So, I decided to stay in my jammies today. It was going to be a day of leisure. My intern is back after a 2 week break so I threw on a sports bra under my jammie tank and headed out to open the school. I got the office open, handed out vitamins, opened up the school, passed out the arts and crafts, the balls, the jump ropes, basketball, and the giant parachute and was going to head back up to my room for some coffee and a good book.
Of course the best laid plans.
So next thing you know, I'm visiting with our Poured-Out guests who are shortly going to be headed to the airport. We chat for a bit and I get a good laugh because Carlee, the beautiful, lithe, laid-back leader of the group, poured herself a coffee, embelished with a little cinnamon that turned out to be Cayenne pepper!
By the time I get back to my room, I'm covered in skeeter bites (I didn't spray because I wasn't planning on staying out there) and I'm a little sunburned (again, I didn't spray because I wasn't planning...well, you know that line already) and sweaty as all get out.
I sit down, crack open my hard boiled egg, and take a sip of my coffee.
Karma is a bitch.
And she had my name on her list.
This is why you never laugh at the misfortunes of others!
I apparently filled my cup with hot water, creamer, and sugar, and skipped the part where you stir in the spoonful of coffee crystals.
It was like drinking hot melted ice cream! Blek!
So, then I had to go relieve a crisis in the gazebo as the children put on their socks and gym shoes. 6 1/2 days a week they wear flip flops, but on Saturday mornings, they were gym shoes with socks. (Thanks again going out to New Baltimore, Michigan Parks and Rec and Rebecca Strobel for getting us all those awesome sneakers!) But of our 20 little miscreants only about 2 can tie their own shoes, so down I go to cries of "Miss Michele!" "please help me!" "I can't tie this stupid thing".
First we do the over/under. Then we make a tree. Then the rabbit runs around the tree..."Like this?" Yes, yes, yes, just like that.
So, we got 20 little pairs of feet into 20 little pairs of socks and sneakers and off to class to do their arts and crafts.
Then the rest of the teachers showed up for pay day. So then I have to go and make sure they all play nice while our director is out.
Okay, I'm heading back up to read and relax.
Wait, the power went out, I have to go start both generators.
Well, I can see I'm not going to relax today. I might as well start the inventory. We need to get next year's supplies order before the crew comes down the end of July.
So I plant myself in the third classroom and begin the arduous task of counting pencils, crayons, markers, construction paper, bottles of tacky glue, glue sticks, glitter, etc.
Somehow, I let the entire morning slip away. And still I haven't eaten any more than my egg. And whatever happened to my coffee?
So I make my way back to my room and grab the cup of iced coffee chilling in the fridge. Hmmm, seems I made decaf. What was I thinking?
Then a Skype with the boss. We have a situation to take care of. We have to make arrangements for one of our girls to go stay with family for a while. She has some behavioral issues and we aren't really equipped to deal with that. I mean, I'm pretty awesome and have a wealth of experiences, but there are just some things I am not trained to deal with.
We have a team pow-wow. The family exchange is going down around 4 pm.
Well, I'm surely not going to get any kind of down-time before then.
Back to the classroom. Back to the inventory.
By now some of the "red shirts", my 1st graders, are board. The movie has ended, (Beethoven) and the babies laid down for their naps, and they want to know if I will do yoga class with them. So I find a stopping point, we all grab mats, and off to the preschool classroom we go.
If you ever want to find out what you are made of, try teaching a yoga class to 10 6, 7, and 8 year olds, with 1 or 2 9 and 10 year olds in the mix. They fight over mats, they fight over mat space, they fight over who gets to put their mat by mine. Then they start stealing my mat, they climb on me, they climb under me. They think it's really funny to poke my "booty" when we do downward facing dog.
You want to find your zen? Try doing fish pose with a six year old sliding in under you, or hanging from your neck as you do Lord of the Dance!
I truly have transcended. I never lost my cool. I never fell over. I never gave up. I just kept reminding them that people who do yoga don't fight over mats, we share our space. We love one another. We encourage one another. And, le sigh, I applaud myself for how strong I am for being able to do awkward airplane with one child on my back, one on my leg, and one straddling my neck while one crawl under me to pepper my face with kisses.
So, after all that, we had to deal with our separating child. She handled the transition with more dignity and grace than I could have hoped for. After a year of her anti-social behaviors and aggressiveness and abhorrence of PDAs, she gave me a long hug, and a big kiss and told me she loved me. I will grieve over her absence, but some children just aren't cut out for this kind of situation.
