This is my life....

Well now to get to some more good stuff that has been happening in my life. A lot of people have been asking me what I have been doing and what I do on a daily basis here in Haiti, so here it goes.

Warning: This could bore you out of your mind… Just kidding. I hope you find it interesting and enjoyable.

Once I got back from my immersion I started to find my so called niche. I knew from the moment I was coming that I wanted to work at the school with the children. I of course had a bunch of ideas, but I knew I needed to pick about three main ones to focus on. As you have read from my earlier blogs The University from Dublin had set up a computer lab at our school, so that soon become of my projects. The main projects I am working on is the computers, our Keyhole gardens, starting up a library, and fundraising to build a playground for the kids. I also work on smaller projects such as I redid the principal’s office, small medical cases, and working with visiting groups (For example: such as Global Health and High school groups). Now you might think I am busy 24/7, but I do have some down time for myself which I usually take to go be with the kids or go up the mountain behind our house. I honestly love every single one these projects in a different way and I love being so busy with them. Now you might ask what each of these projects entail so I will give some background on each of them.

The computer program: Was established by our Irish organization (UCD) and the group of volunteers they bring during the summer program. We have a designated classroom assigned specifically just for the computer classes. We have around 20 computers and they all have mouse’s an keyboards that work. Each computer comes with the same programs. They programs on the computers are math, typing, art, Wikipedia, matching game, and programs for the professors. A typical day inside of our computer class is pretty simple. The teachers were each assigned a day and time. They bring their students on their assigned day and at the    right time and we then get them started on the computers. This is where things get a little frustrating for me, but I have been getting better with keeping my patients. We have been doing this computer class since the start off school, and not all of our teachers have learned everything about them yet. This is frustrating for me because I try to help and show them, but sometimes I feel as if they don’t always want to listen to me. I think they don’t always want to listen because they think they know better, and they don’t always realize I am just trying to help. I help the teacher’s kid their kids set up and logged on to the computer, and they tell them what program they want them to use. Usually the kids will use the math or typing program. Most of the kids love the math program because there are animals that dance on screen when they win the game. They usually get frustrated with the typing program because it’s difficult in a few ways. We don’t have a program in creole yet. We have it in French and not all the children understand French, so they tend not to like it as much. They usually are in the computer classroom for 40 minutes and are then done. The most amazing feeling for me while working on this project is to see the kids succeed. Their faces light up when they win a game or figure out the answer right away. I also love being able to help the kids and see their education grew. That is one of the most important things for me. There are a few things we need to work on with our computer program, but it is taking amazing steps in the right direction. In the next few weeks we will be having someone come down to teach the professors more about the computers and we are investing in headphones for the computers. This computer program for our children is simply a blessing and I can’t wait to see their progress as the months go one.

Keyhole Gardens: Our keyhole gardens were started a few years back by a past Quest for Haiti volunteer. The program ran smoothly for probably about a year or so after she left and then flopped. Now this is a pretty common theme and we as volunteers have to accept it. What I mean by this is that we start programs and we leave people in charge, but they can’t always keep it going. It is pretty difficult for us to except at first, but we do have to make this realization so that we do not become disappointed after we leave. Anyways, we started the gardens back up this year for our 5^th grade class to be in charge of them. We first cleaned out the gardens and fixed up the rocks around them. After we taught the kids how to do compost. The children absolutely loved learning about the composting and even made their own pile at the school. After that it was time to plant in the gardens. We started out planting tomatoes, carrots, peas, and yellow flowers. Now, we are just in the waiting process for them to grow. During this period of time though the children are watering their gardens every morning and checking on them. They also have lessons during school to continue to learn about gardening, and the gardens. The children are beyond excited because gardens are very important in the Haitian culture. Most children’s families own gardens and they will mostly likely take them over when they get older. I can’t wait until our children see what their gardens produce!! This project is a ton of fun and our children are learning which is very important.

The Library Project: The library project has been idea for the past couple of years, but never really took off. One of our past volunteers, Brittany, had a plan in the making and has helped put it together with me. Her grandmother is also funding a huge portion of it which is absolutely amazing. We have had books donated and we have also purchased them. We have over a 100 books as of right now and are planning on getting more. Most of the books are in French, but we have some in creole and English as well. Our goal is to get more creole because the younger children do not understand the French as well. We think having a library will be simply perfect our children and it is very important. We want our children to have all the opportunities in the world, and we know that a library will help enrich their minds in many ways. We are so excited to get this project off of its feet and we can’t wait to see where it goes.

