The march to Christmas

Wow...It's been a while. Many many things have happened during the last month. Here are only some of the highlights:

-Thanksgiving in Haiti- During the week of Thanksgiving we had visitors! Arriving from the United States, our visitors spent an exhilarating week teaching classes, learning about the school, and helping out with work projects around campus. From cataloging books in the library, to cleaning out the incinerator, to washing the floor of the chapel, they truly embodied the mission of the school: If you don't work, you don't eat. Fun stuff. Thanksgiving Day was a pretty normal day except after clean-up time (netwaye) we had our much-anticipated American Football game. Probably the most memorable part of the game was when our quarterback (a volunteer) gave these directions: "Now, I want you to go deep to the incinerator..."



After the game, we all showered and then shared a delicious Thanksgiving feast alongside the guests, the president of the project and his family, the American volunteers, and the Haitian Staff (About 45 people in total). The variety of food easily surpassed my usual Thanksgiving meal in the USA...



-"Man-up" Weekend- One of the most important programs at LCS is "Celebrate Women," which is held on weekends throughout the year and focuses on empowering the female students at the school. Culturally, socially, and economically there remain many barriers to women's empowerment, but Louverture Cleary has successfully eliminated one: disproportionate representation in higher education. Yes, Louverture Cleary has finally reached parity in terms of the physical number of males and females attending the school. This might sound like a small feat when we think of the USA, but in Haiti this is significant. In addition, it brought a smile to my face when I learned that the best students in the older classes(Rheto and Philo) are female (10 of the top 12).

Naturally, the male students on campus have begun to feel a little "left out" and so we have started "Man-up" weekends for the oldest male students to emphasize responsibility, good leadership, and the importance of a stable family life. Our first weekend was held December 4th and it went very well as we had the proper mixture of fun/games and serious discussions. The weekend kicked off smoothly with a basketball tournament of randomized teams. Following basketball, we had a series of talks Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, which were led by several alumni as well as the principal and the head of discipline. Friday evening we watched a movie, Remember the Titans, and we enjoyed popcorn and iced cokes. Following the movie, we discussed the different leadership styles of the two coaches and the kids continue to impress me with their insights. One of my Philo students said it best when he told me that it was one of the most meaningful experiences he had ever had at LCS.

-Christmas Approaching- As the calendar turned to December, you could sense the anticipation growing among the kids as all of a sudden interest and attention ran elsewhere.

In my final class of the season, I allowed my students a treat: we played a game. But yes, they still had to use their English - we played an alternative form of "Boggle". I gave them 10 random letters and told them to in groups make as many English words as they could. After 5 minutes each group would write their list on the board and the group with the most correct words got a point. Pretty fun stuff, especially as they got really in-to the game.

The last day of "class" was actually a school-wide Christmas celebration. Among the festivities was a "highly anticipated" staff versus Philo basketball game. 3 of my students in particular had been trash talking me for weeks about the upcoming game. Sadly, the staff did not show up to play (a lot of bad shots, some poor teamwork) and the philo kids won by 5. But trust me, there will be a rematch...

With the Christmas celebration comes the holiday season and a break from school - a four week break in fact. I have returned to the USA to spend Christmas with my family and I will roaming about until early January. In theory, I should be more accessible either by phone or email. Looking back, it was a wonderful semester, full of joy, hope, inspiration, and opportunity. I know of no better visual that demonstrates what the students of Louverture Cleary are capable for doing for Haiti...





Merry Christmas!

We're going to need a bigger hole...

This is life in Haiti, or at least my life. Plastic bottles, burning large quantities of trash by igniting tires, raking and sifting mounds of dirt-trash, and digging holes. This is life out on Route National 3 where Louverture Cleary has decided to make it dedication to community service visibly present. For over a 1 miles stretch of the highway, our students have cleaned, sifted, burned, and buried trash, making the roadside look like it was in the USA. I know I've mentioned this before, but it truly has become part of our daily lives here at LCS. Never would I have imagined the skill it takes to burn trash (until you decide to just light a rubber tire on fire...man, those things burn...)

Anyway, outside of trash, life is moving pretty quickly. The second quarter is off and running, with Thanksgiving just around the corner. We even have visitors coming next week! A group of high school students from the USA who will be coming next week and they have even generously offered to teach some of our classes. In addition, they will be joining us for our traditional "American football" match on Thanksgiving day. I can't wait to see our principal go deep on a hail mary...

I am losing four classes that week, on the agenda is some poetry by Langston Hughes, but I’m not exactly certain how it will all work out…


Also, just in case people forgot, the students here are like teenagers across the world. Two of the most important things in their lives are music and sports. So naturally, we’ve had a series of “rap” contests based on “morality” themes.

Pretty funny stuff to watch. In addition, there is currently a school wide soccer tournament, with each class playing each other. It’s amazing what the students are capable of doing when it involves soccer. Overnight, the grass on the soccer field was cut, the rock pile moved, and even the odd lumps of dirt in the corner were removed. In addition, before each game, the students bouwet (wheelbarrel) out small stones from which they construct the lines of the field. Remember, the soccer field is half grass half dirt, surrounded by 10 foot high cinderblock walls with broken glass on top, and the field shares a space with our incinerator and compost. Still, the games have been pretty incredible to watch. The energy from the kids is addictive and it makes me nostalgic for the days (it seems so long ago) that I played high school soccer.

