Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Charging Station in the Boys Village



Rachel's family visited just before the Christmas holiday. Her father, Ralph, donated and installed a couple of solar panels and a system to charge the old cell phones of our oldest boys who rely on phones to do the odd jobs that they are responsible for. Some of you have donated those old phones, which are very cheap to operate in Haiti, unlike in the US. With so few outlets, and such unreliable power it can be hard for the phones to get proper charge. The new system will use solar power and can charge over 20 phones at a time.

Thanks Ralph for the installation!!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Lessons from Medical Students



Medical school students give of their vacation time to share their expertise with our children.  This morning the topic was:  Be proactive when sick. Don't wait until it is serious.  We are blessed to have these medical students from Universite l'Lumiere come here every Christmas break.  God bless them.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Christmas Gifts all around!

Christmas gift distribution yesterday morning thanks to our friends in Minnesota and the assistance of our older boys.  On the anniversary of the greatest gift of all, our children received colorful, painted bags filled with assorted goodies: candy, toys, clothing.  Many thanks to Sue Valiton and her group!




Thursday, December 25, 2014

Here's Jakson admiring our creche scene this morning.  
He kept wanting to move the Baby Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Espwa to all of you. Joyeux Noel! Bonne Annee!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYc6WWoZHo

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas Caroling in the Girl's Village

All the girl's are getting in the Christmas spirit singing Christmas carols in the village when they don't have class.


Monday, December 8, 2014

Snow in Haiti



Most of the kids who live at Espwa have never seen snow in their life. So for a Christmas craft activity we had a few of the kids over to the Quad to make paper snowflakes. We explained to them what snow looks like in Canada and the United States and how, for many of us, its a hallmark of the Christmas season. They said they had seen snow before in the movies and began snipping away each making their own unique snowflake.


Each child got to bring one home with them and left one for us to decorate the Quad. In the photo above, Marc is showing his big brother, Kens, the snowflake he made. They all came out beautiful!

Friday, December 5, 2014

iGive to Free the Kids

Want a quick and easy way to help Espwa and Free the Kids? Just follow this link and register with iGive, and FTK will get $5 for every new membership. http://iGive.com/welcome/warmwelcome.cfm?c=34755&m=439298

$5 Free for evey new member who tries iGive before Cyber Monday


iGive is an organization that gives a portion of your purchases to a charity of your choice. Participating stores include Amazon, JC Penney, Macy's, Nordstrom, and more. We recommend using iGive all year round, but even if you don't use it for your shopping, FTK will get $5 for simply signing up and becoming a member. Thank you for your support!

English Classes

For the past three months, a select group of older boys at Espwa have been invited to take free English classes at the Quad. They've been working on developing their vocabulary, grammar and conversation skills with Kelsey and Rachel and the visitors.


The boys take classes three times a week and as more and more students have learned about the opportunity, invitations to the class have spread. Although every student does not attend every class, we have roughly 20-30 boys learning English with us. As of this week, we even have our first woman in class: Sonia, the Guest House cook!


The best part of class is playing games with the students. A few weeks ago, with Sue's group, we did a scavenger hunt at Espwa by pairing up our students with visitors and having them work together in teams. The above picture is one of the photos taken during the scavenger hunt of "someone jumping in the air." This week we played a game of Jeopardy together to learn English plurals.

We are looking forward to continuing classes through the spring and hope some of our springtime visitors will be just as excited as we are to help the students develop their language skills. They've come so far already!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Sprints on a Saturday

A few weekends back, 100 Espwa kids gathered for a morning of track and field activities. Different age groups competed in a 60 meter dash, soccer dribble, and relay race. The event was great fun for all, and the kids were excited to see their times posted in the primary school the next day. What a great weekend activity!



Monday, December 1, 2014

Espwa Memories for the Holidays

After a couple of months of photographing and interviewing dozens of members of the Espwa family, the "Humans of Espwa" photography book is now up for sale. You can buy the book in softcover or hardcover online here: http://www.blurb.com/b/5704829-humans-of-espwa . Rachel and Kelsey will donate all of their profits from book sales to Free the Kids.





Humans of Espwa is a photographic glimpse into daily life at Pwoje Espwa Sud in Les Cayes, Haiti. We have interviewed and photographed dozens of members of the Espwa family: from the kids who live here to the security guards, administrators, teachers and farmers that make this project what it is. Although we wish we could have filled a book cover to cover with a photo of each and every person here, we hope this will give you a sense of some of the incredible people who call Espwa home.

Wishing you all happy holidays from Espwa!

-Rachel and Kelsey