Dégagé

On Friday, we left Désarmes early in the morning to come back to Port-au-Prince. We meant to stop at the hospital, but we couldn’t make it there because of construction along the way. Instead, we got to stop by Indigo Beach and stick our feet in the waves. However, it seemed weird to us to be at a beach resort because nothing there really exemplified the Haiti that we’ve grown to know- it was much more Americanized, a real "bubble" where blan can go without truly experiencing Haiti.

We arrived back in Port-au-Prince in time for a rice lunch and then visited CAH, a Haitian artisan shop, to buy souvenirs. With the wide selection to choose from, we ended up spending an hour in the store. We came back to the MCC guesthouse to talk about more formal advocacy efforts we can take in the future to act as a voice for Haiti and MCC. In the spirit of discussion, we continued to talk about our experiences in Haiti and how we’ve grown individually over the past two weeks. Each of us talked about a personal goal we’d set for ourselves and how we met it. Many of us stepped out of our comfort zones, reached a new level of mentality and clarity and found ourselves at home in a place that was foreign to us just two weeks ago.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve grown closer as a team through the sharing of experiences. So, tonight we each wrote something nice or that we found especially memorable about each person participating in our experience. It was so moving to read how we each thought about each other and built on each other to grow together. We hope that when we return to school these experiences will carry forth into our academic and personal lives as we can continue to advocate for Haiti- telling a new story of hope and resilience about an island that is often seen as hopeless. Dégagé, tout moun!

-Kristina & Annika

Teaching Day 2: Sharing of Cultures

Tuesday was our second day teaching at GASA. We got into the swing of things with our classes and became much more comfortable teaching English and interacting with our students. For the advanced class, teaching went much better our second day than our first. We taught our students how to say occupation names based on their own professions (plumber, agronomist, accountant, and other professions students study at the school) and taught them names of tools related to their occupations. Some students had told us on Monday that they wanted to be able to talk about their professions in English, so we hoped our Tuesday lessons would help them be able to do so. We played charades with occupation words, and our students thought it was hilarious to act out their occupations in front of the class. Each level incorporated interactive elements in their classes. In the intermediate class, our second day of classes enabled us to get the class to engage and participate even more than the first, when we played ball-tossing games to help students learn occupation words. We learned that the typical Haitian method of teaching is memorization, so we hoped we could show our students some interactive methods of teaching as an alternative.

Over our first week in Haiti, we met with community partners and talked a lot about the importance of mutual cross-cultural learning between ourselves and our students. Today was the first day we really experienced that interaction, when we asked our students to teach us some Kreyol and share parts of their culture with us. Our students were so excited to teach us while we taught them, and we felt the energy and happiness of being able to learn from each other and begin to understand each other more. We know that it is difficult for blan and Haitians to form real relationships, but by beginning to teach each other parts of our languages, we felt we were truly beginning to bridge the barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding formed between us for centuries.

-Annika & J.B.

Class is in session!!! (Klas la kòmanse)

          Today was our first day teaching English at GASA!!  Kristina, Meghan, and Anna are all teaching Level 1 ESL to GASA Students.  Courtney, JB, and Camila are teaching Level 2 ESL.  And Annika, Abisola, and Sharlene are teaching Level 3 ESL.  We spent most of the night last night working on our lesson plans and preparing ourselves for our first day of teaching!  We learned quickly that no matter how much you plan, you have to be open to last minute changes- this happened often the first day!  We still had a BLAST!  The first day we did greetings and introductions.  One of the best ways to introduce everyone in the class was to do the greeting song.  This turned into a big joke and we got everyone laughing by the end of it.  “My name is Wawa, Wawa, Wawa, my name is Wawa, who am I?” 

            Throughout our session we were able to notice differing styles in learning and teaching in the classroom.  We tried to incorporate a lot of techniques such as songs, games, and partner work to help the students retain new English vocabulary and phrases.  Before we started teaching, we heard that most schools and teachers in Haiti do not engage in interactive activities in the classroom.  Most of the time ‘learning’ in these schools is through memorization.  While we were trying to initiate interactive activities, we saw that many students were hesitant to engage in these activities at first.  But once we broke the ice, and got them laughing (at us!) they were more open.  By the end of the day they were clapping, singing, and being silly with us!!

