tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7273394854730518402024-02-21T22:23:51.449-08:00My Haitian Voyage Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-43023738181002795242015-01-04T14:48:00.004-08:002015-01-04T14:48:56.918-08:00Final Reflection<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Sean Collins<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ML
390<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Professor
Law-Sullivan <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">January
4, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
have for a long time been fascinated with technology. Computer and information technology has
brought with it tremendous potential. A
child with a smart phone in Africa has greater access to information than the
president did 30 years ago. My
fascination with technology and my desire to become a teacher lead me to
contact One Laptop per Child. The
organizations mission was just that. To give a piece of technological hardware
to each kid in the developing world. They distributed close to 3 million units
worldwide. OLPC failed to provide much
follow up though. Their distribution was
a roaring success, but they failed to provide the necessary tech and
educational support to make the project sustainable. OLPC put me in contact with an organization
called Unleash Kids. Unleash Kids was
set up by former OLPC people to be the support team. The non-profit works in countries all around
the world updating software and providing education using the laptops as
tools. I
started my Haitian voyage in February of 2014 when I began learning Haitian
Creole, and studying the XO laptops’ hardware and software. I continued to educate myself on Haitian history,
culture and current events throughout the spring and summer. Fall came and I flew down to Haiti to start
my three month journey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I began my voyage
in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Landing in the airport you are thrown right
into the chaos that is the city. Taxi
drivers line the exit reaching for your bags and telling you that they are
there to pick you up. I had arranged a
ride beforehand and informed them that I did not need their services. I got in contact with my driver and he drove
me to my first location, Haiti Communitere.
It became my home base whenever I was in the city. The next 10 days were spent bouncing around
the city teaching at various schools. My
first day was spent visiting with a cellphone company to get myself a SIM
card. I was met by Haitian translator
named Jeanide and we ventured into the city.
My first impression of the city was overwhelming. I first noted the condition of the road
leading up to the intersection, it was run down and riddled with holes. We got to the main road and crossed the path
that ran over the drainage ditch. I was
taken aback by the amount of trash that lined the sidewalk, road, and ditch.
Plastic bags, Styrofoam take out containers, plastic and glass bottles,
everywhere I looked I saw trash. I
watched my step as we walked toward the intersection. As we grew closer it got more and more
crowded, and the street vendors started to pop up. Not many white people live in or visit Haiti,
and out of the ones that do, very few roam the city. I drew a lot of attention from the street
vendors anxious to make a sale. These
vendors sell anything from computer parts, to shoes, to shampoo. Haiti has super markets, but the traditional
style market place environment still thrives.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
crossed the street and climbed into the back of a brightly colored truck with
benches on either sides. I received intrigued
looks from all the passengers and greeted them in Creole. We drove a while up
the road and I was able to see more and more of the city outside truck. The country is still struggling five years
after the quake, and still many live in temporary shelters. Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camps are
set up right off of the main roads. The
shelters are nothing more than tarps draped over crude frames, and still today
they house thousands of people. We
continued up road and drew closer and closer to Petionville, an upper class
community just outside of Port-au-Prince.
The city of Petionville houses delegates, government officials, and
majority of the wealthy elite. The
shacks slowly turned into building and the building slowly grew nicer and
nicer. The disparity was quite obvious,
and I did not need to be told when we made it to our destination. The buildings became more and more
industrial, and the streets became cleaner.
The cars became more luxurious, as did the style of the average person. There were far less street vendors, and far
more shops. We had only traveled a few
miles, but it seemed a world away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Upper
level education in Haiti is done in French. There is very little creole resources
for learning so the emphasis is understandable.
In Port-au-Prince the signs are in Creole. “Pa bwe li w’ap kondi” “Don’t
drink and drive” is a sign in creole that you see in the capital. When you get to Petionville the signs switch
to French. “J’ (heart) PV” Is a clear play on the “I (heart) NYC” concept. The
creole way to do so would be Mwen (heart) PV.
But the advertiser chose to use French instead of creole. It seems strange, but it is an accurate
reflection on the correlation between language, education, and social status. Whites and Mullatos (half white half black),
are more often than not members of the wealthy elite, which is a product of the
country’s imperial history. As a result
of this, more often than not I was greeted in French rather than Creole. “Como sa va?” is how the French ask “how are
you?” In Creole the way to ask is “Koman
ou ye?” I came to learn both and how to respond to either, but it was an
interesting assumption being made.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
arrived at our destination in Petionville and Jeanide and I walked into the air
conditioned 15 story building. We waited around for a while, but eventually my
questions were answered and I was able to get what I needed. I was set up with 10 GBs of data a month to
keep me connected. We journeyed back to Communitere
and began to lesson plan for the week ahead.
I set up a series of science related lessons that would use the laptops
to teach the kids the scientific method, while exploring different concepts. I plan to eventually become a high school
physics teacher, so it was good to get a sneak preview of what I will be
doing. The younger kids especially are
always excited to have a guest teacher.
The Haitian education system is 90% private. The emphasis at these
private schools are almost always on test scores, and fact based
retention. I fundamentally disagree that
this is an effective model for education, and was happy to bring some hands on
learning. With the kids in Port-au-Prince,
we did sound experiments, played music, and built rockets using the XOs as
tools. The classes and the kids in them
helped me form amazing memories that I will cherish forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After
my stay in Port-au-Prince I headed west to Grand Goave. There I stayed with Pastor Lexidan Edime, and
his wife Renee. The couple helps run a
school of around 300 kids from the surrounding town. Grand Goave is a beach
community, and it is an even more laid back atmosphere than
Port-au-Prince. My first day there was Sunday
and I joined the pastor and his wife on their trip to church. I am not
religious by any means, but I can appreciate what it means for a lot of
people. I was raised catholic and have
been to church plenty of times, but Haitian church is unlike any other. The people pulled out their nicest clothes,
and piled in one by one. The service
began and the music got the congregation on their feet moving to the
rhythm. The people were more engaged
than any church goers I have ever seen.
So many Haitians really seem to rely on their faith. I assume because of the hope that it
brings. Life in Haiti is unfortunately
difficult. A kid born in Haiti does not
have nearly the same chance at social mobility that a kid in the states
does. I was fortunate enough to have the
chance pursue my dream on teaching, but for a lot of the kids in Haiti, they do
not have the resources to follow their dreams.
Religion gives people hope, and purpose.
The hard life is forgotten and instead it is replaced by faith. I remain agnostic, but I definitely have a
new found appreciation for what religion can mean to people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">During
my three weeks in Grand Goave I taught two classes a day every day. This gave me the chance to develop
relationships with my students, and teach them to be self-reliant with
technology. It was amazing to see the
transformation with each kid start to finish.
The shy older kids slowly came out of their shells and began to explore
the laptops more and more. The preloaded
Wikipedia software sparked their imagination and I was happy to explain any
questions that arose. My time in the
beach community was well spent. I will
hold onto the relationships I formed there for a long time. There were some truly inspiring kids and I think
of them often. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">From
Grand Goave I headed northeast to Hinche.
There I did a lot of technical work repairing the school server. The bureaucracy that exists at the school was
extremely difficult to work through, but eventually I was able to get things
squared away. The weekend before I left
I went to a tourist attraction in Hinche called Bassin Zim. The park is home to a brilliant waterfall and
a few caves. The local kids serve as tour guides on the weekend. A group of 5<sup>th</sup> graders took me up
the path and helped me along showing me the sights. Between my Creole and their English we were
able to talk and we had a fun time climbing, running, and swimming. The kids were happy to have me and I was
happy to see them. After we finished our
adventure I said my goodbyes, I went back and got some rest. The next day it was back to the city for a
few days. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Back
in Port-au-Prince I had to do some more technical work repairing school
servers. We unloaded from our van and
hoped into a truck. I remember this
moment distinctly because as we loaded in a woman with a three year old child
and a sack of potatoes climbed in. She
was worried about her small child sitting at the back of the truck, so she
simply passed him forward to a complete stranger. The Haitian community really is looking out
for each other. The woman got off at her stop and we passed the kid along to
her. She thanked us and was on her way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
final stop on my trip was Bois D’Avril.
