Sunday, September 28, 2014

Delmas 28

Thursday night I contacted Jeanide and the two of us decided that it would be best for me to teach at Croix des Bouquets on Tuesday of the next week.  That gave me another day to review my music lesson plans before I headed to Delmas 28 early Saturday morning.

Later in the night Kate, my roommate at Commuitere, asked if Friday she could borrow a laptop to show her friend she works with in Cite Soleil.  I had a few to spare so I lent her one that was fully charged and updated.  Kate is a wonderful woman doing some wonderful work in one of the poorest places in Haiti, I wish her all the best.


I woke up Friday, ate a quick breakfast and got to work.  The goal of the lesson was to teach the children about music and sound.  What does a sound wave look like? How does wavelength and frequency of a sound wave relate to pitch? And of course another goal was to learn by doing. As I begin to jot down some notes I see Kate has returned with a Haitian friend, they came in sat down and booted up the XO.  A few hours later I went to see what they were up to.  I climbed out of my mosquito net and headed across the rocky gravel road. As the sound of clanging rocks rang out from under my feet, the man looked up and sent me a big smile.  He introduced himself as Afu.  He is a father of four in Cite Soleil and he has a knack for technology.  Only using the XO once before that day, he had managed to master the music making software and had constructed his own beat.  He was a self proclaimed rapper and even spit some bars for me in English and Creole (that's slang for rapping).


After saying goodbye to Afu, I got back to work.  I constructed a set of three sound waves out of pipe cleaners to model what a sound wave looks like.  I then wrote out some classic beginner piano songs for the kids to play and practice later on in class.  After finishing my prep work I spent the rest of the day applying to internships for next summer.  A very productive day. I finally reached a point where I could work no longer. I rubbed my eyes, closed my computer, and laid down to try and get some rest before my first day of teaching.  I've always pictured myself teaching and it was a strange feeling knowing that the moment was just a few unconscious hours away.  


I had no problem waking up Saturday morning.  Excitement was running through my veins as I hopped in the cold outdoor shower.  I got dressed and within minutes Fefe arrived to take me to Delmas 28.  He serves as my tour guide and translator when needed.  We walked to the nearest intersection and hopped onto a Taptap, which is nothing more than a truck with benches and a roof over the bed.  Taptaps tend to seat around 12 rather uncomfortably.  About two miles from our destination we hit a traffic jam.  No words were spoken, but every last person filed out of the Taptap to walk ahead of the traffic.   Fefe and I piled into another truck and were at Delmas in no time.  


We entered the building and as always was greeted with some curious young stares.  Fefe went to find the principal of the school to unlock the laptop room, and I waited in the lobby.  I pulled out my own personal XO and was immediately swarmed by a group of kids who were anxiously awaiting my next move.  I pulled up my favorite puzzle game and taught them how to play to kill some time.  They quickly caught on and after about three minutes they had beaten the first level.  Halfway through level 2 Fefe came in and ruined all the fun.  It was time to start class.  Fefe was unable to get a hold of the principal but I assured him that we didn't need the laptops until later in the lesson so we could begin.  Fefe gave a brief introduction to the class on what we would be going over and then I introduced myself. Shortly after that Fefe's phone rang and he went to take it in the hall.  So there I was.  24 sets of eyes stared up at me awaiting my next move.  Nothing like being thrown into the deep end.  My creole is far from perfect but I managed to explain the the class that we would be talking about music and we would do some singing.  I informed them that sometimes we would have to be VERY LOUD, and sometimes very quiet.  They understood and we practiced screaming as loud as we could, and then being silent on the cut offs. They definitely enjoyed playing that game and it seemed to make everyone a lot more comfortable.  Fefe returned to our class mid-scream and was impressed at the amount of silence that followed a few seconds later.  He laid the laptops down on the desks and we continued the lesson.  I explained what sound looked like and provided a visual representation with a file I made in Audacity.  I then pulled out the pipe cleaners. The red pipe cleaner represented a low note with low frequency, the blue pipe cleaner represented a high note with high frequency, and the green pipe cleaner was in between the two.  I held up the red pipe cleaner and explained that it was a low note, I let out the lowest pitch I could muster in order to engage the kids. The all giggled and did their best to imitate. I then held up the blue pipe cleaner and explained that it was a high note, I used the little falsetto range I have to let out a raspy high note that was much more of a caterwaul.  As much as I made a fool out of myself, the kids seemed to understand.  We booted up the laptops and I had to switch a few over from English to French.  The creole that Haitians speak is french based and similar enough to that the children can follow along even though they do not speak french. The majority of the class was able to identify the lowest and highest note on the keyboard.   We then went into some basic Solfege (do re mi...).  I wrote the phrases on the board and drew a staff to correspond to it.  Instead of "ti" the Haitians insist on using "si" I obliged.  The children had no problem singing the scale, but a much more difficult time mastering playing it on the keyboard.  I went around the room and helped until each student had succeeded before moving on.  We did ascending and descending scales, followed by thirds, a basic warm-up that I picked up from my high school choir teacher Mary Rashid.  This took a while to get down on the keyboard but the great thing about music is it's just pattern recognition, a universal trait.  The kids who struggled in the beginning were able to become proficient in a very short time.  I then wrote a song on the board they all know and love. The French call it Frère Jacques, but the Haitians call it Tonton Bouki, which translates to Uncle Bouki.  It's a nonsense song but every Haitian knows it.  They had no problem incorporating the solfege so we began practicing it on the piano.  I had some truly amazing students and by the end everyone in the class had played it for me at least once.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuL4YpKcX0M here is a link to the final product, as well as a picture of some of my star pupils. 



Sadly Delmas came to an end and I said my goodbyes to the children until next week.  I went back to Communitere and had an early night so that I could make it to church at Cazeau, where I would temporarily drop the laptops that I brought down with me.  


Fefe's fancy new phone that I gave him the day before was an hour off so he arrived an hour later than I expected him.  Luckily he did, because mass in Haiti is not like the mass I remember back home.  Church began at 8am.  We arrived at 9 am, and mass was dismissed at a little after 11.  Aside from struggling to keep up with what was being said, I got to display my singing voice once again. The church sang songs in both Creole and French.  The people seemed not to notice the difference but it became very apparent when all the sudden we were conjugating verbs. Haitians also have adopted the French/European tradition as kissing on the cheek as a way of saying hello.  I am blatantly an American and am usually greeted with a handshake.  Mass ended with the creole version of Amazing Grace, my mother surely would have been in tears.


After mass Fefe and I dropped off the laptops and I was on my way back to base camp.  I thanked him for bringing me to church and for once again being my guide.  He is a key component of Unleash Kids and his work should not go unrecognized. 


For now that's all the excitement I've had.  This week I'll be spending time at Croix des Bousquets, Silar's Orphanage, and Delmas 28.  It was great to get the first teaching experience under my belt, now I have a lot better idea what to expect from the rest of my trip.  When I'm not writing or talking with people back home, I'm undoubtedly going over lesson plans and trying to find ways to engage the kids in the material I'm teaching.  It's been wonderful so far and I can't wait to teach again soon.


Hang on,


Sean      



  

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