Blamo! from Haiti

Bonjou! M te retounen men m ap sonje Ayiti anpil anpil! M te pase yon bon mwa nan Ayiti e m gen anpil rakonte e anpil foto pou nou gade. Nan de semen m prale Vienna donk kontinye gade blog sa a pou plis enfomasyon sou vwayaj mwen.

Hello! I have returned but I am missing Haiti alot! I had a good month in Haiti and I have a lot to tell and a lot of pictures for you to look at. In two weeks I leave fro Vienna so continue to watch this blog for more information on my travels.

My experiences last summer in Haiti were so incredible I didn't think that it could get better, but this summer definitely surpassed my expectations. It's really hard for me to describe my experiences to someone who hasn't been there before, but I will try my best.

I spent one month in Haiti this summer, a week more than last year. My first week I spent in the city of Montrouis, which is a smaller city on the coast. I believe this is the first summer that a camp was held there and it was very successful! The camp was organized by the music director there, a man named Gary who I had met in Leogane the previous summer. The other volunteers besides myself were another Lawrence student who played trombone, Daryl, and my cello professor Janet Anthony. There were about 30 students in the band. Yes, you heard me right, band. I really wanted to get some band teaching experience in case I end up being forced to teach band sometime in the future. We had clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, 1 percussionist, and 1 flute player. There were also several choir directors that came but did not play in the ensemble. The thing that was so incredible about the whole experience is that these kids were so eager to learn that one of the highlights for them was listening to the entire 9th Symphony by Dvorak and following along in a full score. The kids there had also never seen or heard a cello before we came, so Ms. Anthony and I just spent a lot of time playing duets and solos for them so that they could hear what the cello sounded like. Our days in Montrouis were very relaxed with camp going from 8am to 2pm and then swimming in the ocean or trips around town after the camp. We started every day with stretching and breathing exercises, had sectionals, theory classes, conducting classes, and rehearsals. Daryl taught some private lessons, but there wasn't much time for that. We had a very lovely concert the last day we were there with cello solos and duos, brass ensembles, and the big band. We also took a really nice day trip to the resort of Moulin sur Mer, set in an old sugar cane plantation. It had a beautiful beach and the hotest swimming pool I've ever been in! It was funny becasue us Americans just wanted to swim in the ocean, but the Haitians that went with us just wanted to go in the pool!

The next 3 weeks I spent at the same camp I had been at last year in Leogane. Leogane is closer to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, and farther from the ocean so it was a lot hotter, dirtier, and more crowded. It was so great to be back in Leogane with many of the same volunteers and campers. My Kreyol was a lot better this summer so I actually got to spend time talking with the kids and learning more about their lives. I hope that each summer my Kreyol will get better and better so I can continue to become better friends with the Haitian staff and my students. The days in Leogane are a lot longer than in Montrouis, mostly because the kids live at the camp and so we can have activities from 7am until 9pm. My weekday schedule was as follows:

6:30 wake up

7:00 Drapo - literally means flag but it was really morning prayers and announcements

7:15 Breakfast

8:00 First music theory class with the older students

8:45-9:15 small break to prepare for next class

9:15 Second music theory class with the younger students

10-10:30 Snack and break

10:30 Viola sectional with the string orchestra students

11:30-12:30 Viola lessons

12:30pm (approx.) lunch- the big meal of the day

1:30-4 Time for lessons, naps, theory tutoring, hanging out with the kids, sports, etc.

4:00 Rehearsal with the string orchestra

5:30 Vepres - Vespers, evening prayer and announcements

6:00 Souper- Supper, very light, usually just bread and jam

7:00-8:30 Rehearsal with the string orchestra

Needless to say we keep ourselves pretty busy. The saturday and sunday schedules were different with beach time on saturday and concerts on sunday. In addition there were 2 recitals every week, Wednesday and Saturday, where the sutdents could play solo or ensemble peices they had been working on. In my theory classes I taught scales, key signatures, intervals, and triads. We also did a composition project where every student composed 8 measures of music and on the last day of theory class we played them for eachother. Most of the students took it very seriously and wrote really wonderful compositions. I conducted one piece every week with the POC (Le Petit Orchestre de Chambre - The little chamber orchestra) which consists of string players. They play music at the same level as most high school orchestras in the U.S. My friend Jordan (on the left of me in the picture) also conducted a piece every week. Two other volunteers, Damon and Carolyn (on the right of me) also conducted. It was incredible to hear the progress our students made from week to week. My viola sectionals were one of my favorite activities because the 5 girls were so nice and fun to work with. They also helped me with my Kreyol quite a bit. I told them that if I say something wrong they should correct me, so our viola sectionals were very reciprocal.

We went on one trip up into the mountians one sunday morning to try to find some caves. We didn't end up reaching the caves but we had quite an adventure getting there. We had been to these mountains last year, but had gone a different direction so it was nice to see a different part of the mountains. On the way there our tap-tap (the public transportation in Haiti. A pick up truck with benches in the back and a cover over top) got a flat tire and then after it was fixed got stuck in a rut, so we had to walk a while to get to the mountains, which is why we didn't reach the caves. We walked for probably 3 hours that whole morning. The views were breathtaking!

We were also fortunate to take a trip to Jacmel, the site of the other large music school in Haiti. The camp in Jacmel is going on right now and there are volunteers from Lawrence who are still there helping out. I would have stayed this summer if I weren't going to Vienna. Pierre, one of the assistant directors of the camp, took the volunteers who weren't going to Jacmel for the camp on a day trip there. Ms. Anthony hosts Haitian music students at her house who unofficially attend lawrence for a couple months at a time and it was nice to see some of those people in Jacmel who couldn't come to the Leogane camp. We looked in on 2 different music camps happening and went to a beautiful beach where we ate fish, conch, crab, rice, and fried plantanes.

Me, Daryl, Paris, and Damon - all Lawrence students.

I have so much more I could talk about but I think I'll leave it at that. Here are some more pictures from my travels. If you want to check out more pictures go to haiticheri.shutterfly.com

N'a we pita (see you later)

lindsay

The kiosk where the concerts and rehearsals are held. This is the orchestra rehearsing.

The Petits Chanteurs (the little singers) the boy choir.

All of us volunteers and some of our Haitian friends on top of the mountains

Damon and Carolyn eating mangos on the mountain

Picture from my ride back to the airport to leave Haiti. Haiti has no garbage collection system so people throw trash in large piles and then burn it. It smells really bad.