Fet Bondye Day 3: Alex Henning

July 4, 2013:
This week has been quite the experience. On Saturday, when the crew from Nebraska arrived in the Port-au-Prince airport I was on the other side of the chaos you experience when leaving the airport. But it isn’t busy until the people know that a plane has just landed in the Haitian airport.  I had a lot of built up excitement leading up to that moment in being able to see some of the Nebraskans that I hadn’t seen in over 7 weeks was pretty amazing.  When I initially saw Pastor Rick, the founder of HTF, I knew that I was would see Rhonda soon after and when I did I started walking straight for her and the rest of the Nebraskans. They definitely weren’t paying attention and were completely focused on one thing because it took them a long time to realize that I was even standing right in front of them. It was awesome to see them all and give them all hugs after not being able to see friends or family from back home in a while.

Alex Henning (center) with Haitian camp leaders.

This week has gone by pretty fast.  The first day I was able to use the Creole that I have learned over this summer in many different ways that I had never had to do before.  For me personally it was great to be able to communicate to our Haitian partners in their language.  For the camp, I’ve been able to be a floater and have been able to help fix different types of problems that have arisen, been able to be plugged into different groups, and, my favorite, help Rhonda, Julie, and Fabiola one of the HELP students working at the camp doing story time. The kids seem to love it when I’m able to participate in the different skits that they have.   All in all it’s been a great week and I’m glad to see some of the hard work that I’ve put in this summer to help prepare for the camp pay off.  And I can’t express enough how happy I am to be able to see the group from Nebraska and get to know them even better than I did before.

Alex Henning (left) in the line after camp participants
receive their personal care kits.

Preparations in Haiti

I have been pretty busy lately.  There is just a little over a week left until the HTF camp.  Sheridan’s group along with others from HTF will be coming down here to Haiti.  I’ve been helping a lot with preparing for this camp.  In late May I was able to go around with a few kids from Tetkole to schools in the Jacmel area to deliver registration forms for the camp and this past week we have gone back around to some of the schools to pick up the registration forms.  The school picks 5 students that ended the school year with a 7.5 out of 10 on their report card to attend the camp.  This is an incentive that Verbo, the HTF partnership development director in Haiti and who organizes the camp, believes is an important part of the camp.  He’s told me many times that he doesn’t want the camp to just be a gift to these kids, but a reward for doing well in school.  Many kids know about the camp and push to get good grades so that they can participate in the camp.

This week I will be helping put together the different groups of kids for the camps and preparing the list of kids.  We will also be having different types of meetings with the Haitian monitors, similar to camp counselors, for the camp so that they know what to do and are prepared for the camp.  We also will be helping set things up for the camp, like getting name tags ready for the kids.  These next two weeks will be pretty busy preparing for the camp and having the camp.

While I’ve been down here I was able to get a SIM Card for my phone with the help from one of the kids at Tetkole whose name is Sergot.  At first I only had a couple of Haitian numbers, them being Verbo and Sergot, so I haven’t really had the opportunity to use my minutes that much other than to talk to Verbo and make a few calls back home.  But recently I’ve added more contacts to my phone.  So some of the kids from Tetkole will shoot me a text every once in a while.  Texting in Kreyol is definitely a whole new language with abbreviations and the shortening of words.  So to them I’m probably like my dad when it comes to texting.  But I have learned from Dr. Jacque that they have taken some of the “texting” words from the English language.  The biggest one being “lol”.

The City of Jacmel, Haiti.

 Thank you for all the continued prayers and support.  I apologize for not being able to post more on the blog and will try to keep it updated through these busy weeks

The American Way?

I’ve been in Haiti for almost 2 weeks now, which is longer than either of my previous two experiences.  Sometimes I feel like I should be going home right about now, but soon realize I still have six weeks left.  Since I am going to be here longer than before, I have been experiencing a lot more things in the same amount of time of my previous trips. This time I feel like I’m actually eating more of a variety of Haitian food.  I’ve also been told way more now that “that isn’t the way we do it in Haiti.”  While spending a lot of time with Dr. Jacque, he has given me some real lessons on “the Haitian way.”  He has shown me different techniques to eating some of the food they eat.  He has also shown me the best way to eating meat off of the bone. When I eat fish or other meats in the United States, usually I don't worry about the bones most of the time, unless it’s something like chicken.  When I eat the fish here I get a whole fish and have to look out for every little piece of bone. 

