School Days

A few months ago, there was some changes in the first grade. There were originally two big classes. Now there are four classes averaging twenty children in each. There was some problems with some of the kids not learning at their potential so they hired two new teachers and me. I was put with a haitian woman and together we teach 19 children. 

Here is my class:

Woodarline

Madianise

Nesly

Guivenson

Lovelie

Madialine

Josena

Anderson

Stevenson

Judeline

Erbrinia

Woodelove

Nedjina

Chella

Ivenson

Josiane

Poupouche 

Madias

Rosedarline

Everyday is an adventure but walking to school is an adventure alone.
It is the rainy season, so that means a lot of mud on most of the school roads. Not only do some of these kids have to walk 30+ minutes to school, but they have obstacles of mud, rivers or both. If we have a late days rain, that means the next day there is going to be a lot of mud. They can't just ask their mom or dad if they can get a ride to school because its muddy. In most cases they just walk. However when there is a lot of mud, the attendance is down in the classes. I usually just take off my shoes and walk in the mud filled with rocks, poop, water, garbage and who knows what else. The kids try to stay out of it, but sometimes they fall, or trip. As they say they are "scared" of the mud and are amazed that I am not "scared" of it. I would rather walk in the middle and reduce my chances of falling. Either way everyone comes out of it with feet covered in mud along with splats on your back on your leg.

My class is made up with the kids who had some of the lowest grades in the first grade. Two of them being over the age of 10. One being Poupouche (the deaf boy) who teaches the kids in his own way, but is also making progress as well. The other is a girl and slowly she is improving but is catching on a lot slower than the others. Some of the kids didn't even know how to hold a pencil properly or use a notebook when we first started with the class.  The first few weeks everyday we did the same thing. Made them write their names, do some work with letters, count and do things to learn the numbers 1-10, and that took up 5 hours.
Now some kids can write their names, are excelling in reading, know numbers 1-40, and can do some simple addition. Then there are others who just learned how to write the letter a and number 5. They are all at different levels, but they all are improving and seem to be learning a lot. Its so cute to see them be so excited when they finally understand or can finally do something. I think these specific kids were not getting the attention they needed in a class of almost 50 with one teacher.


Everyday is a surprise.
I never know the temperaments of the children from day to day.
The weather effects attendance, and their moods.
Kids feel sick and don't want to do anything.
If they are hungry that depends on their willingness to work.
Everyday you are never certain how many kids will be at school.
I never know how my personal space will be violated.
I am usually poked EVERYWHERE everyday, so thats never really a surprise, I prepare for that.
I never know what my role will be at recess. (the mobile jungle gym, playing hand games with girls, sitting with the teachers, getting my hair done, playing keep away, playing heads or tails, play with marbles which is like our bloody knuckles and I learned that the hard way, or sometimes I can sneak away and hide down the street visiting a woman I know so I can get away from the children)
I Never know who is going to slap, kick, punch, or pull someone down to the ground.
I Never know who is going to have an accident by the latrines and just walk around with their pants off, crying until someone helps.
I just never know what is going to happen. Its wonderful.


From this experience, I have to give a lot of credit to all of my teacher friends. It really is a way in which I am developing my own patience. Sometimes I just want to scream. Then I have to remember they are 5 and 6. It also doesn't help that they know I will play around with them. It can be difficult in class for them to listen to me, which can be very annoying. Luckily the Haitian teacher puts them in their place. I can't help that I am a pretty cool play toy.

Here is some pictures from other parts of the school day:

 

This is lunch everyday. Rice and some sauce

 They love the rice and sauce combo. They especially love it when it has sardines or spinach in the sauce.










After everyone eats, they wash their dishes. You can't see the small opening, but there are probably five children fighting to get water. It is constantly a muddy wet area where a lot of fights break out. They all want water at the same time.

Then some girls volunteer to wash the dishes. This also means that they don't have to be in class for the twenty minutes. It becomes a whole production. usually with one girl in charge yelling at all the others. 

This is the kitchen where all the food is cooked. These stoves are made to be fuel efficient and use less wood and cause less smoke. 

In other news:
We have had visitors from Eastern Illinois. Including two of my best friends who came down to surprise me on the trip.
We have been preparing for our summer camp.
We went on a mini vacation. We camped on the beach, snorkeled, ate sea food, relaxed, and spent time with our Haitian friend Guardyne.

Life is good.

Feast Day

May 1st is the feast day for the Jesus-Mary school, so on Wednesday there was a party at the school.
On Tuesday it was supposed to be a normal school day, however that isnt quite what happened.
The children took everything out of the classrooms to clean. This meant that it turned into a free-for-all. and everything in complete chaos. Kids running on the desks, racing. Girls making the classrooms into small ponds and sliding across the room (resulting in minor injuries).Along with children running around and dancing in the open rooms. I found it entertaining, and there was no control over the children, so I just sat back and watched. At the end of the day, the classrooms were clean and ready for the party.
The first part of the day was a mass that was celebrated in the school yard.

