The Graduation

July 20, 2008

A Creole Proverb:  

"It is easier to watch over a barrel full of rats than a handful of girls."

Remember when we were all kids...   We had to put on "plays" and "programs" for our parents at school.   We had to memorize poems and sing songs?   Those days are about over.   Nowadays, "it's flashy music and video games."

In Haiti, however, childhood is still the same.  Children still love school, work hard and respect their teachers.  For children in Kindergarten grades 1-3, there is a special "Graduation Ceremony" for completing these three grades and it can be quite a production, especially in "better schools," such as our Love A Child School, Fond Parisien, Haiti.   When the children graduate from their third year of Kindergarten, there is a major event that takes place.   It involves dresses and clothes alike, skits and dances, long poems and tiny tots (about age four) reading entire chapters of the Bible in French!

Love A Child pays for much of this because these parents are all our neighbors and cannot afford clothing or new shoes for their children.   So, we get stuck with this each year!!!  

Can you imagine these little children sitting there in 100 degree heat in these clothes and changing three or four times, and behaving themselves? 

There were speeches, songs, dance routines, Bible chapters, and a little bit of everything.    (It lasted four and half hours!!!!) 

These little girls were singing a song about fruit!

This is just some of the crowd that attended the ceremony.

Funerals, weddings and "Kindergarten Graduations" are social events where ladies get a new "hair do" and dress up.    Bobby and I were about the only ones not dressed to kill!

We had seven of our orphan children graduate! 

"Our little Daniella has a poem to recite."	"Ti Tai" was dressed up in a little vest and tie.

And here is another one of our orphans...

This is Kristela, meaning "Christ was there" in Creole.    She is one of our orphan children.   Her mother and grandmother were Voodoo.   Her mother accepted the Lord twelve days before she died.   Then, Kristela's father brought her down from the mountains and gave her to us.

Each of our graduates received a gift and we had a big party at the orphanage afterward! 

Moses will go to school next year.     Lord help us all!   God bless you and thanks,   Sherry   P. S.  Education in Haiti is priceless.   Most children will never have the opportunity to go to school, unless they find a sponsor.   Please pray about "Sponsoring a Child" for $24 a month.   Click here to begin now.