Douglas Fairbanks Manigault III writes this dispatch about his experience in the parish of St. Elizabeth, a largely rural area that required covering long distances to teaching sites. St. Elizabeth was a logistical challenge and the students were put to the test. Their patience, knowledge, and commitment were frayed. This is Douglas’ second time with POA and his well honed teaching skills shone at very critical times. He has just graduated with a BA degree in Afroamerican and African Studies and will be starting his Master’s degree in Social Work and Public Health.
Enjoy,
Nesha Z. Haniff
Director, Pedagogy of Action
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“St. Elizabeth: Challenging Us to be Flexible…”
Douglas Manigault III
After 12 days in Kingston, it was time to experience more of the island. We drove four hours to St. Elizabeth, a rural area, filled with angst about our new experiences in a different part of the island. Upon arrival in St. Elizabeth, I was filled with great excitement and sadness. I had become attached to Kingston because of its people and some of the similarities to my own hometown of Highland Park, Michigan. These feelings were temporarily erased by the Caribbean Sea laying in front of Idler’s Rest, the place we would call home for the following six days.
Our teaching experience was not the same as in Kingston, where we were able to find comfort in interacting with the same people for our entire stay. The Social Development Commission (SDC), who arranged our teaching sites in St. Elizabeth, provided us with new groups each day, which was a new challenge. I taught at three different health clinics: Balaclava Health Clinic, Santa Cruz Health Clinic and The New Market Clinic. At the first two clinics, I felt very overwhelmed by my position as a return student to POA because I was entrusted by my colleagues to lead us into this new teaching experience. I was unprepared to teach in this space without the usual two hours used for community building, teaching and practice; we were merely allowed 20-minutes to introduce ourselves and teach the people who were waiting patiently to be seen by a health professional. Although the module is oral, we do use flip charts to construct the visual logic of the module; here we had to teach with no visual aids, which challenged our ability to be flexible.
At the third clinic, I thought I would be ready for the challenge only to discover that I was not. There were five of us teaching (Ayleen, Carson, Eleni, Ozi and myself) about 25 adults and 25 high school students. This by far was the most difficult teaching experience I have ever had, but I was glad, after six-hours of work, to have left the skills with the people and not just leave with them. This teaching experience in this clinic produced some amazing new teachers. That evening, I allowed myself to relax in the Caribbean sea feeling that my teaching was worthwhile.
