Music - the Universal Language

Day 3: Tour of Fleri Farm, Cite Soleil Water Stops (2), For His Glory Orphanage 

God spoke to us through the power of music many times today.  Our tap-tap was a rockin’ this morning with silly camp songs - There Are No Bananas, Tarzan, Baby Shark, etc.  Then Emmanuel (one of the Healing Haiti staff who spent the day with us) taught us the Creole versions of Glory to God and How Great Is Our God. While most of us know minuscule amounts of Creole and some of us claim to have no musical talent, somehow the tap-tap sounded incredible :-) 

During the first water stop, a little boy sitting on a team members’ lap started humming Ring Around the Rosie. Soon, other Haitian kids crowded nearby sitting among us started humming and singing in Creole.  Many young eyes got wide and smiles came over tiny faces as we joined in singing in English. In a moment, grins covered the American faces as well and more kids who overheard the singing came running to join in.  The next obvious step was to stand up, form a circle and play - right here in the middle of a dirty street with garbage floating in filthy water on both sides, here in the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere.  So, a handful of Americans and dozens of Haitian kids sang ,held hands, went round and round and fell down  - over and over again.  A simple tune brought two worlds together to share big smiles, much laughter and great joy! 

In the afternoon, music filled For His Glory Orphanage.  The team shared/lead many silly sing-along-with-movements kid songs.  The kids (ranging in age from 2-17) mostly just laughed at us as sang about bananas in the sky, chomped link a shark family, and acted out a goofy Tarzan and Jane song. But some joined in even upstaged us!  After we acted out the Noah Story, Emmanuel played guitar and led us in worship songs.  The minimal practice we had this morning learning the Creole versions of 2 songs came in handy but didn’t take us very far :-)  The kiddos showed us up big time - they knew all the songs in both Creole and English.  Sitting among the kids on tiny benches with many of the smaller kiddos in our laps, we filled the grassy, shady courtyard with music. How Great is Our God.... Glory to God.... I can think of no better way to praise our God and no better words to sing and no better brothers/sisters to spend the afternoon with.