Even the best intentions can be thwarted by things like 400 kids coming
through the house for camp every day, making food for the teams that came to
help us, and most of all, a never-ending need for sleep. I promise that I had
very good intentions to write a blog (even several blogs!) during camp, but
here we are nearing the end of August, and as you can see, no blogs from English
Camp 2015. Oops.
So, now that the number of people living in our house has dwindled to a
mere 11, life has slowed down quite a bit. With the low-key environment, I’ve
used my time pretty productively: working with Katie to get Hope addicted to
The 100 and binge-watching straight through season 1 and onto season 2, eating
chocolate cake for breakfast, and permanently (at least until preschool starts
up again) erasing my alarm for 6:50 AM. I’ve really enjoyed this week of
relaxation, catching up on sleep, and just hanging out with the Tlucek family,
who can make any situation fun and full of laughter.
But this post is meant to recap camp, so here goes:
This year I took a shot at teaching younger science. Anyone who knows
me should know how laughable this is, since I am in the social sciences/liberal
arts for a reason. Math and science were never my favorites. However, armed
with Hope and Andrew’s great curriculum, I had an absolute blast introducing my
kids to all sorts of fun science concepts. What I enjoyed most about it was
also what was the most difficult and frustrating: finding creative and engaging
ways of getting the material across.
We did things like using different color glitter to represent germs and
then shaking hands and seeing how eventually everyone had all the colors, so we
should wash our hands frequently throughout the day. We made a volcano. We made
a raincloud in a glass. Everyone colored a star and then we made
constellations. We learned what makes airplanes fly – and practiced with our
own paper airplanes. We pretended to be birds with beaks and learned how hard
it is to pick things up when you can’t use your hands. We learned about
pressure and what makes water stay in a glass when it’s turned upside down
(hint: not magic). We learned songs and games and read books – did you know
Finding Nemo was made into a book? It was, and it is a looooooong book. But
when I tried to stop, all the classes protested, and one of my boys even looked
up with a sad little face and said “We need to know what happens to Nemo!”
All in all, this was truly one of my favorite summers of English Camp
so far. Most everything at camp ran smoothly, and there were only a few times
when I wanted to lay down in the middle of teaching and just sleep. I don’t
know why I’m still amazed, because I say this every summer, but these kids are
just so smart. They love learning, which is possible even though they also love
trying to get out of learning and causing distractions. They ask questions that
I don’t know the answer to, and honestly am stunned that they even have thought
of. I miss almost everything about camp – minus the early wake up calls – but I
especially miss how they shushed each other as they filed into class and their
big smiles as they chorused “Good morning Sarah!” coming in and “Thank you!” as
they left.
All of the teams that came in were so helpful and we truly couldn’t
have pulled off camp without everything they did. I’m thankful for the
friendships that were made with them, despite only knowing some of them for a
week – it seemed like much longer. However, I truly couldn’t have made it
through the summer without the ones who were there for the long haul. Through
the struggles and joys, they were the constant that kept me going. Byron and
Shelley, of course, are always the calm in the middle of a storm. And the
five-stars (plus Andrew!) had plenty of our own adventures – that one week we
worked out regularly, the mornings that started with screaming loud enough to
wake up the whole house, and the endless campaigning to get to flamingo lake
(still waiting). People matter more than anything else in this world, and I’m
thankful for all the people that God put in my life this summer – whether they
lived here in this house, or came through the gate every morning. Even the
smallest and seemingly most insignificant encounters had true impact.
The end of camp and graduation is always a bittersweet time. I was so, so proud of my class (and all of the classes!), seeing where they started from to where they were on graduation day. Their songs, Bible verse, and just excitement to share with their parents what they had learned made me so proud. Usually, though, graduation means that my
time in Haiti is ending, and it always means that I’ll no longer see all of my
kids every day. This year, since I’m staying in Haiti until December, only one
of those was true. I am a little sad that camp is over, as I always am. Things
around here are definitely less chaotic and less fast-paced. I am happy with
the rest and relaxation that has been happening – with our time at Zanglais, a
beach-side retreat in southern Haiti with lots of time in the waves, reading in
hammocks, playing games, and time to disconnect from the world – literally,
since there is no Internet there. I’ve also enjoyed the time we’ve had at home,
to just hang out with the Tluceks, watch movies, and recharge for the next big
adventure of preschool starting.
I’ll try to be better with these posts and updates, especially as we
transition out of summer and into the school year. It will be a whole new
challenge and adventure, but one that I’m excited to take on. Thanks for
reading, and I promise to upload pictures to Facebook soon. In the meantime, my
Instagram (sarahpease) has lots of pictures from this summer for you to check
out if you want to. As always if you have any questions or want to know more about Haiti and the work going on here, please let me know!
Lots of love from Haiti,
Sarah
