I'm coming home!!

Today is the day I get to go back home--yay!!  This trip has been a very good learning experience for me and I look forward to using what I have learned in the future.  But, for now, I am so excited to be coming home!  No more route taxis for me :)

I said goodbye to Ms. Dexter as we were leaving to get a taxi to the airport, here is a picture:

Don't you just love my very "touristy" tshirt?!

She was very nice to welcome me into her home, she made me feel welcome. 

I am waiting in the airport now and my flight is delayed 30 minutes, but I should be home around 5:30 pm.  Can't wait!

I made it home just in time for the Ravens game!! They lost, but it was a good, close game.  On the plane ride home the man next to me and I watched the first half, not as good as watching it at home but at least I stayed up to date! 

I made it through my second plane ride with no problems and am so excited to be settled in at home. I will continue to update my blog as I finish my research and wrap up my experience.

My Last Day at West Haven

I can't believe that today was my final day at West Haven.  While the two weeks went slowly they also went very fast.  I am going to miss the children, they have made me feel so welcome and I have learned so much!  While it was a shock for me to see how different the care is outside of the United States, it was beneficial for me to see that first hand.  I can now appreciate the care that is available in the US even more and can hope that one day every person, regardless of where they live, will have that care available to them.

Today at West Haven there were so many volunteers everywhere!  Two different groups had decided to spend the day helping out, and it was very chaotic!  Most of the children were thrilled to have so many volunteers, they each had someone to talk to, but for some children the amount of people was a little overwhelming!  I know how great it is that all of these volunteers come and spend time with the children and help out where they can.  However, it is very upsetting for me to see how it is always the same children getting the attention, people like to go to the more capable and interactive children.  Which makes perfect sense, they are fun and exciting.  But, there are so many children who just lie in bed all day, and while they won't be able to tell you thank you or laugh with you, they need the attention!

Each day that I have been at West Haven I make sure to spend a few minutes with each of the children who are bed ridden.  I talk with them, tell them stories, bathe them, anything to interact.  Many of them can't talk to me as I am with them, but just because the children are bedridden doesn't mean that they don't want someone to talk to!  They probably need and want it even more!  All they are able to do is stare at a ceiling all day, so I am sure that they appreciate seeing a different face every now and again.

Today I spent a great deal of time talking with Romario.  He is 19, my same age, and has been at West Haven for 14 years the nurse told me.  He lies in his bed most of the time, unless a nurse decides to bring him to the main room where he lies on a beanbag and watches tv.  While he was laying in his bed I helped to bathe and clothe him and then just spent some time talking to him.  He couldn't respond to me with words, but he was laughing and smiling and having a great time.  here is a picture of him:

Romario :)

Another child who often gets left out of the mix when volunteers come is Crystal.  I have spent a lot of time with her throughout my stay at West Haven and have found that she is actually capable of so much more than what people think.  We spent a lot of time sitting and talking, and she is able to answer questions, it may take some time for her to form her thoughts into words, but she is able.  Here is a video of Crystal that I took today:

It was sad leaving today, but I have learned so much through this short visit.  As I mentioned above, the care is so different, and I wish that West Haven had the resources to make it a better environment for these children.  They are all so happy, but the sad thing is that they have no idea how different their lives could be with different care.  I am going to miss the children but am hoping to send them letters to stay in touch.

Tonight for our last dinner Ms. Dexter bought Chinese food, tasted just like at home!  Excited to be coming home tomorrow!!

Route Taxis Are So Much Fun....NOT

Obviously the route taxis are not the focus of my project, but they have become a huge part of my experience.  And to put in simple terms--I really don't like route taxis!  For starters they are not safe. They never have seatbelts, the cars are all falling apart, the drivers drive like madmen, and you place your trust into some driver that you don't even know!  One day I was in a taxi and it was packed, there was someone in the hatchback, 5 people across the back, two people in the passenger seat, and then of course the driver.  It is crazy!  But, that is how most people get around in Montego Bay, and I am happy to say that so far it has gone okay for me.  Another problem that I have had with these route taxis is that they hardly ever go up to where West Haven is.  This means that I am waiting for up to an hour for a taxi to come and get me...annoying!!

