This blog was supposed to be titled: The First Week of School, Travels with Luke, and Crab on a Leash but I thought I'd get you started on the story while I finish the rest.
I’ve officially been a teacher for four days and what a stretching experience. It would be one thing to be a new teacher at an established school where things go a certain way and there’s a flow but being a new teacher at a completely new school where 75% of the students are new and in a country where education means something totally different has definitely pushed me pretty far.
- I’m learning it’s pretty easy to babysit 11 kids for 7 hours; it is another thing entirely to TEACH kids. We did a few test runs of reviewing things and learning things and it was rough. Not bad but I realized I have to work more at motivating them than at the actual concepts they need to grasp. I don’t know if it’s the same in the states, I’m sure there is crossover, but the majority of my students are very capable of learning everything they simply will not try without one on one coaching. I know there are lots of factors playing into this (like they fact that this is in their second language) but I think this will be my first and greatest challenge.
- Playground time is invaluable! These kids can run and run out in the sunshine. It’s great.
- Planning a teaching strategy is very difficult for a wide range of ages and levels of experience ranging from no English to no formal classroom experience to being privately tutored at home.
- Toro: my newest friend. It’s an incredibly over-caffeinated energy drink that helps so much for nights with little sleep.
One of the best experiences I’ve had in Haiti this far has been walking through the hills of Montrouis with Luke and Kobe. Kobe, one of our friends that lives at the mission, invited us to go see where his Aunt lived. I should start with one preface. All along our drives I could see the hills dotted with homes. There would be a few here and there, at the tops of ridges and dropping down into valleys, all in various stages of being built. Again being a suburban American had gotten the better of me and I saw all of these homes as something like the outskirts of a town; the country before you get to a city or town. But it turns out I’ve been looking at the town the whole time. All of the homes are interconnected by trails and pathways tying one house to another. Some homes are built with cinderblocks and concrete but many of the homes in the hills are made from fist-sized rocks cemented together with clay-like dirt and roofed with tin.
We followed a trail around the side of the mission and began to climb into the foothills. We wound our way from one trail to another. Since trails wind from one home to another, not so much from one central location to another so they’re very small and haphazard. We went up here and around this and through there and ended up at Kobe’s aunts home. She as so sweet and gracious and glad to meet us, a beautiful lady who’s smile revealed all the love that she had for Kobe and Luke.
From there we cut across her yard and picked up the trails on the other side. At nearly every home we passed there was one person who would shout our Luke or Kobe’s names. Every single person knew them and loved them. The people who could see us walking from across valleys would excitedly shout over, beaming and waving. It is so evident that the fragrance of Christ follows these two wherever they go. Love, humility, and joy radiate from them to everyone they encounter and they have truly become beloved in this town.
Our next stop was the home of a woman who had given up her two nephews to the mission because she wasn’t able to care for them. She was so excited to see us and talk to us and share her story. She told us about her boys and trying to raise them and about her home. She is a round lady with a sweet, soft face. Her missing bottom teeth gave a little lisp to her gravely voice as she showed us the inside of her home and described all the sacrifices she had made to keep the two boys alive before they came to live with us. Even though I couldn’t understand what she was saying I knew as we watched her that we needed to pray with her. Before we left our little group gathered around her and prayed over her and her home. And although she didn’t understand our prayers tears welled up in her eyes as we finished and hugged her good-bye.
School has not started yet for most Haitian run schools so kids are running and playing everywhere and watching white people is one of their favorite hobbies. As we wound our way to our next stop we collected two or three children, naked as the day they were born and smeared with clay. They enjoyed tagging along and watching our every move. Our farthest stop was at Kobe’s brother’s home, where we found his sister-in-law and their son. We only paused of a few minutes to say hello and hug his precious little nephew and then it was back along our maze of trails toward the mission. But our tour was not over yet.
As we rounded a corner and started to descend our last hill we heard someone call out to Luke. He was close by so we turned into his yard. Emerise is a local baker and he called Luke over to show him his bakery. To our left as we came through his yard was a low palm roof, standing about 4 feet off the ground where all his animals lived. In front of us was a large domed clay oven, about 10 feet around and six feet high, and off to the right was a long shed made of tin. The shed had a roof but only about 2/3 of its walls. Inside was where Emerise prepared all his bread. He wanted to build a real room to make bread in so that it could be cleaner but he didn’t have the money. A wide table filled the back corner, where most of the walls were. Running the length of the shed was a long thin table, maybe two or three feet wide leading up to something that looked a lot like an old fashioned crank to wring out your washing only this had cranks on both sides. Emerise was eager to show us how the whole process worked so he pulled out a huge mound of dough. Two of his sons manned the cranks and they began to turn them around and around as their father few the dough between the two large metal cylinders. This was how he kneaded all his dough. Again and again they ran the dough through the press, making it thinner and flatter and smoother every time. The two boys made the cranking look easy to Luke and Amber took turns jumping in to help and they said it took all their strength to keep the crank moving. Emerise said he was so excited that we were here and took an interest in what he did. He looked to pleased. Kobe told us that he was a very generous man, giving away whatever bread he didn’t sell before it went bad. Unfortunately we had to get back to the mission but Emerise really wanted us to try his bread so we said we would come back in the morning to get some.