In other news, the cow we ate on Monday was a bit, let me say, disturbed? Frisky? Crazy? Anyway, like some of my students, he had a bit of an attitude problem. He didn’t like being tied up and when some of the neighborhood kids untied him to move him off the soccer field, he refused to be retied. Needless to say we had several nights of him roaming and rampaging throughout campus, he defecated on the basketball court, and he scared little children. He also provided for many laughs

When I’m not watching cows scare people, I’ve been reading books. I finished Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Things They Carried, and Night. I’ve also started Life of Pi and The Book Thief. Some of these books are just for fun, others are for classes (trying to figure out which books to teach in the future), and others are to help tutor two of the President of the project’s children, who would both be in high school in the USA. I’m actually enjoying the structured reading, as it’s forcing me to read books I’ve always wanted to read but never had been able to.
I’ve also begun teaching American football in my sport classes. Pretty fun, really.

I know I’ve mentioned that language is an essential component of the school, but the language of the day program is really pretty special. Each day of the week is designated as a different language of the school. Sunday-Kreyol, Monday/Wednesday-English, Tuesday/Thursday-Spanish, Friday- French. On these days, when you speak the language of the day in a significant conversation with staff, one of the volunteers, or the older students on the language committee, you can earn tokens. These tokens can then be traded at the “store” on Fridays for prizes and other goods. Naturally, the younger kids love this and I have been swarmed and attacked by 7e and 8e students who demand to speak English with me. Similarly, when they learn I know some Spanish, we often converse in both languages.

Speaking of languages, it is common (this had happened repeatedly) that someone comes up to me, tells me a French word, and asks how can they say that in Spanish. I usually use a third translator, I have someone translate the French to English, and then I translate from English to Spanish…Craziness. Learning in four languages has got to be pretty crazy.

Finally, here is a writing excerpt from one of my Philo Students, Elisabeth.

“Being a Louverturian not only means being educated at LCS, it’s more than that. At Louverture Cleary we work hard every day to see our dreams become reality: Rebuilding Haiti. Living in a community based on respect and love, work and education, we are striving to make this possible.

A true Louverturian is someone who lives everywhere and, at the same time, nowhere. We are adaptive, as we will need a variety of skills and knowledge to correct the wrongs in our country. We respect all people, from the sizyem student to Deacon Moynihan. It is in this way that we prove that we are worthy of being members of this great family, LCS.

In addition, being a Louverturian requires love, honesty, maturity, and a sense of responsibility. Trust, in particular, is essential. As Mr. Moynihan says, “If we can’t be trusted on small things, we will never be trusted on great things.” Each Louverturian is a pearl, a candle to brighten others’ ways. We shine everywhere we go, spreading our little specks of light throughout the country and the world.

At LCS we try to reconcile work and education because only together can we achieve our goal. Goals are important because they keep people alive, they give people hope. If you have a goal you will not be afraid of tomorrow. You have to dream, to challenge yourself, to have something that gives you a desire to see the future. It’s the secret of life. If you don’t know where you want to go, you will never know where to start. Life starts with a goal, a hope of being someone or doing something tomorrow.

We believe that we can accomplish our goals and that’s why they will succeed. It’s not something easy, and we are often discouraged. But we will never give up. Rebuilding Haiti cannot be finished today or tomorrow; it’s something that will last forever and everyday we will cherish working towards that goal. Hope is what gives us the strength to fight, to dream, to see the future. We will never stop dreaming because we know who we are and who we want to be. It’s a strong desire, and it keeps us alive by giving us strength to work.

Being a Louverturian means living each day dedicated to changing the situation of our country. We do this through our motto, “What we receive as a gift we must give as a gift.” This is my world, my life. Louverture Cleary is where I sleep, I eat, I work, and I receive my education. A world of happiness, where dreams, work, respect, education, and love mix freely. If we are united, we will change our country. That’s my hope, my wish. Welcome to my sunny world! “

It's been a while

Life has been busy. I have been slowly learning the lessons that students teach their teachers across the world. I have had much to do and a seemingly shrinking amount of time to do everything (my schedule fills up quickly). I haven't had as much time as I would have liked for free time, for things like soccer and pleasure reading...

*Note the 5 uses of the Perfect tense in the last paragraph. And, no, it's not exactly true. I have had more free time over the past week than I had had during the entire 6 weeks before. Haha...*

So, yes, my students not only read books but we get to have exciting grammar lessons as topics ranging from relative pronouns, to dependent clauses, to the Perfect tense. As much as I pretend to love grammar during class, the reality is that I never liked it much. But smile I do every day that we are fortunate enough to work on gerunds, prepositional phrases, and the differences countable and non-countable nouns. Fun stuff.

Anyway, in other news, the trash derby continues. Our zone of control has expanded and we are getting some tangible support from the local government and residents. As you know, we painted our own sign on the highway (Pa jete fatra la), but we saw some police officers this past week painting their own sign on the 10 foot high concrete fall affirming that there should be no dumping in this area. Encouraging, certainly.

An important item to note. Haiti turns youthful U.S. Americans into chocolate fiends. The arrival of large quantities of chocolate the other week lead to a 30 hour feeding frenzy where copious amounts of candy were consumed by the 9 volunteers here. Scary? Perhaps. But so so delicious.

In related news (not exactly), my personal bucket (a bucket I use for laundry, showering, mopping, etc...) was seen being used as a storage container for the biweekly slaughtering of a bull (to provide meat for all the students). Some things you just have to let go in life...

So, the first quarter of school ended last week with an entire week of exams. The number of exams depends on the grade, but the oldest students (the Philo students) took 11-12 exams in four days. Pretty intense indeed.

The students went home after the last exam finished Thursday, and since Monday was a national holiday, we had a four day weekend. I was catching a cold at the beginning of the weekend and I did what I do best, I attacked it with sleep. I napped from 2:45 (the kids left at 2:00) until 6, ate dinner, read for a bit, then went to bed at 9 and didn't wake up until 6:45 (pretty late for Haiti, the latest I have slept in over the last three months is 7:15). Anyway, when I woke up my cold was gone! I guess sleeping 13 of 16 hours did the trick.

