Grand Goave: Week Two

So week 2 ended up being a shortened school week due to a Haitian holiday.  October 17^th is a national holiday to commemorate the death of Haiti’s founding father Jean-Jaques Dessalines.  This definitely seemed to be a strange thing to celebrate, but it makes sense when you come to understand the Haitian affinity for the afterlife and the role that spirits play in their culture. 

After approaching Renee about my translator issues I was bounced back to Lex to work something out.  He assured me that if he and I talked to Mistro he would be there to help me throughout the week.  We did just that but yet again I only had a translator for one of my classes.  In Haiti there doesn’t seem to be the same sense of urgency that I am accustomed to.  This especially holds true in the laid back beach town of Grand Goave.  A lot of the people here have some serious stresses on their mind, so it’s understandable that they don’t let the day to day work load overwhelm them.  The task will eventually get done, and it’s more important to try and enjoy the ride.  This low-pressure work ethic is a widely accepted cultural norm.  As an outsider who hops around from place to place, I find this to be an incredibly difficult practice to work with.  My time here is limited, and I feel a strong sense of urgency to accomplish all I can in my stay.   My enthusiasm seems to rarely be shared, and it’s a cultural hurdle that I still struggle to overcome.  I will spend the last week again working with Mistro when he shows up. 

This past week at school did not go as I had planned, but I definitely think I made progress.  Mistro showed up for Tuesday’s class with the older kids, and we worked primarily with Wikipedia.  I spent Monday preparing a series of questions pertaining to different articles that are featured on the preloaded software.  The articles have been translated into French.  Although very few kids speak French, the languages are similar enough to where they can read and comprehend the material.  The questions were basic, but difficult enough to where the students would not know the answer off of the top of their heads.  “What is the distance from the earth to the sun?” “What year was the philosopher Socrates born?” “What is the boiling point of water?”  Mistro and I would pose one question at a time to the class, the first team to answer correctly earned a point.  The school currently does not have Wi-Fi, but with the preloaded software the kids are still able to access a good amount of information.  The purpose of the game was to get them accustomed to this method of research, and to give them an idea of how much information they can find on there.  I truly believe in the power of information.  Their minds are not just exposed to facts, they are exposed to ideas.  These ideas can definitely excite, but more importantly ideas can inspire.  I love the power of ideas, and it was a wonderful feeling to open these kids up to a whole new world of information.  Team 4 dominated when it came to finding the answer first, but I made sure not to advance until every kid had found the answer.  It was great to see the kids excited to find the answer, and excited to show their classmates how they could do the same. 

The next few days I was again without any translating help.  I’ve acquired a decent vocabulary in Creole, but not nearly enough to lead my own classes.  I let the kids work with their laptops independently and provided insight when I could.  Monday’s lesson plan seemed to stick, and I found that many of the students used their freedom to continue exploring Wikipedia.  I walked around and gladly helped out trying to explain some of the more complex articles that kids stumbled upon.  One student on Tuesday ended up on the Wikipedia page for Earth’s Magnetic Field.  The pictures were failing to load so I drew my own diagram and used my English and Creole knowledge to lead them through the French text.  Having my phone came in handy as I was able to look up French and Creole words that I was unsure of. 

Thursday one of the older girls in my class was reading about Switzerland for whatever reason, she then hoped over to the page of Geneva, CERN, and then the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).  For those who don’t know CERN is an international science community based in Geneva, Switzerland.  Their major project is the Large Hadron Collider, which is a particle accelerator.  The LHC shoots particles around their 17 mile loop at near the speed of light and crashes them together in order to study subatomic particles.  I definitely did not expect to be explaining particle physics on my trip to Haiti, but you can never predict where a kid’s curiosity will take them. 

I was also able to share my passion for philosophy with one of my students named Johnsley.  Johnsely is an undersized soft spoken 14 year old boy with a sharp mind and a decent command of the English language.  He approached me during class and asked if I would join him on the Chat app so that he could speak with me and practice his English.  I pulled out my XO and we began talking.  It started out as small talk, but then I decided to ask him what his plans were for after high school.   He proceeded to tell me about how he wants to become a pastor so that he can go all over the world and preach the good news.  He also wants to become a doctor to take care of the sick.  He’s an ambitious kid, and you can tell he wants to help people in every way he can.  We went on to talk about some basic philosophy over the course of two days, and I introduced him to the Euthyphro Dilemma and then we talked about Divine Command Theory.  I plan to leave Johnsley with an English to Creole dictionary along with a bible so that he can pursue his passions.  I wish him all the best. 

Friday as I said earlier was a Haitian holiday so no school was in session.  I still had some students hanging around wanting to use the laptops though so I was happy to pull them out.  This caught the attention of some of the construction workers who were taking a break.  They asked if they could try one out and I let them have a go.  The two were fascinated by Wikipedia and got to reading about engineering, appropriate given their profession.  The kids worked with each other showing off all the cool things they have learned how to do on their XO’s. Here Stanley, the little boy, is being shown how to play the piano by an older classmate. 

None of the students lack curiosity and that is something that excites me when it comes to teaching them.  It’s frustrating that I am not receiving as much help as I would like, but I don’t intend to let that discourage me from teaching in any way I can.  Not having a translator has forced me to pick up a lot of creole and has led to me interacting with the students one on one.  Through this I’ve formed some great relationships that I will cherish for a long time.  This week I look forward to strengthening those friendships and sharing as much knowledge as I am able to. 

Hang on,

Sean