One Day Left

Today, October 15th, is the first internet deadline for the professors in the program. True to the original intentions, the teachers were told that Pwof Ansanm would pay for one hour of educational internet use a month at VDH (a youth center with a cybercafe and internet classes) if they would send an email once a month to pwofansanm@gmail.com to say which sites they were using most. This was almost two months ago, but the internet at VDH was down for nearly one month, so the deadline for the first email was pushed back.

As of a week or two ago, we had only heard from a handful out of the 55 professors who finished the training (all of whom said they wanted to participate in the internet program). As of last night, there were 20 who had written, plus two members of KAG (the teachers organization)- Waldinde, who has been helping teach the others, and another who helped run the training. I'm not sure what the policy will be about KAG members.

This has been another demonstration in the workings about Haiti. Really, just two weeks ago, we were sure that we would have ten responses at the most. Plus, there was no way for us to communicate with all the teachers to remind them. What were we going to do? Send them an email? In any case, faithful Waldinde has been contacting as many as possible, reminding them, and even offering to meet them there to help them remember how to write an email. Things get done in Haiti, usually, but only at the last minute.

I asked him about the women because we've only heard from the KAG member and Marie Mite, who was in the training, but we've technically counted her as a trainer, since she helped train the teachers in internet and computer use. Waldinde said he visited all the women personally, but they chose not to go. I'm really hoping that they're just procrastinating and will go in the next 12 hours... I wonder why they're not interested?

I wish I knew how many of the teachers actually received the information about this opportunity. Most things go out by word of mouth, so we're limited to their seeing each other and remembering or to Waldinde's efforts. I have no doubt that we've missed some of the teachers in the more remote towns.

At the same time, when I really think about it, 20 out of 55 may not be so bad. It could easily have been much lower.

And If There Weren't Already Enough Challenges

Jacson's leaving Jeremie to study in PaP.

Jacson was the real force behind the intiation of this project. He contacted Joy, and thus Pwof Ansanm was born. I haven't heard yet what this will mean for the project. If other leaders will step forward, the show may go on. But if no one fills those big shoes... ?????

Will There Be a Training Next Year?

I talked to Joy last night. She is tentatively planning to go back to Jeremie in early November, to prepare next summer's training. But not a lot seems to be happening on the Jeremie end. She has asked that KAG (the teachers' organization) and the other professors get together and take care a lot of the basic planning steps. This seems to be too much to ask, and she is considering threatening to call off the whole program. We're not really sure what the problem is, but here are some possibilities:

Haitians don't generally plan so far in advance (or even in advance at all, sometimes), so meetings NOW seem ridiculous.

Leadership there isn't delegating responsibilities, so either people don't feel involved, they have no idea what is going on and what needs to be going on, and they are generally underutilized.

Creative problem solving within administrative issues is not especially part of the Haitian infrastructure right now.

Something else?

There was so much enthusiasm when we left that we were optimistic about the professors joining KAG and becoming more involved in the planning process. Email communication is proving difficult, so we're not sure what to do or whom to contact specifically to pushing things along from here. Joy doesn't want to have them scrambling to organize a meeting AFTER she gets there, with good reason.

One hates to hand-hold, but we're thinking it might be necessary to create a checklist, with little check boxes and the works, of every task and subtask and how to perform each subtask, if it comes down to it. Yikes! Perhaps part of the mission of this program will end up being the building of organizational planning infrastructure, which could have some great externalities for Jeremie.

We're also trying to find more people on the international end, with expertise, materials, manpower, and donations, to help carry these trainings along. So if you know anyone...

Who'll Take Free Internet?

When we left Jeremie, we announced to all the teachers that if they would sign onto the internet once a month and email us with a list of the websites they were accessing, they would get one hour of access free at VDH, one of the cybercafes. They all, without exception, put their names on a list to say they wanted to participate.

This has not gone as expected. First, the internet was down at VDH for a few weeks, precluding them from accessing the internet there. A few wrote from other locations to let us know, and now the service is back up. Joy extended the response deadline to October 15, to compensate for the delay.

As of today, only a handful have written, perhaps 10 of 55. We're not sure if the others aren't interested, can't make it to town to use the service, can't remember how to sign on, don't realize that VDH is up and running again, or what. Anyone who doesn't write by October 15 will be removed from the list. Joy sent out a final email to remind them of this and to encourage them to remind each other.

Finally, even those who have written haven't exactly followed instructions. They are supposed to use the access to find educational information and then tell us which sites. Not one has done this. Typical content is restricted to greetings, thank yous, requests for material, and the announcements that VDH internet was down. We're not sure what to make of this. Perhaps they didn't really understand how to do a search on google. It's also possible that they don't really read the emails we send for content, but simply take them as greetings. This could explain the lack of reply to our questions.

What to do?

The surveys

I am still wading my way through surveys! All the once designed with multiple choice answers and just a few places to specify other information went very quickly. But one of the last questionnaires was completely open-ended, with questions like "What would help you share the information you've learned with other teachers?" and "Other than food or transportation money, what about the program would you change?" Monica, a true saint, has been helping me enter them and translate them into English, but we tend to finish only three or four an hour, when they're legible. After they've all been entered (for a record of original data), I'll try to code them to group similar responses. We're definitely seeing a lot of themes. They were glad to have done group work, lesson and unit plans, and internet, among others. There weren't very many negative comments; some felt limited in their ability to employ some of the techniques or pass them on without some additional resources.

But, the end is in sight, and I'll be able to finish the evaluation soon!