My brother, Schneider

My family is adopting a little boy named Schneider.  Sometimes he is annoying by my family would not be the same without Schneider.  He has a great personality, a cute appearance, and a lot of habits. I am going to write about him today.

One thing I like about Schneider is his personality.  He is very funny.  When he gets caught doing something naughty, he suddenly gets very cute to try to get out of a punishment.  Also, when he pronounces words, sometimes he does it with a funny voice.  He pronounces the word "no" like "nouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu." It's so hilarious.  That's why I like Schneider's personality.

Another thing I like about Schneider is that he is cute-- very cute.  He is Haitian now, but he will be Haitian-American soon, we hope.  He has a gigantic head with a very prominent forehead.  He has big, black, sparkling eyes and dimples.  He also has skin that is a nice, dark brown color.  Schneider is short and stout with a big belly.  I love big babies, so that's why I think Schneider is so cute.

Finally, Schneider has a lot of habits; both good and bad. Some of his good habits are sharing and helpfulness.  Some of his bad habits are stealing and ruining.  One of his habits that is not good or bad is that he likes to mix English into his Creole, because he is just learning English.  For example, he will say, "Mommy, can I go achte?"  (Achte is Creole for buy. He says that when he wants to go down the block to buy a lollipop.)

So, as you can see, without Schneider, my family would not be the same.  He has a great personality, a cute appearance, and a lot of habits.  I know he has his faults, but I also know they make him perfect!

Learning to cook

Middle school students can achieve more than you can imagine. That's why I think that middle school students should be required to take cooking classes. In the following essay, I hope to show that teaching cooking to middle school students gives them the option to make healthy choices, prepares them for the future, teaches them something new and fun, and enables them to help their families.

Middle school students who learn how to cook can have more control over what they eat, versus students who do not cook. This is important because your body is growing very quickly while you are in middle school. In fact, it is possible for a kid going through puberty to grow up to 4 inches in only one year, and food is the fuel that makes us all grow. Some food choices are better for growth than others. For example, carrot sticks are a better snack choice than Doritos. But some kids don't like carrots that much. But if they cook, they can prepare a dip for carrots that they like-- like hummus. If you can learn how to prepare a wide variety of foods, you can make better food choices.

Also, learning to cook when you are young definitely prepares you for the future. Imagine you are a student heading to college. You have all your classes planned out and new apartment to live in. There's only one problem-- you don't know how to cook! That would be difficult and expensive, because you would have to eat out all the time. This is just one example of how learning to cook prepares you for the future, but there are many more.

Another benefit of learning how to cook is that it is fun. For example, I am a middle school student myself, and I have recently started learning how to cook. One of my favorite things to do is create new recipes. I like to try these recipes out on my brothers and sisters. It's also fun to imagine I have a little restaurant and serve my family the food I prepare.

Finally, if a middle school student learns to cook, he or she can help with family chores in a way that he or she likes. Many middle school students do not like chores. They might complain because they think that chores are boring or that they take up too much time. But if your middle school student learns to love cooking, he or she can help out with family chores with a happy heart.

So as you can see, there are many good reasons for your middle school student to be required to take a cooking class. Learning to cook helps kids make good food choices, it prepares them for the future, gives them something fun to do, and gives them a new way (that they love) to help their parents around the house. And I have one last thing to say-- “Bon appetit!”

Vote for my next post.

Dear readers,


Today I would like you to vote for my next post. Here are your choices:

1.  I'm Learning How to Cook.

2. My Best Friend Presley.

3. My New Camera.

4. Downtown Apex.

Whichever gets the most votes I write first; the one who gets the second most votes gets written second, etc.  I like all of them so you will have to decide.  Have fun and choose wisely.


Love,
Nia
 

The Haitian-American

Dear friends,

This year for Halloween, I was me.  Literally.  I was Haitian-American.  I came up with the idea when I was thinking about costumes in Target and I saw an American flag.  It inspired me to be a flag for Halloween.  But I couldn't decide if I should be an American flag or a Haitian flag, since I am American, but I live in Haiti.  So I decided to be both.

My mom ordered a Haitian flag and an American flag and then my Grandma helped me sew them together into a costume.  The costume kind of looked like a poncho with two arm holes, and a head hole.  But it didn't end there.  I had my mom paint my face half in an American flag and half in a Haitian flag.

