On Tuesday I went with the woman who is responsible for Kay Ste. Anne and another woman who works for Father Wasson Angles of Lights, to visit the twin sister of Katiana, the little girl who died of Cholera a month earlier. After the funeral the family had decided to take the twin sister back and care for her. The family lives in a rural area, in the mountains. As is common in such areas, there were a few small simple houses very close together where extended family lived on the side of a mountain. The child in some ways looks as if she had grown a little and seemed physically okay. Yet, she seemed quiet and sad at the same time. What else though would one expect of a very young child whose mother and twin sister died before she even turned five?
I am glad that at Kay Ste. Anne now in the afternoons a couple of assistant teachers from the school are coming to help with activities. One of the other teachers at the school requested that after school the children in her kindergarten class continue with the same activities they do in the morning to help with reading and writing with the children. Aware that my own cultural values and perspectives were playing into my opinion I tried to explain that they can learn while they are playing and doing different activities in the afternoon. I mentioned that when they are drawing we can talk with them about what color crayons they are using to help them learn their colors. This is a teacher, who I think is very good with the children, committed, kind, and intelligent. Her perspective, reflects the culture in which she was raised. Since I don't know French, she suggested I learn it, since if I help the children learn their colors in Creole, and they will for example say "ble" (which means blue in Creole), and not bleu (which means blue in French) (the end pronunciation of the vowel sound at the end is different with the french having an "r" like sound) ; the teacher insisted that if the children go to another school people will think this was a bad school if they don't use the French pronunciation. She is probably right that there are people in Haiti who judge the quality of a person's education on how well the speak and pronounce French words. I do think if children are to learn a second language it is easiest for them to do so when they are still quite young, so from that perspective I see the value of beginning to teach a second language early. Yet, when I walk by kindergarten classrooms, I do wonder if educationally it would be more helpful for the children to learn basic concepts or colors first in the language they speak the vast majority of the time. When I first started working at the school in the mornings, one day I asked the youngest children their names in Creole some looked confused and started talking about Jemma Pell, but I knew there could not be too many people with that name in the three year old class, (when I was young I went to school with a girl named Jemma, and Pell was the last name of a RI senator, so it could be a name.)While I understand that it is a cultural value here to learn French at a young age, even though I personally don't fully understand or appreicate the importance because of my own cultual bias and educational philosphy, I realize that if I started learning Creole when I was three years old, my listening comprehnsion would be so much better than it is now.
Last night there was a program at Ste. Louie where the older children live. A group came on Friday and taught the children dance, singing, acting, juggling, culminating with a show last night. The children preformed along with the adult professional performers who taught them. It was well done and was actually recorded for Haitian television. Some of the older children from Kay Ste. Anne went over to Ste. Louie to watch the show. They were so excited for a night out! The name of the group is French, although the show was in Creole. Here is a link to the website:
http://www.lesrescapes.com/lesrescapes/PROJETS.html
There still seems to be mystery and speculation around the motivations for the return of Baby Doc last week. We have also heard that Ariside is hoping to return to Haiti as well. Of course you can probably get better information on these things on line or on the news.
My personal news is this morning I made plans for a week long visit to the US next month. Looking forward to that.
Well take care.
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