At Etzer Vilaire, we worked with students ranging from four to fifteen years old to decorate the grey cinderblock classroom walls.
Projects included an abcdaire of the alphabet in Creole, painting a map of Haiti, drawing flowers and fauna around Haiti’s flag and creating educational posters about colors and shapes.
At Lycée Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, we led after school workshops including Andy Warhol inspired self-portraits, arts and crafts, gardening, ukulele classes, science experiments, and shadow puppetry.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, we worked in groups of two or three to prepare these activities. We worked each week to make the activity as cohesive and easy as possible for the elementary level students.
Going into the trip, we all knew what to expect: a lot of poverty. We visited the village of Pont Leocan, just across the street from the Lycée, where several school families live and walked through the lean-tos that were their homes. We saw the smile on girls faces as they would braid our hair. We passed water bottles to thirsty children from our bus.
We saw young boys’ eyes light up when they received four new pencils. These small gestures that seem ordinary to us, meant the world to them.
At Etzer Vilaire especially, a new notebook- an ordinary everyday day thing to us- meant everything to them.
When thinking about their point of view, we observed a couple of things. The younger students were very welcoming and immediately jumped on top of us in excitement. The older students, on the other hand, were surprisingly a bit more shy at first. As for the teachers, we noticed that some weren’t as welcoming or open as others, staying apart and not as interactive as we had hoped. Overall, though, everyone welcomed us with smiles and open arms.
We formed such incredible relationships with the kids that when we got home we felt emptiness and sadness because we missed them so much. We also felt guilty and shameful. We talked for hours and shared our feelings in our group chat. How come these incredible, beautiful children were given such different chances in life?
This trip definitely opened our eyes. Even though some of us had already witnessed poverty in other countries, it wasn’t until we formed connections with these kids that we really came closer to understanding what they have to go through every day. Thanks to this amazing opportunity and wonderful trip, we are now able to take a step back in our own lives and see how incredibly privileged and fortunate we all are.
Alice K., Lea S., Clara F. and Ines L. on behalf of the Haïti 2018 Team!
About the Author :
A Lycée alumna, Vivianne Kurzweil has a bachelor’s in applied sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in education from Bank Street College. Following 9/11, she created a program for community service at the Lycée. She is now director of Service Learning, and works with colleagues to promoste community service. Thanks to various volunteering projects, Lycée students have learned to make themselves useful in New York and around the world.