Lessons learned and lessons to be learned

The other day I tried typing up a quiz for the students that was handwritten in Creole. My level of Creole does not match the level needed to write formal midwifery questions, so when the students were handed the test, there was a consensus of confusion. One question had to be thrown out because no one could understand it!

Credited to Cheryl Hanna-Truscott.

So, after that fiasco, I sat down with our head instructor for the class to review some basic Microsoft Office skills. Everyone is learning on the job! Nothing wrong with that I guess.

Our hospital staff midwives

Some of our matròns.

After discussions with Nadene and observing our boarding students, I am becoming more and more frustrated with the way Haitians learn. When you walk by a school in town, you will catch the voices of young children repeating after the teacher's verbal lessons. Sometimes on my walks behind the house, I pass by older students reading aloud from their lesson books as they pace back and forth. It seems that memorization is the only taught and accepted form of learning. At dinner this week, I talked to the students about memorizing versus comprehending the material from their textbook. I explained that grasping the general idea from 

the material was much more important than memorizing word for word. They nodded as if in agreement, but later that night I heard all of them reading the chapter aloud together, not stopping to discuss what they just read. Maybe with some persistence and gradual incorporation will these students learn how to involve critical thinking into their studying techniques. Just as they were taught, memorizing the chapter is the only way they know how to study. 

Me collecting data from the hospital birth log.

I also spent part of this week getting ready for two matròn (home birth attendant) classes. We are beginning a new class in a community at the edge of town and continuing to hold monthly education classes for our graduated one. Data collection sheets, clean birth kits, demographic sheets, etc. had to be assembled for Friday morning. Thanks to this week's group of volunteers, I had some helpers prepare the kits. 100 total! 

These photographs included in this blog post were taken by Cheryl Hanna-Truscott at http://hannatruscott.blogspot.com/. I mentioned her in my last blog, but she is a midwife and professional photographer. Thank you Cheryl!