July 12, 2004

CODEP Summer School—Haiti

Once again Sharyn and I greet you both as friends and co-workers, and we bring greetings from the hundreds of people you worked with here in Haiti this past week. Some really exciting happenings took place because through your prayers and gifts you showed you care. I can say God, the people of the CODEP project, and we especially are grateful.

It seems like the sun rises and sets on our work with the CODEP DVBS/Summer School. We really do leave before the sun rises and get back home very shortly before sunset. Getting the two-month program off to a good start is critical. And now it’s up and running. One hundred sixty-three kids, 33 teachers and teacher-trainees, plus five or six cooks, wood-gatherers, bean-shellers, bread-buyers. It takes an army of support staff to prepare food under the primitive conditions.

On Wednesday I learned that Mary was married to Jesus and God was caretaker (read “yardman”) for both of them (kindergarten kids). Next class was older and wiser and knew that it was Joseph who had a shirt of many colors (not much use for coats here in Haiti). But the best was, “the big black eagle that stole food from the children and brought it to Elijah while he was living in the mountains.”

Boy, am I glad I wasn’t teaching any of those classes!

But the marvel is that only a few years ago we were teaching these very same teachers who are now doing a superb job of fine-tuning the familiar Gospel stories for this present crop of students.

Bible class becomes math and geography and vocabulary and ends up writing or reading class. Again for writing/reading, some excellent Bible materials are the basic materials used. Lunch of rice, beans, and cooked leaves (amaranth—a spinach-like vegetable), is served about 11:00 a.m.. Students leave at 1:30 p.m. and teacher training ends at 3:30 p.m.

That’s a normal day. Sometime before the end of the year I hope we have a normal day. Presently we’re still testing both teachers and students. We have a couple of teachers who cannot do simple, two-column addition. Fully half the “teachers” cannot write a sentence. There are two teachers who travel 10 miles each way each day to participate; and they represent both ends of the ability spectrum. Several of the teachers and students live too far away and spend the week onsite. One of those “teachers” has just taken the 6th grade national exam for the third time, hoping to finally pass. It’s her last chance.

We had four special guests spend a week at summer school with us. These four attend an agricultural technical boarding school called St Barnabas in northern Haiti. CODEP has given scholarships to these young men (and about a dozen others before them) so they could attend. It is a two-year program. Most of the students we send are sixth or seventh grade level. They successfully compete with students who frequently have 5 or 6 more years of schooling. Berton finishes his two years this September and will be either first or second in his class. The other three have almost finished year one. We have two others in our summer school program who hope to qualify and begin this fall. Some of our best agricultural leaders and teachers have attended this program. St Barnabas has only a week vacation at the end of each semester. Students return home to Cormier once or twice a year while attending St Barnabas Agricultural School. Besides the cost, the trip itself is 15 grueling hours, with much of it traveling on an unpaved road made with washbasin-sized stones.

Several days ago I watched a teacher test a 12-year-old who had finished the second grade in a neighboring school. A gentler spirit in a skinnier body you’ve never seen. She had that dull appearance to her skin and hair and faded clothes most Americans seldom see. Ironically almost, her name is “Lovely”. The girl couldn’t even copy the “L” in her name. She had no clue if the paper was upside down or not. Wensy, our summer school director, was involved elsewhere so the teacher brought her to me and said, “What do you want to do with her?”

With lots of teachers this year, we were able to assign one teacher to work several hours each day with Lovely. We realized Lovely had an amazing learning problem and now she is being helped with it. She is left-handed. When she writes with her right had, numbers and letters are normal. When she uses her left hand, everything is reversed in a mirror image.

Today, after just a week of help, Lovely wrote all her numbers and half the alphabet. Not necessarily a big thing to many second graders but the smile on her face said it was a miracle to her.

Fenel was another lost puppy. His mom used to work with CODEP years ago when we were very involved with family planning. Fenel’s dad was a peasant farmer and died six months ago. Fenel spent the first week of summer school standing alone just observing the other kids. He shadowed Sharyn every time he escaped his class and during recess as well. Sharyn would always give him a toy of some sort to play with but the other kids soon confiscated it. When recess was over, he would gather it up and return it, having never been able to play with it. A couple days ago Sharyn explained “playing together and sharing toys” to those who had just taken Fenel’s toy. Within a few minutes Fenel was being crowded out but again Sharyn intervened. I’m still not sure if it was understanding the “playing together” part concept or the fact that Fenel had a powerful protector that wrought the change. Regardless, Fenel no longer clings or stands alone outside the group. Two weeks of CODEP summer camp and already two lives changed. I wonder how many other changes are happening that we don’t see?

Summer school/DVBS can be a life changing experience for so many of the teachers and children. We ask you to remember in your prayers the program and the individuals like Lovely and Fenel. Members from both HFI and the PC(USA) will be meeting in North Carolina in about a week. Many items of discussion relating to the CODEP project and the overall relationship of the PC(USA)’s work in Haiti are likely to be discussed. Please pray for them. And we also ask for prayer for our family. Debbee, our youngest daughter, and our only grandchild, Nicholas, are scheduled to come to Haiti in the next week or so. Jason, our son-in-law, arrived several weeks ago and is working in the Consulate office for the State Department. Debbee was unable to accompany him due to the restrictions placed on non-essential personnel by the State Department. That restriction has just been lifted and we anticipate her arrival soon. Saying good-byes, traveling with the baby, and returning to a greatly different place called Haiti will be difficult. She grew up here as a missionary kid and will be returning as the wife of a diplomat and a mother. Certainly a different role as she returns to a very different land she once knew.

For those who might be interested in visiting CODEP in the future, please contact Jim Pease (http://www.haitifundinc.org). If you need information from the field, please write us directly. And please, please, print hard copies of this note to share with your friends and church families. Missions is one of the best-kept secrets in many churches—share the good news of what God is doing.

In Christ’s service with you,

Rodney & Sharyn

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 136