Some things to love

...about Haitian Creole.

Yes, language acquisition has been slow-going and difficult. This is despite the many times we heard that we could just "pick up Creole," which makes it sound as easy as buying a loaf of bread on the way home from work. Not so. However, I'm developing a fondness for the following:

The Bonjou Effect.
So there you are, walking along the road, and along comes a tough-looking fella on the left. He's muscular, wearing work clothes, and carrying a big machete over one shoulder. Face as impassable as the Schuylkill at rush hour. He's getting closer, still stoic, and you can almost see a fierce glint in his eyes. Just when you're about to pass each other, you say "Bonjou!" -- and he cracks the biggest smile you can image. "Bonjou, blan!" Totally transformed from Big Scary Guy to Guy Commuting to Work.

Bon.
Literally, "good." However, many Haitians use this as a transitional word, as in:
Me: Do you think we'll be back in time to go to the market?
Haitian: Bon. I think we might be able to go today.
I know it's roughly equivalent to "um," but I like to think of it as someone cheering me on. "You made sense in Creole! Good for you!"

M Renmen W.
"I love you." (Or "I like you," but let's not split hairs.) What I primarily like about this is the beautiful symmetry of the letters, and the fact that Creole lets you use single letters for all the pronouns. I suppose it's similar to writing "u" for "you" in English:
M: I
W: you
L: he, she, it
Y: they
N: we
It definitely livens up the alphabet! Speaking of which:

Alphabetization.
This is the word for literacy and literacy education. However, where this word is graffitied I like to read it as a person's fervent plea to arrange everything in alphabetical order. Forgive my inner librarian, but think of what a wonderful world that would be.

The Refrigerator is Walking.
In English, we say that things are running. The car. The fridge. The washer. (Although not the Internet, for whatever reason. That works but doesn't run.) In Creole, you can't say that machines kouri, run, but you can say that they mache, or walk. I don't know why, but walking sounds so much more physically specific to me. All these machines, getting around on their own two feet.

Ongoing Narration in Real Time.
When greeting someone, it's common to follow "hello" with a brief statement about what that person is doing.
Haitian: You're walking uphill!
Me: You're walking downhill!
And somehow it's much, much less annoying than reading billboards out loud on road trips.

Some Words That are so Useful, I Want to Bring Them Home With Me.
Degaje: Make it up as you go along.
Tet chaje: Total headache. What a hassle.
Nenpòt: It doesn't matter. Whatever's easiest. Not important.

Okay, back to degaje-ing just about everything...