Cazeau is one of the schools funded by Ken Beaver the founder of Hope for Haiti's Children. Everyone in the Unleash Kids organization agrees that Cazeau is a promising place on the brink of success. The school has one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with in Dyna. They have plenty of XO's for their after school program, and they also have something called Internet-in-a-box. This is a terabyte hard drive that connects to the school server. On the hard drive is all of Wikipedia in 5 or 6 different languages, Khan Academy's educational videos, and Project Gutenberg's collection of free eBooks. So just by connecting to the school server, the students can access any and all of this information. Doing so makes it much easier to ensure that the kids are using the internet for good, and not evil. A lot of what I have been doing is structured guided leaning, which is undoubtedly beneficial, but the Internet-in-a-box allows for self-guided, exploratory learning. It allows the students to discover their own truths rather than just eating the fruit of knowledge that I spoon feed them. My challenge for the week was getting everything in order.
Sunday and Monday were spent as diagnostic days. I had my phone running a Skype call with our tech experts and they walked me through the steps. A problem would arise, I would report it, the group would discuss it, come to a consensus, and I would take the necessary steps to resolve the issue. By Tuesday we had everything set up and ready to go. I tested it out by looking up some articles on things back home. I planned to return Wednesday, explain the set up to Dyna, and teach a class with her on Thursday.
Wednesday rolled around and I headed out to the school to start my day. I walked down to the nearest intersection, hopped on a taptap and got off at my stop. After saying hello to the excited schoolkids, I went over to the orphanage side to get everything ready. I did not have a translator and was greeted by a man they call Zekie. He and his wife Sonya live in the house I worked in all week, and they oversee the orphanage. I said hello to Zekie and he spit out a long Creole monologue. I wasn't able to get everything but the gist of it was that they did not have electricity. I later found out that the reason they didn't have electricity was because someone had stolen the city electrical wire running from the school to the orphanage. This was a disappointing setback to say the least, but I was reassured that the problem would be fixed the next day. I went over a few things with Dyna and headed back to Haiti Communitere while the wires were replaced.
Thursday I came back to a school with working electricity. The crew working was extremely efficient and I was able to get everything set up right away. The next step was to just wait for Dyna to come so we could get a class going. The hours came and passed and I saw no sign of her. She was not teaching her usual day class and I began to grow concerned. I did not have my Haitian phone with me that day so I had no way to reach her, I hung around the school and met a group of kids doing the same. I spoke all the Creole I could in hopes of figuring out the situation with Dyna and her class. The kids informed me that she would not be coming and that there would not be class that day. I made the most out of my time with them and played some soccer before leaving for the day. When I got back to my phone I saw that Dyna had taken a sick day, but she would be back Friday. Things never seem to quite go as you plan, especially in Haiti, so I've learned to be flexible.
Friday I got to the school an hour early and had some time to kill before Dyna arrived. I rounded up a group of kids and we played a game of pickup basketball. My 6 foot frame was a bit of an advantage playing with a group of 8-12 year olds, but I did my best to make sure everyone got their moment of glory. Dyna showed up around 1 and I switched gears back to teacher mode. I showed her the basics of how everything worked and ensured her that if she needed any support she's be able to contact myself or someone else in the organization. She's an extremely gifted teacher and right away she saw the benefit in being able to access the near infinite amount of information. I left very optimistic that by my next visit she will have made amazing progress.
After Cazeau, I headed to Silar's orphanage. I went back to the main intersection by Communitere, and boarded into a moving van along with about 35 other people. I tend to stand out in Haiti, and as a result I was the topic of discussion during our 15 minute ride. No one spoke to me directly, but there was an ongoing argument on whether I could speak Creole, and if I could understand what they were saying. One woman had a fairly strong opinion that people coming to Haiti really should just learn the language, according to her it isn't that difficult to learn. Eventually I blew my cover by letting out a smirk. The secret was out and everyone seemed to rejoice the fact that I knew what they were saying. I informed them that I am still learning Creole, but I can understand a little bit. One of the passengers, Carlos, befriended me and volunteered to help me get to my destination.
Carlos wasn't much help but I appreciated the gesture. I arrived at Silar's and said goodbye to him and wished him luck. At Silar's I preformed more diagnostics in an effort to resolve the issues with his internet. Silar runs an orphanage of around 70 kids. They do not receive nearly the funding that a lot of places do, but Silar knows how to make every penny count. He's an amazing guy and he does amazing things. With Adam's help we were able to determine that the internet supplier had, for some reason, not reset his data for the month of October. We are currently waiting to see if the new month brought new internet. Regardless we will be contacting them soon to recover our lost month.
It was a busy week and I did a lot more tech work than I ever thought I would be doing. The problems are never finished and you definitely just have to roll with it. I enjoy every day off that I can get, it gives me a change to refuel and recharge. I don't know what's in store for me next, but I'm confident that I'll be able to handle it.
Hang on,
Sean
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