while walking to class

Anyway, after we had eaten, we went to help with serving food to the kids. Because the school day is so short and there are so many of them, the men and women making the food begin serving around 9:30/10ish. The next few pictures describe the setup of everything and how it all works. Basically all the food is cooked outdoors in massive quantities, dished up, and served to the kids.

The "fire pits" where the women cook the food

In the middle of cooking

The bowls/food we served the children.

Here are some pictures of us serving the kiddos....as well as a classroom picture.

Mrs. Shoup handing out food

Lauren and Abigail serving food

One of the classrooms....very much like an outdoor pavilion.

Once we were done serving and the children had left for the day, we ate lunch and then went to pick egg plant from the field where the mission grows a bunch of different vegetables. Here is the end result of our picking for the afternoon:

Eggplant!

And that was pretty much the summary of our first day, Monday. I just really learned a lot about smiling and how valuable it is in communicating - especially when it's your only form of communication. Just look at this beautiful child and how can you not smile?