I swear I have learned more in 14 weeks than I think I did my entire college experience. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but on days like today that feels like an accurate statement. There are so many things to learn about Haiti alone. Food (what to eat, what not to eat, how to clean vegetables, price, what street vendor to buy from, how to cook with a very limited amount of pans and utensils), customs (how to greet, kiss on both cheeks or one, shake hands), language (ugh, don’t get me started), everything! And then there is school. I’m teaching history, which I’ve never taught before, so I am relearning things I learned years ago. Also, teaching students skills like MLA formatting and in-text citations requires me to go back and relearn the old rules or learn the rules they have changed since I’ve last had to cite references in my papers. And then there are sports: volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, and soccer. None of which I had any extensive experience in before I came here. Add to all that the reading we are required to do for certification with our accrediting agency, and then you can add student names (I’ve got most of those down by now), student’s siblings names, student’s problems at home, their struggles, their hopes their fears, etc.
Thankfully, instead of being bogged down with all of this, my brain has turned into this super sponge. Maybe not super in the amount of knowledge it is able to hold, but super in its thirst for more! Tonight we had a two-hour Creole lesson with a tutor and I found myself eager and excited to start and halfway through the time seemed to be going by too fast! We will have ten sessions like this in the next 2 ½ weeks, so ask me how I feel in a few days…
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