It is an extremely small village in the mountains, and it is unlike any
place in Haiti, or the world that I have ever been. There I stayed with a Baha’I couple John and
Deb. The two moved there 35 years ago
and raised their three kids there. Their
house sits on the top of a hill at 6000 feet elevation. The house is less than 10 miles from
Port-au-Prince, but the elevation and seclusion makes it seem like you are in a
place more like the Upper Peninsula.
Pine trees and open fields are everywhere. The village sits just below
John and Deb’s house, and is home to about 25 people. I took my brother here and he agreed that it
truly is paradise. The people do not see
much outsiders but were extremely welcoming. Whenever I decide to visit Haiti again,
I will for sure be paying the village a visit.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
Haitian voyage was a long journey full of plenty of adventure. I was nervous going in, but I was fortunate to
meet some great people who put my mind at ease. The support I received from
people on the ground and back home was extremely valuable, and I am grateful
for it. The people I got to know and the
experiences I have had will last me for a life time. I went in wishing to fulfill a dream and I could
not be happier with the result. I hope that I have impacted the lives of those
kids as much as they have impacted me.
For most, it is a tough road ahead. I just hope that I sparked their
imaginations and gave them some hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-66886995184797632482014-12-12T10:44:00.001-08:002014-12-12T10:44:52.466-08:00Bois D'Avril<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Following my time in
Port-au-Prince, Jeanide and I traveled up to the tiny Village of Bois
D’Avril. We met John and Deb in
Petionville and took a quick detour to the grocery store. There I was able to pick up a phone charger
for myself, and a piece of cheesecake to split with Jeanide. It was her first time encourntering the rich
creamy delicacy, but she enjoyed every bite.
6,000 feet above sea level is where Deb and John call home. They are a lovely Baha’i couple who are
originally from Canada. They moved to
Haiti 33 years ago and moved up into the mountains just before the
earthquake. Their house sits just above
the village and offers a brilliant look out into the mountains southward. This is what the sunrise looks like just
outside the bedroom door where I slept. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgQpXu4H89NaKl6HSe_7V8bfpxN_V2VSnRbr0s9aKv-eWUY19UEi5wEoyeK2w7wuKzhOVZuHsc_stNSxr-nJfhSLIjnlhsM2ILq-XMYVvlDCXYlYPUwSCjIApANhe4KFbHr1n1m_1oLhE/s1600/IMG_3480.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgQpXu4H89NaKl6HSe_7V8bfpxN_V2VSnRbr0s9aKv-eWUY19UEi5wEoyeK2w7wuKzhOVZuHsc_stNSxr-nJfhSLIjnlhsM2ILq-XMYVvlDCXYlYPUwSCjIApANhe4KFbHr1n1m_1oLhE/s1600/IMG_3480.JPG" height="151" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Upon waking up I got right to
teaching. Friday, the first day, I let the kids explore on the laptops to see
what they knew. It was evident they had
used the laptops before, but I knew there was plenty of potential for
progress. The kids messed around on the
piano activity, took pictures, and played games. After finishing class we pulled out the
soccer ball and played a game in the open field. I held my own but was struggling to catch my
breath by the end. I called it quits and
got to experience a warm shower thanks to the home’s solar heated shower. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The weekend came and I spent
majority of my time working on papers for my Independent Studies at
Oakland. I have successfully wrote my 20
page paper on the effectiveness of earthquake relief in Haiti, and have begun
writing the three others. Two papers are for Global Political Philosophy, in
which I will explore the reliance on aid, and the idea of Cosmopolitanism. The
last is for Modern Language, and it will be a reflection on my trip, with a
focus on my exposure to a new culture and language. I will post them here when the editing phase
is complete. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">In between my periods of creative
brilliance, I took a few breaks to go on som</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">e adventures.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Saturday Jeanide and I headed to a place called
Mon Sel, or Salt Mountain.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">There is a
reservation there called L’Haiti de Demain, or the Haiti of tomorrow.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The reservation was a 3 or 4 mile walk
through some winding paths, and sat just off a dirt road.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The park consists of 2 tennis courts, a playground,
a soccer field, a restaurant, and countless gardens.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It seemed oddly placed and no one seemed to
be home when we arrived. We walked around to the side entrance and the gate was
open.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Jeanide and I walked quietly,
hesitant to draw attention, but eventually we were met by staff.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The explained they were not open, but Jeanide
convinced them to let us at least look around for 10 minutes.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We walked around the premise and saw as much
as we could.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Things moved a little
slower than I had hoped with Jeanide stopping to have me take pictures for her
Facebook page, but it was a lovely slice of Haiti. We stopped and had the groundskeeper take a photo. He had never used a camera before, but was able to capture my radiant good looks quite well.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We took a motorcycle back, and arrived just
in time for dinner.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Sunday I wrote some more, but took
a break to go to a picnic with Jeanide and John. There I met a bunch of people working with
their own governmental and non-governmental organizations. A lot of them had been in Haiti for a long
time and had some cool stories to tell.
I enjoyed some carrot cake, chased some kids through a field, and
socialized with the adults. The walks
back and forth were absolutely breathtaking.
You start off in a forest of pine trees that opens up to an open field
of farms and cliff faces. You trek along
the narrow goat path up and down left and right before arriving to the property
that sits on the edge of a drop off. I
plan to take Paul to Bois D’Avril next week Wednesday. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Throughout the week I taught, on
average, 3 classes a week. The ages
ranged from kindergarten to 5<sup>th</sup> grade. With the Kindergarteners it was hard to be
productive. It is nice to get the kids excited about technology, and it is good
for them to get an understanding of how to use it, but there isn’t room for
much else. The 5<sup>th</sup> graders is
a different story. The have access to
the Internet-in-a-box (iiab) hardware, so they have the ability to read
Wikipedia, access khan academy, and download other education software. I spent the week getting them equated with
its ins and outs. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We finished off the week with a
class for the teachers on how to use iiab.
The information on there is mostly in French or English, so having the
teachers well versed is essential. They
are the ones who benefit the most. They
can walk the kids through the articles translating what it says, or they can
learn something new for themselves and teach a lesson on it later. The teachers took well to it and made some
great progress. They are now in Sora’s capable hands, and I’m sure she can help
them progress further. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I am now back in Port-au-Prince at
Haiti Communitere. Paul comes tomorrow and we will spend my last week in Haiti
together. I’ll take him around to a few
of my favorite places. We will start in
PAP and visit 3 or 4 of the schools here, then we will spend 2 days in Grand
Goave at Mission of Hope. From there we
will head into the mountains to Bois D’Avril for 2 days, and then it’s back to
PAP so that we can catch out flights out on the 20<sup>th</sup>. I really should be working on editing and
citations so I’m going to cut this blog post short. I should have plenty more to say, and I will
be sure to post my papers on here when I am finished. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-6147857020537262852014-12-03T10:48:00.001-08:002014-12-03T10:48:22.139-08:00Port-au-Prince: Round 3<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve spent my time since the last post back in
Port-au-Prince. Once again I’m staying
with the fine people here at Haiti Communitere.
I spent the first week working at Cazeau with Dyna and Johnny
Laine. Dyna is a teacher at the school
who runs an after school XO program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In our 2 lessons together, Dyna and I taught
typing, and showed the kids how to do research using Internet-in-a-box (iiab). iiab
is a terabyte hard drive containing all of Wikipedia in multiple languages, and
other educational software. We explained
to the kids how to use the search feature and asked a few basic questions for
them to look up. The young group quickly
grasped the concept so we let them explore for the rest of class. One little girl stumbled upon the page for
feminism. I thought it a great photo op, but she had more important matters to
attend to. It’s amazing to see what sparks the kids’ curiosity. Giving them the ability to explore and learn
is a wonderful feeling.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Between my two days with Dyna, I helped Johnny Laine teach an
English class to the kids in the orphanage.
Johnny is a Haitian who works for Ken Bever at Hope for Haiti’s Children.
He teaches English to the kids twice a week.
We started off the class by walking through and learning words and their
pronunciation. Next I read the class a story, and sentence by sentence they
repeated after me. Although this was cute, I wasn’t really impressed until the
next step. I read the story in English again, but this time Johnny had the kids
translate it into Creole. The class
translated in unison and did so perfectly.
