Schlepping to Seguin with Several Seniors

(did you like my attempt at alliteration...nice huh?)

Striking a pose on the hike back home.

Weekend before last 6 teachers (myself included) and all 23 members of the QCS Senior class participated in the annual senior hike up to Seguin. This was the same hike that a few of us participated in over Spring Break....with a few differences.

Fun girls!

Difference one: distance. When we did our hike, the tap tap that took us to the start of the trail dropped us off a teensy bit early....about 6-8 miles early. Also, on this trip we were stopping in Seguin, not continuing on to Jacmel. This made all the difference in out attitude and our feet. (I chose to wear tennis shoes instead of my trusty Chacos which also made quite the difference).

Katie and I along the trail!

Difference two: luggage. Spring Break hike = we had to take everything with us. Everything. Tent/hammock, food, water, clothes, all on our backs. Senior Hike: instead of camping in the woods, we were staying at a cabin; a marvelous cabin where they set up tents for us, provided us with ample drinking water, cooked all our meals for us. Without sleeping gear, cooking stuff, and food on our backs our packs were much much lighter than the other trip.

Difference three: Rain. Lots. And. Lots. Of. Rain. About halfway up the mountain on the way up the skies opened up and a rain of apocalyptic proportions fell down upon us for the next 2-3 hours. Our group of 29 was scattered over a couple of miles along the trail. Some students took shelter under moto stands or abandoned buildings while others had to suffer the relentless rain while walking along the trail.

We sought shelter from the rain in an old, abandoned building.

Difference four: no camping...well, different camping. We slept in tents, but that was the extent of the "camping." An interesting man named Winnie has a cabin settled on the outskirts of the Pine Forest near Seguin. His cabin has a dining area, kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a cute living area and a large yard perfect for setting up several tents.

The first afternoon as students were trickling into the cabin area, drenched with rain and shivering from the cold (yes, cold, in Haiti. It was quite chilly up in the mountains all weekend. I loved it!), our hosts were grilling up chicken that smelled as if it was sent down from heaven. We spent the evening talking, laughing, warming up, and having fun. The next day our group walked to a waterfall near by and explored for a bit before being chased back to the cabin by the rain that came down.

We played games in the woods on our way to the waterfall. 

A group followed the little river to find some more falls.

On Sunday our group rose early, dined on a delicious and carb-filled breakfast of spaghetti (seriously) and headed back down the mountain. Racing the rain, our pace was much quicker than on the way up to Seguin. The trail was mostly downhill with the exception of a few very nasty, very steep mountains. We arrived back at our starting point and waited on the vans to pick us up. Sore, dirty, and successful in our hike. I was glad to have the chance to get to know these students better and to revisit such a beautiful part of Haiti.

The QCS Senior class of 2012!

Thoughts from Discipleship Group

In Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz, there is a scene where Donald and several of his friends did something odd on their college campus in Seattle. The set up a “Christiany” booth on campus during a night known for debauchery and drunkenness. When other students heard about their project they thought it was the typical Christian “evangetable” where you can pick up a tract and some self-righteous judgement all in one stop, but their project was different. At their booth, someone from outside would come in and, instead of receiving judgement or condemnation inside, they would receive an apology from a Christian. An apology from someone they didn’t know for something that person didn’t do, but it was an apology for all the garbage (I have no other word for it) that Christians do while wearing the banner of Christ. I don’t mean just the crusades and witch hunts, but the present day garbage, and we have a lot of it. 

Something happened yesterday in my regular old school day that reminded me of this scene in Blue Like Jazz. Yesterday I met with my discipleship group which now consists of two girls who, quote frankly, don’t want to be discipled. They don’t call themselves Christians and don’t want anything to do with Christianity. They go to QCS, they sit in chapel, they do their bible class homework, but they don’t want more “Jesus” than they already have to sit through. 

And yesterday, I found out why.

Christians.

That word is so amorphous. So undefined. So blurry. 

When asked to describe what a Christian is, these girls gave responses like this….