Anyways today at West Haven I was able to help out in the classroom a lot.  The teacher asked me to lead the morning routine.  I was at first a little bit nervous because I had only observed it for a couple of days, but once I got started it was fine :)  We started out by going over the days of the week and the months of the year.  Then we went over them in Spanish, which is always funny to listen to!

After finishing the rest of the morning routine the teacher went over the letter C.  The class thought of some words that started with C and the teacher wrote them on the board.  He also had the class sing the letter "C" song, here is a video of a portion of the song:

Oh also, that was Derrick laughing in the background :)

He then called selected students up to write/trace the letter C on the board.  Not every child received a turn, which was unfortunate, but it was nice to watch the kids who were able to try.

Here are some pictures of the kids writing the letter C:

After the children finished writing the letter C, the teacher then put the movie The Letter Factory in for them to watch.  It actually is a very cute movie and is very good at teaching the different letter sounds, it was created by LeapFrog.

I then helped out with lunchtime by feeding a few children.  I spent a lot of time with Crystal today, she is a very slow eater but she loves to talk to you.  Here is a picture of her eating lunch:

Tonight for dinner we had rice, plantains, salad, and chicken.   A classic meal :)

Also, tonight Ms. Dexter took Tae and I to a grocery store to buy some different things.  It was very similar to grocery stores back at home with many of the same items and a few different ones. It was a good experience!

P.E. Day!

Today after feeding and bathing some of the children in the Veira House, I went to see if they needed any help in the classroom.  The teachers of course welcomed my help, they have their hands full :)

The day started out by going over their morning routine, they said the days of the week, said a prayer, went over the months of the year, etc.  After they finished the morning business the class then headed outside for PE.  The children were all so excited and so was I!  I wanted to see how the teachers handled the children in wheelchairs and how they handled the different capabilities of each child, I didn't know if they would include all of the children.

The teacher had a hard time getting control of the class when they first went outside, which is of course understandable.  There were at least 20 children outside and he was only one teacher.  I helped him get them a little bit under control and then he had them do some stretching.  He tried his best, but the children were way too distracted to be standing in one place!  He then sent them on a jog down to the gate of the home and back, it isn't a very long distance, but it was perfect for a warmup!

The teacher then began to group the children and have them run in smaller groups, it was a race!  He sorted them based on gender and speed.  He also included a wheelchair race where another child pushed the wheelchair while walking, which was a nice thought.  The only downside to the races was that not all of the children participated.  The teacher made very little effort to get each child a turn. The children are training for the Special Olympics in June, which they are always talking about!

Here are some of the race pictures!

The girls getting ready to race!

Here comes Ann Marie!

Boys wheelchair race about to start!

Next is the girls turn!

Njaoki and Kerry Ann finishing strong!

After the children raced, Mr. Wells then brought out two jump ropes and was teaching the children how to jump rope, or as they called it, "skip rope".  Only some of the children received an opportunity to jump and I think only one child was able to jump rope continuously, however all of the children enjoyed watching the others attempt to jump!

Colleen gives jump roping a try!  The rope was way too short for her :)

I think that with an adaptive PE teacher to show the teachers how to handle the different needs, the teachers would have a much easier time including the students.  And, the students would all be able to do something!   I believe that at one point an adaptive PE teacher had visited, but I think it must have been too hard for the teachers to keep up with, or at least they haven't kept up with it!  Also, I have recognized how little resources and materials the school has.  There are no balls outside for the children to play with, the only equipment that is laying around is an old playground.  Also, half of the children at the school don't have a pair of shoes to wear, so very few were actually prepared to run.  I am not sure what they do when they go to Special Olympics but I guess that they figure something out!

There was a lot of encouragement going on today and I loved it, the children were all smiles! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Tonight for dinner we had some sort of pasta dish with a salad.  I also tried sorrel juice which is a very special drink in Jamaica, though I didn't really like it!

