Hi-Yah!

The kids here are just so cute.  I can’t imagine any sweeter group of little people than the ones that I encounter each day at GLA.  (My own kids are awfully great, too, and I think they rank right up there!)  When you come in the gate from the street, they are usually in the play yard – the 3s and older – and they run right up to you screaming “Hi-Yah!”  The first day, I asked someone what that meant in Creole.  They told me that it doesn’t actually mean anything, but all of the kids use it as the universal language for “Please pick me up and hug me!”  So, they run circles around you yelling “hi-yah!” with their little arms held up in the air toward you, with huge smiles and beaming faces.  I love it…  I wish I could scoop them all up at once.

I have written about my mornings in preschool before, but I wanted to give you a taste of what it is like.  It is a little different from the preschools my own children attend.  There are a couple of posters, and  a simple mural painted on the wall.  Miss Kiki, the instructor, brings all of her materials for the day. Usually she has a few old puzzles, the pictures fading, some workbooks for letter practice, one box of pencils and her hand-crank pencil sharpener.  Today she had a few small books with her, and the kids had a blast looking at them.  Some of the kids actually turned each page, feeling the smooth, glossy pages with their tiny fingers.  A couple of the boys used them to make miniature tents on the table.  Regardless, when they could identify a color or shape (in English or Creole) for me, I gave them lots of praise.  “Bravo!  Bravo!”

There is a dog that lives at the house where they have school.  It is about the size of a large lab, black, with a long, skinny body – ribs poking out.  I have no idea what the dog’s name is, but it mainly sits in the shade on the concrete, or walks slowly around the perimeter of the fence.  I have never seen it try to bite anyone, and it doesn’t even seem to like people.  In fact, I have never even heard it so much as bark.  Doesn’t matter – the kids are TERRIFIED of it.  Someone told me yesterday that most Haitians are scared of animals.  That makes sense when you see how panicked the kids become when the dog is around. Today the dog was walking (yup, that’s it) around the yard when the kids came through the gate for school.  It was like the world was coming to an end.  Kids started screaming, running, trying to climb my legs – it was crazy!  One little girl was trying to run, and she didn’t even know where she was trying to go.  She took two wild leaps and fell on the concrete, scraped her hands, and then jumped up again.  They were all screaming, “Chien!”  which may or may not be how you spell it, but it means ‘dog.’  I was trying to herd them past the beast, but it was like herding cats.  They were everywhere!  And they were hysterical!  Finally, Machino, a little 3 or 4 year old, took matters into his own hands.  He started yelling at the dog, and tried to chase it behind the house.  He looked so funny!  He is about 1/3 the size of the dog, and was wearing a Texas Longhorn T shirt and some ratty swim trunks.  He was very authoritative about the whole thing, and even was shaking a finger in the dog’s face.  (The poor dog looked more scared than the kids!)

Another kid, Judson, lost a shoe yesterday.  He has been wearing light blue girl’s sandals – like jelly shoes – since the first day I met him.  I think he is pretty new to GLA, and I don’t really know his story.  But today, he came to school with just one shoe.  I would love to know what is going on there, but I can’t ask him.  The language barrier is greater when you are dealing with the little ones (most of the adults at least know a few words in English.) So in he came with one blue shoe, and one tiny bare foot.  And, 90 minutes later, out he went with that one shoe and a slightly dirtier foot, headed off down the street away from school, back toward the Toddler House.  He didn’t seem to care – he had a smile on his face the whole time.  J