We read another story and then I asked each of them individual
questions. The English class was especially
easy to teach and was a nice break from my regular lesson plans. Below are a few students from the class. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
That Thursday was also Thanksgiving. The holiday is not celebrated in Haiti for
obvious reasons, but I was staying with a bunch of Americans, so we had our own
party. The day before, people went out
and bought some live turkeys and let them roam the compound. Then Thursday people were here all day
cooking. There was turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes pie
for dessert. We all pitched in $10 and
that paid for some live entertainment too.
A talented musician from the city brought his guitar and played a few
songs for us while we ate. It wasn’t the same, but it was a nice taste of home.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That weekend I helped out around Communitere doing
chores. Michael is a middle aged
volunteer from the UK. He had been cleaning the storage closet out all week,
and recruited me to help him sort through some old electronics. We went through 3 or 4 boxes of gadgets left
behind, and found some really cool stuff.
The first thing that caught my eye was a Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES). We kept digging and found 3
laptops, dozens of walkie talkies, and more than enough wires. I hooked up the NES as soon as I had time and
tried to get it working. The conventional techniques weren’t working (blowing
the dust out of the cartridge), so I ended up disassembling it to better
diagnose the issue. The 72 bit connector
that the game plugs into was bent out of shape. I bended it back into place,
and after a few tries we got it working.
The next day I checked through the computers and was able to salvage a
laptop. I offered to pay the people at Communitere
for it, but they were just happy to clear up some space. I dropped the laptop off at Cazeau, and it
will be sent to one of our teachers at a later date.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve spent this week bouncing around between Cazeau,
Croix-des-bouquets, and Silar’s orphanage.
At Silar’s I had to document all the information of the electrical
appliances he uses. The plan is to later
convert his electricity from 110 volts to 24 volts. At Cazeau I did some more work on the
internet, including installing a new Ethernet cable. The idea is to permanently
install an access point in the principal’s office so that the kids can connect
whenever. I spent my time in
Croix-des-bouquets with Jeanide and Junior.
They are two Haitians who I have worked with in the past. They have recently started their own English school
and are teaching once a week. I went
around with them and talked to some potential students about joining. We went and visited one school down the road
from where they hold class, and we talked to a few classes before and after
recess. During recess the older kids
played soccer in the yard. I joined in
and showcased by very limited skill. The
Haitian sun is unforgiving and after 20 minutes I tapped out with my team up
1-0. By the end of the recess we lost
6-2. My team needed me but I was spent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We taught a class on Saturday and had a pretty good turnout. We went through some basics, “What is your
name?” “What do you like to do?” “How old are you?”. One girl told me she liked to sing. Junior asked her if she would sing for
us. She seemed very shy so I tried to
make her a deal. I told her I would sing
if she would. I held up my end of the
bargain, she did not. Nevertheless the
kids enjoyed my performance. We talked
for a little longer and the kids told me about their families and what else
they liked to do. It was a great group
of kids and their English will only continue to get better with the help of
Jeanide and Junior. Depending on when my
brother Paul lands, I may take him to visit the English class with me when he
arrives on December 13<sup>th</sup>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final place I’ll be working at is Bois d’avril up in the
mountains. I’ll be heading there
tomorrow and returning the 12<sup>th</sup>.
After that I will show Paul around Haiti. I definitely plan to pay a
visit to Mission of Hope in Grand Goave. I spent 3 weeks there and want to say
hello to some of my favorite students.
We will go all around Port-au-Prince, and maybe back up into the
mountains. It seems surreal that my work in Haiti is coming to an end. I know I’ve accomplished a lot, and I have
enjoyed every second, but the work is far from done. It’s hard to be informed and optimistic for
the future of Haiti. There are wonderful
people here, Haitians and foreigners alike.
I just hope that their good intentions produce good results. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on,<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-67623592816525533352014-11-23T16:07:00.001-08:002014-11-23T16:07:24.176-08:00Lascahobas<div class="MsoNormal">
After saying goodbye to Herodion in Hinche, Ruben and I
headed to Lascahobas to take on our next assignment. We loaded into a van and were on our
way. The van was packed door to
door. Myself and 19 other people rocked
back and forth as we ventured over the poorly maintained dirt road. We reached the pavement and from there the
ride was much better. Just as I started to doze off, our driver abruptly pulled
over to the side of the road. He went
around to his front right tire, examined it, and then began to jack up the
car. We all piled out and moved over to
the shade. The driver decided that the
highway was the best place to change his break pad. The passengers were none
too pleased, and the general consensus was that the driver knew the problem
existed long before we left, but didn’t want to delay and miss out on the money
from a van full of people. We impatiently waited while he finished up,
and within an hour we were on our way once again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
My instructions upon arriving in Lascahobas were to ask a
motorcycle to take me to Bernadette’s house. Adam ensured me that they would
know the way. Lascahobas is a smaller
town and Bernadette is a big name in the community, everyone knows and respects
her. We arrived and the driver knew just
where to go. I paid him and we went inside.
Bernadette is an eccentric character whose friendly personality and hard
work has made her a local celebrity. She
runs a school just up the road from her house and has quite the arsenal of XOs. Unlike most schools, Bernadette’s school
signs the laptops out to the students who take them home and bring them back to
the school only for class. Most places
this is a bad idea but Lascahobas is a great town for this model. As I was saying, Bernadette is a huge figure
in the community. Everyone knows her and
knows that the XOs belong to her. The
community looks out for each other and looks out for her XO’s. Upon my arrival
they had 46 laptops signed out to kids at the school.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first day we went to school and were taken up the laptop
room. Bernadette opened it up and we got
to work. I booted up my laptop and
checked the school server. Everything
checked out so now it was time to check on the laptops. Despite the school being set up with a new 12
volts electrical system 6 months prior to my arrival, they had been experiencing
issues with charging the laptops. I found a good battery and used it to check
through the 75 laptops that were laid out in front of me. All but six were in perfect working condition
and all but three I was able to salvage.
The next day we passed out 65 of those laptops and Thursday we had 3
laptop classes running simultaneously.
The total number of laptops was 109.
Next it was time to address the electrical issues. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The school has 2 permanent solar panels that run from the
roof to a charge controller that converts the voltage to 12 volts. The charge then travels to a set of 4
batteries connected in parallel, and then back up into the charge controller. From there the wires carry the charge to a
power strip that was connected to the wires by wrapping the wires around the
prongs and taping them with electrical tape.
Definitely not a conventional set up but after a few minutes of confused
stares I traced the flow of electricity.
I looked around the room and found a voltmeter, a familiar tool that I have
used in physics lab multiple times. I
took off the plastic tips and got some readings. After a few skype calls and a good amount of
discussing we decided it would be best to detach the 3<sup>rd</sup> set of
wires from the charge controller and connect them directly to the
batteries. This allowed us to get the 12
volts we needed to charge the laptops.
After fussing with the touchy wires for a while, we were able to have 9
laptops charging at once on the 12 volt system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day, the job was to address the state of the other
set of 2 batteries connected in parallel.
These batteries were connected to wires that ran to the roof and had two
ports for connecting a rollable solar panel.
Inside the computer room, the batteries had a wire running to another
power strip able to charge 9 more laptops.
