Nana's Visit

There's nothing quite like having a little bit of "home" come here to Haiti.
The week after Spring Break, we enjoyed having my mom, "Nana", come to visit and play with Abbi for a week.
She came bearing all sorts of important gifts like cookies, cheese and meat, chocolate chips,a globe for school, diapers, toys and clothes for Abbi, an amazing new frying pan... more than 100 lbs worth of such wonderful gifts. Christmas in March!
Oh yes, and we can't forget the ducky swimming pool she brought. :o)

There was a lot of sickness going around our house that week, but it didn't seem to slow Nana or Abbi down one bit. Abbi loves her Nana! They got in every moment of playing possible. Abbi quickly developed the habit of going to get her shoes for us to put on and grabbing our hands to take us outside with her first thing in the morning as soon as she got out of bed. Don't all 1 year olds climb up ladders, slide down slides, jump on trampolines, swing in the hammock, chase chickens, feed goats, and blow bubbles before breakfast?

So very glad you came to visit us Mom. Looking forward to seeing you and everyone else in just a few months!

Spring Break 2013!

This last week has been our Spring Break week. But who goes to school during Spring Break? That would be us. We attended 4 different schools this week. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

First we went to the country town of Cazale and visited with Licia and her kids and their teachers at Real Hope for Haiti. We have been following what they do, and they are doing some pretty remarkable things. People from all over Haiti go there to receive medical treatment, because it can be so difficult to get it elsewhere. It should not be the case, but that is the way it is. Check them out and support what they are doing if you can.

We were able to rest and relax... (continue to http://teachingkidsabroad.com/spring-break/ to read the rest of the post.)

New Project

by Jimmy

I have started a new project. My first independent website. I read a lot of information on Education, and Becky is probably getting a little tired of me telling her all about it, so instead I will tell you all, my faithful readers about it.

Really, I need help in my quest to become an expert teacher. As much as I would love to do things by myself, I am just not that smart. I hope to use the website to collect and spread information on how parents and teachers educate their children while living abroad.

I am fully aware that there are as many ways to educate kids, as there are people doing it. Like most things, there is no ONE way that is best. Benefits and drawbacks exist in every method. I hope to share what is working for us (or not) on the website, and get to hear back from parents AND teachers on what works for them.

Thank you so much for your time, and support for us. We are so blessed.

Feel free to visit: www.teachingkidsabroad.com

Browse and return, as I will be posting twice per week there. And please leave your comments, suggestions, and opinions.

Review Week

I'm a bit of a Type A personality. I can tend to be pretty task and schedule focused. So, during a normal school week, we've got certain things to learn and a certain schedule to follow and I tend to pretty much stick to it by the minute. This means we typically get a lot accomplished, but can also miss out on fun activities because I don't "have time" for them.

And this is why I love review week. Every 6 week we have a week set aside where we change the schedule all up for that week. We do not have to learn any new material, only review what we've already learned and and do fun things.  I love it! It gives me the feeling of freedom to be creative and do all the things I would normally like to do, but don't. I love the change of pace, coming up with fun ideas, and learning in new ways. Instead of having a math lesson and working in our math books, we play math games every day. Instead of having a typical history or science lesson, we watch movies related to what we've been learning and do science projects. We may put on a play, or a concert, go on a field trip, or make inventions. You get the idea.

Jimmy is actually not as much of a fan of review week as I am. He doesn't so much like the change - it feels like a lot of work and somewhat uncertain to him. But the funny thing is that he has no problem during the normal school day deviating far from the set tasks or schedule. Because of this he probably needs review week a lot less than me. This is why we make such a great team.

During review week we also work really hard on our cumulative "memory work" that we have been learning all year, with a big test at the end of the week. This week the kids had to know 18 Ancient history "facts", 18 Earth Science "facts",  all of their propositions and helping verbs, all the Latin noun declensions, be able to name and locate 90 different geographic paces and features on the world map,  know all of their math times tables and basic unit conversions, and recite 144 events in a timeline of word history beginning at creation and going through completion of the transcontinental railroad. It is pretty impressive all the things their little brains can remember.

