"I know Jesus, but who are you?" (6.2.08)

This afternoon, I was reading through the essays that my students had written, when I began to hear yelling and chanting outside. Fortunately, I was able to record it on my digital camera because it was occurring right outside, so I'll post that up later. It was quite a commotion, as the chanting grew louder and louder and more frenzied (TEOTEC Haiti mission team, remember last year - the voodoo chanting?) . So I went to Pastor Brian and asked him what was going on. He said:

"Oh they've been doing that for the past month. There's a couple that lives there, and the wife is demon possessed. For about a month, she's been crying and screaming at night. So about a week ago, the husband called a pastor to come and pray for her. But Ettiene (the housekeeper) came to me laughing a few nights ago. He told me that when the pastor went up to the woman to pray, the woman turned to him and said, "I know Jesus, but who are you!?""

We then had a long discussion about spirits and demon possessions; and certain unanswered questions such as: 1. How oculd a person who has received the Holy Spirit then be possessed by a demon? How is it that some demons are more difficult to remove, when the Apostles and Jesus had no trouble? Why are some better at it than others?

He said he should go see what's going on, so we're going to go tomorrow afternoon. It should be very interesting. My first exorcism.

So to take a step backwards, I had 3 students show up today (we are expecting about 10 total). Two early 20's and one pastor who is in his 40's. He pastors a church that's located about 3 hours away on foot (there are no buses that go there). They're all really eager to learn. To gage how good they are, we began with an essay exercise, and the question I had them answer was why they wanted to learn English.

They want to learn English because it is their way out - learning English will get them a job as a translator - and being a translator will let them earn lots of money. The sad reality of the situation is that: 1. If they want to become a professional translator, they've got to really practice a lot (Pastor Brian's opinion was that it is too late for these students to improve to a professional level) 2. There really aren't a lot of translator job openings in Haiti and 3. Even if they did land a job as a translator, the pay would still be minimal, and the position temporary.

70% of Haiti is unemployed. If you walk into the busy streets, those 70% of men and women are out there wandering about trying to find something to do.

A last interesting event of the day:
So a little past 1pm, when Pastor Brian was taking a bath, I hear knocking on the front gate (and of course Chris goes crazy). So I go down and open the gate door a crack, and there standing before me is a Haitian man with a machete.

First thought.. "Did you come to kidnap me?"

I QUICKLY close the door and run upstairs. "Pastor Brian, there's a man standing outside with a machete." Knowing that I'm pretty much peeing in my pants, he starts laughing. The man had come to lend Pastor Brian his machete to trim his mango tree.