This week was really fun...we taught at a summer camp in Petit Village. The camp lasts 8 weeks I think and this week we were the leaders of the camp. There were about 75 kids total at the camp ranging from age 5 to 20.
So each day at camp began with singing. I've learned some really catchy Haitian songs and now as we walk we sing these songs :) Then the kids usually were put into three groups and Julie, Julia, and I would each lead a different group. Julia taught the kids English and played games like Simon says with them. Julie taught ballet and played different dancing games with the kids. I kind of did a mixture of different things throughout the week...it wasn't exactly organized, but it sure was exciting!
On the first two days, I taught the kids a little bit of Indian dance. I thought they would like learning a little bit of Raas so some of us at clinic found about 40 sticks total that resembled dandiya. We gathered fallen tree branches, plant stems, and any random sticks we would find while walking. After taking off the thorns I'd say we had pretty sturdy dandiya...they weren't colorful or anything but they served their purpose. It was fun teaching the kids Raas and they got the basic steps of it. The main problem though was moving to the next partner...that didn't work so well and we didn't have any music to keep the beat. But it was still really cute to watch them :)
Teaching the kids Raas!
The third day I had a plan to play different games with the kids such as "red light, green light" but my group ended up having all boys ages 15-20. I don't really think they would have enjoyed "red light, green light" so we ended up deciding to play soccer. However, there were two problems. First of all, there was a ball but no field or goals. The boys fixed that easily...we used a large half dirt/half grass open area for the field and used two concrete blocks as the two goals. I actually think the blocks were from a house nearby that had fallen during the earthquake. To score a goal the ball had to hit the block. Thats how most people in Haiti play soccer...you have to hit a block instead of making the ball go between two posts...it makes it much harder when you have to hit the block! So the second problem was that all of the boys were dressed in pretty nice pants and collared shirts. I was wondering how they were going to play in those clothes. But as soon as we got onto the field all of them took off their pants and shirts and guess what? Underneath they were all wearing soccer clothes! I think they are always prepared to play soccer :) Unlike the boys, I wasn't really prepared to play with my skirt and shirt, but at least I had shoes on! As we started playing soccer though, we ran into another problem...I couldnt tell my teammates apart from the other team! I passed it to the other team twice thinking they were on my team. They fixed that problem too by making it shirts versus shirtless. It was really fun playing soccer...I havent played in so long! The boys were all really good...watch, Haiti is gonna make it to the World Cup soon!
Me with two of the kids from the camp :)
Day 4 I taught a little English because Julia wasn't feeling well, but soon I was getting bored and I could tell the kids would much rather be running around. So we played "red light, green light". This time I had 6-8 year olds in my group so they loved "red light, green light". In Creole its called "limaye wouj, limaye ve". Eunide, our translator, was the policeman, I was the traffic light, and all the kids were the drivers. They were all quite reckless drivers...each round almost all of them were caught by Eunide for moving on a red light!
The last day the kids did a little talent show and there were games like musical chairs and tug-o-war. They played latin music and first the older kids danced salsa and kompa and then all the 5 and 6 year olds were paired up to dance kompa! I am going to miss the kids...I had a lot of fun with them. What I really admired about this summer camp was how little supplies there were...2 chalkboards, a covered area, and a couple of balls...and yet how much the camp leaders and eventually we could come up with to do!
All the kids at the camp on our last day. Standing up in the back row we are with some of the teachers from the camp and Robinson, one of our translators.
The first day of the hike! We started in Furcy which is at about 3000 ft above sea level and we hiked up to Seguin which is at 6000 ft above sea level. The picture above shows the beginning of our trail. It took us about 6 hours to hike up to Seguin. We were all huffing and puffing while climbing the hills while Haitian women were carrying baskets of vegetables on their hands and climbing barefoot. But to give us some credit, we did have to hike with all the stuff we needed for the 4 day trip. The hike was absolutely beautiful though and it was really nice to see the rural communities of Haiti.
Some of the rural houses we saw on our hike!
At the cottage we stayed in for two nights. It was a very lovely little cottage surrounded by apricot trees and fields of all different kinds of plants. There were horses, dogs, chickens, and more around. In Seguin it was pretty cold because it is so high up so the best part was that we were served steaming hot mint tea several times during the day...it was so relaxing sitting in the cottage, listening to the rain, and sipping the tea!
The cascades in Seguin. We stayed near this beautiful national park in Seguin. Winnie, the owner of the cottage we stayed at, is responsible for preserving a lot of the biodiversity in Seguin. In Seguin, it felt as if we were on a tropical island.
The 5 hour hike down the mountain from Seguin (6000 feet) to Jacmel (sea level). The views were beautiful but the hike was really tough because it was all downhill on uneven rocks that were slippery from recent rains. I was way more sore after the downhill hike compared to the uphill hike!
The 5 hour hike down the mountain from Seguin (6000 feet) to Jacmel (sea level). The views were beautiful but the hike was really tough because it was all downhill on uneven rocks that were slippery from recent rains. I was way more sore after the downhill hike compared to the uphill hike!