This picture is the first try my mom made at painting my face.  It got a little better the second time.

My mom did my hair in half cornrows, and half an American style.  (They aren't actually cornrows, just small French braids.)

I wore the costume three times.  The first time was when we went trick or treating in downtown Apex the weekend before Halloween.

The second time was at a masquerade party for the middle schoolers at church.  I won a $10 Itunes gift card for "Most Creative Costume."

The last time, of course, was on Halloween.  I trick or treated in Pennsylvania with my cousins, Evie, Cana, and Ruby.  They were a bride, a dog, and a chicken.  My brother, Nico, was a ninja. (He wore his bright shoes so we wouldn't lose him in the dark.)  And my brother, Josiah, was a soldier (with a crooked helmet.)

I think if we trick or treated in Haiti, some people would think it was vodou and wouldn't do it.  And you'd probably only get tricks, because most people wouldn't have candy to give away for free, because some of them sell candy for a living.

I liked my costume very much and I am glad I wore it.  It represented me very well, because I am a mix of these two cultures.  I am a TCK --aka Third Culture Kid.  (See above for the definition.)

Love, 

Nia

My Essay

Dear friends,

In school, I am learning about writing an essay.  Here is the first full essay I wrote.

---

I used to live in America but I moved to Haiti when I was five-years-old. Living in Haiti is different than living in America. Three of the things that are different are the shopping, the climate/ environment, and the food.

Shopping is different in Haiti because you don't usually go to a store. Instead you go to the Haitian street market. This market is outside and it is very crowded. In it you can buy food, used clothes, accessories, and sometimes, new clothes. And that's not even everything they have.

Haiti is very, very hot. Haiti is hotter than the United States because it is closer to the equator, making it a tropical environment. One good thing about Haiti being so hot is that you can go to the beach on Christmas. One bad thing is that there is no snow. Ever.

Haitians eat different kinds of food than Americans. Some of the main things we eat in Haiti are rice, beans, cornmeal, plantains, and lots of fresh fruit. Some of the foods we eat in Haiti are similar to the foods we eat in America, but Haitians eat them differently. For example, we eat beans in both places, but in Haiti, we make sauce out of them. Also people often eat spaghetti for breakfast, with ketchup on it!

So as you can see, living in Haiti is very different than living in America. Shopping is different. The climate is different. And the food is different. I have lived about half my life in each place and neither is better than the other. I guess you could say that I am part American and part Haitian.

--
Hope you enjoyed it.

Bye.

Love, Nia

The Karnaval Parade, by Nia Mangine

Dear Friends,

I got the most votes to tell a story about Karnval.  

Karnaval was very fun.  And long.  So this story is going to be long.  There is going to be a video and a couple of pictures.  This the first time I have a video on my blog. (I think.)

Karnaval is a time of year in Haiti when people like to enjoy themselves.  They dress up and have fun.  These are the masks some of the kids in my family made to dress up.  Some kids didn't.  They all are pretty, but Manita used so many different colors together that hers just ended up turning brown and looking like diarrhea.  Hers is in the front of the picture.

I made a mask for both my doll and I.  This is how we made the masks.  First we printed off shapes for the masks off the internet.  Then we glued them onto pieces of cardboard cereal boxes.  We let the glue dry and then we painted them.  Then we let them dry AGAIN.  And when they were dry, we cut them out and put string on them so we could tie them to our faces.  My dad and mom cut out the eyes with my mom's sharp pocket knife.  That was all, though all the waiting made me a little crazy.

The morning of the Karnaval we were supposed to go to a field trip with IBESR.  They were supposed to come pick us up from our house at 9AM, but they didn't come until 10:47AM.  That was a problem because my parents had bought tickets on a wooden stand to watch the paper mache mask parade with all the kids.  We were supposed to go at noon.  But we didn't get to go, because we were still at the field trip.

At first, what they did at the field trip was to put makeup and glitter all over our faces.  (No makeup for the boys.)  Then they gave us a snack.  It was Tampico and bread with something salty and tomato-y on it.  It was pretty good except for all the onions.  Next they gave us shirts and maracas (Haitian people call them cha-chas) and hats.  Then they took us to the parade.  That is when we figured out we were going to BE in the parade.  But somebody in front of us decided to block the street.  So we went back to the house where we ate the snack and stuff.  There they took some pictures.  We hung out for a little bit there then they announced that the street was unblocked.  We all groaned because we knew it would be a LONG walk ahead.

