Finally today I saw some children. Terrific little willing workers. The school has had the building that was blown away in the hurricane of 2004 rebuilt, so there is some more space. There is a nice library now. When the 2 volunteers arrived 3 weeks ago nothing had been unpacked since the hurricane. Yes, books and teaching materials were all still in damp boxes alongside boxes of brand new materials and books. They did the mammoth job of unpacking, sorting, discarding, arranging on the shelves thousands of books. Just a note to those who think they would like to donate school books, library books and teaching materials to "disadvantaged" countries..do your research first. Certainly St. John's School in Dominica does not need anymore school library books. The school is very well stocked with children's lit.
I am going to have a lot to say about the school system here. My present oberservation is that it is about 40 to 50 years behind the time.
Then, this afternoon I went over to C.A.L.L.S. and volunteered one afternoon a week (to start). Right away they set me up with a 15 year old girl from Haiti who speaks no English or French - only Creole - so I will see her for a couple of hours a week and try to teach her some basic English. I'll probably do more there. By the way, her lovely name is Lovely! ESL is becoming an issue, there are several Haitian children in St. John's who don't speak any English and who don't read and write in their own language.
I was astonished when I went into CALLS this afternoon to be recognized by the director and her assistant and welcomed like a family member! Great. This has happened several times and I am always knocked out!
I wish I could get some photos up on this page, but that'll have to wait until I get home.
More later.
1 comment:
Marian! It's great to hear about your adventures. I have no doubt that you are being a blessing to everyone you work with. We have the same taste in blog templates, it seems...! http://tafs-army-adventures.blogspot.com/
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