December 17, 2008

Today I had two interesting cultural experiences

I was present during the handing out of report cards at the Ecole Mixte Emmanuel (HATS school). The students, parents and teachers all gathered in the large classroom at the school. In front of everyone, the teachers called out the students' names one by one, from lowest to highest grades, told their results and made comments about their performance. There were comments like, "Well done." "Keep it up". So far so good. But there were also comments like "This student does not want to work at ALL!" "The parents need to help their child more with their homework". "This child is not living up to her potential." I was cringing inside while listening to it, but here, it's completely normal and no one even blinked an eye. The top 2 students in each grade received a small gift, from our cache of gifts that we brought from Canada.

This afternoon, I accompanied mom and one of the security guards on a run into St. Marc to visit the bank and get funds to pay the staff. We had to stop in Borel at a "fundraising blockade" put up by the Borel soccer team. They stop all passing vehicles and "ask" them for funds for their trip to Port-au-Prince to play a game tomorrow. We didn't have any money because we were on our way to the bank so were allowed through by promising to "donate" on our way back through. I told Mariah this might be an effective fundraising tool for her soccer team!

Tevan and Alex JJ, Ariane, Mirlande, Moise All of us walking beside the canal.

Today I had the joy of taking the younger children for a walk beside the canal. I went with Ariane, Tevan, Alexandre, JJ, Moise and Mirlande. We laughed and sang and skipped beside the canal and then had a ton of fun throwing rocks into the canal. It was a nice change of pace from the work back at the mission.

Alexandre squealed with joy every time he managed to throw a rock into the canal with his foot!