So, I finally broke down during exam week and played basketball with the Philo students. They play basketball every day and I was initially hesitant to play with them. I had no real concrete reason, I guess at some level I didn't want to completely destroy the teacher-student barrier. Anyway, I joined two other members of the Haitian staff and we played all challengers, winning each time. Being the old men that we are, we called it quits after 3 games. But I'm certainly looking forward to next time.

This past weekend was exciting for a number of reasons.

First, it was a four-day weekend, our longest break since school began.

Second, it was Halloween. We (the volunteers and the Haitian staff) had a "party" across the street at the home of the president of the project. Watching the school principle dress up at Nietzsche just might have been the highlight of my evening. Myself? I choose to dress stylishly as Route National 3, the road we have been cleaning for over a month now. With a sash of garbage, dirty work jeans, a ripped CBA t-shirt (it lives!), and a sign taped to me saying, "Pa Jete Fatra La," or "No littering here." Good times.



The other adventure of the weekend was working at the Nuncio's (the diplomatic representative of the Vatican) residency on Saturday. A group of the volunteers and the Haitian staff traveled here and we helped with his landscaping the entire day, breaking for a picnic lunch, mass, and drinks/discussion after mass. Overall, a pretty amazing day. We were mainly clearing brush, but I took great joy in vanquishing trees with my scimitar-shaped machete. As I learned on Saturday, using machetes for hours and hours will leave you with what can only be called a "machete grip." This is the tired sensation felt in your hands when you have clutching a machete for dear life for hours as you hack away at brush and trees. Anyway, the residency was at the top of hill and we enjoyed a gorgeous view of the city of Port-au-Prince as well as the bay and the surrounding mountains. Beautiful. The Nuncio was an impressive man, originally from the Philippines, he speaks fluently 5-6 languages. The diplomatic language of the Vatican is French, he submits his reports in Italian, and he spoke English like a Native speaker. And he quietly mentioned that his native tongue is a local language in the Philippines...

Ah, book update. I finished The Idiot, Started and finished the Omnivore's Dilemma, and the Dew Breaker. I've now started the Book Thief (which is quite excellent) and I'm about to start The Things They Carried. I finally had this brilliant idea to have the person I'm tutoring read books that I've always wanted to read but never have. This way, I'm helping someone and checking books off my "to read list." Oh, and I'm going to be starting Life of Pi soon.

So many books, so little time...

Peace.

Things You can do in Haiti

These past few weeks I have learned a few "more interesting" things that you can do in Haiti...

-Dig a trench across a public road to pipe water to a house across the street.
-Burn large quantities of trash on opposing sides of a main road to the Dominican Republic.
-Dig multiple large holes (Think about the fact that I needed help climbing out of each one) alongside this roads to bury the metal, glass, and remaining ash.
-Paint a sign on the nearby wall that says in Kreyol: "Attention! Do not litter here."



As you might guess, the last few weeks have been pretty interesting. We started a pretty major project: trying to clean up the mountains of trash in our area. Like many developing countries, Haiti has a very weak sanitation system. Basically, there is no formal way to dispose your trash. Burning trash, with the exception of metal and glass, is the most "environmentally" safe method here in Haiti. Anyway, are currently sending over 100 students each day during clean up time to pick up trash, make piles, burn the piles (with gasoline or kerosene), rake trash out of the ditches, dig holes, and bury non-burnable trash (metal/glass). We have even begun trucking plastic bottles back to campus for our recycling program.

We had a major push the first week of the project as the U.S. volunteers and Haitian staff members took smaller student groups outside throughout the day to pick up trash. Similarly, the project hired someone to literally dig holes all day next to our burn piles. Speaking of burn piles, these can contain almost anything you can imagine. Rotting food, general trash, tires, clothes, shoes, dirt, leaves, cans, diapers, and dead animals are only some of the treasures you might find. One of the piles even included 2 dead dogs and a dead cat. As you might imagine, the "hot dog" and barbecue jokes that began that day have never stopped...

Life has continued since that first, hectic week. As I mentioned before, we have started a recycling program for plastic bottles and aluminum cans. We have a pretty impressive collection of plastic, which I am very excited to see leave our campus. Also, we've expanded our zone of "clean" to more than six blocks on the main road, our entire surrounding neighborhood, and we are pushing towards another main road. Pretty exciting stuff. And just so people don't get too practical (or cynical on us) we ARE trying to make these changes more systemic by talking to local government, businesses, and citizens. Still not sure how this will all work out, but the effort is being made.

In other news, the other week I had some pretty great discussions with my students about national identity and what it means to be a Haitian. I found two questions to be pretty provocative for my students: (1)Are Haitians who leave Haiti with the intention of never returning still Haitian? (2) Could Mr. Moynihan (the president of the Haitian Project) ever be considered Haitian?

Their responses were pretty interesting and the best thing was that they did not agree with each other. I love watching my students disagree.

The other day I had one of those moments when I am forced to remember that this is not a usual school. Certain moments on certain days scream this. One of my favorites was cleaning up dinner with the principal of the school and watching him mop the floor to finish the job. Similarly, this past week our students were not doing a good job cleaning the cafeteria. So instead of class one day, I took my class and we cleaned both cafeterias, sweeping, mopping, and wiping down all the tables. We even returned and had class for the final 5 minutes! Craziness...