Driving in Haiti reminds me a lot of driving around the University of Nebraska on a home football game day.  I’ve told Verbo that I’m not sure I could drive in Haiti.  He just laughed and said that I could if I stayed long enough.  A lot of the side roads are really rocky and go up or down pretty steep hills.  There aren’t really any sidewalks in Haiti like there are in the States.  Drivers seem to get dangerously close to the people walking around and can come within inches of other vehicles at any given moment.  Motorcycles also seem to go wherever they please. I’ve been able to ride on a few and might try to get one when I come home, but I don’t know how my mom will feel about that one.  And parking is a mystery to me.  They don’t have the parking lots we do and usually will park on the side of the road.

So many times we as an American society we try to force our way of life and culture on other people, it’s been part of our history.  We sometimes have the mindset of it’s my way or the highway, which is probably why Americans are seen as arrogant around the world.  I try to take it as a challenge every time I’m told “this is how we do it in Haiti”, to break that American stereotype.  The way they do it in Haiti isn’t necessarily better or worse than we do it America; it’s just different.  Most of the time their way actually works better than the way I might do something.

Learning the Haitian Way,
Alex

"Blanc" by Alex Henning

Walking back from Tetkole, the school program I’m serving at, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Jacque who has been with me all week.  A girl had called me a “blanc” or "white person" in Creole.  And his response to her was “Are you talking to me?"  So I asked him what he said and talked to him about whether or not it had a negative connotation towards me.  Simply said, he told me that it’s just something they call white people, it's not bad or anything.  

But being a “blanc” does attract a lot of attention.  Many people come up to me knowing that I’m likely American who has lots of many.  It’s hard to tell them that I don’t have money when I really don’t and I have no goudes, or Hatian money.  Pastor Rhonda and I have talked a lot about this.  What we do at Tetkole and with the other Haitian Timoun Foundation is work with the people of Haiti.  We focus on building relationships through grassroots organizations, “To create a future of hope, sustainability, and dignity for the children of Haiti." That's the HTF mission statement. We work with the people of Haiti to empower them to develop their natural and human resources.  By doing this, we try to avoid first world paternalism by just giving them money and having them depend solely on that. We want to get to know them personally and work with them. 

One of the many relationships I made was with this little girl.  I saw her on the first day and I’m not sure whether she is a part of Tetkole or a neighbor who passed by.  But when I first saw her she was really shy and gave me a look of sort of distrust.  But she hung around, and when I started to play a little soccer with some of the kids, she was on my team.  She seemed to warm up to me, when we scored we gave each other high fives. After the game was finished, I went to stand on the front porch. A couple of older boys going home from school yelled at me “Blanc!” and I didn’t really think much of it.  Then, when I started walking back inside this little girl went running out and told them in Creole, “Silence!"  The fact that in a way she stood up for me meant a lot.  And I hope to see her again so that I can learn her name.

~Alex

Heading on a Haiti Mission

Written Sunday, May 12.

As I write this, I’m in the Dallas airport looking forward to getting into Haiti early Monday morning.  I'm truly grateful for all the support that I was given today throughout the church services this weekend.  I have a lot of down time in the airports and it is giving me time to think and mentally ready myself for this journey.  
Before entering Haiti I’m excited and nervous at the same time for the challenges that I will have to face and the stories I will learn. This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to travel alone, let alone leaving the country on a solo expedition.  I’m most nervous about the moment I step out of the airport in Haiti and have to look for Verbo, our HTF Haitian partner, because of the activity and busyness of the airport. I’m also really excited to have the opportunity to fully immerse myself into the Haitian culture and language.  I’m not sure how I’ll learn a completely new language, but right now my Spanish classes seem a lot easier. At this point I feel ready for the unknown.  Whatever happens will happen and I know that God will be with me and I’ll have the support of my family and of the people of Sheridan.  Thanks for your prayers and support. 

Alex

Sheridan Missionary heads for Haiti

Jacky Asse (left) and Alex Henning (right) following a performance
 of the Resurrection Dance Theatre from Haiti in March 2010.

Sheridan’s missionary, Alex Henning, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore, is returning to Haiti following two previous trips for a two-month summer internship with Sheridan partner Haitian Timoun Foundation. Alex will be working specifically with Tetkole in Jacmel creating and auditing biographies of the street children involved with its programs. Alex will be closing his time in Haiti preparing for and helping with the VBS camp, called Fet Bondye, that a group from Sheridan will join him to help lead. He is truly grateful for this opportunity and asks for prayers throughout his journey.

Alex will be in worship the weekend of May 11 & 12, for a blessing and sending as he starts his journey to Haiti Sun., May 12.