The Haven Church IMPACT team had a full and productive day with activities split between the local school and the home of Malinda and Tamara. Despite the busy schedule, the team accomplished a great deal. Here’s a look at their day, with reflections from Emeline and Sabrina.
From Emeline:
Today, I went to Central Abaco Primary School. They had a parent assembly where the parents sang a bunch of great and fun songs. I worked one-on-one with a child from the first grade and taught him how to write his name and a couple of specific letters: S, H, N, F, L, G, and W. We had a lot of amazing breakthrough moments with him. I worked with Berson, who had a hard time writing his name and remembering what letters make up his name. By the end of my time with him, I taught him a song to remember his name to the tune of the “Barney” theme song: B-E-R-S-O-N. That’s how he writes his name! The kids definitely love to hug you and braid your hair at break! It was super fun to interact with all the kids there.
In the afternoon, we helped Ms. Mills teach the first-grade students again. We taught them about RESPECT. We taught them how to spell it and show it, and we gave them examples. A kid named Caleb was hilarious and made me laugh the whole time. It was an overall great day at the school! It was very cool to see the differences in school in America versus the Bahamas. Almost all of the hallways were outdoors, and they all had to buy their own snacks at break. For lunch, they brought literal money to the school. How trusting the parents are! Also, primary school is first through sixth grade, and high school is seventh through twelfth. It’s awesome to see growth in kids in only a little time.
The teachers there are amazing and have poured so much into the kids they teach. They have such a hard time trying to cater to each individual child. They have very little training, and mostly it’s trial and error. They have a very hard job, trying to teach kids with possible unknown learning challenges. So, I loved helping Berson and Caleb and a bunch of other kids!
From Sabrina:
Today was a day full of variety for me. After breakfast, I had the opportunity to go to the local school. This was a super culturally significant experience because, in some ways, it is much different than my elementary school in the States. The students were celebrating Parents’ Day, where they sang songs and put on a show for their parents. I then got paired up with a young first-grade boy named Shiloah. He has been really struggling to recognize letters and sounds. I worked with him all morning by starting with practicing sounds, and then we began to work on spelling out his name. By the end of the morning, Shiloah was able to write his name on a whiteboard. This was a sweet experience, and I was so glad I was able to make an impact in his life and give him the one-on-one attention that he needed. It was very sad to see these kids who definitely were experiencing learning disabilities and struggling and who don’t often get the needed attention. However, these kids brought so much joy to my day, and it was so fun to connect with students of all grade levels during their break time.
The second experience I want to highlight also involves a local youth. Over the week, we have been working at Tamara’s house, and I was able to cement the wall and do some other projects there. Tamara has an eight-year-old daughter named China. The past couple of days, as I’ve worked at their house, China has come home towards the end of the day, and I immediately connected with her yesterday. Yesterday, she told me that she can’t wait to move in and that she hopes to paint the walls blue. I was able to relate to her, as I also went through the process of the excitement of a move. Today, her room walls got drywalled, and another layer of cement was put on. When she came home from school, I was able to take her inside and show her her room, and it looked much more complete with walls. Although there is still work to be done, it was a special moment to be able to see her excitement and talk to her.
— Emeline and Sabrina
