What a bus taught me about intercultural learning: Haiti and Educator Leadership Institute Update

The second day of teacher professional development and STEAM camp in Cap-Haitien, Haiti built on the strong successes of yesterday.

The day started with an assembly for all the teachers ... 500+ people engaging with a beautiful song in which the participants identified that individually and corporately they are key to the future of education in Haiti. Then the day began for teachers as they engaged in active and problem-based learning in one of six subject areas:

Technology session with our partner Desire2Learn 

• mathematics
• science
• special education
• critical literacy
• early learning
• leadership

There are 18 classes that are running concurrently which makes for a significant amount of logistical oversight. Jhonel Morvan, our ELI co-lead, does an amazing job in keeping everything on track.

Meanwhile, our Laurier and Haitian university and high school students were welcoming 200+ kids back to camp. There were a lot of cooperative games, math activities, a science focus on the human body, and even some creative movement in our arts section. Andrew Braid, our camp coordinator and recent graduate of Laurier's Bachelor of Education, is an awesome facilitator!

After a lunch of chicken and rice, the Laurier students traveled down the road for the university ESL program while the Haitian teachers welcomed the camp children into their classes for teaching practice.

One of the many inter-cultural learning experiences that happened today involved the bus that was taking the Laurier students down to the ESL program. The bus tried to turn a corner but encountered a parked car. Now, in Canada, this would be no big deal since the streets are wide. But in Cap-Haitien, most of the streets are only 3-4 metres (9-12 feet) wide. The bus could not make the corner with the parked car in the way. So, what did the bus driver do? For perhaps 10 minutes he honked the horn. He wouldn't let others pass so they started honking. But no on came to move the car. 

Students in the ESL program

Finally, the bus driver turned the opposite direction and proceeded to do a three-point turn at the next corner. Remember, that the streets are narrow. But he made it, even as he was driving with a manual transmission and on a hill! He returned down the street on which the car was parked and navigated to the school. It was an amazing act of driving. 

As Canadians, we can look at that experience as a problem: Why would someone park their car in a narrow street? Why would the bus driver just keep honking instead of trying to get out and find the car owner? Why would the dozens of people who passed not offer to locate the driver of the car? Why would the policeman who observed the entire situation not spring into action? Why would a bus driver attempt a three-point turn in a busy city intersection?

Or, we can look at the situation (and the solution) as an act of innovation: When there is one road-block, we just look for another way around. 

It's a great lesson for all of us to learn: When life presents challenges and obstacles, it might be OK to lay on the horn ... or we might try and resolve the immediate problem ... or we might just need to look for a different path.

Just another day of experiencing Haiti.