On to the next adventure

Tough blog to finish out, more reflections on this whole experience hopefully to come. Meanwhile I've moved locations, both on and offline - http://frolickinginfranceavignon.blogspot.fr/

10 Things I Learned From Teaching in Haiti

1. If it looks like rain (and the only rain here is of the torrential downpour variety), expect most of your students not to show up. In fact, you probably shouldn't show up either to avoid potential rain-induced injuries. (I wish I wasn't speaking from experience.)
2. If you plan on doing a lesson on health and body parts, you sure as hell better be ready to translate "vaginal infection" and repeat it as many times as it takes to get the pronunciation correct. 
3. Urbandictionary.com is the most useful resource for finding the definitions of words your students hear in Lil' Wayne songs and want to have translated. As a result, I now know what "cho-cha" means, and it isn't even English.
4. It's okay to say "No." For example, "No, you don't need my phone number." Or, "No thanks, (for the 15th time) God and I will be just fine if I don't go to the three hour Baptist service." Also, "No, I can't buy you a laptop today." And finally, "No, I'm not engaged or married, and there's nothing wrong with it at 23!"
5. Always stick up for my fellow women.
   Student - "Maria, how many sons do you want?"
   Me (Mainly for the shock) - "None."
6. Some days 50 students will show up for class, other days just two. (I prefer just two, those are always the best days!)
7. Every student will ask for your phone number, and if they can be your best friend.
8. Again, referencing #2, if you're opening yourself up to a game where they need to share as many words as they know in English that begin with the letter "B", you better be willing to accept "boobies".
9. Have patience. Saying class will start at 10am means you'll actually start at 10:20, and still have people trickling in until about 11:00, but still be expected to finish promptly at 11:30, and I've been happy to oblige because teaching in three languages is exhausting! 
10. On a sincere note, I've found even more evidence for the universality of students in a classroom. If you are dynamic and exciting, your students will be into whatever you're teaching. If you aren't prepared, you can't expect students to take your class seriously. This is true whether I'm in rural Borgne, Haiti, urban Toulouse, France, inner-city Washington, D.C., or suburban Frederick, Maryland. It was easy for me to forget the ceilings that were cracked and leaking and the floor covered with animal feces when there were perfect moments of laughter over botched pronunciation (by both teacher and student) and excitement over correct answers. 

On Being the Only Blan

So I haven't been updating in as great of detail as I was at first. I'm pretty bummed about my inability to share pictures, which make posts look so much cooler. But in reality I've just been becoming immersed in life here. Being the only blan has had it's ups and downs. I think lists are one of the greatest tools ever, so I'm going to try that out. (Okay, it's not a true list, a list of sentences and paragraphs.)

The Cons:

• I need friends! However, in my desperation for social interaction, I talk to everyone and then everyone here wants to be friends and real friends share phone numbers, right?! [See #9 in my previous post.]
• I'm easily cornered. Again, a reference to #9. People get a little bolder when you're by yourself. Luckily I keep finding that there's always someone around ready to help me out.
• Eating is lonely. I've been missing conversation. 
• I get to go to church. Now this isn't exactly a con, but it is when you forget to check in with the person who takes you to mass so then you have no good reason not to go with your friend to the 3 hour baptist service. The pro about that experience was that my friend had a book so I could sing along. The con - visiting pastor from Africa screaming into the microphone something about Jesus and foreigners and the United States while I'm crammed between two people with little air circulation.

The Pros:

• I'm making friends! People like talking to you more when you aren't in a whole blantourage walking around the place. I spent Sunday on the beach and made friends with some teachers working here through UNICEF. They were friendly and shared their sugar cane with me.
• Map pale anpil kreyol! I can have full conversations solely in Creole. This is the best feeling ever. The first few weeks I didn't have the chance to use it much because people knew I didn't speak Creole so they would just talk to the other Americans who could. I do revert to French sometimes though when I talk to the doctors. 
• I've been going to mass. This second time around I noticed some other things:
• I really like the way they do the "Peace be with you." The priest walks all throughout the church and tries to shake as many hands as possible.
• It's a lot like France in that it's completely acceptable to sit, stand, or kneel at the times where in the U.S. everyone is kneeling except really old people and little kids standing on the kneeler.
• Communion - there is no order, but it's orderly. You don't have to go when you're pew goes, you go when you feel ready. I like that.

Only a few days left here! Finishing up my list on teaching. I haven't been spending as much time blogging, and more time just sitting around talking to people, it's been great for my French and Creole. If I weren't still feeling the remnants of typhoid I wouldn't want to leave. (Side note: A whole slew of people in the community, including a few others at the hospital, have also come down with typhoid so it was apparently going around.) 

A few more posts left to go!

Once upon a time I went to Haiti.. and got typhoid.

Apparently there's a trend in my family that we like to contract old school diseases. My younger brother Robert had whooping cough as a toddler in Ireland. True story. 