After that I needed to let a little lose. The van is running and I have no intention of staying in if I don't have to. I invited the interns to head out for dinner and the pool at the good ole Visa Lodge (I'd prefer the hotel Montana, but there is no way in Haiti I'm trying to drive that van up the mountain ever again!). I invited one of our young men, Emmanuel Gedeon. He is one of our best students, and he earned all high marks on his exams.
It was a good evening. I ate waaaayyyy too much. Drank too little. And then we swam!
Manno was lucky enough to have met a woman in the pool that had just spent the day teaching her two Haitian escorts how to swim, and offered a few lessons to him. After about an hour in the pool, he was executing a novice breast stroke that was really impressive. Of course, he lost his rhythm and inhaled a bit of water, which scared him a bit. So then he sat guard on the stairs. The fun part about the Visa Lodge pool is that the stairs are evenly spaced at about 5 inches in rise, till the last step, which drops about 2 feet, leaving you in water about 5 1/2 feet deep, and that's the shallow end!
We swam for a while, til we were pretty knocked out, and headed home for showers.
That's about it for me. Church tomorrow and then we are thinking we might sneak back over to the pool.
Our Jacmel trip got sidelined. But we're headed to Calico Beach up the coast. I'm so excited! I can't wait to swim in the ocean. Been living on an island for an entire year and have only swam in the ocean 2 times so far!
TTFN!
My Year in Haiti
It's All About the Children
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
How much is Too Much?
One of the hardest parts of this job is knowing how much to give, and when to pull back. One could make themselves crazy down here trying to do what is best in every situation. It's like living in a moth bitten tent in the rainy season. You have to decide which holes to patch and which holes to leave. And you have to rearrange the furniture so the rain doesn't come in on the really important stuff.
There are so many places that our tent needs to be patched up. You can't possibly fix all the holes. So, let's say we leave one, and tuck a bucket under it to collect rain water. That's well and fine, but if you don't watch out, that bucket overflows and now you've ruined the rugs! So you have to keep shuffling buckets and moving the furniture around. But nobody else is helping. So as fast as you can move buckets around, patches bust and more holes are letting in water.
So now you are simultaneously, and independently, attempting to sew up holes, move buckets, rearrange furniture, and trying to keep the most precious of your possessions from getting destroyed by the ever onslaught of the masses of rain that just keeps pouring, and pouring and pouring in. Eventually you just want to go lay down on the bed and wait for the mudslide to carry you down hill.
Surrender is inevitable.
Yeah, it's that kind of Monday.
There are so many places that our tent needs to be patched up. You can't possibly fix all the holes. So, let's say we leave one, and tuck a bucket under it to collect rain water. That's well and fine, but if you don't watch out, that bucket overflows and now you've ruined the rugs! So you have to keep shuffling buckets and moving the furniture around. But nobody else is helping. So as fast as you can move buckets around, patches bust and more holes are letting in water.
So now you are simultaneously, and independently, attempting to sew up holes, move buckets, rearrange furniture, and trying to keep the most precious of your possessions from getting destroyed by the ever onslaught of the masses of rain that just keeps pouring, and pouring and pouring in. Eventually you just want to go lay down on the bed and wait for the mudslide to carry you down hill.
Surrender is inevitable.
Yeah, it's that kind of Monday.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Positive and Constructive Criticism and Sportsmanship
One of our biggest challenges in our school is the demand for perfection. Whether it is part of the Haitian school system's way of teaching, or it is part of the Haitian culture, I'm not sure, but our students become apoplectic if they make the littlest of mistakes. And to make it worse, our teachers, even after 8 long months of trying to model positive reinforcements, still have a tendency to bemoan errors. If a preschool student writes a 5 instead of a 2 the teacher pounces and sternly tells the student they did it wrong. Then the students starts to cry and covers their head and throws themselves on the ground and that's the end of that lesson for this student!
Another challenge is teaching sportsmanship. Here's an example:
Saturday is our PE day. We were doing relay rages using these "wands" that hold plastic balls. A few students hold out hula hoops for the racers to climb thru, tag the PE teacher, and race back to their team. I go thru the whole thing and explain that their are no individual winners, that the whole team must finish, and that even if one person is slow, another person might be fast enough to make up for it. Ready, set, go! I have them lined up littlest to biggest. Our two littlest runners head out. They cheat, as our kids always do, and one of them heads across the team line. At that moment, our other littlest one realizes defeat and throws themselves to the ground. I can't even get her to cross the team line to tag her next team member. The game is over. I repeat the ready, set, go! so our second runners in line can take off and again, the one that didn't make it back first throws himself to the ground and acts to have a seizure, flopping around and screaming. I can't even console him in the slightest!