Looking to the future: final exams are next week! Yes, that was an exclamation point. I never realized how much fun tests are to give to others... Plus exam week here does not include normal classes, as everything stops and the students take a 2 hour exam for each subject. So, a week off from class planning! And a four day weekend!

A sad day for the Irish...I'm not getting many break this year for college football. A sad day.

ps. I'm not in either picture. Sorry! I wasn't there the day the camera was present...

A new type of Juggling

It’s been a little while since I’ve written a blog post. As you might be able to guess, life has been busy here at Louverture Cleary.

I’ve started books in each of my classes and juggling four books simultaneously is actually pretty intellectually stimulating. I never before realized or appreciated the important role of a teacher in explaining key passages and the larger themes of a work of literature. It’s fascinating. Oh, I’m actually juggling a fifth, Lord of the Flies, as I am tutoring one of the President’s kids in English. In addition, I might start tutoring the oldest in American History and/or American Literature. I know it’s more work, but I actually really enjoy those subjects...

Oh, and here is a picture of me teaching in my classroom called “Terrains 1.”



So, I continue to spend money. A week ago, I splurged for a Coke and a bonn bonn (23 gourdes), which is a little more than 50 cents. I used these for refreshments during our tet anba session on a quiet Saturday afternoon. "Tet anba" is Kreyol for turning something on its head, turning it upside-down. Anyway, it’s the fun name we volunteers came up with for our idea of having intellectual discussions every few weeks. The idea was to have people present all sorts of topics and then have discussions and question and answer sessions afterward. I volunteered to lead the first and we discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for over two hours. Not everyone stayed until the end, but it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I prepared an outlined version of the history and then we just talked, asked questions, and talked some more. A very enjoyable experience in my opinion.

As you can imagine, teaching consists of moments of great joy and moments of great frustration. Joyful moments include some pretty excellent class discussions on Power and Justice. It really is wonderful to see the gears turning in the minds of my students. I take great joy when I can teach them something that they don’t even know in French. For example, half of my Rheto class was not familiar with the term “capitalism.” Even when I had someone translate it to French, they still were clueless. Craziness. I don’t know what they teach in their social sciences classes, but it seems to be lacking something. Anyway, we had a fun class trying to explain this and other economic concepts that are essential for understanding Animal Farm.

Oh, and I am now in charge of recycling here on campus. We are trying to recycle plastic bottles, scrap metals, and aluminum. This, as well as having students collect trash outside the school, are only tiny ways in which the school tries to fulfill its mission to be stewards of the environment. There will be more on this in the weeks to come.

Last Saturday, we went to a very nice hotel for some drinks. College football and Harry Potter were playing on dueling flat-screen TVs at the bar. It apparently was the same hotel that President Clinton stayed at when he was here for the Economic/Investor convention just a few days earlier. I’m still trying to figure out a way to get the President here at LCS. I think one of my next writing assignments will be to write a letter to President Clinton explaining why he should come to LCS. Maybe this will help…

Right, so last week one of the volunteers briefly left our humble home to return to the U.S. for her brother’s wedding. When she returned, she returned bearing gifts. Chocolate never tasted so good…

Finally, the range of English skills in my classes is both challenging and frustrating. On quizzes I gave last week, one class had three kids who received perfect scores (20/20) while in the same class one kid got a 7/20 and another a 9/20. Sigh. I guess this is why I’m available for tutoring 3 times a week…

I'm going to continue the trend of sharing my student's writing. My last assignment was to write a persuasive speech from the perspective of Toussaint Louverture in 1790. Toussaint Louverture was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution. Here is the speech by one of my best Philo students.

“Liberty or Death”

"Dear fellow brothers of suffering. There was a time when the world was without vices. At this time, men were living together in equality. As human beings, they were living freely in mutual respect. As they were evolving, they became selfish. Everyone went in search of personal interest.

Since this time, men have become destroyers of men. The strong are oppressing the weak. Some pretend that they are superior to others. This is the excuse in which they have put us under the humiliating yoke of slavery. We are treated as beasts. This is unfair, we are not beasts! We are human beings! What differentiates humans from animals is their ability to think. Don’t we have brains like them? Can’t we think as they do?

As human beings, we have rights. And we must fight for those rights. Don’t we have the right to live in freedom? Don’t we have the right to express our thoughts? Now, they take our freedom. Don’t we have the right to fight for it?
It has already been one century that we have been submissive to the oppression of this ferocious exploitation. We are working to make the oppressor rich. As a reward, we receive the whip. They don’t feed us, the only thing that interests them is the result of our works.

We cannot stay in such a situation! This is why we must fight! Because we want to live. This is the time to stand up! Dear comrades! Haven’t you had enough? Aren’t you tired of being slaves? Aren’t you tired of being oppressed and ill-treated? Let’s join together to make a call for freedom. Tonight, we will fight! Tonight, I will be either a free man or a dead man. We will kill! We will kill! And we will live! Liberty or death!"
(Myriam)

I think I'm going to teach Gandhi and Martin Luther King's concepts of Non-Violent Direct Action very soon...

Peace

ps. Here is a student, nonchalantly carrying a machete to cut the grass on the soccer field.

