I've been working with a group of 10 to 12 year old kids at the New American School in Turgeau.  I used to teach there full time when we lived in Haiti in 2001.  We wrote a song together and I'll post it once it's recorded, but for now I want to just talk about their recycling program at the school.  Haiti has a huge problem with trash.  There's trash everywhere and almost none of it is being recycled.  The trash is piled and burned periodically.  With so many plastics and styrofoam containers being burned, the air is extremely polluted.  That's why this particular recycling program is so important.   They're doing art projects with the students at the school and showing them ways to use plastic bottles and other garbage to create useful things or make beautiful art.  Below is a presentation of their work along with a song they've written in Haitian Creole about cleaning up Haiti.

A Bus Stop shelter made out of plastic bottles.

A water heater that works through solar energy and is made entirely out of recycled trash.

Recycling bins made our of painted plastic bottles and metal from the trash.

The school children are using plastic that normally go in the garbage to hold their plants and herbs.

One of the many gardens at NAS.

Containers made our of recycled plastic bottles.

A garbage can made our of plastic bottles and wire.

 

Songwriting workshop with kids at the camp

We had a great songwriting workshop last week with the 5th and 6th graders at the camp.  Here's a video I put together of our day.

I've been living in Haiti for about a year now.  I've decided to start sharing some of my experiences with you all via this site.  So, here it goes.  My first blog entry...

I recently started volunteering at Sean Penn's camp.  There's a K - 6th grade school located within the camp, so I've decided to teach the kids some English by using songs.  We're also working on writing a song together.  They give me their ideas in French or Haitian Creole and I translate them into English and work with them to put the words and music together.  We did the brainstorming portion today and we'll work on putting the songs to music next week.  Above is a short video clip of the 5th grade kids singing!  I've also included two pictures below that I took while walking down to the camp area.