Day 5 Rob

Wednesday morning, sunny, 80s in Port Au Prince. I'm teaching English to 17 boys and girls ages about 12-19. The room is upstairs in the boys facility. They sit in a small room on one piece benches and desks which are essentially 6 rows of 2, long, 2x12 pieces of wood connected together with metal rods. One 2x12 is for where they sit and the other serves as their desk. Nobody seems to notice all the noise and racket outside. I love the kids.　

I start the day asking each student to read a verse from the book of John. Yesterday we read John 3:1-16 and talked about what it meant. Later we discussed the differences between Fiction and Non-Fiction and fact and opinion.

The orphanage has taken an ambitious step forward with the kids. They are in the infancy stages of starting a school within the facilities for all of their kids. They are in the process of searching for an administrator and a few good teachers willing to come down for a year for the 2010-2011 school year. They need cirriculum for all subjects. A big challenge is placing the students in appropriate levels because many of the children did not start school until they were 8 or 9 years old.

Changing gears, I got an unexpected ride to the main downtown area yesterday. As you get closer to the ocean, PaP has steep rolling hills like San Francisco. Driving through downtown the devastation is overwhelming to the senses. You cannot look north, south, east or west without seeing massive piles of rubble. Our driver knew the streets well and weaved around like a Formula 1 driver. There was so much dust it felt like my lungs were filling up with dirt. One thing is for sure, I will never complain about potholes in America, because they are really just "potholes" compared to the massive undulation and craters in these streets.
-Rob 10MAR10