Christmas Program

The Special Education class had the best performance as usual!

Most of the students' parents were able to attend!

Exam Week

Even Kindergarten has exams in Haiti, here they are busy with their "colouring" exam



The Grade 2 class busy writing exams



Evenz hard at work as always!

Opinions anyone??

I have been told (and I must agree) that I can be somewhat opinionated.  During the political unrest and various riots, I have tried unsuccessfully to refrain from forming an opinion.  However, as you can see I have not publically voiced my opinion.  In the three days I was house bond due to burning tires and blocked roads, I had plenty of time to read many thoughts and opinions on how Haitians chose to respond to an election that was clearly fraudulent.  Due to my lack of French most of what I read was written in English and therefore mostly by foreigners trying to understand Haiti and make a judgement on the situation.  It's human nature to see a situation and compare it to what we know.  Too often as foreigners we try to compare situations in Haiti to "similar" situations in our 'home' country, but situations that appear to be similar often are not, due to many layers of culture that are not easily apparent. This is my long winded explanation on why I have written nothing about the elections or the ensuing reactions.  In my opinion, there are enough opinions out there, I don't need to add my own:)
Regardless, this week has been calm and the weather has been very unusual for this time of year (there may be a link between the two:)  It's been rainy, cloudy and cool.  The school has been open all week, and the students are busy writing exams.  Next week we'll have our Christmas program and parent/teacher meeting. 
After that.... Christmas break!  I am tired and very ready for a break.  My parents hope to fly in next week and stay for two weeks.  I am very excited that they are coming.  Although it's not their first time in Haiti, it will be their first time they will stay with me, and we will travel a little bit. 
I've been really bad about taking pictures lately. I do however have a picture of Cadeau and Jenny making me a delicious meal!!  It's a rough life:)

2010 Haiti Elections

I know that many people who are emotionallly invested in Haiti have been following the news of the elections quite closelly.  I wish I could say that I have an insiders view of the goings on here in Haiti, but really I've been searching the internet and international news just like the rest of you.  I do have the slight advantage of listening to the radio here and hearing the "word on the street" reports.  However, this is often more frustrating than anything else.  Yesterday one radio station announced that there was going to be a big manifestation (riot) at noon.  We waited, as there's really nothing else to do, and noon came and went with no problems, at least in our area.  The 'word on the street' is often exaggerated and often causes unnecessary panic.
Yesterday the school was open and about 30-40 students came.  Today there are more.  As a staff we decided to keep the school open every day, we've instructed all staff and students that if there are problems in their area or on their route to school, stay home.  If everything is clear, come to school.  We hate to close school only to discover that there are no problems, we've lost too much time as it is.
If you are interested in reading an 'on the ground' account that is not terribly biased or overinflated, check out this blog.  I find it very interesting and it resonnates with what I've been seeing and hearing.  As well, the author is willing to go where things are happening, whereas I tent to avoid any place where things are happening.
http://goatpath.wordpress.com/
We are waiting for the election results to be announced.  It sounds like regardless of the results, this announcement will cause some more unrest.  We'll just have to wait and see.