Desperation

despair: a state in which all hope is lost or absent.

She walks in the office with faded clothes and unkept hair. Her face shows signs of a rough life, her eyes scream help. Carrying a broken backpack, she wanders into our office and takes a seat. She is in desperation.

The market is lined with women and men selling their goods. Fruits, vegetables, souvenirs and spices. The economic downturn has forced people to enter in the informal sector of society, selling fruits and vegetables that could be feeding their families. "Miss Miss, you need some spices". "Miss, come nuh". Market square is overrun and vendors are spilling into the streets and sidewalks. She is in desperation.

The police have run her off the sidewalk 4 days in a row now. She says they told her she cant sell her snacks there because its blocking traffic, even though she has been there for months. She is the only one that gets run off. Men sit right next to her selling knock off goods, unharmed. She is in desperation.

Her children are all in school. She has 6. Head of household is her title. Her goal is to feed her kids and make enough money to send them to school the next day. It costs her 30 dollars daily to get them to and from school. She is selling onions for 4 dollars a pound. She has no time for herself. How must she make money if she cant sell her goods? She is in desperation.

She comes to us for help. Why must the police run off the women, but leave the men on the corner? The woman must make the money for that beer he is drinking. She is angry, upset, but mostly...she is in desperation.

I give her my last 5 dollars. I don't need it. She is in desperation.

Science Fair!

Who would of thought they had Science Fair in Grenada too? Not me! It brought me down memory lane, back to my days of creating the craziest things for Science Fair.

Today at school I was eagerly approached about the Science Fair project my students were preparing for. Little did I know the fair was TOMORROW! haha. So much for planning, its not important around here.

I was assisting my counterpart teacher with gathering the data and printing off the papers for the tri-fold board (that I made from scratch). Each class has to present the project they completed at the islands Science Fair extravaganza, which takes place tomorrow morning at Boca Secondary School.

Grade one's fair project was growing a cucumber two different ways: one with water/sunlight/good soil, one with sunlight and good soil.

Grade two's project involved the tongue and its different areas of expertise, as in the bitter, sweet, sour, etc sections.

After some confusion, we completed the tri-fold presentation when I came to a realization....we hadn't included the children in any of this and it was THEIR project. Why? Sometimes we get so caught up in getting things done the correct way that we forget that every moment can be a learning experience for the kids. Perfection is something this culture is strict about and its wearing off on me.I get so flustered trying to please teachers, principals,etc. I should of let those kids help cut, paste and assemble that board instead of doing it myself as they watched from a distance. I was disappointed in myself after completing the project.

Thankfully, Ms. Mitchell picked three students to present the science project they completed at the fair tomorrow. We had them act like they were on stage presenting and it was adorable! Here is some dialogue:

"This is our cucumber experiment. This one is dead because we killed it." --student
"Well how did it die?"--me
"Well duhhhhh Miss, everyone knows you have to have water, sunlight AND good soil"--student

I was so proud to see their confidence show through while they presented on "their" cucumber experiment. We quizzed them on what the process involved and they were beaming with excitement.