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).  

The mini ants got through the wrappers on my cliff bars..

Odds and ends.

My last class of the day goes until about 7:00pm, when the bar nearby has already started blasting it's music. Listening to Pitbull while teaching.. I love it.

Lil' Wayne has become a daily topic of conversation in my classroom. One of my students who speaks English really well is always asking me to translate questionable lyrics – always good for a laugh.

Patience is a virtue...

And it's one that most people reading this probably wouldn't put on a list of my top.. say 20... best qualities. I've learned oh so many lessons in patience during my month in Haiti so far. For example, they said they wanted me to get an x-ray in Cap, which I was initially protesting, but after another night of little sleep even with pain medication I was all for it to see what's actually up with my body. So I diligently spread the word the night before that my classes were going to be cancelled the following morning. Then in the morning it was decided to wait another day. I honestly wouldn't mind if I hadn't had to cancel class, I guess I should have waited until the morning. I'm really concerned about continuity for my group.

So I'm still going over to see if anyone show sup who didn't get the message, and if not I'm just going to use the time to hash out more thorough plans and work on my online TESOL class.

*Immediately after writing that someone came and got me to say I was going to get the x-ray.

The x-ray experience was a worthwhile adventure. When you get an x-ray in the US the person asks you at least 50 times if there's any slim chance in the universe you might be pregnant. Not here. Just take your shirt off and we'll radiate you.

This excursion was significant because I had to make phone calls in Creole – and they were successful! I even got to try to make some photocopies. I have 30 half-complete books. The power went out halfway through.

I even got to still have class when I got back, there were about a dozen students. The students that showed up were ones that are really into everything, so it ended up being a great class working in groups with flashcards.

Turns out I couldn't have class Friday morning either way because there's a mobile clinic at the school. I'm sad to not see my morning students, but I'm happy to get so much time to plan and sort out my attendance so I can figure out who should get books first.

Nothing on my x-ray. So just hot compresses and this gel stuff that is kind of like icy-hot and has worked miracles.

Saturday night I got to have a little excursion. One of the women that deals with the financial side of things here just opened a restaurant/bar in town. I was just hanging out outside the hospital when she tells me to jump in the truck to come into town. It was great! Amazing food and music, and I got to keep practicing my Creole. The weird thing was for a while I was the only female in the place other than the owner and her mother. That's still taking some getting used to.

Sunday I was finally able to check out mass in Creole, which here in Borgne begins at 7:00am and lasts about two hours. There had to be at least triple the number of songs, and everyone knew all the words! The thin wooden pews reminded me of several churches I've been to in France. I could understand the priest for the homily, but everyone else was still a little too difficult to make out between my untrained ear and the crackling sound system. There was one part of mass I really didn't feel comfortable about – collection. The way it worked at this church was that two people stood up front like they would for communion and they each held a chest. If you were giving money then you got in line and put your money in. I wonder how people would feel about that method at home?

Today -

Another Monday – and another morning without class! There's a large meeting for the peasant organization so I can't use the school. My week is already being all switched around because of the big celebration in Borgne. It's the week where everyone who's left Borgne comes back, and it's all making it difficult to have continuity.  

*Apologies for the lack of photos - the silly usb ports on my computer don't like to recognize anything!

So many lessons to learn

Before I get into new things, I want to share some pictures from last week, particularly from the goodbye party for another American who just spent the year here developing a Creole literacy program for adults. (She's pretty awesome.)

These two are too precious today - wish I had a good picture of them dancing!

Delicious spread!

Two of my favorite people here! Martin, always helping with anything I need, and Widline, with any questions or help I need in class!

Cheesin'

I was beyond excited when I saw this huge thing of fried plantains for the party!

My workspace where I put together the books for my program.

7/6

Today was a nice break from the crazy week of teaching. I slept in a little, read, and planned for the week. Walked into town to buy chalk at the market. It was a fun experience because this time I ran into students I knew by name. An afternoon on the beach followed by a delicious lunch/dinner made it a great day. Afterwards I decided to venture out and talk to people around the hospital. Hanging out by the main entrance that leads towards the emergency room is the place to be apparently. I got to see my first broken bone in person. I ended up making other new friends just by hanging around, and they invited me to come watch their band practice. I said maybe another time, but me and the other American ended up venturing out to see them on accident and their band was great!

7/7

At 6:30am this morning I learned that a hummingbird next to your ear sounds like a helicopter. I also learned they really do dart as quickly away as they do in Disney movies.

