Karma

I have been struggling with what to write about lately in Haiti. Because life has become more ‘normal’ so I sometimes lose sight of the things that are different or I think that I have already wrote about it. Today I went down to Jacmel to run some errands and got on facebook for a moment. I saw a cute little cartoon that was about Karma. Sometimes we don’t really know how our actions will affect us for our future.

As we were coming back up the mountain my driver, Papi, picked up an old man on the side of the road that was walking to his destination. He picked him up just to be nice and it got me started thinking about that idea of karma. I see people walking all the time and often wonder; why, don’t we just pick some of them up. But you can’t because people pay a ‘taxi’ driver to go up the mountain; if you don’t have the money you walk. As we were driving I reminded Papi that we had to buy a chicken to replace the chicken my cat ate. My cat has ate a couple chickens but this last time he got caught by the neighbors, so I knew I had to replace it.

The old man we picked up was going to the market. I couldn’t believe the distance he was going to walk. As we parked the motorcycle, Papi talked to the old man about buying the chicken in the market. I don’t shop in the market because often when my white skin is shown the price goes up. The man was more than happy to go buy the chicken. We waited at the end of the market where all the motorcycles sit. Papi bought some peanuts for us while we waited and I enjoyed people watching. As we were sitting there – it dawned on me we were going to have to get this chicken home. So I ask Papi –he was a bit confused; but realized when the chicken came and I had not the slightest idea what to do with it. He handed it to me and hesitantly held it and jumped on the moto.

Upon arriving at the house, I of coarse had to have a photo taken as this was the first chicken I had ever carried home that was alive. I was also very proud that I had handled this situation with my cat eating the neighbors chicken. The family yelled for the neighbors when we arrived, to come over. The lady of the house came over with the baby and I showed her the chicken. But she was shaking her head and saying no, no, she could not accept it. I was confused and a bit hurt. I had felt bad about the chicken and this would make it right. Eugenie and Papi tried to explain to me that she couldn’t accept because we are neighbors and we watch her son all the time. I understood all that, but still fair is fair.

So now I have a chicken. And a cat tied up in the house. The cat ate another 3 chickens yesterday. The neighbor said I just needed to eat him and get another one, simple as that. I am torn as to what to do this is not an outdoor cat with no name; this is Marco and he sleeps in my bed. But fair might have to be fair and I am going to have to get rid of my cat.

This really started out about Karma. We gave the old man a ride, he bought the chicken, I bought the chicken because my cat ate the chicken. The neighbor couldn’t accept because we watch her son.

So I had an egg this morning….and my cat was moved (I pray) to another zone.  Nothing to do with Karma … oh wait. I guess it is Marco’s karma. 

Fear and Challenges

I read of on a friend of mine’s Facebook status one day in passing. “Do something every day that scares you.” He was talking about how he had been fighting cancer and the scariness of that. Having that fear of not knowing if he had tomorrow taught him to appreciate what he had more. But after he was in remission, he realized it was this really this sense of fear that taught him to live more fully.

Another fear - crossing the river when the water is over the bridge!  As you can see the motorcyles aren't going so people walk across or they pay someone to carry you on their back.  I just pray I am in a truck.

This idea runs through my head often as I live in Haiti; especially when I am flying down the mountains on a motorcycle. Every time it scares me I am always thinking what if a large truck meets us on the road or the rocks or slick and so on. Lately I have diving into teaching. I never imagined myself as a teacher; I never had any intentions of being a teacher. But I am working in Education here; Education is what people need to change their futures. I have observed many times the various classroom dynamics here. I have watched teachers both at our Primary School and our English teachers with Living Media. The teaching process in Haiti is memorization. The teacher puts the words on the board and the students copy them down. Then they memorize, the same with their lesson books they sit and read the books like a chant memorizing every word. It is definitely a different style to learning then I am used to. But it works, but does not necessarily promote creative thinking.

Lee and I were discussing this one time and came up with the perfect analogy. It is like when we put the desks together at the school and the children helped. Brent Olson showed them how to put one together and it was like the kids had logged it into memory how to do it. They put together the others very past and Brent even thought faster then they put them together in the States. They watched it once and had it. I have heard many people say this about Haitians – It is amazing how fast they learn something. They watched us and then they did it. But I think if you just set those pieces of wood in front of them I am not sure they could have guessed how to put them together. However if you showed an American how to do it, I think it would take longer to pick up. It would have for me at least a couple times of working with someone else and then I could probably learn it. However, if you left the desk there for an American to figure out – eventually they would get it and put creative thinking to use to assemble it. I remember this same illustration when I came to Haiti with the Solar Oven Partners. It took me several, several times of showing me how to put these ovens together. But my Haitian brothers and sisters they would watch someone do it – and then they had it. Often times correcting me in the way I was putting it together. It is just different styles of learning.

Anyway – what does this have to do with fear? I want to figure out how to teach my Haitian students more effectively. And I realized that scares me this idea of trying to figure out how to teach and, also wanting to give some of the teachers some tools to also interject some creativity and critical thinking. Almost every day I have been ‘breaking the rules’ I have put my students in a circle in the classroom instead of rows. And the day we did numbers I didn’t even write anything on the board – we just practiced saying the numbers with each other. The student themselves look fearful at this thought of ‘changing the rules’ of learning. But after awhile I see them having fun and learning and enjoying. Without a little fear I am not sure you can continue to grow – so challenge yourself. Step out and scare yourself a little or maybe even a lot.