Ok, well here are a few highlights from this review week.

Field trip with other home schoolers to Wynne Farms:

 

Science Projects:

 

Art Show Awesomeness:

New Things

Superwoman!

Goose Egg on forehead and 2 busted lips.

New Thing #1 - Abigail is walking! Go Abbi! Watch out world! In the past 2 days she has managed to amass quite a few injuries. Ah well, you can't learn to walk unless you take some falls. A good life lesson for all of us.
 

New Thing #2- This momma is already half way through her 2nd pregnancy. 20 weeks! Thankfully this pregnancy has been much easier than the last. Which has many people guessing that it will be a boy. We'll find out in July...

Ready for baby Burton #2

What, you don't have chickens inside your school?

Or tarantulas like this outside it?

(not so) New Thing #3- We think school is fun! Ok, so we always think this, but here are a few new photos of fun things.

Painting like Michelangelo

Nothing like recess with your siblings.

Sprinklers before school. Much better than sitting in the cafeteria or gym.

Valentine's Fun

JeanPierre & Bob

by Jimmy

As I get ready for bed, I am also preparing myself mentally to get up sometime in the middle of the night to turn on our small generator. EDH (our national power company) has graced us with their presence all of 1 night in the past 5 or 6. So we have had to run the generator quite a bit lately, and make do with less power than normal. (Like having soft homemade ice cream in the freezer.) (Thank you Valentine's Party for the ice cream.)

In case you are not aware of ex-pat life in Haiti, many, many conversations between expats revolve around EDH. A couple days ago, I even had a long term expat (I won't reveal who it was) confess that his attitude for the day is often influenced by whether or not they had EDH. Wow! There is no way that I would let the roaring noise of the generator, or the lack of fans, or the cost of fuel, or the leaving on of lights, or the chore to go get more fuel, or the softening of the rarest-form-of-special-luxuriosly-expensive-treat, ice cream, affect how I FEEL. Not at all!

But, this post was supposed to be about JeanPierre and Bob. JeanPierre and Bob work for EDH. Their jobs are very special, as they run the operation room, by which they evenly divide the limited kilowattage of Haitian electricity, throughout the country. They both work very hard, and long hours. 12 hour shifts each, from roughly 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I know those hours are rough. I have roughnecked those hours. Not fun.

These dedicated workers however, excel at their job. Their only and primary concern, as dictated by President Martelly himself, through his deputy of Haitian Affairs, and their UN advisor (and his office staff), after a quick conference call to the US to make sure the Americans are on board, AND another call to the fuel supplying Venezueleans, is: to "FAIRLY" distribute electricity throughout the country.

Their office consists of panels and panels of computer screens, by which they carefully monitor usage, and grids, and kilowattage, and where the important people live. They also feed a stray cat, whose name escapes me at the moment.

Unfortunately, for many expats, communication seems to break down sometimes as the shifts change. Take this week for instance, both JeanPierre and Bob left each other notes, informing the other that he was attending Karnival. So... sector 11, (or are we #13?), was left completely in the dark while we can see that the mountainside has had electricity, AND our expat friends just down the road had it as well. There was that one day we had, power, but it was only because the maid came in to clean twice that day, and accidentally turned sector 11(13?) on the first time, and off the second time as she wiped down the keyboards.

In times past, miscommunication has actually benefited sector 11/13. Bob, after his night shift failed to inform JeanPierre that Sector 1113 had had power all night, so JeanPierre, truly desiring that all residents should have access to power fairly, turned on sector eleven (thirteen?) for the rest of the day.

And then there was that time the cat got loose in the operations room. As JeanPierre chased it around the room, switches kept switching ON/OFF/ON/OFF/ON/ON/OFF/OFF... On our end, our imaginations were fully engaged as our fans kept speeding up, and slowing down, speeding up, and slowing down. In the end, it was just the cat.

