Conversations in Creole



Last week, I was laying out rocks to line the edges of our road inside our property. In the front of our property is a school. We live behind the school, separated by some trees and a basketball court. I was working on the road coming from our houses, leading up towards the school.

As I was laying rocks down, I heard some little voices calling my name, “Sara, Sara!” To me, it always sounds like they are saying, “Sa-lah!” It was a group of about ten kids from the school, calling to me from the back of a meeting room at the front of our property. I looked up, saw them, and waved. They waved back and giggled. I wasn’t sure if I should talk to them because they were supposed to be in school (I think this was like their “recess” time), so I went back to laying down my rocks. They stayed there and kept watching me. A couple minutes later, I heard them again. “Sa-lah, Sa-lah!” I looked up and they giggled again and waved more. I waved back, and decided to go talk to them, at the risk of getting all of us in trouble. As I started to walk towards them through some of the long grass, they started RUNNING towards me. We met somewhere in the middle. The number of them had grown and there was probably about twenty of them now, probably between ages 5-12. Even more came running up quickly after until there were probably around thirty kids surrounding me.

Our conversation went something like this (translation in parentheses):
Me: “Bonjou!” (Good morning!)
Cute kids: “Bonjou Sa-lah!” (Good morning, Sara!)
Me: “Komo ou ye?” (How are you?)
Cute Kids: Lots of little answers, “Papi mal,”(not bad), or “byen”, (good). More giggles.
Then they said some things that I didn’t understand, and one kid held out the frozen icicle thing he was eating.
Me: “Pou mwe?” (For me?)
Cute kid: “Wi! Pou ou!” (Yes! For you!)
I took a lick, not sure if it was really safe for me to eat as an American, but he was so cute, I couldn’t refuse. It was also one of the very few frozen things I’ve had since I’ve been here! After my lick, I gave it back to him, because I didn’t want to eat his entire treat.
Me: “Mesi! Se bon!” (Thank you! It is good!)
Me: “Kisa wap appran jodiya?” (What are you learning today?)
I was really proud of my big sentence!
In Creole, they start reciting their alphabet, “A B C D . . . “
I started to say it again after they finished and stopped after the fifth letter because I haven’t actually learned the alphabet in Creole. They giggled and all said the whole alphabet again.
Me: “Nan angle, A B C D . . .“ (In English, A B C D . . . ) And we said the alphabet in English! They actually knew most of the English alphabet!

Then we took a picture. I felt all these little cold hands (from their icicle treats) touch me for a few seconds and then let go, one after the other. I think that they are just curious and want to touch a white person, but they are so cute that I really don’t care.

Then someone rang their bell and they all left calling out their goodbyes, and touching me on their way out: “Bye bye!” “Sa-lah, m ale!” (Sara, I go!)

Encounters like this bring me so much joy. It is so easy to feel loved by a bunch of little kids who have learned my name, even if it is just because I am a white girl. The other day I was able to help an older girl carry a couple buckets of water to her house, and have a small conversation while we were walking. These are the slow, but fruitful movements that we are making in mission right now. It is sometimes hard for me to know that we aren’t immediately starting Life Nights or doing all kinds of ministry every day because we have so much culture and language to learn. It is hard to wait, and to be in the process of learning. But at the same time, God has been giving me so many little blessings, and I know that I will look back at this time very fondly. I couldn’t help smiling for the next couple of hours after talking with those kids, and I can only hope that we are able to make an impact on their lives and teach them more about Jesus. Very soon I hope, we will be more than just the interesting white people. But at least they like us!

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