Judgmental.

Two-faced.

Not fun.

One way at chapel, another behind your back.

Judgmental.

Can’t watch certain movies or listen to certain music.

Self-Righteous.

Boring.

Judgmental.

“I want to be closer to God, but I don’t want to be a Christian.”

What do you do with a statement like that? And I can’t completely disagree with her. When I think about some things Christians (myself included) do, some thing in the name of Jesus, I don’t want any part of that. I don’t mean the big things either, I mean the small and seemingly insignificant actions. 

The gossip and language.

The judgmental comments.

The self-righteous piety.

I read a post someone had shared on Facebook that communicated this sort of thing very well. Here it is. 

How can we as Christians reverse these ideas and these stereotypes of Christianity? I think we do that by just changing the direction we point our fingers. For so long we’ve pointed our fingers at others; the murderer, the druggie, the whore, the thief. I don’t think we just switch the direction and point them back at us; the gossip, the prideful, the pious, the judgmental. I think we point to Christ. We are all messed up beyond all reason. We are all so full of junk it’s unbearable. But that’s why he came. 

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

We are all sick. We are all sinners. We all need him. And I think that’s what I want my students to realize. 

As our time in discipleship group closed I challenged the girls this week, everywhere they heard about Jesus, to not shut down and close their ears. Instead, I asked them to shut out every Christian they had ever known before, good or bad. I asked them to focus on Christ, not Christians. We’ll see. 

“I like you Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I pray today I can be more like Christ. 

A Photo Diary of Recent Happenings

Visiting the TeacHaiti school over Thanksgiving.

There is an orphanage next to the TeacHaiti school so we went over and played with these fabulous children that afternoon. Sweet girls.

 

This is how I spent my Black Friday.

Our trusty old friend the Jin Bei van. This old guy needs a little help sometimes.

Thursday during Spirit Week was "Twin Day." Here are two of my fantastic 7th graders.

We had our Christmas Bazaar last weekend. Many local vendors came out and displayed their wares. This is a great organization!

Our soccer team (in Black uniforms) playing against our rival school, Union (white uniforms) at Union School.

  

Teacher vs. Students Flag Football game.



Christians Can't Rap

I know as much about rap as any freakishly white, curly haired, freckled girl from a small town in Texas that can best be described as “po-dunk” should. That sentence, despite its, I’m sure grammatical incorrectness, should be read: “I don’t know anything about rap.” I don’t know what makes some “good” and some “bad.” I also think it depends on how you define “bad.” Maybe you think the “artist” should have cursed more and talked less about drugs, or vice versa. Maybe you measure the quality of a rap song by how many times the word “booty” is used. I don’t know. I know that I don’t really like listening to rap, but it sure is good to work out too. If you find a good beat it can make the difference in a long, boring run, especially if you are on a treadmill. However, to enjoy the beat you usually have to fill your mind with useless crap. As my dad always said, “You can’t spell CRAP without RAP.”

That is why I love Tedashii. If you have never heard of Tedashii you tube him now. He performed at our church a year or two ago and in the middle of thinking “some of these old people are going to fall over dead from shock” I fell in love with what he was doing. Like I said, I don’t know much about rap, but this seemed good…and it was Christian! And he didn’t just give God a random shout out here and there. It was as if he took a few sermon series and put them to music.

Last week I was taking a couple of the PE classes into our fitness room for class. While it is nice to have a fitness room, it feels kind of like a dungeon in there. Fluorescent lights, white walls, cold tile, you get the picture. We tried to make the room seem less prison-like by having music, but if I had to listen to Adele sing about how she is going to find “someone like you” again, I was going to pull my hair out. So, knowing that the majority of the girls enjoy rap music but knew better than to suggest listening to it in class, I bought Tedashii’s CD off of iTunes. When I turned on Tedashii’s jams,  the girls looked like they liked it but also looked a bit confused.

“Miss, who is this?” I told her his name and that he is a Christian rapper.

“Miss, Christians can’t rap.”