The words of hope

Here are some excepts from my last assignment (write an autobiography from the year 2019, telling what you will have done between 2009-2019) that I found powerful/interesting:

“To help is my favorite verb but help without love is nothing. I love my country. I am not saying, "I am ready to build Haiti, and you?" I am saying, "I am building Haiti, could you help me?" I will collaborate to rebuild Haiti. I will give for free the instruction that I received for free…” (Billy)

“While working, I made many plans to help the children of Haiti. To realize my plans, I started to ask for help because one of my plans was to create an orphanage. Every day, I found new people who wanted to help me accomplish this project. Finally, in 2016, I created the orphanage. This project was very successful, I found many children in the street and helped them. They consider me as a mother. Today, I am still looking at the progress of my orphanage. Today, I can see the children receiving an education like mine. I did what I had to do; I participated in the improvement of my country by helping children. I didn’t stop here, I continued to plan what I should do next. Every day I want to do something else…” (Vanessa)

“Haiti lives in one of the most awful moments of its story. It’s not time for eloquent speeches, but time for lots of feats to save this country. This country needs trustworthy people who drive out violence and injustice, people who sacrifice themselves for the common good. Therefore, I am one of the volunteers. Time is no longer for the troublemakers, it’s for truthful people. Hence I will talk to others about it and make one with them to get solutions for those problems. It is arduous work, of course, but by the grace and help of God, we will overcome…” (Anold)

“I remember that it was a sad day, the day that I was leaving classic school forever. Especially, at Louverture Cleary; it’s a special place. There, it’s a world, a funny and instructive world. To eat, to sleep, to live and to work with people of different nationalities, different talents, is not a simple thing. I can never forget those days.

I had to leave anyway. However, I am still at LCS. I have a history there and great memories are not so quickly forgotten. My spirit is still connected to all the graduates and the Louverturians, whether I knew them or not, because we still stand as a family. We are bound together by our will to change Haiti, the education that we received we are to give freely as a gift. I said earlier, it was a sad day for me when I left LCS…” (Manasse)

Needless to say, I was pretty impressed by the responses. More so, when I remembered that these essays were written in English, the third language of my students (after Kreyol and French).

I am being honest when I say that these kids are special, that this place is special. Sometimes it's hard to have hope, to find hope, in places where problems seem endless and overwhelming. But there is hope here at this school.

Peace.

School!

So, I finally became a teacher this past week. But first an important announcement:

On Wednesday, September 16th, I spent money for the first time in over a month. Pretty incredible when you think about it. One of the Haitian staff members makes his own Peanut Butter (he's trying to start a small business) and many of the volunteers (myself included) put in requests for our own jars. 100 gourdes, 20 Haitian dollars, about $2.50 USD per jar. And, it was a good choice. Absolutely delicious. A bit sweet with a shadow of spice. Just a hint though. Perfect. Now, if only we can get him to make crunchy peanut butter...

Here are some lessons learned this past week:

-Flag raising just might be my favorite time of the entire school day. Immediately following first period (7-7:40), the entire school assembles on the basketball court for morning announcements, a daily gospel reading, the raising of flags (Haitian, USA, and LCS), and the singing of the Haitian national anthem and the school's alma mater. It is the songs that make this ritual special. The songs are beautiful and the kids are pretty impressive singers. On my to-do list is to take a video of the kids singing before the year is up. Because, trust me, it's worth it.

-Fresh coconut is delicious. In the USA I don't like coconut very much. But when you watch someone shimmy up a coconut tree and use a machete to cut off the top - it tastes pretty good. The "water" inside is sweet and tasty, the actually coconut is pretty good as well. A nice treat for a Sunday afternoon.

-In addition, it quickly became apparent last week that teaching can be pretty intense and often a bit nerve racking. One of the challenging/fun things about my schedule are my triple class days - this means one of my courses meets three times during a single day. Day one included one of these with what ended up being by far my most unruly section. Ah, good times. I certainly wanted to collapse by the end of the day.

-However, learning as I go, I quickly scrapped my initial lesson plans for the week and began to build anew. I figured that since these kids are smart, work would be a good way to keep them busy and quiet. My idea seemed to work pretty well as the rest of the week was much much better.

-At the end of week 1, I have to admit that really like teaching. Odd as it sounds, I really like the sound of my voice lecturing in a classroom. Is this narcissism? A power trip? Perhaps. But it's the truth. The principal observed one of my classes for a few lessons last week and had this advice for me: he told me I should talk louder. Yes, the students could hear me all right but with a voice like mine he felt I should make the students feel my presence. I should note, that the principal has a pretty deep voice himself and I suspect this is how he lectures. Still, it was fun to elicit advice from a smart man who I imagine is a pretty good teacher.

-In terms of content, this past week my older students read Patrick Henry's famous speech:"Give me Liberty or Give me Death." I'm giving them an assignment this week to write their own persuasive speech from the perspective of Touissant Louverture -the initial leader of the Haitian revolution. I'm pretty excited to see what they write. My younger kids began reading and discussing a short story by Roald Dahl, "Poison." Also, all my classes had to turn in an essay this past Friday, "An autobiography from the year 2019." I wanted them to specifically focus on what happened during the years 2009-2019 and how these events connected with the two themes of LCS: What you receive as a gift you must give as a gift; and I'm ready to rebuild Haiti, are you?

Good stuff. I'm actually grading the essays right now and will have some excerpted answers for all my faithful readers next week. But, just glancing through the responses has made me pause. The range in the English skills of my students is a bit scary. Some understood the main points of the Patrick Henry speech and even began linking its themes to larger issues elsewhere in the world. Others, I think, did not understand the speech when they read it and I fear that they can't even understand my lectures or explanations of the text. This is part of the reason why I'm trying to reevaluate and re-plan my lessons.

They are smart kids, they really are. But it is still very clear that English is their second language. My best students still have subject-verb agreement problems on their papers. Their ideas are wonderful and are communicated pretty clearly. But the mechanical mistakes I think will always be an issue. Still, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming week.

Life is busy. But good. And I'm looking forward to the beginning of clubs this week (Chess? Juggling? Hopefully an advanced English reading/discussion?).

That's about it. Take care.

