Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Cheryl's Bon Zanmi

Yolande is my ‘bon zanmi’ here in Haiti – my 'good friend.'


Yolande works on the NVM Compound as a housekeeper.  She does the laundry for the teams and for the USA staff.  She has a pedal sewing machine at home, but I’ve taught her how to sew here on an electric machine.  Now she does all the sewing for the Hope Gift Shop at NVM.  She makes beautiful shoulder bags, headbands, coin purses and jewelry bags.  The income from this work helps to provide for her family.  She has many children and 3 grandchildren.  Her youngest daughter, age 14, takes care of the grandchildren while she is at work. Yolande is very active in the NVM church and is always willing to help.

We’ve helped each other with language skills! She has taught me a lot of Creole and I’ve taught her English.  She can now greet the teams that come to the NVM Compound with a bit of English, telling them what she does here. And I can now speak a few sentences about sewing in Creole.

Yolande is a joy to work with and is a very ‘bon zanmi’.  As you can see in the photos she has a very difficult life at home.  She lives in a tin roofed mud home and cooks over a wood burning fire pit.  All of her children and grandchildren live with her.  She has no running water and bathes from a pot just outside her door.  There are 3 small mud huts in her stick/barbwire fenced yard. She and her children sleep in one, one is for her daughter and grandchildren and the other is the cooking hut where she makes food for the family.



It has been a privilege to work alongside Yolande and get to know her.  I hope we are friends for many years to come.

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