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Haitian Visions

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:05:00 -0500

I found a Haitian art resource to pass along to you. Haitian Visions: A Diverse Cultural Legacy looks like an excellent resource; it includes a DVD featuring Haitian art and a half hour kid-geared commentary that tells about Haitian art, ideas for art projects, etc. If you have it, let us know what you think.

Kristina Wenger, Kids and Cultures co-founder

Tony's Helicopter

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:00:00 -0500

photo by Matt Lester (Matthew Lester Photography), board vice chair

As a photographer, I've made six trips to Haiti over the last ten year. The longest was two months living in a rural village without electricity and the nearest phone was 15 miles away. Living in a country of abundance and trying to explain to our children what life is like in other parts of the world is tough.

I remember Tony, one of the children living in the Haitian village; he would come and show the toys he made from found objects. I was always amazed by the ingenuity of his creations. One evening, he arrived with a helicopter made from scrap wood and a recycled tin of food-aid cooking oil. The working propellers were made from reused tiny motors and driven by a D sized battery. The helicopter was lit with recycled Christmas lights.

People in the developing world are so often portrayed by the media and aid agencies as helpless and in utter need. I've discovered something different. People are resourceful and inventive. They work hard and care about the same things as you and me. I want to teach my children this.

About the photo...The trails of light coming off the helicopter are from the lights Tony attached to it. I set the camera so the shutter would stay open after the flash lit the scene, capturing the light of the helicopter.

Thanks for reading! Blog and photo by Matt Lester (Matthew Lester Photography), board vice chair.

Consider the "Sames"

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Rebecca Barker, board member

Often the one word mentioned when discussing other cultures is "different." People speak different languages, eat different foods, have different social customs and celebrate different holidays.
When studying and making judgment on others it is important to consider the "sames" as well. Those who live in other cultures adapt to their surroundings, yet often develop by the example of other cultures around the world.

Consider just one example: Christmas in Argentina. In this South American country a feast is prepared on Christmas Day which often features Sidra, a form of cider. Families may attend a church ceremony and will gather to enjoy sweet breads baked with nuts and berry, similar to our cranberry bread. Interestingly, Argentina is the only country in South America where children write to Santa Claus. Like I do in my own home, Argentinians decorate with green, gold, red and white and many times have a Christmas tree.

As you continue to share multicultural education with your children and loved ones this 2010, consider not always the differences but how we are alike. Celebrate not only that each culture is special for its differences, but that it is the similarities which pull cultures together. Happy 2010!

Making Friends with Refugees

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Dr. Tom Pallmeyer, board member

My wife, Carol, has always tried to seek out ways to help our daughters learn that there is more to the world than the comfortable one in which we live. Last year, our church took on the task of sponsoring a Burmese refugee family. Carol immediately became involved in a number of ways, including helping them to learn English. Our 11-year-old daughter and I have gotten involved as well, mostly by the "osmosis" that comes from getting to know people. We have been able to celebrate some of their Muslim religious traditions/holidays with them, and to help introduce them to some of our cultural traditions (how we celebrate birthdays, for example). Though our daughter is not the most adventurous soul when it comes to trying out new foods, she has even been game enough to try out some rather spicy foods in the spirit of getting to know our new neighbors!

Get to know Lancaster's newest neighbors from around the world. Contact Lancaster's largest refugee agencies, Church World Service and Lutheran Refugee Services, to learn how.

Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.

Helping Kids Learn About Haiti

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:29:00 -0500

Kristina Wenger, co-founder and staff member

With the tragedy of the Haiti earthquake on every news channel and website, and distressing images and sounds replaying themselves in our minds, how can we help kids here learn about and better understand kids in Haiti?

Finding happy information about Haiti isn't as easy as some other countries we've researched. The lives of Haitian kids are difficult in the best of times. Few go to school. Many are orphaned by AIDS. Others are "restavecs," child slaves given by their impoverished families (who hope they'll thus receive education) to work for other families. Only about half have access to good drinking water and good toilet facilities. Sometimes there is so little food that they make "mud cookies," which, yes, actually include mud, to stretch the ingredients they have. I can't imagine how life is for them, now.

As with every country in the world, we look for and share the positive aspects of the cultures we study, trying to build connections for children here to better relate to (and find ways to responsibily care about) their peers around the world. Most of this information comes from Haiti: Enchantment of the World, by Jean Blashfield.

About Haiti

The native Taino word for the country is "ayiti," or "Land of Mountains." 4/5ths of the country is covered with mountains. That name eventually evolved into "Haiti."