Based on the voltage being produced by these two batteries, it was easy
to tell that the solar panel had been in storage longer than it should have
been. I took it out and carried it to
the roof where I attached it. One of the frustrating aspects of volunteer
work is that at some point you leave, and the job is no longer in your
hands. Especially with technology,
maintenance is important. Whether it was ignorance or laziness, the maintenance
was not getting done. Laziness I cannot
fix, but as an educator I can do my best to cure ignorance. I took a second to enjoy the lovely view
before heading back to work. In the bottom of the frame you can see the
rollable solar panel providing charge to the batteries. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a few hours of tinkering with broken laptops I went
and checked the voltage across the portable system. 30 volts across the solar panel, and 13.4
volts across the battery flowing into the second power strip. I hook up the remaining laptops, and all and
all was able to charge 16 laptops on the 12 volt system. Ruben and I smiled at our success and he ran
off to get some lunch. One of the
children had brought me a laptop with a faulty keyboard, so I disassembled one
of the broken XOs and was able to swap out keyboards. He came back a few hours later and was
extremely happy to have his laptop back in working condition. The school has a pile of laptops that they
claim are broken, a few seemed to have software issues but some are just good
for parts. After discussing it with Adam
and Sora, we decided it would be a good idea my last day to run a workshop
where I would teach a few of the best computer how to swap out parts. That was
set up for Friday, but Thursday I would get the chance to do some
teaching. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I spent most of the morning Thursday tinkering and was able
to fix a couple more laptops. My lesson
plan was to bring my mother’s favorite game show to the children of Lascahobas,
Jeopardy. The school has a terabyte
school server the kids can connect to, called Internet-in-a-box. The hard drive contains Wikipedia in dozens
of languages, Khan academy educational videos, and other educational tools and
software. I created a list of 16
questions and arranged them in a grid with 4 different categories. The questions were designed to be difficult
enough so that the kids would have to use the laptops to look up the
answers. A sample question was “how big
is Haiti in kilometers?” The categories
were, the universe, Haiti facts, America facts, and Famous people. The kids went straight for the questions about
Haiti and searched the depths of Wikipedia for the answers. Each correct answer was met with a
celebration by the team receiving the points.
I asked a question about back home that I knew would be easy for the
kids to find; “What is the capital of Michigan?” They got searching and a kid
in the front row raised his hand. I
walked over to examine his answer. He
got to the page on Livonia, although his answer was wrong, it was cool to see
that he had a great enough access to information that if he wanted to he could
read all about Livonia Michigan, or the big bang theory, or general relativity,
or anything that might spark the imagination.
A few minutes later I heard one of the kids in the second row sound out
the correct answer. I awarded her team the points and with that they sealed the
win. The class came to an end and Bernadette came in to address the kids. They thanked me for being their guest teacher
and for the work I was doing repairing the laptops. I said goodbye and went back to get some rest
before my final day. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the final day I met with the teachers of the XO
program. I explained to them how the
electrical system worked, and emphasized the importance of keeping everything
well maintained. One teacher especially seemed
very eager to learn and seemed to understand my explanation. I’m optimistic that when Sora and Nick arrive
in mid-December, there will be very few issues.
After we worked through that and I answered their questions, I met with
the star students of the XO program. I
taught one pair of kids how to disassemble the front of the laptop, and we
replaced a broken screen. The other
group learned how to disassemble the bottom of the laptop and we replaced a
keyboard. The kids were intrigued, and
their nimble hands made it easy for them to work on the tiny laptop. We put everything back together and had two
more working laptops. We cleaned up and I
left behind a screwdriver so that they could tinker. I could have spent the rest of my time in
Haiti at Lascahobas, fixing laptops, and teaching, but come Saturday it was
time to say goodbye. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lascahobas provided some unique challenges that raised a lot
of frustrations, but reflecting on it, I’m optimistic for the kids. They have great leadership in Bernadette, and
they have some very able and willing teachers and students. I look forward to reading Sora and Nick’s
report after their visit. Now I am back
in Port-au-Prince where I will spend the next 10 days bouncing around the city
teaching and working on connectivity issues.
I arrived in Haiti 2 months ago today.
It’s been a wonderful journey and I have truly enjoyed both teaching and
learning everywhere I go. I look forward
to finishing strong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-10330320026427272822014-11-16T14:23:00.003-08:002014-11-16T14:23:42.527-08:00Hinche<div class="MsoNormal">
So after my week in Port-au-Prince, I took a trip back to America
to see friends and family. I left from Communitere
and headed to the airport early on the morning of November 1<sup>st</sup>. After getting overcharged for my taxi ride, I
piled into the airport and worked my way through security. Haiti is an exhausting place to work, and as
much as I love what I’m doing, it was nice to be able to take a break for 10
days. After my 7 hour layover in Fort
Lauderdale I boarded the plane for Detroit.
I sat next to a lovely 50 year old couple from Toledo. The husband David and I chatted the whole
flight, and occasionally his wife would jump in. They left me with a book on neuroscience and
religion. Not particularly my area of
interest, but I’m sure my mom will enjoy reading it. I said goodbye to them and walked out into
the frigid outside world to meet me girlfriend Michelle. I saw her soccer mom
van and made my way over to receive a long overdue hug. We got into the car and I drove back to my
house. It was great to be with her once
again, and it was great finally be able to drive myself. We got home and I was
introduced to my new dog for the first time. His name is Bo and he’s a labradoodle.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I spent the rest of my week off relaxing and seeing some
familiar faces. I went to Oakland on
Tuesday and with Michelle’s help we were able to surprise Nicole Vitale ( @gingermermaidd
) for lunch. Along with some others we took a trip to Burgerz. 10/10 would recommend. Later in the week I went up to MSU to visit
some other people. When I got there I
hung out in the one and only Eden Rock apartment 203, and caught up with
everyone. Later in the night I got to
see my blogs #1 fan Lucas Wilson ( @sirlucaswilson ) and we got some bubble
tea. The tea itself sucked but the
experience was a 7.8/10. The next day I
headed back home to finish up my vacation.
I went on a few dates with Michelle, including a Plymouth Whalers
game. Our favorite player Sonny Milano
scored the game winner in a shootout.
Sadly Tuesday the 11<sup>th</sup> my vacation came to an end. It was nice to see everyone once again, but
it was time to gather myself and finish what I set out to do. My dad drove me to the airport and I boarded
the plane heading south. After my
overnight layover in Fort Lauderdale, I flew to Haiti and it was right back to
work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ruben met me at the airport and we headed to Communitere so
I could drop some stuff off. I gathered
what I needed and we started our journey to Hinche. My goal for the 5 days there would be to
assess the status of the school server and the laptop program. Ruben and I bounced around a few taptaps and
finally arrived at our van that would take us the rest of the way. We loaded in and waited for the van to fill
up so the driver would leave. 2 hours, 15
people, 1 mattress, 1 box spring, 1 microwave, 1 fan, and 1 propane tank later,
the van was pack on the interior and exterior and ready to go. We pulled away from the city and the scene
quickly became open fields, and then mountains.
We continued our climb, winding back and forth. Looking back toward where we just came from
was a breathtaking view. The roads
shoulder dropped off into a steep slope that feel drastically before curving
and leveling out into the flat valley that is Port-au-Prince. From the mountains you get a much better idea
of the size of the capital city. The
buildings run from the mountains edge up to the mouth of the ocean which was
shining brightly in the afternoon light.
We continued up and down left and right, and a few hours later we
arrived in Hinche. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Upon arriving we were greeted by Herodion, who would be
hosting us during our time there. We got
some rest after the long day of travel and started at the school the next
day. The school, St. Andres, is just a stones throw
away from where we were staying, so we walked over and began our work. I checked the school server and initially
everything looked great. They school had
electricity for starters. They turned the server on as soon as I arrived and I
was able to connect right away. This
made me optimistic for the rest of the week. The hardware was functioning and
that’s the first step. After examining
the server further we found an issue with the way that the server was storing
the data. The Unleash Kids team back
home was able to fix everything remotely and within a few hours the software
was functioning properly also. I went
out to eat with Ruben and Herodion and we celebrated a successful first day. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day I returned to the school to examine what had
been going on with the laptop program.
The laptops had apparently not been getting used recently and the job
was to figure out why. The hardware and
software was working so we suspected the problem was bureaucracy. I met with one of the programs teachers Darus
and asked him why things had come to a halt.
His answer was that the classes stopped because the money
stopped. He and the other teacher, Herodion,
had stopped getting paid and as a result the classes stopped running. The school is sponsored by a group from
California and they pay a lot of money.