I think I had a sarcastic response that was something like “sounds like they can” but it sounded less mean than that. We listened to the music and I translated some of the lyrics (no one understands a rap song the first time they hear it), and they really enjoyed it.

I learned two lessons that day. 1) Tedashii does what he does with excellence (again, excellence from my opinion).  You can be a rapper, teacher, lawyer, student, baker, painter, construction worker, doctor, janitor, assistant, CEO, anything and do it with excellence, as you should. Colossians 3:23 baby, and Tedashii gets it. He has a great beat and music matched with lyrics that are truth all the way around.

2) I want my students to learn that, yes, there are certain things that Christians don’t do (or at least, shouldn’t do), but more than that I want them to learn that Christians should be more about what we do do.  That Christ is glorified when we abstain from the things he told us to stay away from (for our own good) and when we use the talents he gave us to glorify him.

Now go and youtube Tedashii ( I like the songs “Thank You” and “Make War”)

First Volleyball Match

I am very familiar with how high school, extra-curricular sporting events work. Very familiar. I have been going on busses to away basketball games since before I can remember. As the daughter or a coach, I went to lots of away games and many times we rode the bus with the team to get to the games. I know how games work in the states, I know the UIL rules, all that jazz. I did not know how games here in Haiti would work, but I do now (or at least I know how the one we had yesterday worked). Let me highlight some differences.

After giving the girls their uniforms and getting everyone together on time (well, sort of on time), we headed to the bus…well, the truck. All the girls piled into what we lovingly refer to as “the cage truck,” because that is basically what it is. A white truck that has the back covered and there are benches you can sit on. It gets you where you need to go, but no way would this fly in the states as a vehicle to transport children in. Also, none of the parents had to sign permission slips for their girls to leave the school in a vehicle driven by a teacher. I love it!

After piling in the truck, the driver turned the key and….nothing. He called the mechanic over, he banged a bit under the truck and it started. Off we went. We drove through the streets of Port au Prince which is always an experience. If ever I forget where I live, all I need to do is wander around the streets a bit and it comes back quickly.

We arrived at the school which has a very beautiful campus, and went in search of the court. We found it and began warming up. Eventually the other team arrived and began warming up as well. When the time came to actually begin the match, the other coach asked for one of our coaches to be a referee. What? Yeah. No official ref paid for this game. One ref from each team.

The girls played very very well! They were up against a tough team of girls who have played together since middle school and have practice almost every day. Our girls were competitive and kept them on their toes, I was so proud!

After the game some girls left with their parents or boyfriends and the rest of us piled back in the cage truck and entered the afternoon traffic to return to school.

Maybe someone else wouldn’t be as confused or interested in the differences between this game and one in the states. I guess growing up around basketball and away games and UIL rules and all that, you notice the differences a little more. Altogether it was a great experience and a great day for the girls to show how much work they have put in and how far they have come in such a short time. Go Lady Eagles!!

Volleyball

Outside of little kid city league volleyball, I can count on one hand the number of times I have played volleyball. And now, here in Haiti I find myself part of coaching our school’s volleyball team! Thankfully, I am only assisting. There is a much more qualified individual here who is in charge of the actual coaching of the team. My role is more to help with the fitness and conditioning aspect (much more up my alley) and to be an extra set of hands and eyes. I never thought that this was something I would do. Despite growing up as a coach’s kid, I never saw myself as a coach, but I am really enjoying being a part of this team. We have had over 20 girls come out and bust their butts the last few weeks and tonight we are choosing the final members of the team! Wish us luck!

Family Fun at QCS

This Saturday we had our Family BBQ at Quisqueya. Families came up to campus on a Saturday to eat, talk, and play. It was good to meet some of the families I hadn’t gotten the chance to meet yet. It was a great day with beautiful weather filled with hot dogs, hamburgers, cotton candy, basketball and volleyball.

Some staff members solving all of the world's problems.

Tetherball: the second-most popular game at QCS.

Jill & Tiffany: elementary teachers extraordinaire!

