jolene

"I want to side with defiant hope. I want to hope and build in this place, in Haiti--right here--because I want desperately for people here to be buying and selling land, working good jobs, building their own solid homes and a better country. I want to believe that God will ensure--in whatever inscrutable ways--that this happens. "Nothing is too hard for you," Jeremiah prays after taking the deed [for uninhabitable and undesirable land]. I want to echo that prayer in the face of all the evidence."

Kent Annan//Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle

You haven't lived until you've experienced the moment, the look on a Jamaican girl's face, when she realizes that maybe her dreams can come true.

(Oh, you haven't experienced that? You should probably consider going to Jamaica...)

I met Jolene by chance, walking from the ocean to my home for the night: a hut on the top of a cliff. She swung on a hammock and made friends with anybody who passed by. Oh, she had lots to say. She lived there, on the compound, the only kid amidst dozens of sunburned and mosquito-bitten tourists. Yes, she was having fun. Just home from school. Only seven. Grade two, but looking forward to grade three. (She should be excited, I told her: grade three was my favorite!) She has trophies for spelling contests and reading awards. She pointed out her hut and showed me how fast she could race to the top. She took the stairs two at a time, then raced back down. She likes to bead, and that is how the story begins.

We met at her hut after dinner and carefully carried a box full of beads and fishing line and hook-eyes to the lounge. I was mostly there to keep her company--my fingers could hardly grab those little beads, and I had trouble distinguishing silver from pearl from translucent pink. I just sat and listened and talked and listened as she told me story after story, as she shared with me her dreams.

She'll call her business, "The Lovely Necklaces." No, no. She'll call it "The Lovely Jewelry," because some people will want bracelets, or anklets, or earrings. She'll save her money to buy gifts for her family and school supplies, and to help her mom when her boss refuses to pay. Someday.

She had her very first customers that night. Two custom orders from two USD students, and a total of $1500 J (curious? 1 US=86 J).

Oh, the joy on Jolene's face was like nothing I have ever seen. Her eyes went wide as she smiled and ran to her mom, holding up dollar bills, showing off the money she made and shouting plans for expansion. More beads and new clasps and employees enough to make a living. To survive. To see her dream come true.

So, against stories of families separated out of necessity for years at a time and incomplete school projects or poor grades because of lacking resources, against stories of inconsistent work and unpaid salaries, I choose defiant hope. I choose to believe in her dream, for her and with her, because it can be true. I choose to believe in making dreams become reality.