I am beside myself with ways to help them around these issues. In the short term, we have ceased all competitive games for the little ones and instead are doing activities were they all win! I feel like such a leftie!
God forbid we ever try to do a "student of the week" idea!
If you have any hints, tips, web links for ideas on how to work around this, please forward them to my email! Thanks!
Another challenge is teaching sportsmanship. Here's an example:
Saturday is our PE day. We were doing relay rages using these "wands" that hold plastic balls. A few students hold out hula hoops for the racers to climb thru, tag the PE teacher, and race back to their team. I go thru the whole thing and explain that their are no individual winners, that the whole team must finish, and that even if one person is slow, another person might be fast enough to make up for it. Ready, set, go! I have them lined up littlest to biggest. Our two littlest runners head out. They cheat, as our kids always do, and one of them heads across the team line. At that moment, our other littlest one realizes defeat and throws themselves to the ground. I can't even get her to cross the team line to tag her next team member. The game is over. I repeat the ready, set, go! so our second runners in line can take off and again, the one that didn't make it back first throws himself to the ground and acts to have a seizure, flopping around and screaming. I can't even console him in the slightest!
I am beside myself with ways to help them around these issues. In the short term, we have ceased all competitive games for the little ones and instead are doing activities were they all win! I feel like such a leftie!
God forbid we ever try to do a "student of the week" idea!
If you have any hints, tips, web links for ideas on how to work around this, please forward them to my email! Thanks!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Pillow Dresses~!
Our girls Love, Love, Love their dresses! This is such an awesome way for church groups to give in Haiti! Just wish we had an easy solution for dressing our boys.
Thanks to the ladies from Texas who toiled over all of these works of art! Out girls are so excited about their new dresses!
Same old, same old
Okay, so those of you that know me, know that I've always been a Martha. If there's work to be done, I am in the kitchen getting the meal ready, in the yard preparing for the party, in the office, getting the paperwork done. I CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT sit idly by while someone else toils without feeling compelled to share the burden. It's not that I'm some kind of martyr or anything. It's just that I really really really try to live by the ideal of the Golden Rule. If that was me preparing whatever for whomever, I'd love, honor, and appreciate a spare hand.
Maybe it's because I was the big sister when my dear mother was wasting away from the C-word and I felt compelled to pick up the slack and make sure my little sis was taken care of. Maybe it's because since her death, I was always at the mercy of family and friends for my means. Maybe it's because I was a very liberated and independent single mother and most people just assumed I had it together and rarely offered a hand. Whatever the reason, just know that I'd no sooner lounge around and be served than I'd want to amputate my leg for no reason.
But it's not just out of some sense of what I think is right. I genuinely enjoy service. I think it must be tattooed to my forehead because every where I go, I find myself invited into opportunities to serve. And the funny thing is, even if I joke about it, I would actually do it and feel nothing was out of sorts about it.
This leads me to my fortune this weekend. I have been attending services at PAP Fellowship for several weeks now. For some reason yet to be revealed, I could not sit still in my row in church. I knew service was about to start, but the chapel was still fairly empty and I thought perhaps I'd pop out and see if anyone was hanging out that I might have a minute or two to meet up with and chat. As I passed the pastor (haha, I totally didn't plan that, but it sounds pretty funny! Go ahead, read it again, passed the pastor,) he invited me to be a part of the distribution team to hand out the sacraments. Hehehe, little did he know, (or maybe He told him) how often that happened at my home church in The States! I must say, it gave me great pleasure to be able to get up and serve the congregation.
Afterwards, since we had gone to early service, I go the opportunity to go home early with our lovely hostess, Beth, and help her prepare the afternoon meal for her multitudes and masses. Funny how my idea of relaxing on my day off was to get up at the crack of dawn to get to church early, serve the communion, head over to a friends house and cook and prepare food for a large crowd, but I must say, it was a most excellent way to spend my day.
I was home by 4 in the evening, got to spend some quality time with my kids and still had time to do a little reading and some personal time to boot.