Shaped like a backwards C, the country covers about 1/3 of the island of Hispaniola ("Quisqueya," in the native languages), which it shares with the Dominican Republic.

The average temperature in Haiti in January is 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Two large species of reptile found in Haiti include the American crocodile and the rhinoceros iguana (yes, it has three horny growths between its eyes and its nostrils, which remind you of a rhino).

In the late 1600s, what is now Haiti was the French-ruled colony "Saint Domingue." It was France's richest colony.

In Saint Domingue, African slaves worked the plantations of indigo, coffee, and sugar. In the 1790's, the slaves forced the French to outlaw slavery, and the nation won its independence in 1804. Most Haitians are descendants of African slaves.

Most Haitians speak Creole, evolved from French and African languages. To say hello, in the morning, you'd say "bonjou." In the afternoon, "bon swa." Thank you is "messy."

Haitians have a big party before Lent begins. It's called "Rara." Friends make Rara bands and dance, do magic tricks, and chant as they parade through the countryside while dressed in bright, beaded/sequined clothing.

Music is very important in Haitian culture.

"Tap-taps" are large vehicles used as buses. They are very colorfully painted and eye-catching!

Children often make their own toys in Haiti. Here's a toy car made from an old plastic bottle, 5 bottle caps, straws, and some string.

Games Haitian children play:

Osselets (OOH-slay) - like jacks, but with goat knuckles (can substitute small stones). Directions are here, on page 28-29

Another game is called Marelles (hopscotch). The game is drawn on a sidewalk: it consists of the word start, followed by 3 circles in a row, then a large rectangle divided into four equal smaller rectangles by a + sign. When it is the player's turn, he throws a stone into the first circle, then hops into it, picks up his stone, hops into the next circle, then the third. When he arrives at the rectangles, he jumps in with both feet, one in each of the closest two rectangles, then hops on only one foot into each of the second two triangles. This turns him around, and he again hops into the first two rectangles on both feet, before continuing, one-footed, into the third, then second, then first circles, then back out. If he touches a line with his hopping foot, touches the ground with the foot in the air, speaks, or makes a sound, his turn is over. If he successfully completes his jumps, he can throw his stone into the second circle and continue as before.

A few other resources:

To "meet" a Haitian child and learn about her country, check out http://hello.mcc.org/ and click on Haiti (the dot closest to Florida, in this case) when the map loads. Besides meeting Chrismone, there are activities like a matching game and trivia questions that help the visitor learn more about Haiti. You can also download a print version.

www.haitihouses.org shares a cool project kids can make, then sell to raise money for an aid organization working in Haiti.

I have not ever used this curriculum, but parents and Sunday School teachers who want to educate their children about Haitian culture may be interested in it: http://www.omsinternational.org/store/mtg/haiti. It looks interesting.

Here's a book I read, once, too: Selavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope.

Listen to Putumayo's Caribbean Playground for two songs from Haiti.

We're hoping to have a guest from Haiti at our summer day Camp, so that we can continue to learn more about this country that is close to us, yet in many ways, so far away.

Hello Online

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Marla Pierson Lester, board member

Say hello to your world
Say hello - or wa'gwaan, bite or oi - to your world. Go to hello.mcc.org for Hello Online, a Mennonite Central Committee site that introduces kids to children in 14 different countries. Move your cursor over the map of the world, and pictures of children pop up. Click to find out more about each child and her or his country - and explore quizzes and special features.

Some highlights: Play a frog-catching game (Hello Puerto Rico). Listen to drummers and singers at a church choir competition in Sudan (Hello Sudan). Count to 10 in Arabic (Hello Iraq), greet someone in Haitian Creole (Hello Haiti) or check out instructions for making paper beads (Hello Uganda). The icon with the book features images and details from a child's day. My son, now 8, has been most fascinated by these. It's the feature he kept clicking back to, although he also got into the matching games.

Don't miss: Easter egg painting in Hello Ukraine. Choose your brush, color and how transparent the paint is, then decorate as you wish. The program makes sure you color inside the lines. The only downside? I want to keep these creations! (You can also decorate a teapot in Hello Vietnam.)

The back story: I edit Hello, MCC's children's flier and edit text for Hello Online. I'm so consumed with work at work and home at home that it literally took months before I thought to have my kids explore Hello Online. When I did, I expected the games would be the big draw. But my son's favorite was hearing about the lives of kids around the world. At hello.mcc.org, you can also subscribe to Hello, MCC's free quarterly children's flier. It's a companion piece to MCC's A Common Place magazine, a free quarterly publication that introduces readers to the people and places where MCC works around the world (acommonplace.mcc.org). Comments or questions? E-mail mpl@mcc.org.

