mis-match.

Yeah, this morning's party was a blast.

I learned a year's worth of cross-cutural training in 3.5 hours, watched a side of Lily I rarely get to see, and best, got to march, sing and sit with 600 little ones who have waited ALL year for TODAY.

A few things I learned...

ONE, the lack of personal space in this culture comes from CHILDHOOD.  

Everyone you meet is kissing your cheek, even if the bench is empty will sit pressed next to you, will hold you hand the whole time you're in conversation...and every 2 year old in this line has been taught to smash, hold and stumble down the sidewalk with the kid in front of him.   And to love it :)

And to be REALLY adorable.

Then, I finally got a tour of Lily's classroom.  Girls on one side, boys on the other, with homemade French vocab posters all around and hand-cut butterflies floating everywhere.

No lights, no fans, no running water. But it is a beautiful little classroom, and I was so surprised by how well-behaved, disciplined, polite and happy the kids were.  Mme. Guilouse obviously loves them, and they love her, too.

This poster, next to colors and animals, totally cracked me up.  Yep.  Lily knows her "Things that Cut" in French.

Then we all got lined up, and apparently  Edelle wanted to stand behind Lily instead of Jeselle.  After the "little kids" (as Lily calls them, as a four year-old) marched off, it was Lily's turn to lead her line of girlies.

When I showed Lily this picture later, she looked at it for a long time, and said (for the first time in the 1.5 years she's been at Pillatre)..."Why don't I MATCH?"

I don't know why.  But I love that they are all fearfully and wonderfully made, and that they are happy little ones...and that they are together. 

The marching band (yep, marching band) started to play, and everyone headed off marching for the church associated with the school where the next part of the party was. 

personal space.  yep.

In the chapel, we sang a few songs, heard a few recitations, and then the kids, and all the mothers, waited as names were called, one by one, to receive their gifts.  This is a happy post, and I do NOT want to get into anything deep or controversial.  But let me just say.

There were 600 kids today.  And 100 of them had sponsors from the States.  And those 100 were called up by name in front of all the kids  to receive gifts from the hands of foreigners who came from that church in the States to give those gifts and to take pictures.  

Huge boxes.  Envelopes with cash.  Great gifts.  And those 100 kids were SO HAPPY.  And their moms were required to come up with them to get the boxes, so that the little ones wouldn't be physically beat up for their gifts on their ways home.

But there were 500 kids, like mine and several of the ones we have come to know and love, who sat for the 2 hours that this gift giving took.  And who received nothing.  And who watched the seemingly magnanimously rich foreigners hand out gift after gift...to some of them.

More than the fact that so many received nothing, after spending seven frustrating years of trying to understand how HARD it is for people to NOT see me as a foreigner as $$$, but as a person...trying to understand why people think getting money or stuff from me would be so much more precious that getting JESUS from me...trying to understand all of the dependency issues Haiti struggles under...

And then I sat with 1000 women and children today--understanding the Americans and understanding the Haitians--and watched that message played over and over.  

Here are the foreigners.  Here is their mountain of presents.  Smile for your picture!  Everyone is deeply envious of you.  

I have to say, when I drove home and that same little boy as always came running up to my window, begging a 5 gourdes coin...I felt less frustrated, and more responsible...than ever.

A lot of things in that time...after such a pure and joyful morning, didn't feel right.  And it was such a beautiful start.

...hurt my heart.

After drying some tears (Lily and 2 of the other kids in our carpool I was responsible for today), there was an adorable little play the kids put on...the humor of which everyone, including Lily, seemed to understand except for me...one in a thousand :)  and singing of a Christmas carol you already know...

Back-burnering the missiological parts of today that we can talk about more later, it was otherwise a GREAT morning.

After, I was chatting with the directrice and some of the teachers as we all watched the kids play and go through the goody bags they received at the end with a McDonald's toy and toothbrush and underwear. I saw EVERY kid but my own refuse to take the Happy Meal toy out of the little plastic bag because they want to save it and keep it clean.  That toy was their Christmas gift this year.  (Which is WHY the foreigners WANTED to buy "their" kids big gifts...seriously, I GET it.  I GET BOTH SIDES.  But there HAS to be a better way....sorry.  DONE.)

Anyway, after, as I was chatting with the directrice and some teachers as we all watched the kids play, I realized something.

I know sending Lily to a school of 1200 as the only foreigner is crazy.  In Creole.  At four.

But as I enjoyed laughing with these women, I was so thankful to be hit with the realization that we all really love these kids.  And want to see them KNOW Jesus.  And grow.  To succeed.  To be happy.  To be healthy.  To know they are HIS and dearly loved.  

And I'm not sure that there is anything else we need to match.