Teaching at the School

children at the school loving getting their picture taken



at least 10 kids hugging me at once!

 

6th graders with their new pens and notebooks



I’ve been teaching English all week to seven classes of children at Gentille Hirondelle school.  I’ve become somewhat of a celebrity at the school and I can’t do anything without all 200 children wanting to hug me, hold my hand, touch my hair, or take a pictures.  They always ask me to take their pictures (and they are all very serious in the photos) and they LOVE to see them afterwards (and giggle like crazy).  A couple of the girls asked if they can call me “mama”.  How do you answer that?  Unfortunately, I worry that I am distracting the children from their regular teachers. 

A friend in Honolulu donated a huge box of pens to the project.  Many of the children didn’t have anything to write with at all, so my first day I gave all 200 children a pen.  I’ve never seen children so excited over a pen!  That same day, when I asked each class to copy the things I wrote on the board, about 25% of them didn’t have any paper!  So thanks to all of you donors, each child now has a simple notebook as well.  The children sit on 4-foot long benches with a 4-ft long piece of wood attached to the top as a writing surface.  In this four feet, at least 6 children smoosh in so I am going to use some of the donated money to purchase more of these "bancs"/benches.

All the children have class in the auditorium since it is the only covered area thanks to our roof, but as a result, it is extremely loud.  Each teacher has a chalkboard that has seen better days, and they each get a piece of chalk to use for the day; no white boards, no markers, no computers, no copies, no worksheets, no photocopier, no overhead,  no visual aids, no materials to manipulate. There is no hands-on learning and everything is copied from the board.  I noticed they do a lot of singing/chanting so I think it may be used as a teaching tool.  The school doesn’t have electricity or running water …or toilet paper!  Basically all it has is walls and a roof!   

The children get free lunch of rice and beans everyday, donated by the World Food Program.   So, if you've ever donated to this organization, it is helping a lot in Haiti.  Additionally, they get a package of cookies with tons of vitamins in them.  The children don't like them that much, so they take them home and moms prepare a porrriage with the cookies, water, and sugar. 

vitamin supplemented cookies

lunch at school, paid for by the World Food Program