The Playground Project: The playground project I hold near and dear to my heart. (Not that I don’t think that about the other projects, but this one is my baby) From working at camp the past years I knew the children had nothing to play on all the time at the school, so it made me think. I thought of multiple ideas and did some research on the internet, and playgrounds had come up. I also had talked to Sister Pat who said that an organization called SOS had brought this up to them a few years back, so I knew it was a good idea to move forward with. I have picked a few ideas of what I think would be fun for the children and have had meetings with the teachers at the school. I had a great outcome of interest from out teachers about the project, and they gave input of what they would like placed in the playground as well. We are now in the process of this project of fundraising. I am setting up a page through the RJM organization and having it posted online. I am also working with my university to have it posted on the athletic website to spread the word to others! I cannot wait to start building and to see the children’s faces light up when everything is put together for them!

            Now as I said I also work on some smaller projects here. One smaller project I took into my hands was redoing our principal’s office at the school. It was pretty unorganized and it needed a new paint job, so for two weeks that’s where you could find me. I first went through every shelf that had any type of paper on it. He and I sat down and I would ask him “ Do you need this or can we get rid of it?” If he didn’t need it we would have it burned and if he needed it we would organize it in to a folder. This worked wonderful and he loved it. We also went through the two cabinets that held school books for the children. I labeled each pile and what class it was for, so that when he goes to find a book it will be very easy. This process took a week believe it or not because the amount of papers that were in his office were unbelievable. Some of the papers were also ancient, and when I say ancient I mean it. After that I had to talk with Sister Pat and we decided that his office needed to be painted.  We asked Met Leny what color he wanted it to be and he said crème. Now before we could even begin the process of painting the walls we had to wash them. Yeap you read that right! WE HAD TO WASH THE WALLS! We had to do this because they were caked in a layer of dirt. To say the least it was pretty filthy. The walls had been painted an off green, and the dirt just took to them. After we had washed them we had to paint the walls white for the crème to actually show up. We had to do two coats of white and then let them dry, and well that was a pain in the butt. It took forever for the walls to dry because there really isn’t any air circulation in his office. When the white finally dried we started painting the crème. Now you would think when you buy two cans of crème they would be the same color, but that didn’t happen. So we had to mix the colors together to make an off crème. Met Leny didn’t mind at all, he was so appreciative for the all work that we had done for him. This project honestly made me feel so good because it needed to be done, and he was grateful for everything. He still thanks us even to this day.

 

 

            Another small project we have all been working on is working with visiting groups and some medical cases. We have visiting groups here in Gros- Morne often. They are usually medical groups or school groups. The first visiting group that we worked closely with was Global Health. They are an organization that brings teams of doctors and nurses to places all over the world. They bring a ton of supplies and set up mobile clinics in different locations each day. I got to work with Global health one day. We went up in the mountains to a small town called Garcin. We set up the clinic in a school. We had two doctors on the team and the rest were nurses. I got to be part of the triage team, which was so much fun. I got to help take their blood pressure, how much they weighted, and ask them medical questions. It was such a wonderful experience, but also upsetting at the same time. We had a bunch of mothers who brought their babies, and they were so malnourished. I remember one specific mother who had a two year old who weighted maybe 11 pounds. It killed me to see things like this. We helped them as best as we could and sent them on their way. We saw a pretty large group of people that day, and we even had to send some people away. Sending people away was not easy at all!! It broke my heart because you want to be able to help everyone, but at the end of the day you don’t have enough supplies and we were running out of daylight. All in all though it was such a wonderful experience and it reassured me that going to get a degree in public health will be amazing.

 I am truly beyond blessed to have the experiences I do here, and I wouldn’t change them for anything in the world!!!

            Now that you know my daily routine here in Haiti, I hope that it gives you some insight in to what my life is truly like. I love being busy and doing what I am doing. It has been a few wonderful months, and I can’t wait to see what the next month’s have in store for me. If you have any questions on the projects I do or would want to get involved please feel free to contact me at my email! (40ratke@gmail.com) I love chatting and telling more about the projects here in Haiti.

God Bless you all and be on the lookout for my next blog post!!