Lascahobas

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. 

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.

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. 

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^rd 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. 

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.

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.          

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. 

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.     

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.

Hang on,

Sean 

   

Hinche

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^st.  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.

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^th 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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.  

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^th 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^th 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.

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. 

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. 

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.   

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. 

Hang on,

Sean                

    

Cazeau

Following 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.

Cazeau is one of the schools funded by Ken Beaver the founder of Hope for Haiti's Children.  Everyone in the Unleash Kids organization agrees that Cazeau is a promising place on the brink of success.  The school has one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with in Dyna. They have plenty of XO's for their after school program, and they also have something called Internet-in-a-box. This is a terabyte hard drive that connects to the school server.  On the hard drive is all of Wikipedia in 5 or 6 different languages, Khan Academy's educational videos, and Project Gutenberg's collection of free eBooks.  So just by connecting to the school server, the students can access any and all of this information.  Doing so makes it much easier to ensure that the kids are using the internet for good, and not evil.  A lot of what I have been doing is structured guided leaning, which is undoubtedly beneficial, but the Internet-in-a-box allows for self-guided, exploratory learning.  It allows the students to discover their own truths rather than just eating the fruit of knowledge that I spoon feed them.  My challenge for the week was getting everything in order.

Sunday and Monday were spent as diagnostic days.  I had my phone running a Skype call with our tech experts and they walked me through the steps.  A problem would arise, I would report it, the group would discuss it, come to a consensus, and I would take the necessary steps to resolve the issue.  By Tuesday we had everything set up and ready to go. I tested it out by looking up some articles on things back home. I planned to return Wednesday, explain the set up to Dyna, and teach a class with her on Thursday.

Wednesday rolled around and I headed out to the school to start my day.  I walked down to the nearest intersection, hopped on a taptap and got off at my stop.  After saying hello to the excited schoolkids, I went over to the orphanage side to get everything ready.  I did not have a translator and was greeted by a man they call Zekie. He and his wife Sonya live in the house I worked in all week, and they oversee the orphanage. I said hello to Zekie and he spit out a long Creole monologue.  I wasn't able to get everything but the gist of it was that they did not have electricity.  I later found out that the reason they didn't have electricity was because someone had stolen the city electrical wire running from the school to the orphanage.  This was a disappointing setback to say the least, but I was reassured that the problem would be fixed the next day.  I went over a few things with Dyna and headed back to Haiti Communitere while the wires were replaced.

Thursday I came back to a school with working electricity.  The crew working was extremely efficient and I was able to get everything set up right away.  The next step was to just wait for Dyna to come so we could get a class going.  The hours came and passed and I saw no sign of her.  She was not teaching her usual day class and I began to grow concerned.  I did not have my Haitian phone with me that day so I had no way to reach her, I hung around the school and met a group of kids doing the same.  I spoke all the Creole I could in hopes of figuring out the situation with Dyna and her class.  The kids informed me that she would not be coming and that there would not be class that day.  I made the most out of my time with them and played some soccer before leaving for the day.  When I got back to my phone I saw that Dyna had taken a sick day, but she would be back Friday.  Things never seem to quite go as you plan, especially in Haiti, so I've learned to be flexible.

Friday I got to the school an hour early and had some time to kill before Dyna arrived.  I rounded up a group of kids and we played a game of pickup basketball.  My 6 foot frame was a bit of an advantage playing with a group of 8-12 year olds, but I did my best to make sure everyone got their moment of glory.  Dyna showed up around 1 and I switched gears back to teacher mode.  I showed her the basics of how everything worked and ensured her that if she needed any support she's be able to contact myself or someone else in the organization.  She's an extremely gifted teacher and right away she saw the benefit in being able to access the near infinite amount of information.  I left very optimistic that by my next visit she will have made amazing progress.

After Cazeau, I headed to Silar's orphanage.  I went back to the main intersection by Communitere, and boarded into a moving van along with about 35 other people.  I tend to stand out in Haiti, and as a result I was the topic of discussion during our 15 minute ride.  No one spoke to me directly, but there was an ongoing argument on whether I could speak Creole, and if I could understand what they were saying.  One woman had a fairly strong opinion that people coming to Haiti really should just learn the language, according to her it isn't that difficult to learn.  Eventually I blew my cover by letting out a smirk.  The secret was out and everyone seemed to rejoice the fact that I knew what they were saying.  I informed them that I am still learning Creole, but I can understand a little bit. One of the passengers, Carlos, befriended me and volunteered to help me get to my destination.

Carlos wasn't much help but I appreciated the gesture.  I arrived at Silar's and said goodbye to him and wished him luck.  At Silar's I preformed more diagnostics in an effort to resolve the issues with his internet.  Silar runs an orphanage of around 70 kids.  They do not receive nearly the funding that a lot of places do, but Silar knows how to make every penny count.  He's an amazing guy and he does amazing things.  With Adam's help we were able to determine that the internet supplier had, for some reason, not reset his data for the month of October.  We are currently waiting to see if the new month brought new internet.  Regardless we will be contacting them soon to recover our lost month.

It was a busy week and I did a lot more tech work than I ever thought I would be doing.  The problems are never finished and you definitely just have to roll with it.  I enjoy every day off that I can get, it gives me a change to refuel and recharge.  I don't know what's in store for me next, but I'm confident that I'll be able to handle it.

Hang on,
Sean