These past two weeks have been more than busy for me and my team. We just finished with our midline data collection! In other words, we just measured, weighed, conducted BIA and hemoglobin tests for 1167 kids. Oh yea, and we did it in nine days. It may not sound like much of a feat but let me explain the events leading up to these whirlwind weeks.
Midline was originally scheduled for two weeks; the 11th through the 22nd. Then we found out from the schools that Easter break was actually starting March 15th, moving everything up a week. No problem, we thought. It’s still two weeks and it’ll give us plenty of time. Then we realized—the kids don’t go to school all day. The Haitian school system is set up so that most schools are actually two schools in one. There is a morning school from 8-12 that has students, staff and administrators. Then, from 1-5 a completely different set of students, staff and administrators come and have their classes. So we actually only had 4 hours everyday to measure our kids, not 8. Yikes.
Then, quelle surprise, we find out that the week before break is the testing week for schools. Again, a difference between Haitian and US schools- kids take a series of three exams during the school year. These tests determine if a child passes or fails. While students get homework, this isn’t graded and the culmination of grades isn’t from assignments, it’s these tests. Three times a year (December, March and June) students take a week long exam which compiles their grades. So this week was not only important for us because we were collecting our data – it was more important for the children as it decides whether or not they pass their grade. As a result, we realized that while testing was going on, we wouldn’t be able to measure the students. (It would be counterproductive in the grand scheme of things to pull a child out of the most important test of the year to get weighed and measured.) So our second week, 4 hour work days suddenly became 2 hour days. Needless to say I was beginning to get nervous.
So March 4th rolls around (oh yea- we only measure during school days; Monday through Friday) and we begin. To my absolute delight, we completely measure 175 kids. 175 out of 1167 done just like that. Things were looking up. And, to my absolute delight again, my team didn’t let up. The eleven of us were able to hunker down and get all of our kids done in nine days, giving us a day off. I was completely blown away by their ability to focus on the tasks at hand, find a rhythm and rock it. Everyday there was a team leader and that leader was in charge of organizing the kids, setting people’s tasks, and keeping the momentum going.
We had two teams so that we could do two schools at once. We started with the larger schools in order to cause the least amount of disruption during testing. We also tried to coordinate schools by area so that teams worked in schools closer together, allowing less travel and driving around. And it worked. While the teams worked, my counterpart Windy and I drove around making deliveries, bringing supplies, and making sure everything was going smoothly. It was one of the best coordinated efforts I have seen in my limited international work and I was truly impressed. Everyone knew they were part of a team, knew the mission, and worked to get it done.
That’s not to say we didn’t have our hiccups. In the developing world, there are always hiccups and usually these hiccups are chronically occurring. They’re always happening so you have to learn to adjust and work around them. And we eventually did. The biggest bump in the road, besides the crappy road to one of our schools was the testing. Because it was testing week, we started our measurements later, giving the students time to take their tests. However, tests were only an hour or so long. After that, teachers let the kids go home. This meant we had a precious window to catch kids that needed to be measured and quickly get them done. I mean, what kid is going to want to sit around and wait to get prodded and pricked while they have basically a day off of school? As a result, we were always searching for students and always missing some at the end of the day. How did we solve it? Classroom games.
To their credit, most of the teachers at these schools are very helpful. Most. After finishing exams, we were able to get teachers to play games with their students until we were ready for them. Hangman, guessing games, math games – whatever worked. And it did. Kids want to be in school, they like learning and they especially like learning in a way that’s fun and not the standard repetition. I loved it for many reasons; kids were engaged and enjoying themselves, they were staying at the school longer, we got our measurements done, and the schools were involved. A win for everyone.
Yep, our two weeks of measuring was a success. And to end it, we took a staff day to the beach. Granted, it happened to be on a day that was a complete downpour, but once we got over the mountain framing the city, the rains stopped and we were able to enjoy ourselves. The perfect ending to a hard-working week.
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