Haiti Q & A: Your responsibilities?

Q. What will you be doing in Haiti?
A. I will have several tasks while I am in Haiti, most of which revolve around teaching English. What I'm looking forward to most is teaching English to 13 kids living at Laboule Children's Home. All of them are orphans between the ages of 7 and 14. The Red Thread has generously donated curriculum for this intense instruction.

Another big chunk of what I will be doing is helping the high school students at Gramothe Community School (I'm not sure what it's actually called) learn English. There is a Haitian who teaches English already, so I will be collaborating with him. My job will be to provide a language lab of sorts. From my understanding the students will attend regular class with the other teacher and then come to my class for extra practice on listening and speaking skills.

Someone at The Red Thread has created English curriculum for use with smaller children. I'll be providing basic English instruction for the kindergarten and first grade classes at Gramothe Community School. This is a little out of my comfort zone, but I think it will be a fun challenge.

The last part of my assignment is probably the one that causes the most trepidation for me. Willem and Beth have been given some moringa tree seeds and a program of sorts to implement that will teach people about the tree. They've asked me to incorporate the moringa tree into my work with the high school students. I'll be using some literature on the tree (in Creole) to teach about it's amazing nutritional value. In addition, I'm supposed to teach the students how to plant and care for the trees. Willem has a plot of land ready for me to use, and Beth has promised to help me implement the program. Frankly, I'm quite intimidated by this task!

Haiti Q & A: Why Gramothe, Haiti?

Q. Why are you moving to Gramothe, Haiti?

A. The short answer is God has called me there. If I were to choose a place to live overseas, it would be a Spanish speaking urban area with a good public transportation system. On my own, I would never choose to live in a place that is frequently hit by hurricanes and apparently also experiences earthquakes. The desire I have to move to Gramothe, a small mountain village outside of Port au Prince, is completely unnatural. I can only attribute the peace I have about this move to the Lord.

Over the last year I have become more aware of this thing called human trafficking. I've joined some friends in the Michiana area to raise awareness about its existence. In my research I've learned that Haiti has a serious human trafficking problem. Even before the earthquake, extreme poverty forced parents in rural Haiti to send their children to strangers who promised their children a better life. The problem is that not all of those strangers kept their end of the bargain--an estimated 300,000 Haitian children are what we would call slaves. "The name for these children in Haiti is restavèk, a Creole word that comes from the French reste avec, "stay with," but has evolved to become a general slur meaning worthless." (Marian Wright Edelman)

One way to fight against human trafficking is to prevent it from happening in the first place. In Haiti preventing rural children from becoming victims of human traffickin is pretty simple: education. Providing free education to the children in rural villages allows them to build skills they can use to get a real job. Throwing in a free meal while the kids are at school helps them focus on their school work and helps their parents use their meager finances for other needs. By helping the students in Gramothe learn English, I'll be giving them invaluable skills and preventing those students from experiencing the evils of human trafficking.

Haiti Letter May 2010

Here's the letter I sent out on Saturday. It looks better as one document, but I had to piece it together as jpeg files. It's the best I could do.

If you would like to join Team Gramothe by praying regularly, leave a comment on this post and I will put you on my e-mail list. If you would like to join Team Gramothe as a financial partner, you can send a check to Mountain Top Ministries, PO Box 7053, Terre Houte IN 47802 with "0500" in the memo line. Or you can make a donation online.

They're Off!

It has taken me much longer to send my "Haiti Letters" out to family and friends. Let's just say there were a lot more steps in the process than I thought there were.

Here I am stuffing envelopes at my friend Jen's house.

 And here is a stack of envelopes ready to go. It took me an hour to finish assembling the last 40 envelopes and to put all the stamps on the envelopes!

Hoping God will call some of the recipients of these letters to join "Team Gramothe" as prayer partners and financial backers.

Today's Holiday: Memorial Day

THANK YOU to all the military service men and women who have served the United States over the years. I appreciate your sacrifices of time with your family, comfortable living, and spending holidays away from home. I especially appreciate those who have sacrificed their lives for the rest of us. I found this video online and thought it was fitting for today.

Announcement

I am moving to Haiti in August to teach English for a year!!

When I was in Haiti for spring break the missionaries there invited me to return to Haiti to teach English to the high school students and the orphans at the children's home. I thought it was a fantastic idea and told them I would pray about it. After many questions and much prayer, I have committed to spending the 2010-2011 school year in Gramothe, Haiti. There are still a few things that need to happen for me to actually leave for Haiti in August--such as raising support and finding a foster family for my dog--but I believe God is calling me leave my comfortable life here to spend a year serving with Mountain Top Ministries.

I'll post more information in the coming days.

Reality is...

...summer vacation begins in less than 48 hours.

...I am ready for the work drama to be over.

...I have two days left to make a difference in the lives of my students.

...I love these kids so much!

...my teaching days at JYMS are over. I may never work there again.

...I wish I could stretch the next two days out for week or two.

...my heart aches thinking about how much I will miss my kids.



...my life will never be the same.

Imaginings...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21

Wisdom for today

My friend Amy sent me an e-mail with this quote from the Talmud. I love it! My first summer project is to make a giant print for my living room wall with this quote.

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
--The Talmud

Education in Indiana

In case I've never told you, I am not a fan of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels or his buddy State Superintendent of Schools Tony Bennett. In fact, they both rank pretty high on my "People I'd like to Punch in the Nose" list. When it comes time to elect the next Superintendent of Schools in Indiana, I implore you to vote for whoever is running against Tony. I'm not joking. While I have long since decided to campaign for Tony's competition, today's events only added to my dislike for the man.

As part of our professional development today, we watched a speech he gave at some point in the last month. (I couldn't find the video online; otherwise I would provide you a link.) The talk he gave was about Response to Intervention (RtI) and the framework the state is creating for schools to use. RtI is an excellent way of keeping kids from falling through the cracks of public education. I think RtI will be very effective once schools are able to get some interventions in place. Anyway, I think Tony's aim with this speech was to get teachers on board with RtI and to convince educators that we need to create a culture of excellence within our schools, which was a really good idea.

The problem came when Dr. Bennett started talking. First there was the fairly significant grammatical error. During the first few minutes of his speech, Tony says that educators "are here for one word and one word only: student learning." Really, Tony? You have a doctorate. You were speaking to educators who not only understand standard grammar, but value it.

The more significant distraction to his message was his arrogance. After declaring that student learning should be the reason for everything we do as educators, Tony outlined his plan to have the best educational system in the United States. To be the best. What were his reasons for desiring the number one spot? First he cited his extreme competitive nature. He has to win. Then he added, "I want the other 49 states to look at Indiana and wonder what we have that they don't." He made it quite clear he wants the title "best." Not once did he mention student learning, achievement, or growth as reasons we should actively seek to cultivate a culture of excellence. Mostly he wants to look good.

But what really sets me over the edge about Dr. Tony Bennett is the way he implies that teachers don't care about student learning and don't set high standards for their students. He looks down his nose at classroom teachers and talks about us as if we are the laziest people he's ever met. I work my butt off to teach and serve my students. I set high standards, and I expect my students to make progress--regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, or unstable home lives. While there is definitely room for improvement in our state statistics, it wouldn't hurt the man to make an effort at recognizing the good teachers are already doing.