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. 

Jesus Mary School

This week I began my work in the local zoo, I mean school. The schooling here is real different than I received at Fairmount Elementary School, and that has become very apparent to me. I am going to be working the the two first grade classrooms, both of them having over 30 children in each. What will I be doing? Right now, I am sitting in the two classes and am identifying the children who need a little extra help. The reason I was asked to work with these kids is because there is a large amount of children who aren't passing the first grade. There could be lots of reasons they aren't passing, they might not be bringing their books to school, don't have a pencil, they are sick, they don't understand some things, they can't see the board, they have issues at home, or they aren't getting enough attention. I will be the white girl who has no teaching experience, sitting in the back of the room, trying to figure out why these children aren't passing and pull some ideas out of my head on how to help them.  

The three days that I have had so far, has proven to me that this is going to be no easy task. For starters they are in first grade and have a very small attention span. They are sitting in right next to each other and touching, kicking, punching, slapping, poking, and pinching your neighbor seems like more fun than learning math. Most are probably hungry. The meal of 3 scoops of rice and some sauce, could be the only meal for the day. When it gets close to feeding time, they go crazy. All factors in making my days very interesting.

Recess has also proved to be insane. There are no official teachers on duty, jungle gyms to play on, no balls, they just run around. When recess starts, I would love nothing more than to stay in the room and lock the door, but I feel as if the children would still find me.... The kids in the class I sit in are used to me and go find friends,  but there are pre school kids who find me very intriguing. It is as if a small stampede of tiny elephants with runny noses, and dirty hands are all running toward me wanting to hang on every inch of my body. Its the mobile, talking jungle gym they never had. A white girl 4 feet taller than they are. Yesterday I had four or five hanging on each of my arms as I was trying to put my hand over my head in attempt to make them let go. I had two girls wrapped around my legs, and I had a little girl putting her hand down my pants.... not only did I loose all of my personal space, but I was being attacked. Of course they thought it was so fun, but I saw no fun in it, finally I started raising my voice a little and the older kids help remove the children from me. 

I think my work here is going to be fun. It seems a little overwhelming right now, but once I figure out my plan of attack I think it will be really beneficial for the kids and the teachers to get a little help. 

I don't have any new pictures, for the first few weeks I want to remain as invisible as possible, a strange white girl in class is enough of a distraction.  

This weekend is the parish feast, which is a huge deal and people from all over come. People have been staked out on the streets for the past week and they have had a novena going on. There are venders selling goods, people everywhere, and it ends with a big celebration at the church. It is a haitian carnival, without the rides.