            One of the best moments was at the end of the lesson, we asked that Haitian students to share a song, dance, etc that represents their culture.  While the Haitian students were very excited to learn English, they were very willing to exchange some of their culture with us!!  We had a few students share jokes in Kreyol, a slightly awkward poem (didn’t translate well…LOL), a welcome song and (our favorite) the Haitian National Anthem.  By the end of the day we were showing off our Kreyol to our students, acting like we could speak as well as Kristina.  Our students thought this was very funny, which allowed us to teach English in a welcoming environment.

“Teachers must learn from their students as much as their students learn from them.” –Kristina and Meghan (maybe?)

Bonswa TOUT MOUN!!!

Kristina and Meghan

            

Sunday's Adventures!

Sunday- Jan. 19

            We woke up bright and early and walked to the nearby Catholic Church for morning mass. The service- spoken entirely in Creole- lasted about 3 hours. At the end of the mass, the priest allowed us to speak to the congregation and thank them for their hospitality (and explain why so many blans were at mass that day!)

After a wonderful lunch of rice and beans, Jean-Remie (the director of MCC Desarmes) came to talk to us about the Reforestation Project started by MCC in Desarmes. He started with a little history:  deforestation in Haiti started with the colonization and heightened during the Duvalier Regime with government initiated, systemized killing of trees. Duvalier was scared that the rebels would hide in the tree-tops, so Papa Doc ordered for many of the trees to be destroyed. Deforestation has caused the average forest coverage of Haiti to decrease from 98% (before colonization) to 2% (current average according to USAID). The Reforestation Project in Desarmes allows for families in poverty to receive a sapling that they plant- the plant will not only reap economic benefits for the family (in fruit or wood) but will also provide environmental benefits. The Project has also implemented several programs in elementary schools, teaching children about agriculture through hands-on experience (each class will plant their own tree), and theoretical courses.

We spent the afternoon splitting into our education groups (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) to plan our lessons for the next week. It was great coming together, creating fun games/songs/activities to incorporate and looking ahead to our time at GASA.

Our evening was filled with the adventures of a river hike through L’Artibonit. Spending a couple of hours walking in the shallow water, and gazing at the beautiful Haitian scenery around us (though Camilla almost did get swept away!!). At the end of the river were beautiful caverns that we were able to explore.

For dinner we had Soup Jou-moun (Pumpkin soup- also Haiti’s independence day soup) and fresh bread. Our packed day of adventures ended with a fascinating look into the celebrations of Voodoo. We drove to Hounfour (the physical house of the Voodoo spirit being celebrated on that day). The house was packed full of celebrating people- women dancing in colorful outfits, people socializing, and food flowing. We ended our visit with an in depth meeting with the Houngoun. He explained how he has the duty of keeping the spirit happy.

  It was such a wonderful, enriching day.

XOXO

-Camilla and Sharlene

Transitions

Saturday-Jan. 18

Saturday was a day of transitions-

·      From the bustling city of Port-au-Prince to the rural Dezamn.

·      From a city of walls to a neighborhood of trees.

·      From typical amenities of wifi, electricity and water to seeing them as scarce luxuries. 

·      From the sounds of people to the sounds of pigs, roosters, and dogs.

·      From soaking in information to putting it in to practice

·      From dining room tables to front porch eating

·      From chaotic highways to calm country roads

On Saturday we took Route Nacionale 1 from Port-au-Prince to Dezamn, stopping at Obama Beach for some much welcomed relaxation. The beach named after our President greeted us with good food, warm water and a great time. Looking out over the glittering, cerulean blue ocean, you can’t help but be in awe of the natural beauty of Ayiti. We would have loved to stay in this place forever. It is amazing to continue discovering just how beautiful a place’s reality can be when such ugly perceptions exist.

Along our road trip, we stopped and got a watermelon and some “tablets”- sugary peanut clusters popular in Ayiti. We arrived in Dezamn just in time for a dinner of sauce poivre, lalou (many team members’ first time trying goat!), and rice. After settling in, Kristen led us in a time of meditation. The silence and peacefulness allowed us to reflect on our experiences so far and those yet to come.

Transitions often bring about uncertainty; yet, it is uncertainty that leads to growth. We are excited where the next week leads us in a new place!

This blog is dedicated to Annika’s clothes that were eaten by Blackie. Rest in pieces.

-Abisola & Courtney