I must say, if this had been my experience the first 6 or 8 months, I might be more inclined to keep at this awhile longer. As it is, I think I am going to need a long break if I am going to be able to find my way back here. I know that God is not done with me yet. And I know that I am not done with these kids quite yet. So now I need to spend some serious time in quiet contemplation to discover what my next move is after this.
All for now...
Maybe it's because I was the big sister when my dear mother was wasting away from the C-word and I felt compelled to pick up the slack and make sure my little sis was taken care of. Maybe it's because since her death, I was always at the mercy of family and friends for my means. Maybe it's because I was a very liberated and independent single mother and most people just assumed I had it together and rarely offered a hand. Whatever the reason, just know that I'd no sooner lounge around and be served than I'd want to amputate my leg for no reason.
But it's not just out of some sense of what I think is right. I genuinely enjoy service. I think it must be tattooed to my forehead because every where I go, I find myself invited into opportunities to serve. And the funny thing is, even if I joke about it, I would actually do it and feel nothing was out of sorts about it.
This leads me to my fortune this weekend. I have been attending services at PAP Fellowship for several weeks now. For some reason yet to be revealed, I could not sit still in my row in church. I knew service was about to start, but the chapel was still fairly empty and I thought perhaps I'd pop out and see if anyone was hanging out that I might have a minute or two to meet up with and chat. As I passed the pastor (haha, I totally didn't plan that, but it sounds pretty funny! Go ahead, read it again, passed the pastor,) he invited me to be a part of the distribution team to hand out the sacraments. Hehehe, little did he know, (or maybe He told him) how often that happened at my home church in The States! I must say, it gave me great pleasure to be able to get up and serve the congregation.
Afterwards, since we had gone to early service, I go the opportunity to go home early with our lovely hostess, Beth, and help her prepare the afternoon meal for her multitudes and masses. Funny how my idea of relaxing on my day off was to get up at the crack of dawn to get to church early, serve the communion, head over to a friends house and cook and prepare food for a large crowd, but I must say, it was a most excellent way to spend my day.
I was home by 4 in the evening, got to spend some quality time with my kids and still had time to do a little reading and some personal time to boot.
I must say, if this had been my experience the first 6 or 8 months, I might be more inclined to keep at this awhile longer. As it is, I think I am going to need a long break if I am going to be able to find my way back here. I know that God is not done with me yet. And I know that I am not done with these kids quite yet. So now I need to spend some serious time in quiet contemplation to discover what my next move is after this.
All for now...
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Such a busy 2 weeks!
Wow! The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of activity. Emotions have been exaggerated, stress tolerances and patience tested, limits pushed, curiosities piqued, and energy levels tapped out to say the least.
First my intern went home for a 5 day weekend 2 Thursdays ago. No biggie, but I have turned quite a few areas of responsibility over to her and she has made several changes that I haven't managed to keep up with. Questions came up and I wasn't able to answer them. We managed, but just barely. It's amazing how quickly you can come to rely on someone.
While she was gone we had guests, Jason, who is part of the Detroit Muscle Crew, and his wife Courtney, who decided to spend their wedding anniversary here. They came on Sunday. Courtney said that Haiti was the only part of Jason's world that she hadn't yet shared and she wanted to see where his heart kept getting called to come. While they were here we went for a loooong walk to escort one of our girls to her family's residence, in a tent city. It was eye opening to walk that much through Delmas 33. When they say "walk a mile in another man's shoes..." they really aren't kidding. It was a good experience for us all. We got to see the conditions of her home and how her family makes due with such humble accommodations.
On Monday we also received a visit from Dr. Nellie Williams, one of the original benefactors of the mission grounds. She was the angel responsible for raising the funds that paid for the building of the guest house, which includes my "apartment". She was escorted by her grandson, Neal Porter, who was an Army mortar man. He fit in nicely with our other intern, Josh, who was an Army paratrooper. We swapped war stories and regaled the rest of the crowd with tales of our bravado and silliness that is military comradeship!
Our intern returned on Tuesday. That night we went out to eat in Petionville. In honor of our guests we decided to try Magdoos, Lebanese fare. I was so delighted! I've been wanting to check that place out since I moved here last year! The ambiance of the place is worth almost twice what the menu prices were!
On Wednesday we said good bye to Jason and Courtney and got back to business in the school. Our other guests stayed until Friday. Saturday midday we greeted Mitch and his wife, Janine, along with Patty and Jeff Alley. The Alleys were here to check out the place while they consider where God is calling them. Hopefully we will see them moving down here to help out. It will be nice to have a father figure and male role model here, as well as having a nurturing mommy to cuddle with the little ones.