The drink comes from this kind of plant!

Sunny and 85

Well, I just have to point it out....today while it was snowing at home, I was in Jamaica with an 85 degree, sunny day.  It was beautiful, not too sure how I feel about coming home to the cold ;)  Just to rub it in a little but more, here I am on the beach and here is the beautiful sunset again!

Today at West Haven it was much of the same thing.  I assisted with bathing and feeding.  I again went to the school to help out and was actually able to do much more today.  Today the teacher allowed me to choose two books from their very slim library.  The library is just one shelf in the classroom that has a variety of random books.  I was able to read Chocolatina and a book about rhyming dust bunnies.  

The children loved Chocolatina! It was just a silly book about a girl who eats chocolate so much that she becomes it.  If you have ever read Pinkalicious, it is basically the same idea!  I asked a few questions as we read the book and after we finished and a few of the kids could answer the questions. We then read the book about the rhyming dust bunnies but it was a big flop!  I had asked the teacher beforehand if the children understood rhyming and she assured me that they did, however it was very apparent as we were reading and asking questions that they did not!  They did like the underlying story even if they didn't get the rhyming portion of the book, so I guess that that was good :)

Before I read the teacher went over the basic things again such as the months of the year and the days of the week.  They try to incorporate Spanish into the teaching so today the teacher tried to do the days of the week in Spanish.  Unfortunately she had no clue how to pronounce them...luckily I had a little bit more of an idea and was able to help her :)

Derrick, I posted a picture of him in an earlier post, sat with me the whole class.  He is a ball of energy!  He enjoyed playing with my hair and watching me draw him pictures. 

After the morning routine and me reading the stories the teacher decided that the kids needed a break. So, what better way to entertain kids than a movie.  Movies are great, but I was disappointed that the children sat and watched a movie that was not educational while they could have been learning. These children only get about 2 hours of instruction time and by the time all the children are in the classroom and calmed down it is already down to about 90 minutes.  She played the movie for about 30 minutes, so that left the children with only 1 hour of instruction.  These children would benefit from more instruction.  

At one point the teacher mentioned that she played the movie because the children all have a very short attention span. I wanted to tell her that that just means that she needs to have more activities and do new things everyday!  It is hard for me to see how great the differences  are between the care given to these children and the care that these children would be given in the US.  It makes me wonder what their "normal" schools are like.  I wonder if those schools challenge the children enough?  I wonder how the average Jamaican school would compare to the average American school. Lots of things to think about!  

I am looking forward to seeing the children again tomorrow, a couple of them have already told me that they are going to miss me when I leave on Friday :(

The First Day of School

Hello!  I actually wrote this yesterday but wasn't able to post it until now.  Last night the power went out, which includes the wifi.  Jamaica often has these power outages and water shutoffs.  The company can turn the power or water off whenever they want, and it is sort of to conserve energy.  To be honest I am not really sure why they do it.  But, they give you no warning whatsoever.  The water can be off for days, luckily since I have been here it has only not been working for one day.  The power can be out for hours, it has been out twice since I have been here, but last night was the longest. Anyways....here is what happened yesterday :)

Just like at home, today was the first day back to school in Jamaica.  There were many more people out and about early in the morning.  Last week there were very little people on the streets and not many children at all.  This morning however, people were everywhere!  I rode downtown in a taxi filled with children, they all looked so nice in their uniforms!  Every school has a different uniform, and there were many different uniforms which can only mean that there are tons of schools.  I wasn't able to get a picture of a child in their uniform because everyone was much too busy, but maybe I will be able to get one later in the week.  Until then, here is an image that shows what the uniforms look like:

The girls wear a jumper, and the boys wear a tan collared shirt with tan pants.  The girls dress colors depend on the school that they attend.

The children at West Haven do not have uniforms, though they would look very nice in them!

