June 19th

Today was a lot better since I got to be out with the Haitians and not stuck in a house of Americans.  The creole students went on a field trip, but I opted to have a relaxing morning then go with my roommate C. to sit in on her class at the campus in Petion-ville.  We rode with M. down “the hill”, and then walked for about 15 minutes to the school.  C. pointed out some of the earthquake damage as we crossed an area she said was near the epicenter of the quake.  I realized yesterday that it was hard to tell what was earthquake damage and what was just half-built houses and piles of already existing piles of rubble. 

The University/Primary School

A school "hallway"

            The school was quite a sight.  We share a building with primary school, and just try to find empty classrooms.  The word “classroom” is loosely defined in this maze of concrete walls and staircases.  There are no doors, and the windows are just open squares in the concrete.  Each room is equipped with rickety benches, old desks, and a chalkboard.  The rooms don’t have electricity because light comes in through the windows and open gaps in the roof.

Front of one of the classrooms

The other half of the room

            At first I tried to just sit in the back and observe, but soon a student made a comment about how there was one person in the class that was not part of the circle, and the class all of a sudden jumped up and rearranged chairs and benches to make room for me.  I nearly fell out of the chair that I sat in, and instead of having to someone laugh with me, the students that saw all looked incredibly concerned.  The chairs looked old discarded lecture hall chairs-plastic seats with a small wooden table that comes in front.  The base of the chair was once bolted to the floor of some university classroom, but here you just have to balance carefully.  I learned that lesson the hard way.

            The students were eager to have me participate in all the activities.  I played the name game where they would toss a ball and say the name of the person they were throwing it to.  I think they tossed the ball to me about every other time.  (I also think they just liked to listen to the ridiculous ways I tried to pronounce everyone’s names).  I also found myself in a very challenging game of sentence Pictionary.  Each person writes down a sentence, and then the person next to them has to draw a picture about what was written.  The person after that only looks at the picture, and on another piece of paper writes down a sentence based on the illustration.  This continues until each person gets their stack of sentences and pictures back.  It takes on a whole new challenge when the sentences are written in Creole, and then some valiant attempts at English to accommodate the American.

            I was so impressed with the engagement and energy the students put in to the class.  It was a class on diversity and oppression, and soon there were some heated conversations about these topics and who’s job it is to determine what’s acceptable and what is not.  I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t understand what they were saying, and could barely hear the interpreter.  However, I didn’t need translation to understand the passion and emotion that was being conveyed.

The incoming storm

            C. and I rode the tap taps back up the mountain and got home just in time before a big thunderstorm hit.  It was amazing to watch the rain and the mountainside light up with the bright flashes of lightening.  I spent the rest of the evening relaxing, reading, and studying up on the Creole that the students were trying to teach me today.

 
Oh, and I also learned that I need to watch my step when walking around the house.  The lizards are everywhere!