We ended up walking for a really long time (as we thought we would.)  I stood towards the front and helped hold the sign.  This is me!

The grown-ups that were walking with us, helped us by making a circle around us with their arms to keep us safe.  That way no one could go in or out of our group.  That was important so that we had our space and no kids got lost in the big crowds.  Here they are.

Here is a video of us walking.  It is easy to spot me in the video because I am the only white person in the video.  Another way to know how to spot me in the video is by finding the person who gets knocked on the head.  Poor me!

It was a really long day.  I walked for more than 4 hours!  We didn't get home until after 6PM!  Remember I started the field day at 10:47AM!  And we started walking around 1PM.  There were lots of people in Jacmel for the parade.  There were all kinds of masks.  Here's a picture my mom took from the stand to show some of the animal masks.

But it's not only animal masks in the parade.  They make masks to look like everything.  They have masks that look like boxes of Apollo Soap (one of the brands here), masks that look like Ti Malice margarine.  Even masks that look like big giant rolls of toilet paper.  Maybe Manita should have walked by them in her diarrhea mask. Or maybe she should have walked by the cholera display.  (Cholera is a sickness they have here where you poop a lot!)  Ha, ha, ha!

Here she is.

That's all for now.  I told you it was going to be a long story!

Love,
Nia

Choose your own adventure.

Dear friends,

Now that I am going to blog again for a while, this time you're going to choose your own adventure.  You guys are going to vote for which adventure you want to hear about.  Here are the adventure story options:

1. The Day I Went to Karnaval (this year) and Even Marched in the Parade. (Haiti story)

2.  The new Church on the Beach Playground. (Haiti story)

3.  Our "New" Family Car. (Haiti story)

4.  Our Beach House Family Vacation.  (USA story.)

The choice is yours!  Leave a comment to vote for which story you want me to tell you.  Can't wait to see your votes.

See you later,
Nia

Market shopping

One day I went market shopping.  I had fifty Haitian dollars with me. (That's about $6.25 in US dollars.)  Shopping in Haiti is not like shopping in the states.  For example, most shopping in Haiti is outside.  Some things don't have prices, so you have to negotiate with the seller.  The other thing is that you can buy used stuff and new stuff at the same place.  It's kind of like a mall and a garage sale all at once.  But you can also buy food there too.  About 3 years ago, I went to the market with my mom and Nahomi in Petionville and I wrote this blog post about it.    

But this trip was different because I bought lots of different things, and I also negotiated for myself.

Here are the things I bought:  

This real pretty bag.  It looks almost brand new! 

 

These cool black(ish) jeans.  They have zippers at the ankles.

 

This peace sign t-shirt.   It reminds me of my friend Emily because one time she handed me down a peace sign shirt.  I think I want to make a collection of colorful peace sign shirts.  Peace is important.  This shirt and jeans were worn by someone before me so my mom made me wash them before I could wear them so I don't get lice.

 

I got this Chinese/American card box.  (These cards were BRAND new.)

These cool glasses. (new)

This perfume.  Don't be tricked.  It's not really poison, it's just called Poison.  But you still shouldn't drink it I don't think. (new)

Purple nail polish. (new)

Two lipglosses. (new)

These sparkly blue earrings.  (new)

This pink ring.

 

 

I spent the money I brought, plus my mom gave me another 25 gourdes, which brought my total up to 55 Haitian dollars-- or just a little less than $7US.  I like the market.  Sometimes it's kind of silly because you see dead animals and lots of rotting garbage.  I try not to go into the meat area because I almost threw up once because it can smell funny, too.   But I like the market.

And oh!  One more thing.  White people usually don't like going to the market because the sellers give them higher prices than they would give Haitian people.  But I got smaller prices than my sisters.  For example-- I bought nailpolish for 5 Haitian dollars, Sanndy had to pay 7.  I bought lip gloss for 3Haitian dollars each, and Sanndy had to pay 5 each.  Wow.  I think that's good.  I think that means I am a good negotiator. My mom says I am.