 Needless to say, though some expats here in Haiti will ALWAYS mention EDH, and how much power they have had, or how AWFUL their 6 hours without power has been, I will remain stoically silent, nod my head, and play nice. I am here in a support position. Here to encourage. Here to be an ear to hear. Here to judge not. So as I ride with Troy, on the way to his powered village, I look up at those concrete electric poles and say thanks. Thanks to JeanPierre and Bob, who really have a tough job at the end of those electrical power lines. And thankfully, they share their trials with me, so I can make some semblance of sanity out of the seemingly selective EDH schedule.

Tropical Diseases Week

by Jimmy

Tropical Diseases strike once again. Last week, two of the family of three lay out of commission for the majority of the week. Thanks to our nemesis, the mosquito, we made our first Haitian Hospital visit. I had hoped to avoid that trip.

It started with a very, very tired wife. Having a tired pregnant wife is not all that unusual, but when she wakes up, and is exhausted halfway through making breakfast, something is up. Fortunately, tests are cheap, and quick. I insist, so she relents, and I make the call. Thank you Troy Livesay. We caught it pretty early, before any other symptoms arose. 3 days of chloroquin, along with 3 days of sleeping pretty much took care of it.

Abbi on the other hand...
   following nasty diapers, contracted a fever that just would not go away. We concluded she had malaria, since her momma did, and treated her. The happy, active girl transformed to a snuggling, sleeping, and sleeping some more, heater. It felt good to have her snuggle so much, content to just lay there on my chest, but the lack of appetite, the fussing several times a night, the crying at having so many medicines forced into the mouth, could have been done without.

 

(Snuggle time)

 

 

(Oreo after medicine)

 

On Friday, after having finished her meds, and still not eating, and barely drinking, a hospital trip was advised. Friday night at 7:00 in the evening, is not conducive for driving in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Darkness arrives at 6:00, and masses of people and vehicles attempt to find their homes between 5:00 and 8:00. So, not only do I have to drive to a hospital whose location I am unaware of, but I have rush hour traffic to deal with, while having a beautiful, loving, sick, taking it like a champ, baby to worry about. So this is the flip side of being a dad. Not fun.

A quick shower, make sure we have everything, and dread to prepare. We drive through the gate into our crowded intersection. Sure enough, traffic. But we move on. The other lane, coming our way, is packed. Bumper to bumper. I am sure that as soon as we get across the bridge, we will be coming to a sudden and complete halt. The proof is in the opposing lane, and experience. I have spent hours haltingly moving 10 feet at a time on this very road. But we move on. Not fast, but steady. The bridge. We move on. Carrefour (Intersection) Fleurio, my nemesis, since the day we got here, and I sat in the back of the Hendrick's truck, in a monsoon, stuck, IN TRAFFIC, not moving for an hour.

 And yet, we move right through the intersection. I am in awe. Now to get past the UN bases bordering the airport. Check. Surely we cannot be making this good of time. We are. 25 Minutes! I have never made it to the Three Hands intersection in 25 minutes, and yet, we are past it and at the hospital gate in 25 minutes. I timed it.

After a quick, Kreyol conversation with the gate guard, he allowed us to enter, and an American pediatrician came out to talk to us and see Abbi, right there on a bench in the driveway of the hospital. Abbi took it all in like a champ. Just lying there in momma's lap, not fussing, somewhat zoned, but just taking it all in, wondering who all these new people were.

She did fuss a little later, and daddy sure wanted to, when blood for testing needed to be withdrawn. Such innocence, as she sleepily and somewhat curiously observes the nice lady holding her hand a little too tightly, with a ????? THAT HURTS! Real tears fall, and daddy has a hard time holding his. It takes two trys, and I am going to refuse a third, when the blood flows. What a relief.

There is no amount of money that would ever convince me to be a nurse. God bless them.

Blood work came back OK, so we are to try and keep her hydrated, and get some antibiotics. We head back home.

We left our house at 6:50 and got back home by 9:30. Crazy. We are blessed. Tremendously blessed. We are surrounded by great people who love and support us and pray for us. And a God, who can move anything, including Port-Au-Prince traffic.

Abbi finally had a fairly normal day Tuesday after sleeping the whole night through, much to her momma's and daddy's relief and rest. To see a smiling, active, talking, baby after a week of sickness and sleep, does much to undo a lot of worry.

 

Happily back at school, with the Big Kids.