We’ve continued to make progress for our move, and in the last couple weeks we’ve taken important steps that include confirming which families will be moving, starting the construction of homes in Haiti, and getting into the nitty gritty of the “how” when developing a community.
We’ve finally confirmed a list of just over 30 families who will be making the move from Esperanza to be part of our community in Jacmel, Haiti. David and I feel positive and confident about the families that will be joining us. The majority of these families have known us between 2-4 years, and many of them have developed relationships with David through Good Threads employment.
In perhaps the biggest news, David has gone to Haiti with 17 of our fathers and young men to construct the homes in which our families will be living. They left just over a week ago and have been able to get in some long, productive days. There have been a couple obstacles along the way, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. David has also been able to start working on community relations by hiring several local workers. He’s put about another 10 men from the area to work. David will write an update soon about what they are experiencing on the ground there.
Community members during a meeting.
At home, here in the DR, we’ve been preparing our students to transition to Haiti schools by teaching them to read and write in Haitian Kreyol, many of their first spoken language, and having them practice with mock math tests that they may have to take upon arrival to the schools. Classes will stop after next week, at which point we’ll just serve lunch each day until the actual move. Meanwhile, we’re diving into exactly what it means to successfully develop a community. This Saturday will be the start of many meetings to come that will focus specifically on community leadership and building. As we transition our focus from the children to the whole family, it’s an absolute must that our families play a large role in the building of their future. The adult community members will decide expectations and how they would like things to be run, and the success will largely depend on them. In order to get them to actively participate in this way, we’ll be guiding them and starting from the basics.
The meetings we’ll be holding will work on teaching the families communication, leadership, teamwork, trust, conflict resolution, and more. This week we’ll simply be doing activities that will enable them to get to know their fellow community members a little better (some still don’t know others’ names), as well as doing a fun activity that will illustrate just how easy it is to miscommunicate and misinterpret one another. The underlying key to any success is effective communication and it is a theme we will be returning to over and over again. We’ve had excellent turnout rates for attendance thus far and are hopeful about the changes that will come from these sessions.
Diela and Samiel in a friendly competition to say the other person’s name the quickest.
We are reaching out to others who have experience in this type of work and who will help us to be more effective and sensitive. We already have a few contacts who have agreed to advise us on the structure and organization of building a community, and we plan to consult members within the community about their opinions on the types of activities and lessons we believe important for them to learn. This is not an endeavor David and I can complete alone. We’ll be working to develop essentially a village, and it’ll require the effort of every person involved to make it a real success.
Thank you all for your support and enabling us to continue the fight for our families.
