Sunday July 11
Today we had an incredible treat... we went to a beach. The beach was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! It was this picture perfect postcard in the middle of this hell. The sand was white, the water was blue, blue, blue and we were surrounded by green mountains. We ate fresh crab fished right out of the ocean and drank beer while lounging in the water. We brought the principal and his wife, and our driver, his daughter and her friend with us. We had an idyllic day splashing and swimming.
But to get there we had to travel 50 miles which took 2 hours - we even got a flat along the way in a desert area where people have been kidnapped. We passed through tent villages in the middle of the dry desolate area where the government had relocated people from Port au Prince but had then left them there without any resources. We brought along our packages of food and some other food supplies and gave them out from the van windows. I gave a bag of the soup mix to a man and he said in broken English "But I have no water". I had no answer to what he was saying. I just looked him in his eyes and saw his desperation.
On the way back after our day in paradise, we bought bags of water and passing through the same area we passed out the water. But I did not see him again. I hope he got some through another window.
Monday July 12
Today is the six month anniversary of the earthquake. As we walked to school this morning, we passed by a former market - now a pile of rubble. One man was shovelling the rubble into a wheelbarrow, a mountain of a task that seemingly will take forever to complete.
We had a moment of silence with the teachers. We then talked about their experiences on Friday of going to the hospital and holding the babies. It was very powerful as each shared how they had never done anything like that before, and how they had heard about these hospitals and had seen stories of babies like these on TV. They were so moved by this experience and most said they wanted to do that again.
Teaching went very well today. We did the personality assessment "True Colours" with the teachers. It was so interesting to see how each of the teachers reacted to the test and their findings. We then had them reflect on how they could use this with their students to further understand who their students are and how they operate. We also had great math lessons with the 100's charts made from the tarps, and the how-tos of sudoko. Again rich discussions around how to use these things with their students - generating lots of ideas.
So another full day has passed here. Great to hear from you...and good night
Connie
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