Final Week in Port-au-Prince

My last week in Port-au-Prince was definitely and eventful one.  On Tuesday I worked at Croix des Bouquets with Jeanide and Junior.  They helped me run through my music lesson again but with a new group of children.  The first class had 28 kids and only 7 XOs to share.  We made the best of it and the children seemed to have a great time breaking away from their normal lesson plans.  In Haiti much of the curriculum is built around learning by memorization.  The students’ knowledge is assessed using tests put forth by the schools.  Hands on learning is a strange concept for most teachers, but seeing the kids engaged and excited about learning is a wonderful way to change their minds.  After the music ended I gathered some data in order to reprogram the laptops later that week.

Thursday I was at Cazeau, which is an orphanage/church/school.  The orphanage is home to over 40 kids, I spent the afternoon with 25 of the school age kids.  I arrived at Cazeau via Taptap around 1:45.  I walked to the school and was greeted by shy smiles and curios eyes.  I sat down waiting for Dyna, and pulled out a toy I knew the kids would enjoy, a Rubik’s Cube.  The vibrant colors quickly drew a crowd of about 15 as a spun the rows and columns to show them how it works.  I passed it to my left and reached back into my bag of tricks.  I pulled out 3 juggling balls and showed off my circus training.  More kids crowded and I started giving free juggling lessons.  Most were baffled by the concept, but a few weren’t half bad.  Dyna arrived and it was time to start class, but the fun was far from over.  

The lesson plan for the day was a science experiment.  I wanted to introduce the scientific method to the kids in the form of a very basic experiment, so that they could understand the procedures involved.  I lined up four glass bottles at the front of the classroom.  Each bottle was filled with a different amount of water.  Bottle one was empty, bottle two was ¼ of the way filled, three was ½ filled, and four was ¾ of the way full.  The question I wanted them to investigate was, “which bottle will make the lowest pitch when I strike it with a pen?” In order to find this out, I walked the class through the 6 steps of the scientific method.  1) Ask a question 2) do research 3) form a hypothesis 4) do an experiment 5) record results 6) draw a conclusion.  For the research portion I explained sound is a wave, and I explained the correlation between wavelength and pitch. The kids then guessed which bottle they thought would have the lowest pitch.  The class was divided between 1 and 4.  We then did our experiment and got our answer.  Bottle 4 had the lowest pitch.  The children then were able to draw a conclusion, no matter how many bottles, the one with the lowest pitch will be the one with the most water.  The students wrote up their work on an app called Fototoon, their work is down below. 

Friday I spent planning for my second seminar at Delmas 28.  I promised the kids I’d be back a week later to talk about space and I couldn’t have been more excited.  I decided to do a rocket science lesson.  Definitely an ambitious idea, but one that I knew the kids would be excited about.  I went to the market the day before and picked up the necessary supplies. The most essential being: baking soda, vinegar, tape and cardboard.  The rockets were to be designed at the end of class after I went over a few basic things.  Mike, a friend from Communitere, was kind enough to help me build a launch pad and I was all set.

Saturday arrived and I was up early making sure everything was in order.  I set up the launch sight in the driveway at Communitere and launched some practice rockets.  After a few successful launches Jeanide arrived and we were off to Delmas 28. 

We got to the classroom and I recognized most of the faces from the week before.  A few new students piled in and we had a total of 27 eager minds.  I began the seminar by talking about gravity.  The juggling came in handy again as a way to capture attention, and also to model the effects of this invisible force.  After they grasped that concept, I went on to explain that if you have a great enough force applied to an object, you can escape the earth’s gravity.  I then showed some pictures from the Apollo missions to support my utterly unbelievable claims.  I explained to the kids that in order to make a good rocket, you need three things.  1) A strong force 2) An aerodynamic body 3) Balance.  I had them draw out the best designs they could on paint.  The kids do not have all that much experience with a touchpad mouse so some of the designs seemed not so structurally sound, but one kid in particular did a wonderful job.  His name is Matariro and I have no doubt he’s going places.

After the computer designs were complete, I split the kids up into two teams.  Each was given one water bottle and an equal amount of both cardboard and tape.  They had 45 minutes to construct their rockets and they immediately got working.  Each rocket seemed to have 5 or 6 hands on it at all times.  Some helping to secure wings, others working on the nozzle.  What at first seemed like chaos, ended up being a fairly efficient way of working, and with 15 minutes to spare both teams were done and eager to fire them off.  We lined up and climbed the stairs up to our launch site.

I set up the launch pad and explained to the kids that I would put an equal amount of vinegar and baking soda in each rocket.  I wrapped the baking soda in toilet paper to delay the reaction enough so that could attach the cork and build pressure.  First up was team one.  None of the kids really knew what to expect, but they were filled with anticipation as they saw me measuring out the rocket fuel.  I slid the wrapped baking soda into the vinegar mixture and secured the cork to the mouth of the bottle. All systems were a go.  As I stepped back to a safe distance I could feel that the pressure was on.  I had promised the kids that we would transform these household objects into a rocket and although I knew it was possible, I was still worried about the experiment not living up to the hype.  The pressure continued to build and so did the anticipation.  The rocket shot off into the air and flew a good 25-30 feet before touching down slightly off center from the landing sight.  Jeanide was kind enough to take a video which I have linked here.  The kids roared with excitement and I let out a hardy laugh followed by a big smile. Bringing that amount of joy to a group of kids through to power of science was one of the most rewarding and wonderful feelings I’ve ever had.  Their reaction says it all.  http://youtu.be/iZ7zWsX6mi0 

Group 2 was up and they were confident they could do better.  I loaded their rocket with fuel and secured it to the launch pad.  This video shows them arguing over who had the better of the two flights, I’ll let you the viewer decide.  http://youtu.be/ttQCFzPpxF0    

Class came to an end as we rounded up the scraps.  The kids continued their bickering down the steps and into the classroom.  We never did pick a winner but everyone enjoyed themselves and that was more than enough.  I said my goodbyes and handed out as many high fives as I could before Jeanide pulled me out of there.  We were off to our next school at Croix des Bouquets to reprogram the software on the XOs.

We arrived at the school to realize they had no power.  Jeanide and I met up with Junior and we took the laptops back to Jeanide’s house so we could have electricity.  We sat around talking as I updated the software two at a time.  Junior filled me in on the current political struggle and Jeanide cleaned up for the dinner we had planned.  Haiti’s former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was back in town, and rumor has it Martelly’s people (the current president) were trying to arrest Aristide and charge him for crimes of corruption.  Whether the charges are legitimate or not is unclear but Aristide is no guiltier than Martelly or any of his predecessors.  Aristide was one of Haiti’s most beloved presidents, but ideologically he and Martelly couldn’t disagree more.  Hearing all of this gave me a much better idea of why so many helicopters had been flying over Communitere keeping me up at night.  I said goodbye to Junior and thanked him for the good talk. 

Jeanide and I met up with Fefe and Dyna at one of the fancier bars in Port-au-Prince (it had air conditioning). We had a lovely last meal together and I thanked them for all the help they’d given me in my 10 days with them.  They made the adjustment a lot easier and I can’t thank them enough. 

As of right now I’m writing from my second work destination.  It’s a school/church in Grand Goave called Mission of Hope.  I’ve been living with Pastor Lex and his wife Renee.  I’ve already taught a few days’ worth of classes but that will have to wait until the next post.  A big thanks for all of those who are supporting me through this.  I love the feedback you all have given me, and I’m always happy to talk.  Feel free to leave a comment, or send me and email, or reach out to me via social media.

     

Hang on,

Sean