In Septemeber 2008, I traveled 6000 miles to Haiti's Kenscoff mountains. My mission: to care for some of the orphaned and abandoned, the sick, malnourished and premature infants of this beautiful but beleagured Caribbean nation.





Tuesday 8 June 2010

Poko Konvete?

(Not Converted Yet?)
It is a running joke in the NICU at God's Littlest Angels, that some of our little darlings have not yet found the Lord. Exceptionally loud and demanding infants are likely to draw (mock) knowing looks, along with nods of understanding that are shared between their nannies. These Haitian ladies will then declare, with quiet, mock solemnity 'Li Poko Konvete,' meaning that the little one in question has not yet converted to Christianity!

Our newest baby arrived just over a week ago. He is recovering from malnutrition and gastroenteritis and was thoroughly miserable during his first days at GLA. Although he allowed us to calm and soothe him, I noticed something, that to christian ladies like ourselves was definitely cause for (tongue-in-cheek)concern.

'Ginette?'
'Yes Susan?'
'There is a problem with this boy,' I told her, 'The kind that requires prayer.' Ginette nodded. It went without saying that the baby needed prayer. He was new, sick, fragile. She was surprised and pleased, though, by my specific prayer request. 'Ginette, when I sing church songs to him, he gets agitated........but when I sing Scottish lullabies that are not quite so wholesome, he quietens!

News quickly spread, and within minutes, we had a plan of action: when Pastor Brandon comes this week to lead devotions for the Haitian staff, the new baby will attend, in the arms of a nanny. The group will then pray for a religious conversion in Louvensky's life.

'Yes, just the thing to do ladies,' I told them, and an onlooker would have judged me to be sincerely pleased with the wisdom of our solution.
'Just the thing,' they agreed.

I love our nannies, and I love our humour. It is so Scottish - we used to share jokes just like these at church, during infant baptisms. Apparently, since I did not start the conversion jokes in the nursery (really, I didn't), the humour is also very Haitian!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny! What a great story!
Kristin