Dadelie - By Terrie Wold

Dadelie by Terrie Wold I sponsor Dadelie Brillant a 6 yo first grader at College de la Grace, Pignon, Haiti. She is such a bright, fun, energetic young girl that I am so very proud of. In 2011 I was able to meet Dadelie and her parents which was great! This year I got to go to their home and see where Dadelie lives. Her father’s name is Harry and he used to be a well known singer that traveled around the country performing in a group. When he became a Christian, he married Dadelie’s mom as a sign of commitment to the family and his new faith. Harry is a worship leader at Jerusalem Baptist Church, he also works at a rural school and does multiple jobs to support the family. He was surprised to hear that I retired- why would anyone quite a job if they actually had one? The Brillant family has 3 daughters- oldest is 13 yo, Fasemel who sings in choir at church & is a friend of Lydia Lucien- she looks just like her mom. She attends secondary school at College de la Grace. Dadelie’s mom is a teacher’s aide at the school for the past 9 years- works with pre-school children.

They share that Dadelie has been asking about me every day & very excited that I was coming to see her. She stood up and sang a song for me with good pitch & clear diction- her voice got stronger & stronger as she sang- it was AWESOME!! They shared they pray for me every day- pretty humbling!!! The family lives in a cement block home a few blocks from the church. The walls are stuccoed inside & out and painted very nicely-appears to be three rooms- living room with wooden table and chairs pushed up against a wall- we sat on plastic lawn chairs to visit. There was a curtain with bed behind it that I assume her parents sleep in. Dadelie and her mom showed me where she sleeps which is a large double bed with wooden headboard & footboard- the 3 girls share this bed. Dadelie had the fleece blanket I made her in 2011 spread out over the bed- it was still in good shape which was nice to see. Harry shared that the goat I gave them in 2011 was male- they sold it and bought a female goat that was pregnant- the baby that was born was butchered and eaten for the big family celebration of Dadelie graduating from Kindergarten last year. The goat had twins and they wanted to feed me one of the goats when I arrived as a celebration. I was touched and humbled sharing that they needed to eat the goat themselves- I pray that I did not offend them! They asked me for prayers that the goat would continue to have babies. Debbie shared that I wanted to learn Creole and she asked Dadelie if she could teach me some words. Dadelie was willing to try. We got mixed up the next morning at school when Debbie came to take the family to meet Kervensky’s family Dadelie was ready to start teaching me. I apologized to Dadelie and promised we would connect the next day- Deme- tomorrow. At Kris’s suggestion I made a list of words or phrases for her to teach me- starting with numbers. When she came to teach me she took it so seriously- often taking the paper and pen to write the creole letter or word for my understanding- she slowly formed the letters and words with her mouth for my understanding- so very cute!!!!

On Sunday afternoon she asked her dad to bring her to the school to see me. She was dressed in a beautiful flowered dress with sash & stayed for over an hour- it was wonderful!!!! We shared more teaching of Creole words, Conner taught her how to play the solitaire matching game & spot it game. We tried a puzzle for a short time but it is 3-D and very difficult.

Both Conner and Dadelie colored a picture and signed their name on the back- we asked Conner to keep both pictures.

She asked for Naomi to share a picture which was fun- Naomi picked out a couple of pics for her and wrote on the back. Very Special!!! I had to leave when Debbie came to take us to meet with the Dorcas Women. My goal is to learn more Creole so I can have a conversation with Dadelie. I also plan to make a photo book of pictures Naomi took of her for her to have. Sponsorship is such a gift and blessing for both student and sponsor. To learn more about sponsorship through Hosean International Ministries and Caleb and Debbie Lucien, please feel free to contact us at any time, we'd love to share more about this with you! Also, here is a link to their website and a link to sponsor a student is on the site......www.hosean.org