December 22 – Christmas party at the school

With exam period over, the last day before the long Christmas vacation is dedicated to a Christmas PARTY. Classes prepared dances and songs and everyone had a wonderful time.

Decorating class for Christmas

Preparing Christmas Decorations

Christmas Decorations

Christmas Songs

Christmas Party

December 18 – Basketball!

Fixing the Basketball court

Today was the inauguration of our newly renovated basketball court. The court will be open every afternoon and on weekends for the people in the community.

December 16 – Outreach to New Jersey

One of our 5^th grades is involved in an information exchange program with students of Tenfly Public School in New Jersey. This program has benefits for both sides. For the US students, it’s a part of learning about Haiti, reaching out to their age group over here and practicing French. For our students it’s a chance to learn about life of children in the US and also to proudly present their own day to day lives and dreams. Today, Galit, the spirit behind this partnership and our liaison to the US school came with the beautiful posters made in the US and gathered the stories made in Haiti to send over. 

Handing out the Stories

Reading a Personal Story to Galit

Getting Stories

December 12 - Exam period

In a new school, many things happen for the first time. This week is Ecole Nouvelle Zoranje’s first exam period. Both the teachers and the students have been preparing for this day for the last few weeks. Each class (starting with kindergarten!) is being evaluated on each of the subjects they have learned in the 2 months since the opening of the school.

Kindergarten Exams

November 12 – Exhibition - SOLIDARITES ENFANTS DU MONDE

Today was a very exciting at the school. The exhibition of ‘Art in all of Us’ was displayed at Ecole Nouvelle Zoranje. Buses came with children from other schools that participated in the program. Art work of children from all over the world was presented on posters around the school, the children walked around with their tutors and talked about what they see in the paintings and the meaning of solidarity.

The program also included a puppeteer, a band playing live music with children dancing and a slideshow display of children from all around the world participating in activities. 

Slideshow of the workshop

November 5 –Hurricane Tomas

We spent most of the day yesterday to prepare for the first hurricane of the season to hit Haiti. We moved all stuff from the tents to inside buildings, secured tents and temporary toilets to the fence and ensured nothing will fly in the strong winds expected.

The hurricane has moved on now. While some Haitian cities had floods and strong winds and rain, Zoranje had pretty calm weather. Better safe than sorry J

November 3 – SOLIDARITES ENFANTS DU MONDE

One of our second grade classes had a chance today to participate in a workshop by Fondation Culture et Creation in corporation with ‘Art in all of Us’ (http://www.artinallofus.org/). In the workshop, our kids got a chance to see photographs of children from all around the world, experienced taking photos themselves and discuss the meaning of solidarity around the world.

We are anxiously waiting for the exhibition that will include work by the kids from Ecole Nouvelle  Zoranje side by side with work of kids from other parts of Haiti and many other countries in the world.

October 25 – Starting distribution of food

 After nearly two months work with the World Vision to get our school into the program, today we started distributing a cooked meal to all the kids in school. While the menu is basic (rice and beans, beans and rice), we’re sure this will become a major event in the school day. Including the school staff, we distributed nearly 380 plates!

October 22 – Cholera outbreak in Haiti

Yesterday afternoon we got the sad news of a cholera outbreak in Haiti. Despite the fact that the epidemic is to the north of Zoranje, we think a school environment must be a safe and protected place. Since our school doesn’t have running water (yet!) we are taking the threat very seriously and this morning set out to ensure proper hygiene measures exist. We added water points around the school with chlorine tablets. All kids got explanations and instructions on what they can do to protect themselves. As a precaution we put a ‘guard’ near the toilets to ensure all kids understand and follow our new hygiene rules. We pray that this outbreak is kept under control and doesn’t spread into the densely populated Port-au-Prince with its many tent camps.

Kindergarten kids lining up to wash hands

October 11 – School opening

What a day. Excited kids, accompanied by their parents started arriving as early as 7 AM, looking for their classes and checking out the new school. By 9:30 all the classes made first introductions and came outside for a small ceremony for the opening. It’s amazing how fast a nice building becomes a school when the kids start coming in with their backpacks and uniforms. 

Very exciting! children and parents arriving on the frist day

Anet, a kinderkarten teacher

Opening ceremony

Getting to know each other while having fun

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