English Class and other ramblings...

Today was a great day!  One of the jobs that I have been doing for Hope on a String is organizing their data.  They have a lot of information about their participants, but it wasn't all organized, formatted, and culled through for errors, duplications, etc.  I have been working on inputting all of their participants' information, which includes personal information such as where they live, their birthdate, etc., and information from surveys that they completed.  On the surveys, they are asked questions such as, "How do you earn money?" "Do the children in your household go to school?" "What is one of your life goals?"  Because Hope on a String's staff is not yet completely computer literate, nor is there enough time or people to input and cull through all of the information, this task has been put on the back-burner.  I was happy to accept this task, and it takes up a lot of my mornings.  This morning, I worked on it even more.  Hopefully, by the time I leave, HoaS will have an organized, cohesive, user-friendly, error-free, compilation of data that will be useful and informative!

This afternoon, I had a great English class (or at least I felt that it went well).  We started with vocabulary building.  I taught them 12 important verbs and we used them in full sentences so we could practice their conjugations.  Then, I taught about prefixes and suffixed to help them break down a word they might not understand.  While this was tricky for me to explain, they definitely understood it by the end of the class.  When I was teaching the prefix "re", someone said resort as an example.  So then I had to explain myself even further - it tested my ability to do so in simple English and simple Kreyol, but I managed to do it!  Whew!  We played games to help us practice our new vocabulary - in fact, I played a game with them that I often play with my third graders at Saint David's.  One person stands in front of the class, with his back to the chalkboard.  The rest of the class secretly chooses a word and it is their job to describe the meaning of the word, without using the actual word, so the person can guess it. This helps build not only meaning for students but also word associations and gives them a deeper understanding of the words and the multiple meanings it could have.  

Next, we practiced our pronunciation.  I prepared a silly game.  I typed up Dr. Seuss' book, Fox in Socks.  I gave each person about 3 sentences from the book to read, practice saying, and then we recited it all in sequence.  People got a big kick out of it.  Here are a few examples of what people tried to pronounce:  "And here's a new trick, Mr. Knox.  Socks on chicks and chicks on fox.  Fox on clocks on bricks and blocks.  Bricks and blocks on Knox on box." "Now we come to ticks and tocks, sir.  Try to say this Mr. Knox, sir.  Clocks on fox tick.  Clocks on Knox tock.  Six sick bricks tick.  Six sick chicks tock." "Please, sir.  I don't like this trick, sir.  My tongue isn't quick or slick, sir.  I get all those ticks and clocks, sir, mixed up with the chicks and tocks, sir.  I can't do it, Mr. Fox, sir."  It was awesome!

Then, I watched a soccer game on the field nearby - it was between Pi Love (a group from Corail) and Mawòch.  While I was watching, a bunch of kids who know me came to hang out with me-kids from HoaS, from my singing class, or just from the neighborhood who recognized me.  I also spent some time talking with some of my older English students.  I hung out mostly with Mialove (my favorite).  She was all dressed up, in a dress that I haven't seen but which was a bit too small for her.  She was also wearing new (second-hand) shoes, which she told me were bought last weekend at the market.  Mialove told me that she wants to come to New York and live with Bennett and me, and that she will cry in 12 days when I have to leave.  Breaks my heart.  A lot of people asked where Bennett was, when he was returning, and that they miss him.  I was happy to be able to say that he is coming on Monday!

I hope all of you had a great day too!
















PS.  On my way to the fields, a gentleman asked me to take a picture of him and his cow.  Here they are!