Part II   Thursday, November 6, 2014

This is a street scene typical of Jacmel. Of course, the day had started out with a rainstorm.  After being here 8 days, I have come to be a little more comfortable with the daily pace of life.

I found out that there are no teaching credentials required to teach in Haiti.  I went with one of the teachers to Concordia University where he takes classes to earn a degree.  I talked to the administrator there and asked him about setting up a program for those who want to have a teaching license.  It might mean coming here during the summer and teaching a summer session for these teachers.

I am looking out of my hotel window, and looking upon the most beautiful scene—it is on the later stages of dusk lay like  peach ribbon across the mountains as the sky blends into a darker blue.  Then, below there lies the Caribbean bay that is frame for me by palm trees.

Here is a picture of ELI— the English Language School where I am working.

This is the main classroom is the house.  It has no air conditioning, and often times no lights because the electricity usage rotates around the city.  It usually comes on about 3 in the afternoon and goes off again at 2 or 3 in the morning. The teachers have to work in the dark sometimes, since now the sun sets at 5:30, and they hold classes until 8 p.m.

There is no running water in the house or kitchen appliances, but teachers and students buy water from street venders for about 5 gourds about 25 cents…  that’s three bags of water.  There is a water cooler in the other room adjacent to the one you are seeing, but that is a recent acquisition.  Water out of the tap is not safe for anyone to drink here in Jacmel.  I am not sure how they recycle the water either.

The FLI school has about 50 students overall.  The teacher volunteers, 6 of them now, take turns teaching the classroom almost every evening—except Thursday.

I feel like I have finally found something to do that has more meaning than sitting in my office and writing articles.  I realize that I need to do that as part of my job, but I also have found people with whom I can talk about the work here. UD Professor Bonnie Robb has also been helpful—so helpful—in sharing resources and materials with me so that I can be here to help these young Haitian teachers.  Every day I spend with them is a joy. They have a desire to learn beyond anything I have experienced among the students who have been in my classrooms.  Even though droop in the heat, sitting in the small classrooms at FLI, and I droop with them, we go on and get through the material.

I forget sometimes that I am conducting research—it means more for me to be teaching someone who wants to learn.