I got up early to go to mass in town, I was supposed to go with someone. Based on the conversation, I understood that they would come meet me at the hospital, since I'm not really allowed to walk into town alone. They never came. Lost in translation.

Apparently I needed to find someone from the hospital community to walk down with me. This is easier said then done. Almost everyone is Baptist. A bunch of my students keep asking me to go to the Baptist church. The service is three hours long.. and I'd probably be confused. I love mass because I can go in any country and still know what's going on. In any case, I'll try again for next Sunday.

7/8

Class was fun this morning now that we've separated in two. Today we did body vocabulary and answering questions about symptoms and illnesses. I started coughing, trying to get them to say cough, and someone yelled out “You have TB!” and I just burst out laughing. It was funny and sad at the same time. No one in my classroom in the US would ever guess TB as an answer for anything.

7/9

Yesterday only a few people showed up to my last class, my advanced class. I wasn't too surprised because a few of my best students had told me the week before that they would be away in Cap for a few days. There were others, however, that I was surprised not to see. I stayed regardless, and had a really interesting conversation with the students that did show up. A little into our conversation, a storm started. Torrential downpours. We initially planned to wait it out. An hour later, we were sitting in the desks in the only spot in the room that didn't have water pouring in. I looked outside and saw the hospital gate was closed, and none of the security guards would be sitting out in that weather, so even if I made a dash across the street I'd be stuck, and with all my papers wet. I had also chosen that day, of all days, to wear my TOMS to teach instead of my flip-flops (both the pairs of flip-flops I brought are pretty much done.. a little side note – Baba knows best. She wanted me to bring 3 or more pairs of these cheap flip-flops and I said oh no two is more than enough.. fail.) So the rain slowed down, but everything was soaked, and the whole downstairs entrance way was flooded. Did I mention before I'm on the second floor? And that everything here is made from concrete? It was starting to get dark so we had to leave. I take two steps down the stairs and I felt myself start to slip, and I slammed down onto my back on the concrete steps. My papers flew everywhere into puddles, and my students rushed to help me up and pick up all my papers. I couldn't hold back the tears, I felt like someone had punched me with a concrete fist on the left side of my back. I hobbled down the rest of the stairs, only to find the gate to the school had been locked from the outside. Luckily one of my students found another way to get around and went and unlocked it. I went straight over to the hospital, the gate was now open again now that the rain had slowed down. Both paths to my room were flooded with about a foot of water so I just went into the hospital and sat on a bench. I ended up sitting next to one of the doctors, who noticed I was still crying and obviously walking in pain. I explained what happened in broken French. It's incredible how you can totally lose your language capacities when you're in distress. He asked if I had any pain medication and I said I'd be fine, I had ibuprofen. He asked if I wanted an injection of pain medication instead, that it would be faster.

I know I'm living at a hospital. But it is a little absurd that I have better access to and better quality health care in Haiti than I do in the United States. I followed the doctor into one of the consultation rooms where he checked out my back and then gave me an injection. I know it's silly, but I honestly have no idea what he gave me, and didn't care to even know, I was just relieved to have some assistance.

I woke up this morning feeling like I was in a car accident. I can't sit comfortably, or reach up with my left side. The same doctor has been asking me how I'm doing, and if all this continues tomorrow I am going to get checked out, because the pain is a little ridiculous.

On a different note, word spreads quickly, and everywhere I go, my classes or around the hospital, I get the same question, “Maria, ou te tombe?” (Maria, did you fall?) I love this community, but it is a little crazy sometimes how everyone knows immediately what's happening with everyone else.

Back to teaching – I'd had only one serious problem so far, and that's been with my books. So I brought 100 books that I made in collaboration with some of my awesome students from T.J. That was the recommended amount to bring from my friend that was helping to prepare things here while I was still at home. Both of our organization meetings brought in roughly 30-40 people (most of the same people were at each meeting). So with that number in mind, plus the others that expressed interest, we thought 100 would be more than enough. It would have been. If I had been smarter about it.

