Being Our Kids

This week I sat down with our kids (now 5, 7 and 9 years old) and we talked about how their lives here are different from life for kids in America. So for a glimpse into our kids’ world, here are the top ten ways you know you’re one of our kids on the islands.

Our kids (7yrs, 9yrs, 5yrs)

1. You always stand out! There are no other white kids anywhere near us, no other English-speaking kids on the island. Strangers will try to reach out and feel your hair or touch your skin. Adults yell things at you that you can’t understand. Our 7 year old says, “People aren’t like me.” They don’t look the same, they don’t speak the same language and they don’t follow the same rules.
2. There’s no winter, spring, fall-- there’s rainy season, mango season and wedding season! We don’t have four seasons here. It can be raining everyday and humid or dry and dusty, but it is almost always hot. The things that really mark time for us is the fruit seasons (our kids can’t wait for mango season to start!) and all the weddings in July/August. Christmas for us is hot and humid but is also in the middle of lychee season (yummy!). Our kids love to hear a downpour of rain and ask if they can get their swimsuits on and go play in it.
3. No water, no electricity… that’s what bucket baths and headlamps are for! The water is rarely on in the evenings when our kids are washing off the sweat and grime of the day before bed. So usually they are just scooping water from a bucket to wash themselves. Electricity has been pretty good lately, but our kids aren’t scared if it suddenly goes dark. There are always several headlamps around the house!

   

   Can you see the baby gecko in this picture?

4. People don’t have pets but there are plenty of geckos, goats and bats around.  There are animals everywhere. Every night we can hear the feral cats howling and fighting. Sometimes the neighborhood goats will play king-of-the-mountain. Sometimes they’ll even come onto our porch or climb on our roof. Then there are the ever present geckos running around on our walls. Sometimes we find little baby ones, but be careful or you’ll make their tails fall off.
5. Local school isn’t much fun. Island schools are in French and sometimes you can’t understand everything that is going on, but the teachers are strict and yell a lot. (Corporeal punishment is common too). Island schools stick to the basics mainly (reading, writing and math). Most of the time the teacher just writes things on the board and the kids have to copy it down. The best part is recess where you can trade snacks, run around the courtyard and play tag. Our kids like homeschool too, where they learn in English and get to study extra things like science and history.
6. You can just walk down the road and go to the ocean! We don’t go as often as we’d like. But the ocean is a short walk away and our kids love to play in the water and sand. Watch out for floating trash though, islanders throw their garbage in the ocean. Also don’t be surprised if a group of naked boys follows you around the beach (they’re not used to seeing white kids).
7. You’re far away from everyone. We can’t just go and visit people. We can’t go and see our grandma and grandpa, aunts, uncles or cousins. It is expensive to get off the islands and most places are far away. Even though we live near Madagascar, we’ve never been (maybe we’ll get there someday soon, our kids really want to see all the lemurs).
8. We go to someone’s house on Sunday. Sunday mornings consist of us gathering with our small team at our house or someone else’s. No big building, no organized children’s program. We sing songs in English, French and the local language. The kids will read a story and draw pictures while the adults read and discuss a passage.

9. 

   In the hammock on our porch with some friends

   There are no playgrounds! Nowhere on the whole island. No teeter-totters, no slides, no swings. This is always one of the first things our kids say they miss from other places and no matter what country we go to… if it has a playground then our kids are excited about it. For play here our kids run around, make up obstacle courses, ride scooters on the porch, swing in the hammock or play pretend. Neighbor kids often come to play on our porch. 
10. There are some things we don’t have here but some things we do. There is no peanut butter (so no PB&J). There are no pork products (so no bacon, no ham, no breakfast sausage, no pepperoni). We almost never have cereal or ice cream or most cheeses. But our kids like eating meat kebabs sold on the side of the road and “mataba” (cassava leaves cooked in coconut milk) and fresh yellow-fin tuna (sold from a wheelbarrow down the road) and freshly fried breadfruit or green bananas. Island food is pretty good.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our daughter was hit by a tummy bug this week— we’re thankful that she has fully recovered. Megan’s back has recovered from a marathon wedding event that had left it tender.Several of our island friends passed their BAC this year (the big exam that allows them to go to university). We rejoice with them for this big accomplishment.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We hope that this encourages you to pray for our kids. Most of the time life here is just normal life and our kids don’t know any different but sometimes they are very aware of the challenges here and life feels hard (especially since being in the States this past year and especially for our 7 year old son). Pray that they would continue to grow in their knowledge of both French and the local language. Pray that they would have good friendships with island kids. Pray for us that we would be good parents, listening, comforting, encouraging and challenging them as we should. Plans have come together for island team leaders to come to Clove Island for a leadership pow-wow in just a couple weeks. We excited for the opportunity to connect, plan and pray with them. Pray for logistics and planning of that time. We are hoping to have an official opening of our office— pray that we would remember to honor the right people (important in island culture) and have everything ready.