Forcing Bendjino to smile hahaha

Love my sweet Christopher soo much.

Today we had our last day of school before Easter break. I had an awesome day.We made bunny rabbit ear hats and had an Easter egg hunt. They had so much fun but it was very quick, it probably lasted 5 minutes haha. They each got to find 4 eggs. One of my really smart students Laurentz said to me, "Miss Sarah, I know how many eggs there are. And I said "how many?" And he said "112". Which is correct because I have 28 students and 28 times 4 is 112. And I was like "Laurentz did you do that math in your head??" And he was like "Yup". I dont think I could even add that in my head, I only knew because I had looked it up on the calculator the other day when I was counting my eggs. Haha. He's so smart. And sweet. And a little crazy. I love him. 

Then afterschool I went to Junior's house because his mom invited me. I had so much fun. I already know one of his sisters, who is my age, and I got to meet his other sister who is like 19 or 20 maybe and she lives in the Dominican Republic and studies medicine at a school there. She is fluent in 4 languages, Kreyol, English, French, and Spanish. But she said she wants to learn more! She said her Dad knows 7 languages, and wants to know more than him haha. She was telling me all these crazy stories. They were awesome and terrifying to hear. Like she had to get a shot in her eyeball before for something, like I never knew that could even happen. And she talked about a guy getting his knee cap popped back into place. And like how they found the cause of death of this body they examined in their medical class. But she was so interested in it, while her sister and I were like grossed out with that kind of stuff. I loved how passionate she was about what she was doing. It was really cool. And her sister and her made me lasagna, which like is crazy because there is almost no cheese here, to get cheese for it you have to go to the total gas station and it has it, but it's expensive. So I cant believe they made that for me. It was soo good. I had such a nice time meeting Junior' other sister. His sisters and I were laughing and talking for probably 2 hours haha, it was nice. :) And Junior was in there too showing me games on a little tablet he got. 

And the reason I came to their house today was because I went to their house last Thursday and only stayed for an hour, and that wasn't long enough for Junior and he cried in the car when they dropped me off at home, so they were like its okay Junior we will invite Miss Sarah for lunch next week. Haha. And they wanted me to come so I could meet his older sister too. 

Also we have been going to the House of Hope almost every week for like the last month or 2. Samantha and I have been taking the visitors there and it has been so much fun. I absolutely love visiting there. The kids are so sweet and special to me. The last time we visited was the funnest yet, they started playing Kompa off a speaker and had a little dance party, it was hilarious and adorable. Especially seeing this 2 year old boy I think his name is Meeks? Maybe. But he was one who I met when I visited in 2014, and he was a tiny tiny baby. He is still small, But he can walk, And he can dance! It was so cute to watch him dance with the other kids, That was so much! They also sang worship songs while we were there too, I loved it. 

Another day that sticks out to me, is a week or two ago I went over to Ketsia's house. Because her Mom is sick, so some teachers donated money to pay for the rest of their schooling because they couldnt afford it after all the medical stuff for their mom. So I walked over to their house to bring them the money with Bonard, her sweet brother in 6th grade. He is sooo sweeet. And while I was there we played uno. They both never played it before so I taught them how. We also played marbles. Bonard and I played it and he was so sweet, like I was pretty bad at flicking the marble right at first and I said something like, Oh my goodness I'm so bad, and he'd say "No, Miss Sarah, you are doing really good" Hahaha. It was sweet, But he beat me haha. And then I painted Ketsias nails. It was the first time she had her nails painted. And then Ketsia and I were on a team against Bonard in checkers and Bonard was like bragging about how no one has ever beat him in checkers. But we played 2 games. The first game Bonard won and the 2nd game Ketsia and I defeated the champion Bonard haha. :) Then Ketsia tried to teach me how to dance. It was hilarious. She said I was good (I was not at allll). And it was also so nice to see her Mom. She actually sat with us and watched us play and laughed. And then went to take a nap. I love her mom so much. She is a very sweet lady. Please pray for her and their whole family. I know its been really hard on them all. 

Today was so much fun. The Juniors and Seniors had a soccer game against each other in the backyard of the school, where we have recess. It was awesome. The tickets were very cheap (2 Haitian dollars) so a ton of kids showed up. I had so much fun. They had a big speaker playing music and Mr. Harry, the French teacher for the younger grades was dancing with all the kids. Like he was doing dance moves and they all copied what he did, it was sooooo hilarious oh my goodness. I'm so happy he is my kids French teacher, he's awesome with kids.

Above is Marvens and I, he is Amber's kid. :) And he is sooo adorable. I love him so much.

