A New Start, A New Life

The earth violently begins to shake, interrupting my math lesson.  The children begin to scream and cry.  My throat closes shut as my heart sinks down to the pit of my stomach.  The tremors grow in scale, land feels like the swells of the sea, and the walls begin to crumble.  I gather all of the children and try to get them outside just when the roof starts to cave in and… I jump.  I’m lying in a pool of sweat in my bed.  I wonder when these memories, these nightmares will subside.

It’s been four years since the earthquake in Haiti.  I hope and pray for a return to normal, but our lives have been forever changed: all of the lives lost, the crippled, the paralyzed, and all of the rubble trashing our land.  There is no normal to return to.

I was a teacher in Port au Prince until the earthquake.  I taught at École Saint-Léon, a very large school with a pretty low drop out rate for Haiti.  I loved my job, teaching those bright young faces.  Some of them were beginning to get quite proficient in English and Spanish. I was so proud of them.

Then it happened.  I tried to get the children outside, and many of them managed to make it despite all of the difficulty.  The rest were inside with me when the second floor fell on top of us.  Only one third of my class survived the event, and many of them were crippled or lost limbs.

I was lucky to be alive, but I did not understand why God would save me and not more children, those brilliant, sweet children.  It took three years of living in a tent community for me to wrap my mind around this.  It was then that I heard about Jean Thomas and the neighborhood he was developing in Fond des Blancs.  Also, that he was opening a secondary school and was looking for teachers to employ.  I knew then that God had a plan for my life.  I am to continue teaching there in Fond des Blancs, helping the future of this country.

After my abrupt awakening I get out of bed and start my daily routine.  I shower and get dressed, and then I go make myself some breakfast in the kitchen where I spend some time with my roommates, three other teachers at the school.

Since none of us have cars we get a ride to school everyday.  It is very nice to not have to walk the filthy streets of Port au Prince everyday now.

At school I enjoy every minute with the children in my class.  I am so thankful that they are all so eager to learn.  If anyone of them were to drop out I would personally go to their house and try to reason with them and their family to keep them in school.  We need the next generation to be well educated for the progress of our country.

Sometimes after school I like to walk home instead of ride with the carpool.  It gives me some time with the kids outside of the class room, because some of them live near me.  We talk and joke about all kinds of things.  It is great to have such joy again.

When I am home I can relax on my porch and grade my student’s homework, and when I am finished I can do some reading, studying of my own.  I believe that my education is never complete.  I can always learn something.  There is so much out there to study.  

Thanks to Jean Thomas I have found happiness again.  I have three wonderful roommates, a great community of friends, wonderful students, and a new outlook on life.