Saturday night my stomach felt awful after dinner, but nothing happened, so I figured it was just my tummy being weird as usual. Sunday night was similar, but again it went away so I assumed all was well. Monday night was a different story. (Apologies in advance if this is too much information, but for the sake of historical accuracy, I might be a tad graphic.) After dinner, I was sitting outside having a great conversation with a friend about race and attitudes in Haiti, France, and the United States. I had to cut this conversation short because my stomach was freaking out. I then went on to experience the worst diarrhea I've ever had in my life. At home there's no way I would've seen a doctor unless it persisted for a while. However, there are too many things that could be going here to let it go, so I went to see a doctor. He gave me a slew of pills and sent me on my way. 

After unsuccessful attempts at falling asleep, I tried making calls home, even though it was almost midnight, anything to get my mind off of my stomach. It then hit me that I was definitely going to throw up. Two important notes here. First, I had not had running water all day, and did not get running water back until tonight. Second, it sounds silly, and I've just recently gotten better about this, but for the longest time I've had a fear of throwing up. Now I get that no one likes throwing up, but I would freak out if anytime my stomach hurt, ever since I was at least eight years old. Since then if I feel like I need to throw up I always run outside, somehow thinking being outside will make it better. (This became problematic when I spent the past year living in a basement apartment, it somewhat broke me of the habit.) In any case, with those two things in mind I decided to trek out and find a place to take care of business. The problem (or thankfully!) one of the security guards came across me, and despite my protests and attempted explanations, half carried to the emergency room of the hospital while I half-passed out. I then proceeded to projectile vomit all over this poor man, myself, and the floor of the waiting area. (Goodbye Frederick County Fall 2007 Field Hockey Tournament shirt, the lack of water meant you were sacrificed.) This was immediately followed by tears. I felt so bad for getting sick in the hospital and tried to explain while simultaneously attempted to protest the need for an IV. Watching one of the women that clean here start to clean up my mess made me feel even worse, but I could barely sit up on the chair, let alone actually attempt to help.

So I was set up in my room with an IV, and spent a restless night trying not to use the bathroom. The next morning I tried to spread the word that classes were cancelled. This upset me more than being sick, and I'm going to try to have a class for anyone that wants to come on Saturday, I've felt awful that it's been so hard to be consistent here. I was then given “bread soup” to eat. It was literally bread in a buttery broth mix. I ate some because I was hungry, hoping I wouldn't encounter it again.

Tried to get a picture of my IV stand with my computer,
doesn't fully convey how crazy it looked in reality.

The day brought many, many visitors. Everyone seemed to be very concerned that I would become lonely. As a result, I resorted to saying I needed to nap several times to get a little alone time! It was really nice though, even the security guard I puked on came to check on me, as did the woman who cleaned it up, and then she brought me a bucket of water so I could wash up!

That afternoon, the woman who plays mom here brought me boiled plantains for dinner and told me I had typhoid. I laughed, thinking she had to be joking. I paid for the vaccine!! Also, I always think I have a real medical issue at home and it turns out to be nothing. So of course the one time I go into it thinking it's just a stomach virus it's actually something legitimate. After she convinced me it was serious, I was eager to do some research, because I really didn't know much about typhoid other than that it was a disease I read about in all of my historical novels when I was ten. For anyone reading who also doesn't really know what it is, the CDC website explained to me that it's from salmonella bacteria, so you can get it from contaminated food or water. The food contamination is mostly from people not washing their hands. In any case, this was frustrating because I spent the money on the vaccine, mais c'est la vie. This also means I had fever that had me sweating bullets all day, but they are awesome here and set me up with a fan by running an extension cord from the hospital up to my room on a second floor. (The hospital has electricity all day, the area where my room is only has it at night.) And a friend was extra awesome and brought an extension cord for me to use for a bit to charge my electronics to keep me occupied during all that time stuck in my room.

My only real complaint about all this is that I couldn't just have ginger ale, saltine crackers, and my mom.

Today I had to cancel classes again, I was still too exhausted. I slept like a log from 8pm to 8am, then again from 9am to noon. At 7pm I managed to briefly slip away and buy a knock-off sprite, it tasted like the best thing I've ever had. This gave me the courage to go back to tackling the enormous bowl of crab soup I was supposed to finish for dinner. (That didn't happen, I ate all of the potatoes and plantains, but my stomach said no way to crab.)

So now I'm on a bunch of antibiotics, hopefully feeling well enough to run classes tomorrow, and very thankful I was able to take a real shower tonight. Just another adventure to put down in the books.

10 Things I've learned from 5 weeks in Haiti

1. Never say you're not feeling well unless you know it's serious, otherwise you will absolutely get anti-inflammatories shot into your butt.
2. I finally know why my mom forced me to take swimming lessons - so I could swim out into the ocean alone and avoid men asking where my husband is.
3. Yawning means you're hungry. 
4. Making a seemingly asinine statement about what a person is currently doing is a completely acceptable way to acknowledge his or her presence. (Example: You're sitting? Yeah, I'm sitting) [imagine with nods and smiles] Note: I actually really like this about Haitian culture.
5. Every single organ of a goat is edible. And delicious. 
6. Spaghetti is for breakfast. (See why I would love it here?)
7. If your wrists are bleeding after you finish scrubbing your clothes, you're doing it wrong. (These women seriously have mini washing boards for hands - I just can't catch on.)
8. Mass is two hours and contains about fifty songs. (Thank God I'm Catholic, the Baptist service is 3.5.)
9. You can send pre-paid credit from one cellphone to another here, and people can send you a request for some. This has lead to a few awkward interactions.
10. I can pass for a Cuban? I've been asked if I'm Cuban a few times. Might be the name. I like to think it's because of my sweet tan. Or my diabolical socialist tendencies. 