The first day I had about 60 students, more than anticipated, and I gave out books to every student. I know, I know, rookie teacher mistake for this type of arena. I had no idea I would have roughly twenty new students each day for the rest of the week. I thought my numbers would drop. And they certainly have, this week. Long story short, because of my error, I have several students who started coming last Wednesday and have continued through today and don't have books. And I have others who started coming the first or second day and stopped who have books. In reality the books aren't crucial to the class, I always write everything on the board anyway because most students like me to write it up there with the kreyol translation. It's more about validation and having something tangible. I had hoped to try to get to Cap to make copies this past weekend, but there was a lot going on and the cars that did go to Cap wouldn't have time to let me make copies, and the copy machines at the hospital, which I'm welcome to use, are out of ink. I just feel awful because even though it's just a little homemade resource book, I feel like I'm just contributing to the series of broken promises to Haitians from outsiders. It's a guilt I'm not quite sure how to reconcile right now.

On a similar note, I've been struggling with being here for such a short amount of time. I'm here just long enough to get into a routine, begin to learn the language and culture, and build friendships just to leave again. I'm already hoping to come back next summer, but with an improved service that can hopefully be hashed out with my new Haitian friends in the community. 

On that note, more pictures!

View of the hospital from my classroom.

View of the beach/town from my classroom.

My classroom :)

The view of the building where I'm staying from my classroom.

This is the not-so-great chalk I'm using from the market in Borgne. I easily go through half a pack in a day because it falls apart so easily. And it's very stressful making sure no one under 14 uses it.

I'll leave you with this.. :)

One of my students had this phrase book in class today. Some of the phrases were on point and useful, others had me  dying with laughter.

Another classroom

7/1

First day of classes!!! I was so excited and so ready this morning to be back in a classroom. The problem is I stayed up a little too late studying Creole, so I had a rough time waking up this morning. Then I went in the back to get breakfast and was made fun of for all of my mosquito bites.. I counted 94 just from my knees down and on my arms. We had hot chocolate with our breakfast.. I might need to say I'm allergic to get out of it, I don't think not liking chocolate is acceptable. Since there were only two of us this morning I made myself drink some. I really don't think I will ever successfully force myself to like chocolate.

I walked across the street to the high school at only a few minutes before 9:00am, anticipating that the majority wouldn't arrive until 9:20. That was exactly the case, but it gave me some time to talk with the ones that did show up on time to assess how the morning would go. Fewer people actually understood French than had been expressed in our previous meeting. I was a little nervous at first about that, and felt guilty for not knowing more Creole, but then I got excited for the challenge to try to communicate in Creole as much as possible to explain things.

27 students made up my first class. By the time we really got started we probably spent a good hour and a half. TESOL baptism by fire. My students ranged in age from 11 to 30, but they were pretty much all on the same level in terms of speaking. We're starting with all the basics, even though most knew many of the words in phrases we went over, only one or two were actually comfortable saying them aloud.

I spent my first afternoon between classes putting together more books for the next class since I really hadn't anticipated that many to show up. I ended up eating lunch alone, which was really awkward in this meeting room. I'm going to ask if I can just start eating in the back so I don't have to walk with this tray of food from the back around to where we eat, it's just so uncomfortable because I always have to walk past the women taking care of the babies in the malnutrition ward and I just can't handle it.

Students were already in the classroom when I arrived for my afternoon class a little before 4:00pm, and I could tell right away it would be a more rambunctious crowd. I ended up with 33 students, ranging from age 11 to 40 this time and several had a lot of previous experience with English. By the time we ended, we decided to split that group in half. So I now have 3 classes. The beginners from the afternoon class will now meet 4-5:30, then the advanced from 5:30-7, and then I'll have a group at the hospital at 7. This all wouldn't be so nutty if I wasn't getting up at 6:00am. It's pretty much impossible to sleep in past 6 or 7 because everyone else in the community is up and about by then.

In any case, I had a lot of fun teaching today. I only got asked once if I was married or had any children. This is ten times more challenging than teaching French. I have no set curriculum, which is so great. My advanced group at the school is going to be geared towards business English per their request. Plus, the entire time I'm learning more and more Creole. After this first day I'm wiped, but it feels great to be busy again.

View of the high school I'm teaching at from the hospital across the street.
I'm using a classroom on the second floor on the right side of the name.

7/2

I've already had two experiences teaching here that would have never happened at TJ. First, I forgot to mention yesterday that there was a huge storm during my afternoon class. If you look at the picture of the school where I'm teaching, there are no completely closed walls, so the rooms are open to all the elements. The wind and the rain was pretty bad at one point, but there was no sense in ending class early since no one was going to leave during the heavy rains. My group simply adapted to the situation and moved all the desks to one side of the room where they would be away from the rain.

