The Kindergarten

In my first kindergarten class this morning, the teacher was saying prayers with the kids as I entered. They had their heads down on the desk and they were reciting and answering. At the end she said something like, thanks be to God who is so good to us. And they said some response like, yes, thanks be to God. And the little charismatics in the class raised their hands up and waved them. There are a lot of evangelical churches here in Haiti. I noticed people in the Catholic church, too, raising their hands in prayer during mass.
It really gave me pause to hear and see that. Our students might not feel as though God had smiled on them. In the kindergarten there are 49 children in one classroom no bigger than 25 feet square. They fit three or four to a bench that two sit at in the upper grades. They get breakfast and lunch here, and an education to be envied, even among kids who do get to go to school. And especially envied by those kids I see walking around in the street during the day who do not get to go.
Today I taught the colors. I only had 15 minutes, so I made flash cards of the crayola 8 plus grey, pink, and white. We sang, to the tune of London Bridges Falling Down,
I know all my colors,
Red, purple, orange, brown.
White, grey, black, blue,
Green, pink, yellow.
They were able to sing along by the end of the 15 minute class; we will see if any sticks till next week. I need to go out into the schoolyard during recess, maybe some of us can sing it there. It is daunting for me to go out during recess; the kindergarten and first grade (96 students and 87 students respectively) are in the inner courtyard during recess so they don’t get mowed down by the older ones. They do not get out the jumpropes and balls and things like we did this summer during the camp I attended. I think there might be a theory that it is not good to get them too wound up if you are going to expect them to be orderly 10 minutes later. So they pretty much stand around. When I come out they surround me. Truly mob me, I mean like 10 or 20 all very close. I remember Jeff saying, tiny and well-meaning as they are, they can pretty well knock you over if you lose your balance. They are very fascinated by my skin, and will touch my arms.
Yesterday I went out and suggested to a teacher that we play the circle game, “Here we Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush.” Without even knowing what I wanted, she very kindly offered to help me. I was thinking we could mime the ‘brush teeth’ and ‘comb hair.’ I thought maybe 10 or 20 could participate, but of course all 90 were interested. If you have ever tried to get ninety 5-year-olds to form a circle in another language (I don’t think their French is very good yet at this stage; they are mostly thinking in Créole) then you can imagine the mess. I am sure it looked exactly the same to an onlooker as when they simply mobbed me and we stood and smiled at each other.