Stay tuned for Part II - What I've Learned From Teaching 

Why didn't I choose med school?

Tonight I wish I was a doctor.

I feel extremely useless. I was sitting outside around 6:30pm when all of the sudden some of the doctors and drivers rushed into the small lot and sped out of the gates. I walked down towards the entrance and one of the security guards who speaks English looked and me and shook his head, “There was an accident. Big car crashed, lots of people from Tibouk going to Cap.” It turns out it was a huge truck, I see them pass all the time, often loaded to the brim with goods and then people are sitting on top and hanging out of the back. It had turned over. Motorcycles were being used to wheel people into the hospital. Everyone ran into storage areas to grab mattresses. There are people lying in every crevice of the hospital. I watched and became consumed by an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. I offered to help drag out more mattresses, but was told it was okay to stand back, there was too much blood. There was, and still is, a lot of blood. And moaning. I'm in shock.

I'm frustrated. The people I've met here have little, but they are some of the most giving and joyful people I've ever met, and the most faithful. And yet their lives are plagued by tragedy. I can't understand all the pain I've seen here.

The energy and commitment I've seen tonight is incredible. Anyone and everyone that works at the hospital is assisting, people that arrive here at least around 6am, and it's not 9pm. One of the doctors is rushing around with his shin guards still on from the soccer match he ran over from. There were about two dozen people injured, a couple hours later the gates were being pounded on to let in another person who had just been in a motorcycle accident.

Something else that struck me during all of this craziness is that people were concerned about how I was feeling! It's like they knew the sheltered blan had definitely never seen anything like this, and instead of being annoyed, they just gave me hugs. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this country?

I'd like to analyze all of this a little more later, after I've had some sleep and the wailing stops. Just prayers, I've never seen any pain like this close up and I'm not sure what to do.

Lil' Wayne Helps Students Learn English..

Planned post prior to this evening:

The many interruptions, x-rays, clinics, peasant organization rallies, etc. have made continuity in my program mildly difficult. I've still managed to have at least one class a day. A group of students always shows up ready to pick my brain for at least two hours. Sometimes their questions really stump me and I feel silly. Then I feel silly for feeling silly because I really couldn't have anticipated needing to know the English translations of certain words having never before spent a significant amount of time in this culture.

I've decided what I would like to contribute to this organization/community when I have the means to do so – bathrooms. Human dignity can be preserved and upheld in something as simple as allowing a person to use a real bathroom or shower, particularly when they're ill. The women that wash and cook in the back told me once last week I needed to come hang out back there more to practice my Creole. What I couldn't explain, however, was that sometimes being back there was difficult because those were the moments when I saw the most significant instances of human need, and I couldn't always stomach it.

There aren't any running-water toilets for patients (I think I mentioned in a previous post that there are outdoor latrines). For patients remaining here for an extended period of time, there are also no showers. I've caught too many glimpses of pregnant women, looking ready to burst, taking a bucket sponge bath with little to no privacy behind a broken-down truck in the yard.* Another time an elderly woman, carrying her IV bag, sat naked on the steps leading up to the latrines as her (presumably) husband or son bathed her. Even those these are the showering/bathroom experiences that most here are accustomed to as well (several of the people that work here also take bucket showers openly in the back), my idealistic self envisions something better for those who are already battling a difficult experience.

*This is not meant to be negative commentary on the organization here in any way, shape, or form. I'm just reflecting on what I've seen.

I had a long conversation yesterday with a student I have who goes to school in Cap. His English is relatively strong, although we frequently converse in French/Creole. We talked about how he wants to study medicine and become a doctor, as aspiration of many here as it is one of the few careers that students actually see in practice. Almost every girl will tell you she wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Anyways, I appreciate conversations with this student because, at least not yet, they haven't turned into a guilt-trip for money. He showed up today with a list of 90 words/phrases that he wanted help defining/spelling, many from song lyrics. I asked a lot about the process of going to university here, and I'm still working on trying to piece together the details between what I find online and what the students tell me. It's clear to me so far that even if you finish high school and are intelligent, there's not a good chance of a scholarship. The scholarship issue is tricky. On the one hand, there is a lot of money. On the other hand, many organizations, and the government, don't want to pump money into educating students either in Haiti or abroad who won't remain in Haiti. I am working on researching this more, mostly because I want to find more resources for this student.

On a lighter note, I have three different peanut-based things to snack on. Regular shelled peanuts, tablet (which is like Haitian peanut brittle, not very sweet though), and the not-so-spicy-now peanut butter (amazing on bananas).