“When
you plant a tree don't think that you are the one to eat any fruit from it or
to sit in its shade, just believe that you left something special.”
A good
friend of mine from Haiti posted this on his facebook wall a while back and
this image of planting seeds and trusting
them to grow has not left my heart. It
is symbolic to the many ways we trust god or others with our most prized
thoughts and missions. It reminds us not
to get to caught up in our own pride, our insecurities and the cynicism that
comes with working within, against or alongside a systematic set of challenges.
I
haven’t had a real chance to write about my latest trip to Haiti. As soon as I returned to MN I was honored to
be in a beautiful wedding, then started workshop week at school and then the
school year began! Talk about a huge
whirlwind of emotions….in fact I think just now, as the dust is settling, I am
finally able to process all that has happened in the last month.
I went
to Haiti in August with 2 main agenda items.
One was to host another teacher training session in the Williamson/Luly
area. The idea was to build upon last
summer’s training session in hopes that a pattern of growth would start to
develop. (You know, I have visions of
organized binders with labels like “Training Module #1,” etc.) In fact, that was just what happened. The trainers, pastors, and I met during my
first few days on the ground, reviewed what we had covered last summer and
decided where we wanted to go next. Then
I gave them their budget and they were off and running finding materials and
gathering information. It is still
awesome and amazing to me that I have met such wonderful colleagues in the
field of education in a small Haitian village outside of Port-au-Prince. It is amazing what you can find when you
start having conversations with groups of thoughtful and informed
citizens.
My
second agenda item was to scout out another community to assess their interest
in teacher training opportunities. I
rented a beautiful, powerful truck and four of us drove to the village of
Thiotte, which is through the mountains basically to the border with the
Dominican Republic. This is the hometown
of a close friend and translator. He
served as our tour guide and host and we met with 2 different schools in 2
days. Both were very receptive to the
ideas and especially the style of the teacher-training model. One of the teachers at the primary level was
at first skeptical as to why I was there and who had sent me. He thought they were being punished or judged
on their current school results or classroom practices. I assured him that I had been invited by a community member to share
about this opportunity and that the whole idea is that each school can use it
as they see fit. It is an opportunity not a requirement. Struggling with
behavior management? We can support
you. Not able to pass the national exams
in mathematics or French? We can support
you. Don’t understand how to read and
utilize the curriculum? We can support
you. His response was, why? What do you get from it? I replied, “I get to share my love of
education and my belief that is the key to the success of any community.” He said to me, “You must believe in god,
thank you for coming.”
During
the next week I tagged along with some other American guests on some really
great touristy things (a totally different blog). By the end of the week we were ready for the 2-day
training in Williamson. Two additional
schools had been added since last year and it was great to see teachers from
different neighborhoods sharing their thoughts and ideas. During the last day they asked me to speak in
front of the group. Again, something I
tend not to do unless invited. I spoke to them about the challenges of being
a teacher both within the small world of your classroom or school but also in
the larger world context where your country or government has good intentions
but not always enough resources to support you.
I talked about the importance of sharing the skills and knowledge you
have with others and trying not to horde or keep all the good stuff to yourself. I also challenged them to continue growing
and learning from each other because their success as teachers is about their
community, not about my yearly visits.
I had a
few other meetings while I was there, all encouraging me to continue this
process, this model of empowerment and community engagement with education and
the development of teachers as professionals as its mission. So now, there are more things to think
about. Reaching more communities,
broaden our types of training, finding more trainers who are qualified
educators wanting to share their gifts. And
I know that as it gets bigger, I will have to let go of more control and trust
the relationships and vision that has been set out before me. I will have helped to plant seeds. My hope is that many people, teachers,
students and whole communities get to share its fruit and shade.