A portion of that is supposed to be allocated to paying for the laptop
program, including hardware, software, and teachers. The school and its’ director managed to
maintain the first 2, but failed to pay their teachers. Darus has been working with the laptop program
since October 2013. Based on the journal
entries from the XO laptops, I can tell that most weeks we was running the
class 3 or 4 times a week. In January 2014, Herdion joined the program and the
two split the work load. It’s unclear
exactly how much either has been paid, but it’s very clear that there has been
a mismanagement of funds that has led to two hardworking teachers being underpaid
and under-appreciated. There’s a lot of
speculation as to just where these funds are going, but they are definitely not
going where they were intended. I was
insured by the schools director that classes would be running again by next week,
but I find that unlikely. I may come
back in December to visit with my brother. It will be interesting to see if any
progress has been made. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After a bleak Friday, we decided that Saturday I would visit
a local tourist trap, Bassin Zim. After
an 8 mile motorcycle ride up and down a dirt road we arrived at the gate,
Herodion explained that I was in Hinche for a short period of time and wanted
to see the sights. He let us in and we
rolled up to the water’s edge. Bassin
Zim is a beautiful waterfall that flows down the rocks and into a reservoir that leads
into another river. </div>
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The view was amazing
and when I finally took my eyes off the flowing water I realized that I was
surrounded by a group of 5<sup>th</sup> grade Haitians eager to give me a
tour. They are used to having Americans,
and they know enough English to communicate all the important ideas. We walked up a path to the right of the
mountains and we headed up to the caves.
The first cave we saw the called the big cave. Water flowed from a natural spring in the
back up the cave and trickled out down a small river at the caves enterance. Along the side wall a series of bee’s nests
sat staring back at me. I walked up the
river and the kids warned me about the bees to my left and about the bats
overhead. The cave was magnificent. The
walls were covered in writing from tourists who had visited. There were also cave paintings that the
Haitian guides claimed were native Taino drawings. I don’t know if I buy it but if true the
drawings have an eerie connotation. Columbus
landed in Haiti in 1492 and the Spaniards enslaved the native Taino people. By the
turn of the 18<sup>th</sup> century the natives had been all but wiped
out. We pressed on into the cave and I looked up to
see an opening that had been repelled into by some more adventurous Blan than
myself. We exited the cave and went to
the river’s edge to see where the falls began.
The water rushed by below and I took it all in. Below is a panoramic shot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We headed back down the steps and on our way down we visited
the little cave. The tour guides
explained that it was a cave that was used to house voodoo rituals. Again I was skeptical that this may just be
what they tell tourists to scare/excite them, but I played along and one of my
guides, Jonas, took some pictures. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After leaving the voodoo cave we went back down to the water’s
edge. The kids asked me if I could swim
and then asked me to race them. I
laughed and accepted their challenge. We
got into out swim attire and the kids whined about the cold water. It was nothing compared to what I’ve swam in
back home. John was the only one brave
enough to get in with me and we raced to the other side of the reservoir. It wasn’t really that close but the kids were
cheering me on the whole way. We got out
on the other side and climbed up the rock face and relaxed for a while. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After swimming for a while longer, we decided to call it a
day and get back before the day came to an end.
Bassin Zim was a good way to end what was otherwise a pretty frustrating
week. Fixing technical difficulties can
be challenging enough, but bureaucratic difficulties are a totally different
beast. I wish everyone involved at St.
Andres all the best, but I am not optimistic.
If progress is to be made there will need to be a reallocation of
responsibilities. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ll be spending the next 5 days in Lascahobas which is
about an hour south of Hinche. There I
will be again be assessing server issues, but since I am arriving on a Monday, I
will be able to resolve issues early in the week and teach later in the
week. I look forward to getting back to
my forte, teaching. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Hang on,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-69833764999101908132014-11-01T13:48:00.000-07:002014-11-01T14:01:28.948-07:00CazeauFollowing my work in Grand Goave, I headed back to Port-au-Prince. More specifically I spent the week at a school in Cazeau. The facility is part school, part orphanage, and part church. I visited there earlier in my trip and taught the scientific method with Dyna. This time around I focused my efforts on tech support. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
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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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Hang on,<br />
Sean <br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-54573042866518223402014-10-25T13:15:00.000-07:002014-10-25T13:15:46.907-07:00Grand Goave: Week Three<div class="MsoNormal">
Going into the week I was under the impression that I would
again be without a translator. Sunday
night I received the wonderful news from Sora and Adam that this would not be
the case. Jeanide, who I worked with in
Port-au-Prince, had managed to find time in her busy schedule to make the trip
east, to help me throughout the week.
She left Monday during the morning and arrived when I returned from
school. I thanked her greatly for coming on such a short notice and began to
lay out my lesson plans for the week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tuesday I decided that I would introduce the scientific
method to both classes by using the same sound experiment I used at
Cazeau. The experiment is very
simple. Line up 4 glass bottles each
with a different amount of water in it, then ask the students which bottle will
have the lowest pitch. Asking a question
is the first step of the scientific method.
Next is to do research. For this
I had the students pull up the Wikipedia page on sound, and they did a little
bit of reading. The class came to the
consensus that sound is a wave, and the different amounts of water would cause
different pitches. Step 3 the kids
formed a hypothesis. All guessed that either
1 or 4 would have the lowest pitch. Step
4 we performed the experiment and found that bottle 4 had the lowest pitch. The
class then recorded their results for step 5, and for step 6 we drew a
conclusion. As the amount of water
increases, the pitch decreases. Not a
ground breaking experiment to say the least, but definitely simple enough to
convey the proper procedure when doing scientific investigation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Wednesday I had planned to teach a music class with Mistro. He is the piano player in the church’s band
and he could definitely teach the kids one or two things about how to read and
play music. He has been terribly
unreliable during my time here, but I figured if I gave him a chance to teach
something he truly loved, that maybe he would take some initiative and show up. Once again he let me down. It was 10 O’clock and time to start
class. He was nowhere to be found. Instead of proceeding I decided to take the
lesson in a different direction.
Watching the kids type up their reports the day before, I noticed that
very few knew the proper typing technique.
I drew a blown up picture of a keyboard on my whiteboard and
demonstrated the proper hand positions.
The XO’s have typing software, and I set aside the first hour of class
toward practicing their newly acquired skill.
For the older kids, I let them do with the
last hour of class whatever they pleased.
To my surprise many continued playing the typing game. A few students switched over to chat, but a
few others explored the depths of Wikipedia.
Seeing the kids independently choose to practice typing, or read
articles is a wonderfully reassuring feeling.
It shows that they really are thirsty to learn, and it’s an honor to
provide them with tools that can quench that thirst.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I wanted to go out of Grand Goave with a bang, I wanted to
give the kids something that they would remember. I definitely did so at Delmas 28 when I did my
rocket lesson, and I wanted to give Mission of Hopes students a similar
experience. Thursday I explained the basics of rocketry. I lead with gravity, talked about the vinegar
and baking soda fuel, and then went into aerodynamics. I had the kids draw up some designs on paint
so they could get a better idea of what we would be building Friday. Many struggled to work to overcome the touchy
paint software, but I went around and helped get everything in working order. In the end we had some wonderful designs. A
couple of students finished very quickly and agreed to design a new one even
better. I let them be and came back 10
minutes later to discover that they had copied a picture of the Columbia Spaceshuttle
from their offline digital library, and pasted it into paint. I appreciated the resourcefulness and congratulated
them on their designs. They even added
their own artistic touches. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Friday came and it was time to turn these students into
rocket stars. All the supplies were in
order and I distributed them to the two teams.
The kids opened their XO’s and used their schematics as reference. The older kids worked especially well
together and were efficient with all their resources, the younger kids not so
much. The teams wrapped up and added
their finishing touches. We went into
the graveled area next to where we held class and I prepared the fuel. The teams formed a circle around and eagerly
awaited their flights. We shot off one
rocket after the other and the kids cheered with delight at their
successes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The day came to an end and I said my goodbyes to the
class. Friday was my last day teaching
in Grand Goave and I truly will miss the students of MOH. These 3 weeks have
meant a lot to me and not just because of the lessons I have taught. Grand Goave gave me the chance to really get
to know a group of kids, some on a very deep level. Last week I introduced you to my friend
Johnsley. He is a 14 year old boy who
aspires to be both a pastor and a doctor.