It was so fun seeing all my kids there, out of their school clothes. They all had so much fun. They tried to get me to dance with them hahaha. And one of them wanted to take a picture of me, and so I was smiling, and for literally half a second I made  a really silly, unattractive looking face, then went back to smiling normally, and of course they took the picture when I made the silly face. It was so funny.


Also, side note, Laurentz, my smartest genius second grader is so hilairious. The other day I said "Laurentz, you're always ahead!" and he replied, "I'm not a head, I have feet" hahaha, only Laurentz. And then today he said "Miss Sarah, do you know how many hours there are in a year?" and I said " I don't know, do you?" and he said "8,760" That boy. He is hilarious, clever, and so smart. I adore him.

Last Saturday I went to the House of Hope again with Samantha, Kimley, and Andjy. I went on my first real tap tap ride. (A tap tap is what we call a pick up truck here, because how it works is a bunch of people pile in the back and then they drive down the main road and you "tap", but really bang, the side of the truck when you get to your destination, so the driver knows to stop.) So we took motos to where the tap taps are and then you pay 5 dollars (like 35 cents, to ride in) and they fit a lot of people in there haha like a lot of people, you are squashed the whole way. And then at the House of Hope we made bracelets out of pipe cleaners with the kids and Samantha played uno with some of the older ones. It was really fun, I always love going there. We plan to go more often and build better relationships with the people there. :)

At school today, during snack, Wawens grabbed my hands and started dancing with me hahaha, because we listen to worship music during snack time, it was funny and cute.

The other day I took my bible study girls to the house of hope again. It was awesome, I so love going there. The day before we went we made a 100+ cookies at my house because there are 100 people working there/kids there. So we brought all that. And I just loved sitting on the ground holding precious babies. There was a little girl, maybe 2 or 3, who just came up to me and gave me a hug and sat in my lap, it was so sweet. And I brought nail polish and we all painted the girls' nails. It was really nice and fun to just play with the kids :)

Yesterday Wawens (the cutest little boy on planet earth, in my class) wrote in his journal that his teacher is his best friend haha, it was cute.

Also the other day we passed out bags to my class that had oreo cookies in them, and the kids saw that I didn't have a bag and a few of them gave me their cookie to have, it was so so sweet. Especially because oreos are like a real treat to them because they don't have them here. And I would tell them, no it's okay you should have it, and they'd say Miss Sarah I want you to have it, it was cute and really sweet.

Today afterschool I got a fresh coconut off a tree from Kimley's family, it was sooooo good and sweet and yummy. :) Witchy cut it off the tree for me. :)

Sorry I haven't updated you all in awhile... I have a lot to catch you up on. :)

When I first got back to Haiti after break we had quite the trip here. First my flight got cancelled because it overlayed in Fortlauderdal and all the flights there got cancelled because of the shooting. So I left a day late, but so did a few other teachers as well, I was able to meet with Samantha in the Fortlauderdale  airport the next day. I was so happy to see her. We spent the night in the airport, I was able to sleep for 2 hours which I was glad I could sleep at all. And then we got into our next flight to Haiti, when we got to Haiti we stayed at this amazing hotel called Karibe. It's beautiful. Then the next morning we were supposed to fly to Port-de-Paix and we actually got into the plane but there was bad weather so after flying halfway there in our little 10 seater plane we had to turn around. And then Amber, another teacher at Sonlight who stayed in Haiti over break, was amazing and helped us get a car to come to Port-de-Paix in. Before we left we were able to go to a grocery store in Port-au-Prince and buy cereal! Which was exciting because there aren't really any grocery stores in Port-de-Paix. And there was also a small restaurant where I ordered a cheese pizza, and I thought they just sold it by the slice so I just said "Cheese pizza", but you can actually buy whole pizzas there too so I accidentally bought a whole pizza hahaha. It was so good though and I was able to share it with our driver and Wilbur (A guy Amber is friends with who helped us get our car and everything) so it was good I ended up buying a whole pizza haha. Then we finally go there, this was Monday night, we got Tuesday as a work day so we didn't have to teach immediately after returning. On Tuesday Mme Johnny, one of my aides came in to help me and during the day I went to Mme Ilaire's restaurant to buy food for Mme Johnny and I, and Mme Ilaire was so happy to see me, she made me feel so special and she gave me a big hug, it was sweet. Then we taught Wednesday. Thursday we had the day off, it was the anniversary of the earthquake. That day I got to have homemade mango juice made by Kimley, it was the best juice I've had in my life, oh my gosh, Haiti has the best mangos. And I had spaghetti at the restaurant and I had missed Mme Ilaire's food so much while I was home in the States. :)