Peace

And...

School! Tuesday September 15 is the first day of class and I can unequivocally say that I am very excited. I got my course schedule this past week as well as an up-to-date school calendar. Exciting stuff. A bit nervous about my "triple class days" (three of my courses have a single day where we meet for three class periods). Eh, it will work out. Always makes me smile to see some of my classroom locations as "Terrain 1" and "Terrain 2". Ah, good times.

So, I assume that everyone knows that environmental degradation is a major problem in developing countries across the world. Well, it is a major problem here in Haiti. Deforestation is a major problem as only 1% of the original tree cover remains. Similarly, lack of a sewer system and no government coordinated trash program exacerbates the situation. To remedy this situation, LCS has its own incinerator where all trash that can be burned is burned. This past week I had the joy of learning how to operate this fun device (remember, I've known about it at least since the kickball game). Anyways, it is a relatively simple process that involves sifting ash, shoveling in trash, throwing gasoline, and lighting a match. Also, do my best to breath through my nose (or not breath at all to avoid fumes). Metal and glass are thrown into large 6-6-6 pits. We cover them with dirt when they get full and then dig another pit. One of my fellow volunteers and some of the Haitian staff had the joy of digging one of these pits this past week. Funny enough, he's a short guy, so you couldn't even see him when he was in the pit!

Also, remember, don't pick up grass cuttings with your hands. As I learned, they are covered in Fume!

And the other day I was surprised to see a cow tethered to the corner of the soccer field. Silly me, this surprised me. Anyways, apparently they buy cows every two weeks during the school year for the students to eat. It's so practical it's practically blowing my mind.

This week was a slow reading week. I finished Romeo and Juliet and continued the Idiot. Not much else really. Lesson planning took up more time than I expected, so it goes.

Oh, a male student this week asked "Fitzgerald?" when I told him my name was "Mr. Kennedy." Also, a female student addressed me as "Mr. President" the other day. No, I did not start this trend. But I feel like its going to spread without my help.

Also, I got called a good "catcher" by some of the neighborhood kids. I usually play goalie when they come over to play soccer and I guess I impressed them (or they really don't like playing goalie, which is possible).

In other news, Argentina and Brazil are the two most popular football national teams. An informal poll from the other night (cheering sounds when a goal is scored) say Brazil is a bit more popular.

Finally, I've started doing some work for a project associated with LCS: the Economic Growth Initiative (EGI). Here is its website: http://www.mtdn.com/egi

Peace.

Mountains and Ice Cream

One of these is entirely expected of Haiti. The other is not. Can you guess which one I've been blessed to experience this past weekend? Yes, you probably guessed correctly: I did both.

First, I had delicious ice cream at the Scalabrini seminary following mass. They certainly know how to make good food. They made this peanut dessert dish to go with the ice cream: simply amazing.

Second, on Sunday we traveled 2.5 hours away from LCS to visit a board member's house in the mountains. An intense drive, with the last hour including surreal maneuvering through a very poor dirt road. Only when we got to the dirt road did the sights and sounds of Haiti begin to mimick the landscape of my home area in Uganda. In fact, I think this road was even worse that the roads near my house in Ugandan, which is saying something.

The view of the mountains was breathtaking: lights and shadows covered the landscape as clouds and fog blew by. We were at an elevation of 6400 feet, which means two things: No mosquitoes and it was cold!! And by cold, I probably mean 70 degrees. But when you haven't felt a temperature less than 80 for a month, 70 degrees feels pretty cold.

The food was delicious, the company was excellent, and the journey was eventful. All in all, a great day and a fantastic weekend.

In other news, this past week work consisted of painting, painting a bit more, and when I got tired of painting I did some touch-up work on previous paint jobs. I painted chalkboards (who knew this was how you get them to look impressively black/green?), buildings, classroom walls, and the kitchen storeroom. It's amazing what I'm learning here in Haiti.

I've also been continuing to work on my lesson plans. I finished reading Cry, The Beloved Country, Animal Farm, and To Kill a Mockingbird this week. I'm about halfway through Romeo and Juliet, still working on "The Idiot" (this is for fun, btw). I figured it just might be a good idea to actually read books before I teach them...

So, I've decided that I'm going to do a little section on U.S. race relations and the civil rights movement in my English class. I'm going to try to connect the works and speeches of Martin Luther King to the words and achievements of Obama today. I'm pretty excited just thinking about playing excerpts from the "I have a Dream" speech one week and then playing parts of Obama's "A More Perfect Union" the next. Fun stuff.

Finally, I have a confession to make: I have personally spent no money throughout the past month. As in Zero USD, zero Haitian dollars, Zero Gourdes. How, you might ask? Simple. I've choose to wash my laundry by hand (so far so good), all meals at LCS are communal and paid for by the organization, and I've somehow resisted the temptation to buy Nutella, Ghirardelli chocolate, and Baguettes. I guess the real question is: how long until I break?

Have I mentioned that Haitians like physical humor? My juggling has been a pretty big hit as people really enjoyed my brief demonstrations after dinner. Perhaps I will bring the clubs after Christmas after all...

Oh, before I go I have one more thing to add. I just wanted to mention to all my faithful blog readers (Dad, Mom, Ginger) that the beginning of the school year is just around the corner and that the yearly budget is still being constructed. Anyways, donations are an essential part of the budget and integral for maintaining the daily functions of the school, the volunteer program, and keeping the school tuition-free for the students. Donating is pretty simple (point and click) and all donations are tax deductible. You can even donate online! http://www.haitianproject.org/donate.htm

Ok, I've done my little speal. But seriously, the kids here are really special and this school is changing Haiti one kid at a time. And it's help from people like you that makes it possible for both myself and the kids to be here.