An hour after they arrived we escorted the second truckload, Anachemy, Cara and Cara's son, Jesse. Anachemy is Haitian born, US raised and educated. She just completed her degree in education and will be staying with us for a year to teach in the school. We are so excited to have her joining our team. She will be here full time in July, to run a summer school program to catch up the 6 new kids and make them ready for our school in September.
Cara, as most people know by now, is the other half of my brain. She is the rock star who writes all of our lesson plans and directs our curriculum and provides me with a sounding board for all of my ideas for the school. Jesse, her eldest son, is an aspiring movie producer. He was doing some filming to accompany Mitch's speaking engagements to help fund-raise for the upcoming year's budget and hopefully the expansion of the school.
Oh, and then we had a third trip to the airport to pick up our good friend, Nedal Tamer, the plumber. He missed his earlier flight, but we won't fault him because that man worked from sun up til sun down and fixed and completed so many jobs and projects around the mission. What a blessing to have such talented and skilled tradesmen who volunteer to come work here and help us keep this place running in the best possible shape!
Our company all departed by Monday evening and we are slowly working our way back to normal. Well, as carry puts it, what passes for normal. This is, after all, Haiti!
Love and stuff,
Michele
First my intern went home for a 5 day weekend 2 Thursdays ago. No biggie, but I have turned quite a few areas of responsibility over to her and she has made several changes that I haven't managed to keep up with. Questions came up and I wasn't able to answer them. We managed, but just barely. It's amazing how quickly you can come to rely on someone.
While she was gone we had guests, Jason, who is part of the Detroit Muscle Crew, and his wife Courtney, who decided to spend their wedding anniversary here. They came on Sunday. Courtney said that Haiti was the only part of Jason's world that she hadn't yet shared and she wanted to see where his heart kept getting called to come. While they were here we went for a loooong walk to escort one of our girls to her family's residence, in a tent city. It was eye opening to walk that much through Delmas 33. When they say "walk a mile in another man's shoes..." they really aren't kidding. It was a good experience for us all. We got to see the conditions of her home and how her family makes due with such humble accommodations.
On Monday we also received a visit from Dr. Nellie Williams, one of the original benefactors of the mission grounds. She was the angel responsible for raising the funds that paid for the building of the guest house, which includes my "apartment". She was escorted by her grandson, Neal Porter, who was an Army mortar man. He fit in nicely with our other intern, Josh, who was an Army paratrooper. We swapped war stories and regaled the rest of the crowd with tales of our bravado and silliness that is military comradeship!
Our intern returned on Tuesday. That night we went out to eat in Petionville. In honor of our guests we decided to try Magdoos, Lebanese fare. I was so delighted! I've been wanting to check that place out since I moved here last year! The ambiance of the place is worth almost twice what the menu prices were!
On Wednesday we said good bye to Jason and Courtney and got back to business in the school. Our other guests stayed until Friday. Saturday midday we greeted Mitch and his wife, Janine, along with Patty and Jeff Alley. The Alleys were here to check out the place while they consider where God is calling them. Hopefully we will see them moving down here to help out. It will be nice to have a father figure and male role model here, as well as having a nurturing mommy to cuddle with the little ones.
An hour after they arrived we escorted the second truckload, Anachemy, Cara and Cara's son, Jesse. Anachemy is Haitian born, US raised and educated. She just completed her degree in education and will be staying with us for a year to teach in the school. We are so excited to have her joining our team. She will be here full time in July, to run a summer school program to catch up the 6 new kids and make them ready for our school in September.
Cara, as most people know by now, is the other half of my brain. She is the rock star who writes all of our lesson plans and directs our curriculum and provides me with a sounding board for all of my ideas for the school. Jesse, her eldest son, is an aspiring movie producer. He was doing some filming to accompany Mitch's speaking engagements to help fund-raise for the upcoming year's budget and hopefully the expansion of the school.
Oh, and then we had a third trip to the airport to pick up our good friend, Nedal Tamer, the plumber. He missed his earlier flight, but we won't fault him because that man worked from sun up til sun down and fixed and completed so many jobs and projects around the mission. What a blessing to have such talented and skilled tradesmen who volunteer to come work here and help us keep this place running in the best possible shape!
Our company all departed by Monday evening and we are slowly working our way back to normal. Well, as carry puts it, what passes for normal. This is, after all, Haiti!
Love and stuff,
Michele
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