Love, Nia

Ticket to Ride

Once, my dad taught me to play Ticket to Ride.  You play with trains, cards, tickets, and a game board.  There are different colored cards, different tracks, and different cities.  In order to win, you need the most points.  To make the most points, you can make the longest track, put down the most trains, and connect the most cities.

I like Ticket to Ride because it teaches us our colors, math, to plan, geography, and strategy.

Bye.

Love,
Nia

"Wedding!"

Saturday I was in a wedding.  I was the ring bearer-- the BRIDE ring bearer.  I held a little boy's hand.  I used my Halloween dress from when I was a bride on Halloween two years ago. 

We have been friends with the bride for three years now.  We met her in Pinchinat.  She introduced us to the groom.  I don't know how they met. 

My sister, Wildarne, was the flower girl with a girl from the bride's family.  The other girl's name was Widline. 

The bride's name was Kameta and the groom's name was Jephte, but everyone calls him, "Mono."  I don't remember what the little boy's name was.

That's all for now!

Love Nia

Crafts

Hello.

I really enjoy crafts.  It's one of my most favorite things to do.  Another one of my favorite things to do is read, but I want to talk about crafts today, not reading.

These are some of the crafts I've made recently.  I will explain them as I go along.

This is a treasure box I made.  It is made out of a cigar box, paper, glue, glitter, gemstones, and seaglass.  And colored duct tape.

This is it opened.

This is a book I made out of two really hard pieces of cardboard, string, beads, paper, stamps, glue and a pencil.

This is a piece of paper that I put in it for the inside of the cover.  I made it by crumpling up paper, then uncrumpled it and passing ink over it.

These are the paper and cardboard beads I am making.  I make them out of glue, sticks, and paper or cardboard.  After they are made, we glaze them.

This is my underwater scene.  It's an example of painting with paper.  I learned about my mom's aunt, Diana, who did this a lot.  I also learned about it in a book called, "Henri Matiss: Drawing with Paper."   He mostly painted, but when he got old, he couldn't paint.  So then he started drawing with paper.  His assistants would paint the background.  He cut out shapes in bed. And then his assistants tacked them to the wall and moved the position until he liked it.  I named this one, "Ocean Reef."

This is my tree I made the same way.  I named it, "Scrap Tree."

This is a piggy bank I made out of a Pringles can, the paper that I had under my watercolors when I paint, and colored packing tape.

This is a bracelet I made with the "ladder bracelet method."  I used wooden beads, paper beads that I made from paper I stamped, and elastic string.  The paper beads I made are falling apart on the ends, so we have to be careful.  Now I know how to make them better.

 This is an anklet that I made out of some paper beads that my mom made.  Since it is green and red, my mom called it, "Rockstar Christmas."  But I didn't understand and so I have been calling it "Rasta Christmas."

I have other crafts that I am going to make soon, so if you like crafts, be sure to come back again sometime to see what I've made.

Love,
Nia

Horses

Dear my friends,

I am learning about horses in my language arts book. They told me to write a story about something I'd like to learn more about. And I wrote a story about horses.

Here is how it goes:



Horses
I wish I could ride a horse. They are fast and fun. They are mammals. The name of how they walk is trot and the name of how they run is gallop. The name of how they talk is neighing and whining. Did you know a male horse is called a stallion and a female horse is called a mare? And did you know a young male horse is called a colt and a young female horse is called a filly? There is lots more to learn.

Love,
Nia

Schneider

Schneider is my little brother. He is one. He is walking now and he can hold a bottle by himself. He's really cute.

I am going to put some pictures of him and a video up.




Enjoy!

Love,
Nia

The rest of the book.

Hello everybody.

This is rest of my new book. We were supposed to do a page a day and then some days we had to skip school and some days our internet didn't work. Because it's working now we are just going to post the rest.

My mom laminated the pages and we got it bound into a real book in Jacmel, so now we can use it just like any other book! But only upstairs. Because it might get lost or ruined downstairs.


Thanks for keeping up. I am going to write another book in the series, but for now I am going to work on the game I am inventing called, "Adventure Dolls" so it might be a while.

I think that's it for today.

Love,
Nia

PS-- Leave me a comment about what is your favorite chapter and what is your favorite illustration.

PPS- My mom thinks the best illustration is chapter six. She doesn't have a favorite chapter yet.