I was able to make it up to West Haven with very little problems and when I arrived all the children could talk about was that they had school today.  I was so excited for them!  They talked about school the whole last week when they didn't have it and I was excited to see what was so great about this school :)

But first, the children ate breakfast and bathed just like before.  After feeding and bathing it was about 10am and the children began to head to the school building.

Let me begin by saying that the school was not at all like the schools we have back at home.  The building was one room and there were not even desks.  The children sat in folding chairs, however there weren't even enough of those.  Observing their "school" made me so disappointed and made me so sad that these children will never be able to reach their full potential.  

Because all of the children are in the same room, they are all learning the same thing.  Many are on the same level but the children who are shouting out the answer before the question is even asked are way ahead of the others and are not being challenged.  One of these children is Keno.  Keno is so incredibly smart and if challenged I can only imagine what he could do.  

Today the teachers (there is a man teacher and a woman) began the class by starting with a prayer and reciting Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.   They then went on to read over some of the rules and their honesty pledge.  You may be able to read some of these in the picture below.

After going over their normal morning routine, the teachers went into reciting sight words.  They sang a song to the sight words, and I think that the children had just memorized the song not the actual word.  If you had showed them one of the sight words out of context I don't think that any of the children would be able to read it.  After the sight words the teacher went over some letters.

I am pretty sure that the children have been going over the same letters and sight words for quite some time now because the papers look old and the children had all of the answers memorized.

After their "Language Arts" time, the children then had music.  Music consisted of the children watching a sing-a-long video.  While they absolutely loved the video, I wish that there had been something more interactive for them to do.  Perhaps they could have made some instruments or something along those lines.

Overall, watching their school time made me sad for the children because they don't know how much they are missing out on.  But, I guess if they are happy and healthy that is all that matters :)

Here is there weekly schedule, it is outdated, but I think they still follow it up to a certain extent.  It shows that they go around to the different cottages but I didn't see that...I am hoping that today was just rough because it was the first day back.  Hoping that tomorrow will be better for the children!

On another note....tonight we ate in the dark because of the power outage.  We ate baked chicken, leftover mac and cheese, yams, and salad.  

My First Full Weekend

This weekend has been exhausting but also so much fun!  On Saturday, Tae and I left at about 9:30am to head to the bus park in order to catch a bus to Ocho Rios.  The bus park is a little bit scary, drivers often fight over who is going to drive you, it is a very hectic place!  Luckily, we had no problems and were able to find room on a bus and leave within 30 minutes.  Sometimes you can wait up to an hour because the drivers won't leave until the bus is full.

We were on our way to Ocho Rios because we wanted to go to Dunns River Falls which is a place where you can climb this waterfall and hang out on the beach.  The ride took about 2 hours and then we had to pay for our ticket, get water shoes (see the picture below :)) and get a locker for all of our stuff.  The river falls were very touristy but we had a great time.  The climb up the falls was at times a little bit slippery but it was very fun!  We got to go down a little waterslide, and jump into a pool on the way up.  The guide was very funny and was always getting our group to chant and to do silly things.

Tae and I after finishing the climb!

Here are a few pictures from the day, overall I had a great time!

We got back around 7pm and ate a dinner of some kind of fish (still had the head on--I was not too sure about that part!), a different kind of bread, and salad.

Here I am in front of the falls!

Today I spent my whole day at the beach!  It was a great beach day, the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze.  The high today was 86 degrees!  I don't know how I am going to go back to the cold in less than a week!

While at the beach I was able to do some snorkeling and explore.  I saw many tiny little fish and some cool rocks and shells.  My favorite thing that I saw was an eel.  After looking it up tonight I found out that it was a sharp tail eel.  There is a picture below this that looks very similar to what I saw.  

I spent a lot of time reading in the sun and just relaxing.  It was a nice to chill out before I begin my busy week of volunteering.  I am so excited to see the children again tomorrow--I may even get to see how their school is!

Tonight for dinner we had curried goat mutton (definitely not my favorite thing!), rice, mac and cheese, salad, and baked plantains.  The plantains were so delicious!

Sun beginning to set!