This morning someone died of cholera at the hospital. The wailing and screaming commenced around 8:00am until after 11:00am. This was the eerie soundtrack for breakfast and during my entire class. We continued on, but it was hard for me to drown out the noise, and it didn't feel right to do so.

7/3

Today was intense. My morning class voted democratically that they did not want to separate, so we will continue to have the 2 hour morning class. I'm fine with it even though we have over 40 people now in just that class.

Got asked a million questions about the White House, including the exact number of rooms.

7/4

I didn't even remember that it was 4^th of July until I checked Facebook this morning. It was quite the 4^th of July. I spent 5 hours teaching. In between classes I hung out in the back while they prepared a ton of food for tonight's going away party for the girl who has been here almost a year since she's leaving on Saturday. There was a huge tub of meat I could identify and I asked what it was. I couldn't understand because the words for goat in Creole and French aren't similar at all. So, since it was evident I didn't understand what animal they were talking about, one of the women quickly held up the severed goat head in front of me, and I screamed. I'm really not usually queasy about that sort of thing, and it didn't deter me from enjoying some goat later that night, but the combination of being overwhelmed with a growing group of over 100 students, exhaustion, a little bit of homesickness due to the holiday, and sheer shock caused me to burst into tears, immediately followed by laughter at my own ridiculousness. The women thought I was nuts. They talked about my reaction all day and night.

Happy 4^th of July?

7/5

Conducted 38 individual spoken exams in 1:15 this morning. Throughout the week we had overarching questions such as “What do you like to do?” that would guide our vocabulary. By Thursday we had 15 questions, and I told the students that I would ask them five of those questions. This worked out well so I was able to give students questions I knew that they would be able to answer so no student walked away feeling discouraged. I tried to find a balance of feeling successful because of having responded correctly while being challenged. We also finally managed to split the class in two.

After the first class I spent about half an hour with a small group of students who have been staying after class to pick my brain about everything imaginable. (Same kids asking about the white house.) Today they wanted to know the history of the United States, about Thomas Jefferson, what happened in the Vietnam War, was some Panamanian president still alive and in prison, everything about several leaders in Latin America, what are the most important U.S. Cities and why, what does the United States produce, and what could I teach them about computers.

Computers. That's something that's thrown me for a loop here. Even the poorest of the poor have access to the Internet in our country. Public libraries. My students told me there are some computers in the town that you can pay to use but it's pretty expensive. I'm not being naïve, I'm just finding it impossible to imagine not being able to easily access information about the world. And in the case of these students, information about education. I wish I were staying longer, I would really like to work more on this issue.

In short, I'd say it was successful first week of teaching. I've had a total of 125 people show up for two or more days of class this week, about 40 that have shown up everyday, and four 1.5 hour classes a day going forward with ages ranging from 11 to 40. I did run out of books, but I'm hoping to get a better count tomorrow of who is still showing up but doesn't have a book so I can try to get more copies made at the hospital.

Questions/Comments/Concerns are always appreciated!

Beautiful Weekend in Borgne

I feel like I've been writing novels so far - so I decided this round will be mostly pictures! I'm working on a longer post about the start of my classes, but for now enjoy some photos! 

I sadly don't have any photos from our hike over a gorgeous mountain to a beautiful empty beach - forgot my camera. A good thing though, allowed me to take in the breath-taking views without the distraction of trying to capture the moment.

Peanuts drying along the bank of the river in Borgne

Pushing the truck out of the parking lot to get it started to leave Chou Chou Bay

Chou Chou Bay

Picture taken by another person in our group of boys playing soccer at Chou Chou Bay

Beetle on the railing!

Just a casual nighttime snack :)

Attempting to catch the sunset.

This kid <3

The tree I stare at outside my room.

Meal of champions.

Another beautiful day on the beach!

Building a routine

6/26

This morning I tried yoga for real for the first time ever with another girl here thanks to the cheap yoga episodes I purchased on iTunes. I'd still prefer a nice run, but with that being out of the question due to my inherit blanness and lack of a male companion, I am determined to be a yoga champ by the time I get home.

This afternoon in the back I got to try Haitian grits. I've never eaten grits back home, but I doubt that they're as good as these. Now I'll have to try. After munching on the grits-like substance

After dinner my stomach turned on me, which made me instantly nervous. I have a relatively sensitive stomach to begin with, but it's been holding up pretty well since I arrived here. Another person in our group had parasites, which isn't a big deal if you get on the meds. I'm waiting until the morning and if I get sick after breakfast I'll get all checked out. Perks to living at a hospital.