He has decent English skills, and he and I talked a lot and became very
close. He stopped by the beach house on Saturday
so that we could say our final goodbyes. Tuesday I gave him an English bible
and an English to Creole dictionary. He
left me with a letter that he wrote thanking me for being his teacher and his
friend. It’s something that I will
cherish forever. Below is Johnsley with his rocket design. I wish him and all of his classmates the best of luck. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tomorrow I head back to Port-au-Prince to do some teaching
and server repair at Cazeau. It has been
an absolute pleasure to teach here in Grand Goave, but there is still plenty
more work to be done at plenty of other schools. I look forward to teaching and making more
friends along the way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-48811590922321388962014-10-19T12:24:00.002-07:002014-10-19T12:24:38.423-07:00Grand Goave: Week Two<div class="MsoNormal">
So week 2 ended up being a shortened school week due to a
Haitian holiday. October 17<sup>th</sup>
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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3TAz7V-0lbYRo5pP2EqdaGdShPjOrVrRPXfRvDnw_O4nEzl1PzCwKXY2qhpdxJQ479_N90CahfUP8aQDYqBL3LnMxrarycbgIC1zTs5Cjv81jtbQDU6J_og6f4ScNITb8w6Ty7jm1TIR/s1600/IMG_3106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3TAz7V-0lbYRo5pP2EqdaGdShPjOrVrRPXfRvDnw_O4nEzl1PzCwKXY2qhpdxJQ479_N90CahfUP8aQDYqBL3LnMxrarycbgIC1zTs5Cjv81jtbQDU6J_og6f4ScNITb8w6Ty7jm1TIR/s1600/IMG_3106.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZKIme1pAhLTGZ9v-y1OZbSAeT261MoZ3b_cmmlx6mZP_eKKMp0zrZxChufpfN1WBw8AWEgMSfC7BS4htWbPOvygAg9mGzC0i0CorfWu4uNctQpTedB_bXsyd2l55IO9ZkhrM6xiE095ga/s1600/IMG_3122.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZKIme1pAhLTGZ9v-y1OZbSAeT261MoZ3b_cmmlx6mZP_eKKMp0zrZxChufpfN1WBw8AWEgMSfC7BS4htWbPOvygAg9mGzC0i0CorfWu4uNctQpTedB_bXsyd2l55IO9ZkhrM6xiE095ga/s1600/IMG_3122.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-13352268605586256762014-10-11T14:26:00.002-07:002014-10-11T14:26:59.707-07:00Grand Goave: Week One<div class="MsoNormal">
I arrived in Grand Goave Sunday October 4<sup>th</sup> at
around 5pm via bus. The driver dropped
me off at the main intersection just over the bridge that separates the
farmland from the town. I unloaded my
stuff and hopped onto a motorcycle to take me to the school. Now I’m not a big fan of motorcycles, but if
you want to get somewhere and you don’t want to wait, they are the way to
go. After some arguably illegal maneuvers
by my driver, we arrived at the school/church grounds of Mission of Hope
(MOH). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
MOH is an organization run by Pastor Lexidon Edme, and his
wife Renee. They’ve been working in
Haiti for a long time and have some amazing support from both inside and
outside of the country. The school teaches
several hundred kids ranging from toddlers to young adults, some older than
myself. Majority of the funding comes
from sister parishes back in the states, and there is no lack of support. The school has 25 XO laptops, 40 Kindle
tablets, and is currently constructing a computer lab and a dance studio. It’s definitely a drastic change from the
schools I worked at in Port-au-Prince. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Upon my arrival I was greeted by Renee who was the person
coordinating my accommodations for the week.
We said our pleasantries and then she introduced me to her husband
pastor Lex. Lex is a formidable figure in
his community and he receives tons of respect.
It’s hard to go anywhere with him and not get stopped every five seconds
by people wishing to say hello or ask questions. Lex gave me a brief tour and along the way we
bumped into another Blan (Haitian word for white person). His name is Laramie and he was accompanied by
his twin daughters of about 10 years.
Laramie and his family are traveling missionaries who recently moved to
Haiti. He and his wife Amy have 4 kids
ages 10-15. They are currently working
at the orphanage up the road and wanted to check out the school that some of
their kids attend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tour was over and it was time for “Sunday night worship”. Laramie overenthusiastically invited me to
sit with him and I obliged. Now I’m not
religious, but at the same time I’m not anti-religion. I was raised catholic and have no problem
attending mass. But Haitian mass is not
quite like American catholic mass. Scriptures
are read, Eucharist is shared, and praise is given, but with a different sense
of urgency. Pastor Lex stepped up to the
mic and delivered a sermon that conjured up more excitement than I ever
remember from Father Mike back at St. William. Arms were raised towards the
sky, hands were clapping, and hips were swaying as the spirit of his words fell
over the room. It was slightly
uncomfortable being the only one not overwhelmed by the holy spirit, but
nevertheless it was a sight I’m glad I saw.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mass came to an end and as a group we headed back to the
house where I’d be staying. After a 15
minute ride down a street that reminded me much of Green Lake Road, we
arrived. The gate rolled open and we
pulled in. I stepped out and took in the
incredible view. Grand Goave is an ocean
town, and MOH is arguably the best place to take in the beauty of it all. Mountains to the west, mountains to the east,
and an island sits on the horizon to the north.
I dipped my feet in the water, grabbed some dinner, and then went back
to my room to prepare for the week I had ahead of me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Grand Goave has been a much more regimented schedule. Wake up at 6:30, get ready, eat breakfast,
make lunch, and then go to school. From
10-11:30 I’ve been teaching a group of high school kids. Then I wrap that class
up, charge the laptops, and teach a younger group from 1-2:30. The translator the schools provided me with
has been far from reliable so it’s been hard to teach drawn out lessons. So far out of the 10 classes I’ve taught he
showed up to 1. In that one class period
I did an activity where as a class we took some measurements with a homemade apparatus
and estimated the size of the sun. The math was troubling for some, but we
managed to work through it and by the end everyone had their own estimate. <a href="http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_03.html">http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_03.html</a>
. The younger kids have been a much bigger challenge. A lot of the kids just see the laptops as
gaming devices. Although they do have
some educational games programmed on, they are much more than that. With only 25 laptops it’s been a struggle
every day to have one laptop per child, and to maintain order. I fear that the lack of a translator has really
been limiting the potential of my teaching abilities. Lex has other things to worry about and doesn’t
seem to take interest, his wife Renee is the more approachable of the two and I
plan on working with her this weekend to come up with a better solution. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the challenges I’ve managed to form some great
relationships with the students and the staff members. Nurse Leah was a huge help getting me acquainted
with everything, and she was kind enough to let me use her Natcom 3G internet
stick to upload my last blog post. Rennot
is another person who has been a huge help.
He’s the go to guy for whatever needs to be done. Need a whiteboard? Ask Rennot. Need to turn
on the electricity? Ask Rennot. Need to buy your own 3G stick so you don’t have
to continue to work in the clinic in order to get Leah to let you borrow hers?
Ask Rennot. His help has been huge, and
even though we can’t always work out what the other person is saying, I am
always happy to see him. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the kids have definitely been a big inspiration too. With the class of younger kids most of them
just want to play math games and take pictures.
But one kid in particular is too fascinated by the world around him to
be caught up in that sort of mindless entertainment. Dionson (pronounced Jenson) is a 13 year old
boy whose bright mind and thirst for knowledge has truly amazed me. All class he sits and reads the French Wikipedia
pages. He’s on a new topic every day and
never stops asking questions. Together we’ve
explored sounds, light, the stars, the planets, force, and a few other aspects
of the natural world. After the second day
of class he begged me to let him keep the laptop out a little longer. I of course said yes and he went with me to
the room where I charge the laptops. A
few minutes later one of his friends appeared and asked if he could use a
laptop. I told him he could only use one
if he used it to read. He agreed to my
terms and booted up his own machine.