Thanks again for your help and support.

Peace

A day in Haiti

So by now I’m starting to realize that you probably have only a scattered idea of what I exactly DO each day. Random anecdotes can take us only so far…

Anyways, here is a “typical day” in the life of Jon during these past three weeks:

5:40am – Wake up. (5:00 on Fridays in order to help cook breakfast. On Saturday/Sunday I sleep-in until 6:30, sometimes 7:00!)

6:00 – Morning prayer. This includes the other volunteers and the Haitian Staff, perhaps 20-25 people depending on the day.

6-7ish – Breakfast. Cooked by the Haitian staff/volunteers, this ranges from a Haitian cornmeal porridge to cereal and bread with Haitian peanut butter.

7-10 – Work projects. The first few weeks we worked longer (11:30 or later) but this past week we changed the schedule so that we could spend more time lesson planning. Anyways, over these three weeks we have worked throughout the campus and helped to clean-up, renovate, and repaint different areas of the school. Highlights from the past three weeks include painting and remodeling the entire kitchen area, digging a pipe trench with a pickaxe, and using a machete to mow the grass. I know it sounds weird to say this, but I really liked using the machete. A small group of students usually comes to the school to work the entire morning before leaving after lunch. And yes, “supervision” is part of our responsibilities. Whether Haitian or American, 14 year olds love to roll their eyes… Regardless, it’s pretty neat to see students working to clean and renovate the school during the summer. As you might have already guessed, physical labor is an integral component of the philosophy of LCS – as they like to say, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

10-11:30 – Lesson Planning. I’m teaching Rheto and Philo English, the oldest students at the school. Pretty exciting. There is tremendous freedom in what I decide to teach and I’ve been using notes from past volunteers to help guide me. Fun stuff.

11:30-12:00 – Eat a Delicious Lunch. This meal is cooked by the kitchen staff (women from the community) in the school kitchens, which is different from the staff/volunteer kitchen. Just to be clear, they serve pretty much the same rice and beans every day with a bit of variety in the sauce. Yet, it truly has become one of my favorite meals. But again, I’m a relatively simple eater.

12:00-1:00 – Free time. This almost always includes showering. I generally take about 2-3 showers each day, though showering in Haiti differs from my normal shower routine in the U.S. Here, cold showers are a blessing. You (I) mentally curse when the sun warms the water to a lukewarm, or God-forbid (!), a warm temperature. Also, showers are much quicker and you are basically trying to get all the salt off your skin that has built up from sweating all day. And everyone sweats. Because it’s really hot.

1:00-3:00 – Kreyol lessons. These have been wonderfully helpful, as language is an essential component for understanding a different culture or society. My proficiency in Kreyol is moving slowly, likely because I haven’t been the best student (I’m still on “summer” mode – I haven’t been studying as much as I could). It will come in time. Kreyol words can be pretty fun though. I often joke to myself (yes I actually do this) that my “Kreyol” name is Yellow 15 or Jonn Kenz. Fun stuff.

3:00-6:00 – Free time. This usually includes more lesson planning, reading, playing soccer/basketball/kickball, or simply talking with the other volunteers or the Haitian Staff. A great time of the day in my opinion.

6:00 – Dinner. Cooked by the Haitian staff/Volunteers, we always eat breakfast and dinner as a school community. Pretty neat really. My favorite meal in Haiti has been buoyon, which is a stew consisting of potatoes, plantains, dumplings, and a variety of delicious spices. My other favorite meal is spaghetti (with Haitian Catsup) along with cut-up hot dog slices.

7-10 – Free time. When I’m not reading, I tend to be cleaning (either the kitchen after dinner or the bathrooms) or playing card/board games. I’ve learned the Haitian card game “casino” as well as played an intense game of Chinese Checkers.

10pm (if not 9 or 8:30) – Bedtime! My alarm clock has a temperature gauge that I have seen fluctuate from 82 – 93 degrees. Most of the time it is 88-90 when I go to bed. If it’s below 85 I have to put on my sheet to not get cold.

Perhaps this was helpful? Good.

So since the last blog entry I have made some good progress in my reading list. I finished The Uses of Haiti, Things Fall Apart, and Blink. I’ve currently moved on to The Idiot and I’m thinking of starting the Omnivores Dilemma soon.

Oh, last week we went to the Scalabrini seminary again for mass. This time, mass was said by a visiting Haitian Scalabrini priest who is currently stationed in Cologne, Germany. In the span of one hour, I heard 6 languages spoken – Kreyol, French, Italian (there are a couple of Italian nuns at the seminary), English, Spanish (there were two visitors from Argentina), and German (one of the volunteers spoke with the priest after mass in German)! Neat stuff really.

And, today we all went to a nice grocery store in Port-Au-Prince to buy some extra food for the volunteers. Aptly named “Deli-Mart,” I enjoyed seeing shopping carts, spicy Haitian peanut butter, Carlos Rossi wine jugs, Baileys, and Baguettes. No, I didn’t buy any of these. But seeing that they still exist was a good feeling.

Finally, this week I went to the Missionaries of Charity site in Port-Au-Prince with some of the other volunteers. Pretty powerful stuff. Deeply moving, but also rather disturbing. The “why” questions remain and continue to be quite troubling.

Peace

A tropical storm?

So, I've been told by two different sources that a tropical storm either hit Haiti a few days ago or is going to hit us very soon. A good thing to know since I haven't noticed any change in the weather since I've arrived. The options seem to be: (1) hot and humid with about an hour of rain after sundown and (2) hot and humid and no rain.

