Our teacher for the 2011-2012 school year is leaving to return to the USA today.  She and the boys have worked hard and only took a short break at Christmas to get all their work completed before we make our trip back to the states next month.  We are all going to miss Joy!  It has been an amazing school year for them. Please enjoy the post from Joy below.

Crazy what can happen in a year! Honestly, I really didn’t know exactly where Haiti was located a year ago and it wasn’t on my list of places to visit or live. It took three smiley-faced Third Culture Kids (TCKs-http://www.denizenmag.com/third-culture-kid/) and God to get me to commit to change my plans for a year and move to a country I had to look up on google maps. God truly does know what we need and he guides perfectly.

Teaching this year has exceeded all my expectations and I loved every minute I got to spend with Carmelo, Henley and Trey! I grew up as a daughter of missionaries and so am completely biased that TCKs are a pretty amazing group of individuals. There are no words to explain how special these three boys are and what a joy it was to be their teacher. We laughed, told funny stories, researched different countries, built things, read a bunch, made lots of brownies and muffins, learned about compound sentences, read about pioneers and Indians, and did lots of multiplication and division problems.

{Carmelo} He worked hard preparing for high school and put up with my enthusiasm for research papers and excessive comments on papers. His presence in the classroom was so positive and he would often interject interesting facts he had learned or jokes to make us all laugh. Carmelo also has impressive guitar playing skills… if you get a chance, make him play for you. I truly enjoyed our many chats about life this year and am so proud of him.

{Henley} He is the perfect example of genuine. Henley is thoughtful and kind. He has pretty rockin’ awesome hair as well. One of my favorite memories of the year was when we were learning Psalms 103 and we got to verse 11 where it says, “for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his (God’s) love for those who fear him.” As soon as Henley finished saying it, he jumped up and excitedly exclaimed how there was a lot of space between heaven and earth so God must really love us a lot. It was a reminder about the importance of having child-like faith and true revelation of God’s love for us that we can’t even sit still.  

{Trey} How can I summarize Trey in a couple sentences?! He is full of energy, yet so affectionate. Even in the moments when my patience started running low it only took one hilarious comment or belly laugh from him to bring a smile to my face. Trey does not allow you to settle into a mundane routine or complacency, but it’s a continual task of finding ways to get him to engage in schoolwork. I can relate to Trey’s need for constant change so I couldn’t fault him for not fitting, or even wanting to fit, into the conventional way of learning. It was fun to have an excuse to throw out some ‘traditional’ methods of teaching and implement fun and creative ones

As I choke back tears because I told Carmelo I wasn’t going to cry, I want to say thank you to Enoch and Licia for letting me teach their boys! They were the best and easiest parents to work for and I feel blessed. I met so many incredible people this year living in Cazale and the guest house. There are no words to express how grateful I am for everyone at RHFH and the amazing teams of volunteers who passed through here in the past months. I was encouraged by many chats, words of encouragement and great memories. And a special heartfelt thanks to several teams of volunteers-turned-rat-hunters who tried to rid the guest house of rats =).    

Like any traveler knows, it is not the place but the people who leave the biggest impact on your heart. So as I prepare to say adios to Haiti, it is with the knowledge that the unchanging love of God, faith of a child and relationships have left their mark on me. Thank you God, Betor family, Real Hope for Haiti, volunteers and beautiful Haitian people for living this season with me and for showing me what it really means to love like God does.  

{joy}