 The girls arrived to wish Sr. Gisele a Happy New Year |
 A 4th grade student visits the school even on vacation |
January 6, 2011The following excerpt was written by Hope for Haiti’s Program Director upon leaving a site visit in Carrefour, near the heart of the earthquake. Hope for Haiti supports St. Francois de Sales Primary and Secondary school with Teacher Salary Subsidies and is working to build a library and computer center after the school was destroyed in the quake.
Sr. Gisele entered the sisterhood in 1962 at age 18. Before you were born, she says. Before your mom was born!
She doesn’t have her age on the tip of her tongue, but the discussion of dates and her 18-year-old self makes her curious. A quick subtraction, pencil and scratch paper, and she underlines 66. Underlines it and smiles, laughing. 66 and still young! The students say they want to be djanm, like Sr. Gisele. She chuckles.
The school has many needs, she says. But for now, she really needs a bookshelf with doors. An armoire. Her books are on the floor, and there are metal storage shelving units on sale somewhere in Port-au-Prince. Mikey will get her one, right? There’s a sale going on now!
She prepared a gift basket, beautifully wrapped in cellophane, with gold bows and red Christmas ribbon, and filled with pwodwi peyi. The Sisters make all kinds of these local products – jellies, nuts, coffee, and sweets – to sustain themselves, to pay for food and their healthcare as they age. The young Sisters, Sr. Gisele says with obvious self-reference, must have means to care for the older Sisters. Those Sisters are tired. After years of work and caring for others, they now deserve to be cared for. The old Sisters, she glances and points off left, upward: they are tired.
School is running well. All 32 teachers, the 15 kitchen staff, the depot monitor, and the 2 guardians get a hot meal each day with the students. All 1,230 students from Kindergarten through the last year of high school begin class in the morning, staying for various lengths of time until their respective lessons are finished. Sometimes 9th graders stay until 3pm when preparing for the State Exam. And speaking of exams, Sr. Gisele mentions, these are how she measures success. When it comes to her job being well done, the consistently perfect and near-perfect passing rates that each class achieves on the National Exams – including this past year, in spite of the earthquake – speak for themselves.
 Hope for Haiti’s efforts are thanks to the generous support of UFCW |
 Hope for Haiti constructed a wall to protect students in the temporary school houses (right) from the new school construction |
 The scope of the wall will keep the school safe during construction |
Sr. Gisele works hard. Seated behind her Dell in the makeshift, open-air office, her rich smile and light eyes belie the long hours she undoubtedly puts in. With sharp humor and maternal warmth, she graciously answers my questions. Her answers prod even more questions, far beyond the narrow framing of my list. Her story comes out, and I want to know more.
Before I part, I remember why Hope for Haiti makes investments in people. People like Sr. Gisele make development happen in Haiti, one day, one test, and one child at a time.