Anyways, life here at Louverture Cleary (LCS) is settling into a nice pattern. I'm still adjusting to a different way of living as the U.S. volunteers (9 of us) and the Haitian staff members (around 15) live in community at the school. This means that we cook, clean, play, and pray together each day. For the most part, this arrangement is excellent as I am learning constantly from my new Haitian friends. But living in such tight quarters has its moments of frustration as well. Still, the good easily overwhelms the struggles.

Last Saturday, we went to mass at a nearby seminary. There was an excellent soccer field (rounded posts!), some neat orchards, and a nice chapel. The place is run by the Scalabrini order and after mass we were served a feast by the resident Italian priest - including pizza and beer. Absolutely delicious. I also got the chance to try the most popular and best tasting (so I hear) Haitian beer: Prestige. And while it was quite good, nothing compares to the pizza. Simply amazing.

That day was full of excitement, as I also got to wash my clothes by hand for the first time(in Uganda my host family washed my clothes). In the future I'll likely pay a Haitian from the community to wash my clothes, but it was a good learning experience.

In other news, I decided to regrow my beard and now I am beardless no more!

In addition, I finished Atlas Shrugged this past week. Then I started and finished All Quiet on the Western Front just a few minutes ago. Did I mention things slow down on the weekend?

Anyways, I've had some truly fascinating conversations with the graduates of LCS these past few weeks. This week I talked to a former LCS student who is getting a graduate degree in Social Work, with his thesis concentrating on violence against women in Haiti. He told me that he expected to find that most of the violence was committed by men but in fact he has found that the majority of the violence in Haiti is systemic. He even used the social science term, structural violence, as he described the systems and structures within Haitian society and negatively affect Haitian women. He used this term freely and we talked for a good while about the French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. A really good day in my book.

Oh yes, I've learned that bleating goats sound like children wailing. Good to remember when I'm trying to sleep and think I hear a child crying in the distance...

So, I was playing kickball the other day and a few odd things occurred. First, one player on the other team kicked the ball a little too high in the wrong direction, over the 10 foot cinderblock wall covered with razor wire. Thinking the game was over we begin walking away when out of nowhere the ball appears - tossed back over the wall by our friendly but silent neighbor. We joyously yell, "Mesi" - Thank You - and then continue playing. The second fun moment of the game was when my teammate hit a home run by kicking the ball into the incinerator (fortunately, it wasn't lit at the moment). Ah, good times.

Two more thoughts. First, there is a great JFK quote on one of the cinderblock walls surrounding the school: "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country." It's nice to see my namesake represented here in Haiti. Second, myself and a few of the other volunteers taught the principal of LCs how to play euchre yesterday. He is a very smart guy, studied philosophy at the University with a concentration on Nietzsche and Spinoza. As you can probably imagine, we've had some great philosophy conversations in English - his third language!

Anways, I hope all is well - wherever you may be.

Peace

Haiti!

So, I've now been in Haiti nearly a week and her are just a few of my many observations and experiences thus far.

-First and most importantly, Haiti is not Uganda.

-Indeed, Haitian insects love me possibly even more than Ugandan insects.

-"Fume" are Haitian fire ants. Yes, it hurts when they bite you.

-Traditional Haitian food has been a rare sight at the school. I helped make dinner last night - French Toast with maple syrup. Spaghetti is for breakfast tomorrow.

-However, Haitian Catsup and Haitian Peanut Butter are delicious. It's my goal to bring some home with me for Christmas.

-Also, I learned that I will indeed be teaching English literature at Louverture Cleary. My students will be Rheto and Philo (12-13th graders). Some of the books that these classes read in the past included Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, Things Fall Apart, Cry the Beloved Country, and Romeo and Juliet. Each grade has two sections - so four classes so far. I will likely be teaching some gym class but the details are not yet finished.

-During the weekends it is very relaxing as much of the Haitian staff go home for the weekends. I'm nearly finished reading Atlas Shrugged - still undecided about the next book on my list.

-The beginning of school remains in the distance: September 14. Clearly, I have some time to adjust and plan for the year. In fact, it might be a good idea to start reading and rereading the books I will be teaching this year...

-Oh, some of the Haitian staff that live at the school informed me that when I speak, I'm "playing" the bass. Haha.

-Also, the friendly neighborhood water truck plays delightful tunes each morning - "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic and Santa Claus is Coming to Town are easily my favorites.

-Finally, a few nights ago I noticed that it was noticeably cooler in my room - In fact, I actually used my sheet to keep warm. Oh yes, when I looked at my alarm clock before I went to bed it told me that it was a "brisk" 82 degrees in my room that night...

This is rambling and I need to go to bed.

Bon Nwit!

Ohio...

I slept really well last night. Remarkably well in fact.

It's been a good summer. Checks on the life list include:

-Living with children (and adults) from 13 different countries
-Teaching and then repeatedly defeating these same children in "knock-out"
-Becoming a Doctor
-Exploring in detail the bustling metropolis that is Piqua, Ohio
-Learning that Cincinnati isn't completely awful
-Eating the best ribs I've ever tasted
-Reminding myself constantly about the deliciousness of Stromboli and Blue Moo Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

As you can see, an excellent summer is coming to an end. And the journey continues.

But the weather is not going to get any cooler. And I'm still completely unprepared to be called "Mr. Kennedy" for the next 10 months.

So far, we have the United States. Canada. Mexico. United Kingdom. France. Italy. Greece. Kenya (I have the dirt to prove it). Uganda. El Salvador.

And Haiti? Tomorrow? Yes.

Peace

ps. If anyone wants to read about my summer in Uganda, here are some thoughts: http://www.jbkuganda.blogspot.com/