I use a turtle puppet for the pscycho-social-educational groups which I am doing with the kindergarten and first grade classes at the Father Wasson Angels of Light School. Over the course of the school year, I have become closely associated with this puppet, which is called Titoti (little turtle.) Currently I am teaching the children about different emotions. One of the books which came with the Kreyol children's library which my relatives purchased for Christmas, is the story of a child who finds a turtle on his way to school and puts the live turtle in his pocket. During class he sits the turtle on his shoulder which causes another child to feel so frightened that the children runs out of the classroom. I was reading the story to talk about feeling scared and afraid.
I don't think the young guy who helps out at the school, knew that I would be reading this particular story last week, but when he found a turtle near where he lives, he decided to bring it to me, as a gift! Somehow it seemed oddly providential given the story that I had planned to read that very morning; and I thought that it was very thoughtful of this young man to think of me, although in all honesty I received it with a bit of ambivalence as I wondered what I would do with this creature in my play therapy/class-room, which is really a tent.
Unlike the turtle in the story, this turtle was too big to even fit in an adult size pocket or sit on even a large person's shoulder! I decided to keep turtle for a week, so that the children could get a chance to see it and then release it; I believe that it belongs in nature. The children have mostly been curious and delighted, although a few were afraid that it would try to bite them. I decided it is a female, as one morning when I entered my tent, which was beginning to smell a bit like the reptile house at the zoo, there was a broken egg in the container where the turtle had been placed to swim. I spent a long time cleaning the tent yesterday and have used a lot of hand sanitizer the past several days.
One night when I was able to get internet service, I looked up care for pet turtles so that I could learn all of the things I was doing wrong while trying to care for this creature. There was a lot of information which was not helpful as I did not know what species I had, had not bought it in an American pet store, am not even sure if they sell turtle food sticks anywhere in Haiti, but am very certain that the merchants outside the gates of the hospital don't carry them. The internet pet turtle experts talk about indoor and outdoor arrangements for pet turtles but I was not sure what they would consider a tent. In the little story I read to the children the turtle is given little pieces of carrots and apples. Someone who had read the book when I left it in an office to dry one day brought me apples for the turtle the next day. I asked the woman in the kitchen for scraps of vegetables and they gave me a carrot and a cabbage leaf. People are so generous; an assistant teacher gave me a hat with a turtle on it this week too.
Yesterday morning, when I arrived the turtle has left the container with water and was hiding under the green plastic tent floor partly in the mud. I did not want to disturb it since I wondered if it could be making a nest. This morning, when I went to check on the turtle I thought perhaps she had left on her own, but then found her hiding between two layers of fabric that make up the walls of the tent. She will soon be enjoying her freedom.
Lapli
Normally during the rainy season, it rains most evenings or nights sometimes quite heavily but rarely for more than an hour. The sun is usually out and it is fairly rare to have an overcast day. This week has been an exception. Hurricane season began the first of June, and we have had a tropical depression all week, which has meant cloudy rainy days. The temperature has sometimes been cooler, but the humidity sometimes seems higher than usual. Thursday it rained almost all day; the children did not have school because of Ascension Thursday. When all 39 children were in the house all day long because of the weather, it made me very grateful that this kind of weather is so unusual here. The humidity was so high that day that in the course of working with the children I had sweat through my clothes so much that one little girl pointed to my damp pant leg and innocently asked me if I had peed on myself!
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| The swings at Kay Ste. Ann on Thursday, notice the puddles under them. |
On the mornings at the school, when I sweep the water out of my tent and try to keep the floor clean enough that children can sit on, my heart goes out to the thousands of people who are still living in crowded tents here in Haiti. The rain also somehow makes Cholera incidences increase as well. Let us pray for those living in tents, for those suffering from Cholera, and for a safe hurricane season. Know that you, my family, friends, community members, and others reading this are in my prayers too.
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