[Note: at Hello Online, be sure to click on Haiti to learn about Haiti from a kid's perspective; you can help MCC respond to the Haiti earthquake at http://mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-respond-haiti-earthquake-donations-welcome.]

Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.

RandomKid's Water Project

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Dr. Lori McGowan, board member

Being in the medical field I find information surrounding other countries anthropological approaches to medicine and local customs of interest. I think it is important for my child to recognize that how we go about our daily routine in the US (for instance) is quite different then other countries. Take for example water, we open the tap and we can have a glass of water, not so in many parts of the world. Water rights/availability are becoming a huge issue of concern worldwide. Potable water is directly related to disease incidence. A new website we recently found, http://www.randomkid.org/water.asp, allows kids to get involved and make a difference in their world. Kids helping kids will create the next generation of responsible leaders.

Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.

BBC Schools

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Michelle Salinas, board secretary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/ is a great website for all ages! Learn and practice some simple Spanish vocabulary and phrases. Hear the correct pronunciation. Learn about different Spanish speaking countries and see how children in those countries live and play. Play games to practice the new vocabulary you have learned or challenge yourself on what you already know.
The real pictures are fantastic and change regularly. You can visit the website daily for new units and cultural information.

This is a very interactive website that is easy to navigate, even for young children and older adults who are not computer savvy. It is also a great resource for teachers who want to bring some diverse cultural information into the classroom. This site is fun for the whole family. Enjoy!

Michelle Salinas is also the owner of Your Language Connection. Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.

December Holidays

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:00:00 -0500

Michelle Fogel, board chair

My 7 year old son has been fascinated by how other cultures celebrate holidays since he could express himself at all. In an effort to learn with him, our family has been celebrating Hanukkah and Winter Solstice, in addition to Christmas, for five years now, dabbling in others along the way.

I just love the website www.torahtots.com for kids. It has everything I could have hoped for in its contents, and has guided us beautifully through an in-depth experience year after year. He has a favorite book that connects Christmas and Hanukkah for him as well ~ "Hanukkah, Shmanukkah!" by Esme Raji Codell. In this tale, Old man Scroogemacher is visited by three Rabbis....you got it.... of Hanukkah past, present, and future! Stunning illustrations by LeUyen Pham, and a useful glossary of Yiddish words.

For Solstice, I wrote a story for my boys based on Celtic lore that I picked up in Scotland. In it, all the fairies live on an island and travel to the mainland at night so that the sun doesn't burn their wings. One particularly stormy, cold night, one little fairy was 'stuck' on land and simply could not get back to her island. She ended up staying at a quaint cottage, warming herself by the fire until the storm passed (but before the morning sun was blazing). To thank the family for their hospitality, she left a little treat by the fireplace for when they awoke, and every December, she leaves reminders of her thanks for the family.

I spiced it up a bit over the years by adding a very plain "Christmas Box" with 25 small doors. Our family's fairy is named Maisey, and she is quite a trickster as it turns out. She likes to send our three young boys on wild treasure hunts to find their goodies! She also writes lessons about how to treat each other and themselves with kindness and respect, and lets them know if their behavior is not quite what it could be :) My husband and I have become pros at coming up with 21 treats each on a budget (quarters and Hershey kisses are wonderful). This really is the highlight of our holidays, and we all cry when we read Maisey's final farewell letter as it reminds us how quickly the boys are growing up. We have to savor these moments while we still have them!

Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.

International Children's Festival

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dulcey Antonucci, board member

I scour the paper each weekend looking for church bazaars and festivals. I'm looking for food and music from other cultures to share with my two-year-old son. When we go, I'm also hoping for dancing, costumes and crafts-something to entertain him beyond the meal-but they don't always exist.

The events I've attended in church basements and halls have had varying degrees of success with him. He's not always in the mood for new experiences that aren't specifically geared to children. The event he liked the most was the International Children's Festival held at the Ten Thousand Villages store in Ephrata, Pa.

He liked best the Peruvian folk band that let him play some of their instruments and the wire bicycle toy from Africa. For an added cost, we bought lunch and participation in certain crafts and activities, like a rickshaw ride and a dress-up-in-costume photo. They also had educational displays, like a water pump that demonstrated how some villages in Africa get their water.

The festival will be held this year on June 5, 2010, from 10 am -3 pm. Parking and admission were free with a donation of toothpaste.

Photo by Matt Lester, Matthew Lester Photography.