Eli's Perspective: Recess in Haiti

Today’s recess at the Power of Education Foundation started at its usual time at 10:30 and well exceeded its half-hour schedule and ended at 11:45am. The only phrase I can think of that describes our time playing with the children is that it was “controlled-chaos”. However it was in the best way. When we heard the recess bell ring from our balcony get-away, we braced ourselves for the stampede of children racing down the stairs to the courtyards, and stampede they did, the floor slightly rumbled before we saw them, and I looked to my parents as reassurance, and they showed the same “in-awe” look on their faces. The stream of children divided in half when they reached the staircase, half to prepare the courtyard and the other half to take our hands and direct us towards the stairs. Ben and my dad laughed in joy all the way down to the yard, while I and my mother braced ourselves and almost stifled at the sheer amount of physical touching (My mother and I are somewhat extreme introverts so this was the most attention we would ever have). We made it down the stairs and were greeted by the elementary students from the first level, which most heads turned our direction and quite literally jumped with anticipation.

We walked to the adjacent side wall and stayed together as a group, but were picked off one by one by the excited children. I soon noticed a little girl had her hand in mine, and had a beaming smile on her face! She pulled me aside still holding both of my hands in hers, and to sum it up, I believe it was a game of patty-cake. Where we both counted to three and would both clap and high five each other’s opposite hand and repeating, all the while speeding up and attempting to outlast their opponent. Lets just say that I was quickly out-performed within the first minute. These children were pro’s, clearly having practiced every day for this game.

This game lasted about 3 minutes, until another small child pushed her way to me, and led me by the hand to another clear section of the courtyard. And I was taught a bunch more games. But BY FAR the best and most fun game I was taught, was Hide-And-Seek. The Haitian version of the game, combined with the 20 other small children, made for an exciting and awesome game. It surprised me how they play their version. In the United States, one person seeks and everyone hides individually. In this school, one person seeks while one person hides, and everyone else has to hide that one

person. I, being the guest and the center of attention to these kids, I was the one hiding. And boy was that game fun, even with the language barrier I had the most fun with kids, ever. I think that being unable to fully talk to the children made it another mini-game and all the better.

Ben was playing basketball, throwing free-throws and dunking on the hoop, followed by Ooo’s and Aaah’s. My father Steve was swarmed by children, poking his tattooed arms that are the size of trees. He had hands in his beard and wanted him to play patty cake and a reflexes games. My mother was seen as a definite mother figure to the children. She had hands in her long red hair and the children were in awe at her tattoo as well. Chris and Juli were the center of the attention during the games in the courtyard, singing and dancing to their own music with the children. And I can only guess that I was seen as the playful one with the tiny children, and perhaps the

eye-candy to the older girls. Haha, for example, before we engaged in all of the games with the small ones, two older girls who had to have been 13 or 14, asked me if I was a movie or TV actor, because I looked like one of their Crushes on the Television. I chuckled and said no, but I don’t think that stopped them from following me throughout recess.

Overall, recess was a blast and the children did a great job at breaking my introverted shell and making me have fun and laugh. The children had a blast with us and we felt the same about playing with them. - Eli S.