After mass, kids went home to change from their uniforms to their play clothes. After some time, running around, and socializing, the stage was ready for some performances. 

This is the 5th grade girls who performed. Please notice their bodies covered in glitter. Along with a group of 6th grade girls (who were also dressed in elf-like costumes) performed.
After the girls danced, there were a few kids who got up and told a few jokes, sang, rapped, and there was a dance off.

I took plenty of videos, but they won't load.

One of my favorite performances was an 8 year old dancing with his two older brothers. Eventually, they decided that they were going to see how much money they could raise by the 8 year old dancing because he was so good. He made about two dollars and two packs of cookies.
My other favorite performance was Poupouche and his friend who performed a rap. The crowd went wild.

After the performances there was a big soccer game on. Barcelona and Munich, so everyone congregated into one room and watched the game together. This was fun until it got extremely crowded, hot, and all the children wanted to be on me.

They also got a good meal. The whole day the women teachers were busy cooking. They made chicken, a beet salad, plantains, and rice. Along with the their special food they all got a juice. 

It was a long, but fun day for everyone involved.

In other news:
There has been some changes in the first grade within the past month.  We split the first grade into four parts. Myself along with another teacher have 19 children. One being Poupouche and some of the sweetest little kids, and a few not so sweet kids but mostly sweet.

Some extra pictures I have taken recently:

 Lele, the ham. 

In Haiti we take our goats for walks, not dogs. 

 They were singing and talking to each other on the phone, 10 minutes of entertainment for everyone.

                                Our artists working on a beautiful painting for a group in Miami!

The JM school sang at church

                                                                  Having fun taking pictures.

This is Ivenson.  He is spacey, likes to dance, talks to himself, always is proud of his work even if its wrong,  has a little lisp,  and says the cutest things that makes my heart melt everyday. 

See no evil. Speak no evil. hear not evil. 

Two of the best looking boys around. 

Bon Fet Sen Valanten

Yesterday as you know was the hallmark holiday, Valentines Day. The day that is filled with love hearts, pinks and reds, flowers, teddy bears, and chocolates. Although I missed going out for heart shape pizza with my family, I spent the day along with the people in our community, experiencing love without the flowers, teddy bears, chocolates and Lou Malnati's pizza.  Here there aren't those things. At one of the schools here they had a fundraiser where you could buy a flower, and there were Haitian love songs, and a little opportunity for some karaoke. 

I made a valentine and had 500 copies made, gathered crayons and Jen and I brought them over to the school. Although these kinds of things were my favorite in school, I was weary of how they would enjoy the activity. 

The kids had Monday-Wednesday off and typically kids take the whole week off. Sr. Pat wanted to try and increase the attendance after the holiday. This activity was the attempt to do so. In each class there was a range of 8-20 kids in the younger class and between 20-30 in the older classes....We had announced last week we would be doing something special for valentines day, but obviously a lot of them didn't care. 

We went around to every class to take pictures after they started.  It was interesting to see that the younger classes had the exact same method to color (no individuality or creativity) which the artist in me really was upset about. The older kids were better, they had the same ideas but added their own individuality to them, at the very least used different colors.

The younger pre- k kids got instructions to color their heart it could be any color, but they had to stay in the lines.

Pre-k

The first graders all colored their hearts pink and had green on the outside. 

first grade. 

 The second and third grade had a little variety, some solid colors but a lot of them spilt the heart in two and made it two different colors.

  Second and third grade.

Fourth grade had some individuality, but this is what we saw a lot. simple coloring and a simple phrase.

Fourth grade

 The fifth and six grade did a great job. They had the same idea. But really were all different. They decorated them, and wrote a nice message inside. I was really impressed by them.

Fifth and sixth grade. 

The Principle of the school colored one as well. 

Here are just some other pictures of some classes and cute kids holding their valentines! 

  

A small part of one of the first grade classes I am working with. 

A small part of the other first grade class I am working in. 

In other news: 

Jen and I went to take pictures to send to a group who is supporting a school buy funding for new uniforms. 

We were under the impression the uniforms were made and we would take pictures of the kids in the new uniforms. They didn't have the uniforms done yet, so we had to be creative on how to show they were getting new uniforms. They had the fabric there so we had the kids hold the fabric and we had them throw it in the air. I thought the pictures were going to turn out better, but it was still fun doing it. 

 One of the women who will be making the uniforms was measuring the kids then "cutting" the fabric.

                              Of course I found the cutest little boy and had to take a picture....


Last week we had a medical team come and work in our community. We did some translating and helping with the flow of the people, I got to do some finger pricks, gave a shot, and  a few times I was asked to give scabies treatment.  All over their bodies.

Just some random pictures I have taken the past few weeks. 

 

sunset from my room.