Tonight I had my first English class at the hospital. While there has been widespread interest, organizing and meeting in Haiti seems to be difficult. We ended up as a group of five. Myself and one of the med student interns, along with three staff members. I was pretty nervous going into it, I had no idea who was going to show up and how much English they would know. Luckily, everyone at the hospital speaks French so I was easily able to communicate with the group. We sat in the office and spent an hour going over introductions, greetings, asking for help, body parts, the difference between do and does, and they all wrote down each word or phrase diligently. (I had planned to make the informal class all oral, but they wanted to write down everything!) Pronunciation was the best. I began to realize how ridiculous my butchering of Creole must be to their ears. One woman was determined to have everyone pronounce “twenty-three” correctly before we could move on (I had used my own age in an example of how to say one's age.) It was really exciting to watch them work so hard on practicing, and to hear them respond “Have a good night!” to my “pi tard” (see you). I'm really looking forward to meeting with them again tomorrow night and I wouldn't be at all disappointed if it's still a small number of people. It was a great opportunity to really get to know some more people here.

6/25

I finally got to use a knife to cut open the fruit to make the juice. This is a big step. There aren't any cutting boards here, you simply use your hand. It isn't nearly as dangerous as trying this at home since the knives here are extremely dull. I had to prove to the ladies that I was fò (strong) enough to handle it, so even though after I peeled one large grapefruit and my right pointer finger was numb and began to swell I still cut up three others, otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed to try to cut again for at least a week.

Nanu gets it. I love her. While we were making juice she asked me if I'm chagren (sad) that the other Americans will all be gone soon. I said yes, a little bit. She informed me that I had no reason to be sad because I have so many friends in Haiti, and proceeded to list all of the women in the back. It put the biggest smile ever on my face.

Some pictures that took a while to get on the computer:

Doing laundry for the first time out back!

Day at the beach!

So many updates!

6/21/13

Lessons on idioms

This morning we had fish for breakfast. This had to be the first component of a meal I really couldn't do. However, I'm finally getting into the spicy peanut butter with bread and bananas. Delicious.

I spent two hours today helping a girl from the high school across the street to study for her final exam in English. The exam was definitely beyond her level of English, which I felt terrible about because she was giving it all she had during those two hours that we worked together, navigating the exam through my hybrid French-Creole. The first part of the exam consisted of an arbitrary reading on English idioms that use food, such as “it's a piece of cake” and “she's the apple of my eye”. It was ridiculous. This is no way tested her practical use of English, but it's pretty similar to foreign language testing in the U.S. I'm hoping to get to work with her again before the exam, because I really enjoyed gaining some greater insight into Haitian education.

In the late afternoon I finally got to have an organizational meeting for my summer program. The two American girls with me gave me looks that sent a message I was a little crazy for taking this on. Sure the group was a little chatty, but really nothing compared to some of the groups I'd had at TJ in Frederick. Only about 30 students showed up to the meeting (impending rain stops everything here) but dozens more have asked to be added to the list. At first we planned that I would simply explain everything in English, with my new friend as my Creole translator. However, once I said I speak French, the students asked that I just explain everything in French. I was so happy because this meant I could really communicate with my students.

I'll be running two classes, one from 9:00-11:00am and another from 4:00pm-6:00pm, each day Monday-Friday. Both classes will initially be the same, I'm waiting to really find out the levels of my students to shift things around. Classes will run Monday, July 1^st – Wednesday, July 31^st. I decided that to keep motivation going I will do a quiz each Friday, and then a final evaluation the last week before I leave on August 2^nd. It's going to be a challenging and exciting month!

6/22/13

TOMS

Side street near the market

This morning we finally got to get out of the hospital compound and go around the market in town. The other Americans here are working on some research on salt and hypertension for a grant for the organization. They're surveying woman who do the cooking for their families, so town on market day seemed like a good time to get some surveys.

The market itself was a little wild. Apparently, the method of bargaining here is through yelling, and even though it sounds malicious, it isn't really. On this excursion I FINALLY got to have an cold Coke. This was heaven in my mouth.

