Babies, babies everywhere

Hello again...

Here we are, mid to late October, and its still..really, really hot. At least its starting to cool down at night, making it a little easier to sleep. However, as much as I enjoy the heat more than the cold, I'm looking forward to it cooling off a little bit here. I've had a terrible heat rash for the past month that doesn't seem to want to go away--every time I sweat, I break out in lovely red bumps all over my body. Quite attractive, really. If I wasn't afraid of everyone being jealous I would post a picture for you all on here, but...ya know...I'd rather not make people envious of me. ;)

Anywho...things are going well, Courtney and I made it back to Dabon safely after our little excursion to Jakmel. I had a pretty low-key week last week, nothing too excited nor out of the ordinary. Rasin Lespwa, the library where I hang out most of the time, had their usual 'Dimanch des Arts' last Sunday night, which is always great. Its a bit like an open mic type deal. People come and read poetry, sing, dance, play the drums, so on and so forth. I decided to dance Kompa with a friend Ricardo, which...is always entertaining for everyone else to see a white girl dancing (or trying) kompa. I have to say though, I wasn't too bad...and I'm getting better. Here's a photo to show you all just how much I love 'Dimanch des Arts'.

Yep...there you have it. Excitement, anticipation, too much of an energy drink combined with notenough sleep, heat...the whole kit and kaboodle. I also realize this picture perfectly portrays Courtney and my personalities. Moving on...

I suppose the most exciting thing that happened this past week was that Wilda gave birth to her baby! Sunday morning she was taken to the hospital in Port au Prince and gave birth to a little girl. They still have not chosen a name for her...so I'll have to get back to you all on that one. Now the house is filled with people coming in and out to visit and see the new addition to the family. Lucky for me, my room is directly in front of Wilda's room, where the baby sleeps...which only means I get to hear every time the baby wakes up crying during the night! I suppose its good practice. Its quite different the way children are raised here compared to how they are raised in the states. Its much more of a communal, familial effort. The child isn't hidden away and only held by certain people. Everyone puts a hand in at taking care of the children, sharing the task of feeding them, holding them, whatever needs to be done, really. Its beautiful and a much better way to raise children.

This past Monday I was able to go on a trip to Vali, which isn't too far from where I am in Dabon, with a young people's group in Rasin Lespwa. We all packed into an old school bus and headed out. When we got to where we were supposed to turn off to head up the mountain everyone started saying the bus won't make it...which only meant one thing--we were going to be walking the rest of the way. Now I love walking as much as the next person, but I was not prepared for this. I walk off the bus and look ahead to see a sign saying Vali--5 Kilometers, and a giant hill ahead of me. We start walking, and walking...and walking. There were about 30 of us in total, scattered here and there climbing up the mountain. About 20 minutes into the hike we reach the 1 kilometer sign and I start laughing hysterically. Everyone is drenched in sweat, panting, and can barely stand up straight...and we still had 4 more kilometers to go. