Guadeloupe, le bilan

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent six weeks as a summer program leader in Guadeloupe for VISIONS Service Adventures. It was great! The work was very intense and often stressful, but it was worth it to experience a new and special place alongside a great group of staff and participants. (Bilan is the French word for assessment or report and in Guadeloupe it also referred to our group debriefing and sharing session, held every other day.) Read on for more pictures and words!

Learning Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole for Disaster Relief My friends Julie and Johnny at Women in Construction are leading a volunteer trip to Haiti next week, and asked me to give a presentation on the language. I should be clear that I don’t speak Haitian Creole. I speak passable French, so I spent some time researching and compiling the following materials. Haiti has two official languages. French is the official language of the government, spoken by educated Haitians, business people, and elites, but not by many common Haitians. Haitian Creole, on the other hand, is the language spoken by nearly all Haitians. Although …