What do Mennonites and Haitians have in common?

What do Mennonites and Haitians have in common?

There are many answers to this one, I'm sure.

When I began attending the Mennonite church we started receiving a publication called The Mennonite. It was (and is) a wonderful magazine, and one thing jumped out at me. There is a steep learning curve on the number of organizations that Mennonites are proud of. MCC, EMM, EMU, MDS and so forth.

To those who are Mennonites these terms are obvious, but to the uninitiated they can become a dizzying collection of letters that you suspect mean something important to someone. You're not in the loop yet, and as you peruse the pages of The Mennonite you see more and more of these organizations, often listed out in the same sentence. Some of the acronyms become so complex and lengthy that you wonder why they just didn't use a clever word-string like "WeDoGoodStuff".

Haitians seem to love acronyms as well. For example, there are 5 Pestel organizations that are working with Heifer International: KPA, OEJEDP, REJEDP, SOUP, and ASSOPAD. (How do you like that last one?) And of course there are more than just those five.

Yesterday, not to be left behind, the 18 workers and 1 manager of our health program recommended that they develop a name for their 'organization.' I thought that made sense, given that we've been calling our work generic terms like "Vitamin A Campaign", "Child Health Campaign", and "Anemia Campaign". Ok, I said, let's come up with some names. "Oh no, Dr. Ben, we already have three names that we talked about as a group." They wrote the names up on the board, and of course they all had acronyms.

Now I'm pleased to announce that a new organization exists in Pestel! I can tell they and Dr. Seneque are quite pleased with it. The new organization is APPAS.

(I subtly suggested that ASAP could be clever because of it's connotation in the USA. Oh well)

I think I have this right: Association of Peasants from Pestel Advancing (or Assisting) Health.

Not bad!

Look out Mennonites. The Haitians are starting to catch up!

PS: I would like to find funding to print up shirts (they really want matching, labeled shirts) with APPAS on it, and we'll print out new name badges for them. This will help identify them to the villages and I think it helps to highlight the important work they are doing.

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Thriving Villages Blog
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