One of the most interesting things I saw while at the market was a blanket with child-size pairs of TOMS. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the inside of the shoe read “not for re-sale”. So these are the TOMS that are supposed to be given out free when we buy our TOMS in the U.S. This was a little disappointing. The silver lining in this was that I finally got to see a pair of the “free” TOMS and they appear to be much sturdier than the ones we buy.

Post-market adventures we spent two hours on this gorgeous beach that is right across the street from the hospital compound: (this view is from another angle though, up the street, the hospital is on the road behind the pink building)

6/23/13

Broccoli Salad

This morning I learned how to do laundry! I brought my things out, we filled a silver basin with water and dumped in my clothes and washing powder. Then they tried to teach me how to scrub the clothing against itself on my hand. I just couldn't get the soap to lather and make a squishing noise the way the women could. I scrubbed so hard my wrist began to bleed. Another woman helped me to finish, and we then rinsed my clothes twice in the sink before climbing up the ladder to the roof to lay them out to dry.

That afternoon for lunch/dinner we had a real feast – which included a broccoli salad. For some reason the woman the does most of the cooking here thinks that broccoli is really exotic and wants to cook it a lot for us. So she asked the girls to make a broccoli salad. I was initially weird out by the whole thing, cold broccoli (mostly the stalk because the top was moldy and slimy) with raw garlic, onions, sweet pepper, and a little oil. Turned out to be the most delicious part of the meal (and everything else on the table was amazing). Go figure.

Blantourage

Today we went to the most beautiful beach I've ever been to in my life. It cost 25 gourdes (less than $1) to get into Choo Choo Bay. Once we entered the makeshift entrance made of a tarp curtain, it was evident we had walked into a Haitian beach party. There was music being blasted through large speakers, and several little stands set up selling food and drinks. We walked in, in full blan fashion, the only ones equipped with towels and sunscreen. Three young white girls on the beach, we knew it was going to be an interesting time from the start, but that wouldn't stop us from spending some time on this beautiful beach. We got situated, each taking turns going for a swim in the water so our things wouldn't be left unattended. I hadn't been in the water long before a young man struck up a conversation – in English. A request to practice his English soon turned into a lecture about how God wouldn't bless me if I didn't give him anything and I promptly swam away. Others approached me to talk as well, carrying on in French/Creole before asking a similar question about money. There's no better word to use, it was just an awkward situation. It's not that I don't really the desperation of people here, but it would be a mess if I did give one person something among a crowd of hundreds. It became disappointing that I couldn't just have a conversation to learn about another person.

At one point we spied some other blans walking along the beach, they even had a huge cooler! We were looking forward to interacting with them, to see why they were in the area, etc. Weirdly, the avoided any contact with us and took a detour right around us and up away from the beach.

Another group of young men approached me, and this time I had resolved to not let on that I spoke any French or Creole, but before I could really put my mind to it one of the guys asked me if I spoke French and I instinctively replied “Oui, je parle bien francais!” This group was different. They were university students visiting from Cap. We had a good conversation in French about where French is spoken in Canada (they assumed I was Canadian since I spoke French) and I eventually started talking one-on-one with one of the guys in the group named Ricardo, who was wearing glasses. (This is a significant detail here, it is pretty rare to see anyone wearing glasses.) We talked for a while about what we're studying. He's doing business management right now but wants to get into law. I was so excited to get to talk to someone in French so I could fully understand and to find out about his life and not have it culminate in a request for money.

Back at our towels, there was a group of about 20 people assembled around our little encampment. The typical “blantourage” of children no matter where we go is normal, but this was different, it was a group composed entirely of males, and of every age, just sitting/standing and staring at us, from only a few feet away. It became a little unsettling, and after some awkward conversations we decided to depart.

Many things were seen on this excursion to the beach. A young men drunkenly stumbling all over the beach, eventually face-planting in the sand and being carried off by his friends. Little kids rolling around in the sand in their clothes. Drunk women that looked a little older than me stumbling up to us asking why we're white and making fun of my pasty legs. A guy who has been to Miami begging me to give him a job because the other girls told him I'm studying to be a lawyer.

6/24/13

Back to business

 While sitting in the meeting room reading over EFL activities and drinking coffee (while listening to Kesha of course) it finally hit me – the opportunity that I'm being afforded right now is insane. I've especially had this little epiphany in light of discovering the rather large socioeconomic difference that exists between myself and my American peers here in Borgne. I'm pretty darn grateful for this crazy experience.  

Standing on the roof of a home in Borgne - sporting my "aide worker chic" look as dubbed by another American in the group.