After about 30 minutes I had a group of 5 all laying on the carpet
eagerly exploring Wikipedia. Dionson is
a brilliant young mind and I hope the other kids continue to follow in his
footsteps. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAjY-o8k8Byu3Xt8EO8_RZAyD3W7bHfEt41A1x9ODD59apH4C0jBeFV_b7a8Thfzf0muvrlGKQmPfD17HxouCb6xf6CMykIIfvoXtK7Vx9kVwxp6g9mDOMFVhi5pGDXIjAWTYpHwqRstG5/s1600/IMG_3073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAjY-o8k8Byu3Xt8EO8_RZAyD3W7bHfEt41A1x9ODD59apH4C0jBeFV_b7a8Thfzf0muvrlGKQmPfD17HxouCb6xf6CMykIIfvoXtK7Vx9kVwxp6g9mDOMFVhi5pGDXIjAWTYpHwqRstG5/s1600/IMG_3073.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aside from teaching I’ve spent my time at the beach
house. Every day a group of kids will
come by looking to play a game of soccer, swim, or partake in a new fan
favorite which I showed them, throwing around the Frisbee. Most the kids are pretty talented with a
soccer ball, but they still have a long way to go with a disc. I will surely be leaving some of the Frisbees
that I brought with me behind for the kids to enjoy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall Grand Goave has been a bit of a challenge. It’s not easy to find helpful people, and it
makes me appreciate the help I had in Port-au-Prince a lot more. I will work things out with Renee this
weekend and next week I have a bunch of lessons that I’m really excited about. I’ll be exploring the concepts of gravity,
pi, and I may even have another rocket lesson.
Should make for an eventful week<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang on, <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-20970365928561755722014-10-07T13:13:00.000-07:002014-10-07T13:20:07.105-07:00Final Week in Port-au-Prince<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><o:p></o:p>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.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-o3qhkx8nvUtN6XwLWEsh2APevJjCwQijQ-KvpeLOIq8F9LJn_aToWCpeFCjEYO-ByDqV1C1J4mxHAAdCNyWeXjsaGQOnp__CiVx7rwY-qM6euwTK-MGYQcnrBunmjXzuz0d8ozLrTB_/s1600/IMG_3032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-o3qhkx8nvUtN6XwLWEsh2APevJjCwQijQ-KvpeLOIq8F9LJn_aToWCpeFCjEYO-ByDqV1C1J4mxHAAdCNyWeXjsaGQOnp__CiVx7rwY-qM6euwTK-MGYQcnrBunmjXzuz0d8ozLrTB_/s1600/IMG_3032.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://youtu.be/iZ7zWsX6mi0" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/iZ7zWsX6mi0</a> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://youtu.be/ttQCFzPpxF0" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14.3000001907349px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://youtu.be/ttQCFzPpxF0</span></a> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Hang on,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Sean <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-29934479059284038652014-09-28T14:22:00.000-07:002014-10-20T05:54:02.520-07:00Delmas 28<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">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.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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).</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgMZbJB4YXKUVudPUn8Ou9YnrGKyqtDe3ESu6H_LCLOB1uJgl5-yOG9hQDbvogTojkGKA_Zq6jJzvgrLiZUHyulTzX1JQhMnmQLCQHQFZEUU2ZDhhSmadZH-eNrlUiGMO8tNwkukpkOcY/s1600/IMG_2923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgMZbJB4YXKUVudPUn8Ou9YnrGKyqtDe3ESu6H_LCLOB1uJgl5-yOG9hQDbvogTojkGKA_Zq6jJzvgrLiZUHyulTzX1JQhMnmQLCQHQFZEUU2ZDhhSmadZH-eNrlUiGMO8tNwkukpkOcY/s1600/IMG_2923.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 <span style="font-size: x-small;">very quiet</span>. 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. </span>I then wrote a song on the board they all know and love. The
French call it <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">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. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuL4YpKcX0M"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuL4YpKcX0M</a> here is a link to the final product, as well as a picture of some of my star pupils. </span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JDGLzNj9VoVLVun3GEsbB3WDDxS98ZkR3Yau_sVJ2Y9EMR24xLcJH1LzvZnubaji55DJG8zGn_haJRvL179p2fMCCVR0ZdJuXifRBW85Toq7TCPYbPmi4W0S4tofu1lWTBRZZHpV4Qds/s1600/IMG_2936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JDGLzNj9VoVLVun3GEsbB3WDDxS98ZkR3Yau_sVJ2Y9EMR24xLcJH1LzvZnubaji55DJG8zGn_haJRvL179p2fMCCVR0ZdJuXifRBW85Toq7TCPYbPmi4W0S4tofu1lWTBRZZHpV4Qds/s1600/IMG_2936.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
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.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
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. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
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.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
Hang on,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br />
Sean </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-74350833214123408412014-09-25T08:52:00.000-07:002014-10-20T05:55:28.323-07:00First Impressions<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
So following my last post I spent four more days in NYC. I
met my mom and my girlfriend Michelle at our hotel in midtown and we spent a
lovely couple of days enjoying the city. The first day we met up with
Michelle's wonderful friend Sam and saw Cinderella on Broadway, starring Keke
Palmer. It was a great time despite the fact that Ms. Palmer failed to take up
our tweeted offer of Steak and Shake after the show... The next day Michelle
and I toured around Central Park and I made a fool out of myself on a row boat.
We saw a few other sights, broke into a few places, and overall had a
terrific day. The taxi ride to the airport was heavy as I said my last
goodbyes before I sent the ladies on their way back to Michigan. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
After the airport it was off to the Maker
Faire to set up our booth. Maker Faire is a Do It Yourself/Innovator
conference that takes place biannually in San Francisco and New York. I
arrived well before the rest of our organization and had some time to explore.
I saw some pretty incredible things. A 3D printed car was one of
the featured products. Pretty cool to think one day I might be able to
download a car. Finally I met up with the rest of the group and we began
to lay out our stuff. Immediately people recognized the One Laptop Per Child
(OLPC) XO's that we had set up. Everyone was really intrigued and enthusiastic
about what we were doing with the OLPC hardware, and they gave us nothing but
support.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Maker Faire ended and I spent the next two
days running around NYC lugging my 10 laptops and Haiti bags with me.
Nick was kind enough to let myself and others crash at his place, he was
both a wonderful host and tour guide. My flight was set to leave at 6am
so I cut my final night short and set my alarm for 3:30am.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
After tossing and turning for a short
while I finally fell asleep, when I woke up I was groggy and confused. I
hadn't the slightest idea what time it was, but I didn't hear my alarm yet.
So I walked over to the nightstand where my phone was sitting and hit the
home button... 5:03. Realizing I slept through my alarm, I sprang into
action rounding up all my bags. I ran to the nearest intersection and flagged
down a taxi. As I sit down I look up at the screen and see that the time is now
5:07. My flight leaves in 53 minutes. I'm 15 minutes away from the
airport. After managing to hit 3 lights in a row red I began to be
overwhelmed with the reality that I might miss my flight. The driver
seemed to be in no hurry and the minutes seemed to be racing by. Finally
he dropped me off, I paid, and ran across the street to check my bag.
Being a flustered sleep deprived mess I waited in line for a bag check
with the wrong airline... I finally pulled it together and found where I was
supposed to be. The gentleman checking my bag saw I was in a rush and
cruised through the procedure. He even chased me down when I walked away
without my boarding pass.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
One benefit to a 6am flight is that nobody
wants to be on a 6am flight. The line for security was short and I blew right
through it to my gate D-1. The closest possible gate to security. I
boarded the plane and let out a sigh of relief at 5:40am. Miraculously I made
it and I was on my way to Miami for my connecting flight.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHP3PCBeI7973mxoBXvQxeiB1_hpNeDNvjFgvLOGwVdsO970qvFtEhBkX9rRFpmqkaMFwu_PRrthlnZKVX-YTj-DFj1MLPd4w3uJViAPDJa5hNXaWUIbbtpr-_w4ErFpJOsDyEAwjX2Ni/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHP3PCBeI7973mxoBXvQxeiB1_hpNeDNvjFgvLOGwVdsO970qvFtEhBkX9rRFpmqkaMFwu_PRrthlnZKVX-YTj-DFj1MLPd4w3uJViAPDJa5hNXaWUIbbtpr-_w4ErFpJOsDyEAwjX2Ni/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Landed in Miami and had no problem finding
my connecting gate. Upon arrival I was approached by a surfer dude like
figure with dreads and a polo. He looks at me smiles and says "are
you Sean?"... Baffled I reply "Yes? Do I know you?"
