Pastor Rony has had some of his family visiting lately. Every day I'm meeting another one of his brothers or sisters. I spent some time inquiring about his siblings and the size of his family, and the following conversation ensued:
Rony - How many brothers do you have?
Troy- One.
Rony- One brother?
Troy- Yes.
Rony- How many sisters?
Troy- Zero.
Rony- Ok, but how many brothers?
Troy- One.
Rony- One brother before or after you?
Troy- After, he's 27 years old.
Rony- How many before you?
Troy- None.
Rony- (laughing) Oh, I didn't know that. Just two children for your parents?
Troy- Yes.
Rony- (incredulous) That's not the Haitian System.
Troy- Yes, I know. But I'm learning the Haitian System, because I have 5 children.
Rony- That's better. You can have more.
Troy- Thank you, we'll see.
I still don't know if he believes me that I only have one sibling. (Maybe you should come down here, Paul, or Mom and Dad, so I can prove it to him.) But my favorite part of the conversation was when he gave me permission to have more children. That's a very Haitian thing to do: many of our Haitian friends are always giving us permission to do things we didn't really need prior approval to do. I never know what else to do other than thank them for their blessing and unnecessary permission. I'm sure it's just a difference in the language, but I still find it odd whenever it happens.
You can read the blog tomorrow. ;)
-Troy
Find not too frequent updates from the Livesay family here
