Compa!!!

What a week. It is only Thursday and I wish it were Saturday. There is a big Haitian Celebration this weekend. Apparently they spend large amounts of gouds (money) to be fresh so they can attend an all weekend party. It starts Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. and lasts until 6:00 a.m. Then they have church at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, followed by another party for the remainder of the day. I am actually really looking forward to this because there will be food, music, dancing, laughter, and the whole ordeal just like any other party. Fritz says they will all be looking at me because I will be the only white person there. What’s new?

Anyways, Jimmy is this boy I am interested in and he will be there. We are going to dance the compa all night. Oh how I love this intimate dance. During each instrumental break for a song, we stand as close as possible and move our hips in unison and harmony. My right hand is clasped with his left, while I rest my left hand on his shoulder, and he places his right hand gently on the lower of my back. Our foreheads are pressed together while gazing into each other’s eyes, moving our hips to the beat! I’ve already practiced with Fritz (nothing too intimate) and since I am a great dancer, I got this! Well actually, I like to be in control, and the man is supposed to be, so it will be a fun challenge with Jimmy. He makes my heart beat run away, as Nicki would say. <3  

I really look forward to this event, although I know I won’t be able to stay up all night. If I did I would turn into this dragon spitting out fire at everyone I encounter. Sleep is necessary in my world, in anyone’s of course, but I become some kind of monster if I don’t get enough sleep. I also plan on going to church the next morning, even though I won’t understand what they are preaching. Hopefully my other senses will kick in so I can take something out of it, which sounds so selfish as I write it. Before I go on a tangent, I am going to stop myself.

We had our third class today and it was a challenge for them. I introduced the multiple intelligences, and when I explained the first two, visual and linguistic, they were like, ‘yeah yeah, we know this stuff.’ When I discussed kinesthetic learning (hands on) they were somewhat resistant to the idea. They made the point that they don’t have the proper resources to do this often, and I said they have to work with the resources they have. After I gave some examples, such as using gouds when they are teaching the concept of money, they went back to the idea of using the chalkboard to introduce this idea. No excuses! I had them work in groups of three to come up with their own ideas for a kinesthetic lesson.

The group of girls gave a really good lesson on the parts of a flower, singing a song, and going on a field trip to the garden and explaining the flowers. The boys however had a similar idea but I chose them as the winners (of course it was a competition) because their idea was a little more thoughtful and more hands on. They discussed how they would introduce the roots of a plant, and have the students bring a plant to school from home the following day and label the parts of the roots using different colors, and etc. I picked the boys as the winners because they told me the girls idea was a typical and practical lesson they use often, and I was looking for more originality.

So far, so good, and I do believe they are benefitting already, after three days of teaching. They have these ideas but never really applied them. I got a little frustrated at one point because it seems to me they make excuses for not going above and beyond, and Marquise says that I need to be patient because this is all new to them. She is totally right and I am happy to have her here with me to knock some sense into me when I lose my cool.