Translation Jobs Come To Life On Thanksgiving Day

I translate.  I receive documents in English and I translate them into Haitian Creole. I do that for Christian Aid Ministries and other groups that contact me with projects. They distribute. They do what they choose to do with the documents. One of the things I did a few years ago was translate a neat book about being a soldier of Christ. Each lesson had some teaching about a Biblical point, and then a story about an imaginary family that dealt with the very issue of the lesson.  Good stuff.  We made the family into a typical Haitian family, and I really enjoyed translating the lessons. While I do that, I always image people reading the texts. I do all I can to take the beautiful meanings and teachings in the original English and deliver them to any Haitian who would pick up the document to read.  It takes some doing. I remember translating a lesson about a bird that dives into the ocean and has to judge the angle in order to not miss the fish...refraction.  The fish isn't where he appears to be, but God created the bird with the ability to figure that all out and get the fish anyway. It takes some work to get those kinds of ideas into a Haitian reader's mind.  I remember working on that lesson.

Now, probably five years later, I am involved in a Jr. Youth activity where a gentleman from out-of-town comes to teach our kids every week. He is using the book I translated!  On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day (just a regular Thursday here), I sat and watched him teach the lesson.  It worked! The translation allowed him to successfully teach the points that were in the English lesson!  It was a brand new experience for me as a translator.

I was left to think of teachers all over Haiti holding books, magazines, and documents that I have translated while they teach a group of people.  I have always loved translating.  I do so even more now that I have witnessed a translation in action. 

I am glad Christian Aid Ministries, Agri-plus, and other organizations interested in education people in Haiti.

I am thankful to be able to be part of a chain that delivers quality teaching materials into the hands of real people here in Haiti.