"I'm Sam, the director of Haiti Communitere." (the place that
I'm spending my first 10 days in Haiti). We chatted for a while about
Unleash Kids before we boarded the plane and took our seats. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
I read for most of the flight and before I
knew it we were starting our decent. We touched down and the un-boarding
procedure began. </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Walking towards customs we were greeted by a Haitian
band playing traditional music. Customs was a long wait but went off
without a hitch. I proceeded to baggage claim and once again loaded
everything up for one last haul. Now most of you have not been to the airport
in Port-au-Prince, so it'll be hard to convey the utter chaos that it is.
Upon leaving baggage claim you are greeted by a flock of taxi drivers who
will all tell you that they are there to pick you up. They will reach for
and often times grab your bags and try and lead you to their car. I
explained about 15 times that I had an arranged pick up and that I am calling
my driver. Finally I reached Bourdeau and he took me to his car. We
raced off to Haiti Communitere. Taxi drivers in New York are crazy, but
they do not begin to compare to the taxi drivers in Haiti. Cutting people
off and driving on the wrong side of the road to do so is something that I'm
slowly getting used to. We safely reached our destination and my home for the
next week or so. My first day in Haiti was spent inside the compound of
Communitere, resting from my long day, and preparing for the day that was ahead
of me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The next day I met with Jeanide, a younger
Haitian woman in probably her mid 20's. She would be my tour guide for
the day. We walked down to the main road and tried to flag down a taxi to
go up the mountain. After about 10 tries we finally found a willing
driver and we loaded into his van. The vans contain 4 rows of seats and
comfortable can fit 12. 18 isn't all that uncommon though. After
hoping from one taxi to another we finally arrived at the Digicell office where
I was to receive a SIM card for me to use and later donate to a school for
their server. After some confusion on what plan to use we met with Jeanide’s
friend Thompson who is an employee at Digicell. He was very helpful and
even took us to lunch after we finally settled everything<o:p></o:p></div>
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For lunch I was presented with 3 options.
Chicken, beef, or vegetables. Chicken. We sat around the
table waiting for our food and my attention slowly drifted to the TV in the
corner. It was the equivalent of MTV and they were playing the music
video to Wiz Khalifa's "We Dem Boyz", the uncensored version. I
appeared to be the only one phased.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">The food arrived and I chowed down, I was then
brought the nectar of the gods. Ji
ceri. Cherry juice. There are no words precise enough to even
begin to hint at how amazing of a creation ji ceri is. I won’t even attempt to try.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">We finished up our meal as someone changed the
channel to Planet of the Apes. Jeanide
was very interested and asked me if I had seen it. I explained the plot to which she replied
with a soft giggle. She then began to
watch and did not stop laughing the entire time. I had no idea that apes destroying San
Francisco was so hilarious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">Thompson paid for lunch for which I expressed my gratitude,
and Jeanide and I headed back to base camp.
On our final taxi back we packed into a van of 18 people. I was sitting across from a younger Haitian man
who seemed to love the sound of his own voice.
He looks at me and says “Blan (word to refer to white people)…. (Haitian
gibberish that I couldn’t quite understand.)” I told him I don’t speak creole
well and he began to address me in English.
“Why don’t you rent a car man? You’re taking up all the room in this
taxi. You’re American, I know you have
money.” I laughed and explained I’m a college student working for a non-profit
and that I can’t and don’t need to rent my own car. He then went on some long rant in creole
about America and white people. We
finally arrived and I said goodbye to my Haitian heckler. Jeanide and I walked back to Communitere and
had a good laugh about how that guy was full of himself and loved his own
voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">Finally I was back at my place and free from all the
hustle and bustle of the city. I spent
the rest of my day reprogramming laptops and talking to people back home. All and all my first couple of days have been
a great experience. I’ve truly gotten to
see some great sites and I’ve met some people along the way, some were
wonderful, and some not so much. If you
actually read all this I’m thoroughly impressed. I didn’t realize I had so much to say. Tomorrow I will be teaching music with
Jeanide at Croix des Bouquets, and Saturday Fefe and I will teach music at
Delmas 28. Should have a lot to write
about and I should have another post by Sunday.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMGghvZph8nhfCdBYjj6H-YCPWBOWW7EB1JWvQO984MSM0hyphenhyphenCbuS5r9TapveW39sOWYoJJtTxyzDbrzO0IzEsCGR5amLpcXvoFvOBOJfwuQ5iE7JnRIRko0QmEcLEqOKlmXaZNKFRsT8T/s1600/photo+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMGghvZph8nhfCdBYjj6H-YCPWBOWW7EB1JWvQO984MSM0hyphenhyphenCbuS5r9TapveW39sOWYoJJtTxyzDbrzO0IzEsCGR5amLpcXvoFvOBOJfwuQ5iE7JnRIRko0QmEcLEqOKlmXaZNKFRsT8T/s1600/photo+(3).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">Hang on, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 107%;">Sean <span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727339485473051840.post-26135399921041459542014-09-16T14:31:00.000-07:002014-10-20T05:50:03.331-07:00PreparationSo back in January of this year I decided to take this fall semester off to pursue volunteer opportunities. My motivation stems from my interest in the power of information, and also the influence of technology in education. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) mission was precisely that. To bring laptops to every child no matter where. As I started to surf the web and survey my options, this seemed like a great place to start. <br />
<br />
Back in February I contacted the people at OLPC, and was put in touch with Adam Holt. After a few back and forth emails he introduced me to Sora, the mind behind Project Rive. http://projectrive.wordpress.com/ After reading up on Sora's blog and seeing the brilliant work being done by her and her peers, I knew I had found the right fit for me. The project, in short, is a designed curriculum to teach both teachers and students how to use the XO laptops as a tool for education. But it goes far beyond that. I really do recommend that you scroll back up and click that link I gave you. Project Rive is just one project of the greater organization that is Unleash Kids. Due to questionable distribution methods and a failure to follow through on training and maintenance, OLPC is on the verge of dying. Unleash Kids is the organization picking up where they left off. <br />
<br />
After talking with Sora for a while I started my first bit of preparation by beginning to learn Haitian Creole, a language based in French, but with far different grammatical rules. As reality set in that I would be spending my fall semester abroad, I began to look into the impact it would have on my scholarship/financial aid.<br />
<br />
After I was bounced around a few times I ended up in financial aid where I was told that in order to keep my scholarship, I had to be a full time student... yeah. So the solution I came up with was to take 3 independent studies, 4 credits each. Most teachers I approached seemed bewildered by my proposal. But I kept emailing hoping for at least one helpful person. And lo and behold I found her. Professor Jennifer Law-Sullivan is the Associate professor of French, and the department chair of the Modern Language department. Right away we set up a meeting and started working out the logistics of what I would need to do in order to receive credit. She then put me in touch with Professor Alan Epstein who is sponsoring my second independent study for International Studies. Mark Navin helped coordinate my third independent study with Professor Mark Rigstad on the topic of Global Political Philosophy. <br />
<br />
From that point forward the preparation has seemed to be non-stop. Wake up, practice creole, read, go to school/work, sort of have a social life, repeat. <br />
<br />
As time grew closer and closer to my departure date, I began to plan the lessons that I will be teaching in Haiti. Naturally, as a physics major, I started to play with the ideas of sound, and the universe. Space is my truest passion and it seems only natural that I share that with the people I meet. Even as I write this post 6ish days before I leave for Haiti I continue to tweak my lessons in the hope that they will be a success. My first workshop will be taught on September 27th in Port-Au-Prince, at Delmas 28. The topic will be music, with the following weeks workshop on space. <br />
<br />
The preparation has been a long road. I'm definitely a little nervous, but mostly I'm anxious and excited to finally be doing something I truly believe can make a difference. <br />
<br />
Hopefully that gives you all a good idea of how I got to this point. I'm currently in New York training with some of our IT people, and I fly out of LaGuardia at 6am a week from today. Be sure to stay tuned as my voyage is bound to get much more interesting from here. <br />
<br />
Hang on,<br />
Sean Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379475820041360900noreply@blogger.com0