The field was a little too wet at the edges for a soccer game, but volleyball in the dry, middle of the field was a big hit.

A couple of elementary students playing near the basketball court.

Watchin' the game, having a Coke.

There were also very talented face painters. They made this cute boy look crazy scary!

Sweet high school girls!

First Day of School!

I’ve heard from many teachers that the first day of a school year never gets any easier. They say that even if you have been teaching for 29 years, out of all of those days, you’ve only had 29 “first-days” of school. This first day was umpteen times easier than last year, but for several reasons. 1) I have a year of school under my belt, not a lot, but more experience than I had this time last year. 2) It was only a half day of school 3) unlike last year where I was teaching third grade and had my class most of the day, this year I am teaching middle school. I have groups for 55 minutes at a time with a few breaks in between.

I am a big fan of starting the year with a half day. We started off our day by mingling with the kids dropped off at the school then, around 7:50 everyone headed over to the basketball court for an assembly. We sang some songs, had a small devotional, introduced the staff and then released everyone to start their day. We did 30 minute slots and the grade levels traveled together to the teachers they were going to have. I had my 7^th and 8^th grade history classes come to me. I gave them my spiel about rules and expectations and what they can expect in the class this year. I tried to learn names but was unsuccessful. I had several tricky names in my class last year and I now see that was prepping for the names in my class this year. I only mispronounced a few, score!

The school-day ended around noon and then the teachers ate lunch and went back to work in their rooms. Today was a great way to gently ease into the school year. Full day of school tomorrow though, the fun really begins!

Classroom is (mostly) ready!

I think this is about as ready as my classroom is going to get. It went from a big pile of dusty furniture to a room that I think learning can take place in...

View  from my desk. Like the super sweet globe from 1962 that I scrounged from a pile of dust and old books?
I LOVE all of the windows!

View from the back corner of the room.
Our school colors are purple and yellow, I didn't suddenly become an LSU fan.



View of the street (Delmas 75) from my classroom window.

Quisqueya Teacher/Life in Haiti Orientation: Day 1

Today officially began work! It feels good to start my day with more of a purpose instead of aimless wandering around the school. We started orientation with coffee, pastries, and introductions. It was so fun to hear everyone’s stories from around the room. When I was telling people back in the U.S. what I was going to be doing I got some weird looks, because it isn’t “normal.” Here, it’s normal. People who have been here for 3 years, 7 years, 13 years, 25 years!

We did the regular old orientation thing: talked about goals for the year, handbook kind of stuff, blah blah. We tried to watch a video but the sound didn’t work so we got a little extra time to work in our rooms. I finally got to see which room I have and yay! It’s so big! All the furniture was piled in the middle of the room under dust and more dust. But, after two hours of sweating, sneezing, and way more sweating I got all of the furniture where I wanted it and did some minor (very very minor) decorating. It’s not 100% ready to go, but it is close. Way easier than last year where I was scrambling to decorate my 3^rd grade classroom in cute polka dots and signs and posters and borders and bulletin boards, etc. I have two dry erase boards but no bulletin boards. If I want to hang something on the wall, I was told the best way to do that is to superglue it…hmmmm. Not sure that would fly at my old school J

We ate lunch at the school and then elementary and secondary split into two different meetings to cover more general information. A lot of questions I didn’t even know I had were answered.

This afternoon I went running around the school again with another new teacher, Jill. Later I attempted to cook spaghetti noodles and some chicken (confession: I had to google how to use a gas stove because I was scared of blowing up the entire house). I had to borrow matches from my neighbors and when I went to return them they told me to bring my food and eat over with them. We had about 6 people total eating together, talking, laughing, discussing the day. This is a good time to say that I love LOVE where I am living. It is so great to be a 90 second walk from my classroom, 10 second walk from my “gym”, and about a 5 second walk from my neighbors.

Orientation day 2 tomorrow!

P.S. I will take pictures of my classroom when it is fully ready for little minds to learn it...we aren't quite there yet.