I’ve officially been a teacher for four days and what a stretching experience. It would be one thing to be a new teacher at an established school where things go a certain way and there’s a flow but being a new teacher at a completely new school where 75% of the students are new and in a country where education means something totally different has definitely pushed me pretty far.
- I’m learning it’s pretty easy to babysit 11 kids for 7 hours; it is another thing entirely to TEACH kids. We did a few test runs of reviewing things and learning things and it was rough. Not bad but I realized I have to work more at motivating them than at the actual concepts they need to grasp. I don’t know if it’s the same in the states, I’m sure there is crossover, but the majority of my students are very capable of learning everything they simply will not try without one on one coaching. I know there are lots of factors playing into this (like they fact that this is in their second language) but I think this will be my first and greatest challenge.
- Playground time is invaluable! These kids can run and run out in the sunshine. It’s great.
- Planning a teaching strategy is very difficult for a wide range of ages and levels of experience ranging from no English to no formal classroom experience to being privately tutored at home.
- Toro: my newest friend. It’s an incredibly over-caffeinated energy drink that helps so much for nights with little sleep.
One of the best experiences I’ve had in Haiti this far has been walking through the hills of Montrouis with Luke and Kobe. Kobe, one of our friends that lives at the mission, invited us to go see where his Aunt lived. I should start with one preface. All along our drives I could see the hills dotted with homes. There would be a few here and there, at the tops of ridges and dropping down into valleys, all in various stages of being built. Again being a suburban American had gotten the better of me and I saw all of these homes as something like the outskirts of a town; the country before you get to a city or town. But it turns out I’ve been looking at the town the whole time. All of the homes are interconnected by trails and pathways tying one house to another. Some homes are built with cinderblocks and concrete but many of the homes in the hills are made from fist-sized rocks cemented together with clay-like dirt and roofed with tin.
We followed a trail around the side of the mission and began to climb into the foothills. We wound our way from one trail to another. Since trails wind from one home to another, not so much from one central location to another so they’re very small and haphazard. We went up here and around this and through there and ended up at Kobe’s aunts home. She as so sweet and gracious and glad to meet us, a beautiful lady who’s smile revealed all the love that she had for Kobe and Luke.
From there we cut across her yard and picked up the trails on the other side. At nearly every home we passed there was one person who would shout our Luke or Kobe’s names. Every single person knew them and loved them. The people who could see us walking from across valleys would excitedly shout over, beaming and waving. It is so evident that the fragrance of Christ follows these two wherever they go. Love, humility, and joy radiate from them to everyone they encounter and they have truly become beloved in this town.
Our next stop was the home of a woman who had given up her two nephews to the mission because she wasn’t able to care for them. She was so excited to see us and talk to us and share her story. She told us about her boys and trying to raise them and about her home. She is a round lady with a sweet, soft face. Her missing bottom teeth gave a little lisp to her gravely voice as she showed us the inside of her home and described all the sacrifices she had made to keep the two boys alive before they came to live with us. Even though I couldn’t understand what she was saying I knew as we watched her that we needed to pray with her. Before we left our little group gathered around her and prayed over her and her home. And although she didn’t understand our prayers tears welled up in her eyes as we finished and hugged her good-bye.
School has not started yet for most Haitian run schools so kids are running and playing everywhere and watching white people is one of their favorite hobbies. As we wound our way to our next stop we collected two or three children, naked as the day they were born and smeared with clay. They enjoyed tagging along and watching our every move. Our farthest stop was at Kobe’s brother’s home, where we found his sister-in-law and their son. We only paused of a few minutes to say hello and hug his precious little nephew and then it was back along our maze of trails toward the mission. But our tour was not over yet.
As we rounded a corner and started to descend our last hill we heard someone call out to Luke. He was close by so we turned into his yard. Emerise is a local baker and he called Luke over to show him his bakery. To our left as we came through his yard was a low palm roof, standing about 4 feet off the ground where all his animals lived. In front of us was a large domed clay oven, about 10 feet around and six feet high, and off to the right was a long shed made of tin. The shed had a roof but only about 2/3 of its walls. Inside was where Emerise prepared all his bread. He wanted to build a real room to make bread in so that it could be cleaner but he didn’t have the money. A wide table filled the back corner, where most of the walls were. Running the length of the shed was a long thin table, maybe two or three feet wide leading up to something that looked a lot like an old fashioned crank to wring out your washing only this had cranks on both sides. Emerise was eager to show us how the whole process worked so he pulled out a huge mound of dough. Two of his sons manned the cranks and they began to turn them around and around as their father few the dough between the two large metal cylinders. This was how he kneaded all his dough. Again and again they ran the dough through the press, making it thinner and flatter and smoother every time. The two boys made the cranking look easy to Luke and Amber took turns jumping in to help and they said it took all their strength to keep the crank moving. Emerise said he was so excited that we were here and took an interest in what he did. He looked to pleased. Kobe told us that he was a very generous man, giving away whatever bread he didn’t sell before it went bad. Unfortunately we had to get back to the mission but Emerise really wanted us to try his bread so we said we would come back in the morning to get some.
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