When I got back I was still struggling a lot with teaching, and just with the behavior of my class. This last week an amazing teacher named Ashley came and helped in my classroom. She gave me some great ideas. Like this behavior chart with clothespins and every clothespin has a students name on it and their clothes pin starts on a paper that says ready to learn and it can move up to great work and then up to excellent and then up to Outstanding but it can also move down to warning and then consequence and then parent contact/office.  And so if the kids get on Outstanding 3 days out of the week they get a small little surprise (This last week it was a mechanical pencil and they loved it). But a lot of the kids want so much to be on Outstanding that they are noticably better in class, so I hope it keeps working because I want them to want to be good in class and this is helping them do that. And samantha has been teaching math for me while I teach art 2 days and spelling 2 days in her class. I have been enjoying getting to do art more, especially with an older class because I can do more them than I'd be able to with second grade I think. Right now they're learning about vanishing point and making their name in 3D with a vanishing point behind it.


Today we had church at our house and watched a sermon, it was really good, I liked being able to hear a message in English, cause I could just relate and understand and apply it to my life. And then we had breakfast with Katie, Baradina (she teaches French) , Samantha, Ryan, Catherine, and little Conrad.

Last night we had dinner at Rendez-vous and the monkey from the fwa was there, I got to touch him again haha. But that monkey, you have to be careful with him because he was totally reaching for my purse so I just made sure I stood far enough away from the cage that he couldn't grab it haha.

And then before that I went to Parc Detente, it was awesome. There is a huge trampoline there!!! I went with Bendjy and Kimley, we had so much fun. That trampoline, I went like 5 feet in the air on it I feel like, it was soooo fun. And Bendjy made friends with a little boy there and they were going down a slide together and Bendjy, he is 13, but he was like a little boy, when he went down the slide he'd yell "sarah! look at me!!!! Look at me!" So I'd watch him go down the slide, he is so funny. Then they had bikes for little kids and Bendjy was riding it too, it was way too small for him though, he was so cute, having the time of his life. And it was so pretty, there were coconut trees, papaya trees, ton of really nice plants. There were also some puppies there and chickens walking around. I tried to pet one of the puppies but it was afraid of me and ran away. There is also a soccer field there. You have to pay to go in this parc, but it was 10 haitian dollars which is like 80 cents, totally worth it, especially because there is a trampoline, I loved that trampoline. It is also right by the river, so after we were done there we walked over the bridge that goes over the river, it was so pretty. And Bendjy had his sunglasses on for the taxi ride, he looked really silly.






Silly Bendjy (this is on the bridge by the river)

Late Entry from a few weeks ago, because the internet was not working


The highlight of my day today was one of my kids, Bill, was calling me and he called me Mom on accident instead of Miss Sarah. It was so sweet. It made my day. Because I remember the only person I would call Mom instead of my actual Mom was my Aunt Karyn, who I really loved and was close too, so it just reminded me of that. It was sweet.

And at the end of the day three students were baptized, I teared up. Two of them were girls in my Bible study. I am so proud of them.

After school I played kickball with some kids for a bit. It was fun, I got some home runs :) And finished my Sponsor letters.

Yesterday we had a staff party for all the teachers and assistants and people who help cook or clean, and just all the workers for Sonlight. It was fun. And long. hahaha. (5-9pm). My favorite part was playing this balloon popping game where you tie a balloon to your foot and go in a circle while trying to stomp on other peoples balloons, but protecting your own, I didn't get out right away, I was probably in for a good 3 minutes, which I'm really proud of myself for haha, I thought I'd be the first one out.

On Saturday, I went to Mme Ilaire's restaurant for Kreyol lessons with her kid. And after I went with them to go to the Plas for ice cream because they know I love ice cream haha. But before that we went to the market (me, Mme Ilaire, Widloveson, Witchy, Woodkimley, and Walkem)  because she needed to buy clothes for the program for her 4 boys. So they picked out their clothes. And there were dresses there too, and she started talking to the lady who sells clothes, and before I know it she is having the vendor pull down dresses and Mme Ilaire is putting them up against me asking me if I think they are pretty, which they were. And then I realize that she wants to buy me one, and I tell her boys, "tell your mom she shouldn't buy me a dress, she doesn't need to do that! I can buy one instead" And they translate to me that she said, its my Christmas present from her, and she wants to. So she bought me a beautiful dress. I think that is one of the nicest sweetest thing anyone has done for me. Those dresses were not cheap, and she was already buying her 4 boys dress shirts and pants and shoes, but she still got it for me. I'm still in awe of that. It was so sweet. My dress is beautiful. I wore it to the staff party we had yesterday. And then after that I went to the Plas with Widloveson and Kimley, there wasn't any ice cream sadly haha but we got grape Fanta and watched the ending of a soccer game where Real Madrid (I think, or whatever the team from Brazil is) against Barcelona. And Brazil won, and all the people watching the game liked that tem so they were super excited.