Goodbye Oriole Parkway?

Since moving out of my parent's house at the age of 19, I have only twice lived in a place for longer than 12 months. Oriole Parkway is a record, almost 3 years now! It's been a great place to live, I love the neighbourhood, my neighbours are friendly, and it's the first place I've ever owned. It's been a good three years, but I'm ready to go. On to bigger and better things. I put it up for sale on Tuesday. So far, no amazing offers have come in that would make me rich for life, but there's been a lot of showings. It's tiring to keep the place looking clean all the time and vacating it at odd times. Now it's just a waiting game. I'd love to have all the loose ends tied up before I leave for Sierra Leone on July 2nd. I have to admit I find the whole experience quite stressful. I like to be "in charge" and right now I'm not. I know that if it's the Lord's will that I go to Haiti then the details will work themselves out. Perhaps not the way that I want them to, but they will be worked out:) So, here I am trusting in the Lord.

Mission Fest 2009

Today for the first time I attended Mission Fest here in Toronto. It is one of those events that I always think about attending but it comes and goes without me remembering and then I vow that I will attend next year... and on and on it goes.
So this morning bright and early we headed out to check it out. It was worth the while. I attended three workshops about getting ready to engage in missions and ran into a few people I knew.
The first workshop I attended really got me thinking. The workshop's purpose was to tell you all the things you will wish you knew before you go and I went with the idea that it would answer all my questions. Instead it left me with a lot of questions, but good questions, things to think about. I realize that each culture is so different it would be impossible to have a workshop that prepared people to work in any given culture. The emphasis was on being culturally sensitive and carefully observing those around you and following their lead. As I was listening I reflected on the summer I spent in Sierra Leone and the year I spent in Haiti. I was reminded of many times when I refused to follow the cultural norm because it made me uncomfortable or I just felt too inconvenienced by it. Most of the time I tried to be culturally sensitive but when I was tired, or in a rush or felt out of my comfort zone I naturally reverted back to the comfort of Canadian norms. For example, when I was in Sierra Leone we were in a very small village in the North of the country. We spent all day teaching at the local school and the house we were staying at was about a 5 min. walk from the school. The school only had a communal washroom which I was not comfortable with using so whenever I had to use the washroom I walked back to the house. This in and of itself was not a problem, the problem was that I had to walk quickly and I had to walk by many people and many houses between the school and the house. Our breaks were short so I had to walk quickly back and forth between the school and the house. This is not the norm in Sierra Leone. First of all you don't walk quickly, secondly you do not pass by that many people and not stop and "greet" them (this takes anywhere from 2 -10 min/person). I did not have the time, so I would try to avoid making eye contact and quickly walk by, sometimes saying a general greeting to a group of people. I'm sure this single act did not undo all that was accomplished in the workshops but sometimes cultural insensitivity does much more damage. Needless to say, I resolved to be more informed and more culturally sensitive this time.

Side bar - Sierra Leone

Shortly after joining the Toronto District School Board I heard about an opportunity called "Project Overseas". This project is completely funded by the Canadian Teachers Federation and it involves teachers volunteering to go overseas and teach workshops for teachers with little or no teacher training. I was immediately interested but quickly learned that I could not apply until I had 5 years of teaching experience. This year was the first year I was eligible to apply, so in the fall I put my application together, had an interview, and was selected to work in Sierra Leone (where I've been once before). I found out I was selected at around the same time as I found out I was accepted by CDIA to work once again in Haiti. There was a moment when I thought that perhaps I couldn't do both, but the moment passed and I agreed to do both.
Therefore, July 3rd I'll be flying to Ottawa for a weekend of training and then I'm off to Sierra Leone for one month. On my way home I will be delaying my stop over in Belgium by 3 days so I can visit my cousins in the south of Holland as well as return to Amsterdam for one day to revisit my favourites places from the 3 months I lived there.
Needless to say, I will be busy in the near future, finishing off the school year, preparing my workshops for this summer, sorting and packing all my stuff, and generally tying up lose ends. I will use this blog during my time in Sierra Leone to keep family and friends posted on my adventures there.

Haiti once again....

It's true. I'm moving back to Haiti once again. Since leaving Haiti in July 2006 rarely a day goes by that I don't think about Haiti. Each time I've been back I've told myself that this will be my last visit, I'm moving on, but something keeps pulling me back. A friend of mine asked me what is it about Haiti that draws me back? I had a hard time answering the question. Mostly I think it's the people, or perhaps it's the mosquitoes, the vicious dogs or the lack of electricity? Just kidding, those things I do not miss:) To be honest, all the things I love about Haiti are also the things I don't love (my niece told me "hate" is a bad word) about Haiti. It's often said that love and hate are very closely related.
So, how did I end up going back? Well, as I said I can't seem to get Haiti out of my mind. In the fall, friends of mine came back to Canada after travelling much of the world. Looking through their photo albums and hearing their stories made me long to live elsewhere once again. Shortly after, I had breakfast with a friend who is a fellow traveller and we spent the whole time talking about where to go next.
So I started spending a lot of time searching the Internet to find an organization that I could work overseas. If I want to teach overseas, I could go almost anywhere, make a good salary and work with the children of the elite or missionary kids. This has never appealed to me but I tried to convince myself that this would be great, but I couldn't do it. I found a few interesting positions in various countries but there was always something "wrong" with them and so I never applied. Then I heard that Randy and Karen (the couple who replaced me when I left last time) were expecting a baby. I thought that perhaps the organization would consider hiring another person for the time that Karen would be on Maternity leave. I approached the board of Coram Deo and the rest is history.
So I'll be going back to the same school that I was at before, doing the same job. I will not be teaching but will be working with the teachers to develop a strong education program that will enable the students to prepare for their government exams. In addition to that, I will assist with the starting of a special education class. In Haiti little is available in the way of education for students with intellectual disabilities. If parents can only afford to send some of their children to school they most often do not choose those with intellectual disabilities. If they do choose to send them to school, they often do not pass the class they are in so they stay in the same class for several years, not receiving the support they need.
I won't be leaving for Haiti until the beginning of September but until then I will be updating my blog to let you know how my preparations are going.