Haiti: Day 3

Let me start this by saying that I wrote a few days ago and then the power went out and I lost everything. It's pretty common for the power to go out here. During the day we typically run on a battery or generator and at night we switch to city power which recharges the battery, but the city power didn't come on and the battery didn't recharge so the power was really spotty. The orphanage is absolute best case scenario; almost all the people who live around us don't have a generator or battery and just tap into the city power at night. According to the people who live here it's always been this way- it's not because of the earthquake.

Instead of starting school yesterday we decided to hold off for a day because the kids (and teachers!) needed an extra day to get ready. I'm not sure what the kids had to get ready, but I was really happy that we didn't start yesterday because then we could go over and help with the feeding program. The MdL kids help to feed the kids in the neighborhood. For simplicity's sake from here on out when I refer to the MdL kids, those are the kids who live in the orphanage (Maison de Lumiere) and the kids who live in the neighborhood are the street kids. They aren't typical street kids because those are the rustaveks (child slaves) who work on the streets in the city. These kids are the ones who are either squatters in the houses around us or live in the ravine behind the orphanage.

So the feeding program. The 130 street kids (the ones who live in our neighborhood... you follow so far? :-) ) who are involved in the program line up outside the boys' home (the girls and boys are separated) and receive a Flintstone vitamin on their way in. It was at this point when Makin-Love (yes, that really is his name... it's pronounced MAH-kin lowve) attached himself to me. Smiley, goofy, curious, this kid was adorable. He's the one who is wearing my sunglasses in the picture below. This morning on my way to school at 7:15 he was outside and ran up and gave me a huge hug which is just what I needed after not sleeping last night. Dang mosquitoes. Anyway, the kids came in and are served by our kids in the orphanage. The whole ordeal lasts about an hour and a half then the kids file back out onto the street.

Every night we've had huge thunderstorms, as it is hurricane season, and last night was no different. I could hear the thunder through my ear plugs and through the white noise of the 7 fans in our room. I'm waiting for a night when it finally doesn't rain because I really want to sleep on the roof. No mosquitoes up there and I hear it's much cooler. However, as we're just getting into the rainiest season I don't know if I'll have a chance to do so before I leave.

I don't know how to start explaining school. My students are amazing, but they've never had formal schooling before so I can't get frustrated when they write on the desks, don't understand the concept of waiting to be called on, or disassemble every school supply I give them. Rookie mistake #1: pencils. So I bought really cool glittery pencils for the kids. Instead of being able to use them, within the first word they wrote many of them broke the tips of the pencils and needed another one. This would have been fine, but my supply was running short at that point. Rookie mistake #2: clicky pens. When they discovered they could take off the pen tip and find a mini spring I lost them (torrent of rain just started outside. Looks like I won't be sleeping under the stars tonight!).

After teaching the 3 math classes and a Community Circle (more on that later. Too mentally exhausted to re-live it right now.) it was time to break for lunch. We came back to the guest house and ate, and 15 minutes before we were supposed to go back to school to teach our electives one of the girls came in to tell us that we couldn't go outside because there was a kidnap alert. I like to think it sounds much worse than it actually is. I didn't even notice that a truck full of men had been waiting outside the orphanage all morning, and the police came and talked to them and they left, but I guess it was really suspicious. All things considered, and because everything turned out fine, going into lock down was an amazing gift from God. I didn't have it in me to go back and teach for another two hours, and neither did the other teachers.

Tonight I need to re-plan the rest of the week. Most of the girls haven't been to school ever and although they can count to ten, when presented with 10, "ten," and ten beads, they don't understand that it's all the same concept. If they did go to Haitian school before they came to the orphanage it was basically a day care where the teacher could hit the students and no one paid any attention. Haitian school still operates under a teaching method from France in the 1960's that focuses on memorization so any critical thinking or creative lessons I'm going to do with them are going to take some time. In one of the activities I asked one of the girls what 60 divided by ten is and she said six, but when I wrote it down she had no idea what I was talking about. I asked her how many times ten went into 60 and all I got was a blank stare.

Up until this point there has not been one formally trained American teacher at the school, and the kids are so interested in learning and thinking and growing. They were amazed to see that I had posted a sticker chart and gave out supplies and had their names written on paper hands posted around the room. THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH to all the people who donated and made it possible so get those supplies. The greatest thing about the experience for the kids is that I'm not the only formally trained teacher here. Alissa, Jessica, Bethany all know what they're doing and are so sweet with the kids, and Kamala the principal is amazing at being so patient and loving with the kids, too. The Haitians I've met are so appreciative. The kids are so curious about the simple facts (spring in the pen, anyone?) that we as Americans take for granted. I know that this experience is going to change me so much more than I'm going to change anything here.

Despite these difficulties, there is no place in the world I'd rather be right now. The first morning I was feeling homesick and I walked up to the roof and the house right behind ours looks like it's going to fall over during the next storm. I couldn't really get into the aftermath of the earthquake in this update, but it's evident that even with all the aid given to the country it needs so much more help than it can give itself. I posted a picture for it below. A look at the house in person is enough to cure any homesickness, and makes any problem I've ever had seem so small.