School

I wanted to post a few additional pictures of school in progress. Of course, I'm sure that they were somewhat disrupted by the visiting moms with candy and cameras! It is amazing how much the "O" has progressed in just the relatively short period of time since I have been involved. When I first started, they did not live in this big building, and there was no school. The school started sometime in November or December of 2007
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The classroom is somehow reminicent of the one-room school houses that can still be found in rural North America, although I never saw anything like this on "Little House On The Prairie" reruns! A friend who has not been to Haiti saw these pictures and was taken back that they did not all have a place to write i.e. desks. I would imagine they take turns at the tables for that. I would imagine that they spend a great deal of time reciting, listening to the teacher, and learning off the blackboard. My friend, like most Americans, does not understand what a huge leap of progress this represents for the "O" as well as for these children, individually. I would be surprised if even one of these kids has ever been in a learning environment in their past. One can read about the illiteracy rates in Haiti but most people cannot comprehend how this translates into reality unless or until one pays a visit with eyes wide open.

And clearly, the children adore the teacher. I know this because I have his crayon portrait, from the eyes of a child artist on my refrigerator!