Things I Learned In Church

All things considered, I think Collin is adjusting really well. He sleeps in his own bed (sort of); eats what I give him (sort of) and finally gets along with the dog (more about that in the next post). The only thing that gives us a little heartburn is the whole language barrier. I still don't speak Kreyol very well and, although he understands a lot, Collin doesn't speak much English. My solution to this little problem was to give him a big cheesy smile and nod my head when he repeated, for the third or fourth time, something in Kreyol that I just didn't understand. That is, until this happened.

We went up north a couple of weeks ago to attend church in our friend Chareyl's ward to hear her and Lori speak about the miracles we'd experienced after the earthquake in Haiti. I was sitting on the end of the row (in a vain attempt to keep Collin within the confines of the bench), Collin was next to me and next to Collin was our friend Gloria who is twelve years old and came back from Haiti with her two sisters to attend school (most of the schools in their area were destroyed). Collin crawled off the bench, pointed to my leg and said something in Kreyol with a big grin on his face. Having absolutely no idea what he was saying, I resorted to the cheesy smile and head nod. He then proceeded to try to get past my leg to, I assume, run with reckless abandon down the aisle. Being the nice mommy I try to be, I leaned down and quietly told him "no, no, no" with the same, slightly less cheesy, smile. He again pointed to my leg, and said the same something in Kreyol he had said before with a bigger grin on his face. You'd think I would have started to catch on, but nope, I again employed the cheesy smile head nod. He tried again to get passed me, I again leaned down and quietly said "no, no, no". About the third time this happened, I noticed Gloria giggling next to me. Now I'm starting to think some thing's up.

Me:"What's so funny?"
Gloria (who speaks English really well) laughs and says: "He keeps asking you if he can pass and you tell him yes (cheesy smile head nod), and then when he tries you tell him no, no, no."
Me: "Oh..."

Oops. It's possible I need to come up with a new plan. Poor kid. He's so patient with me.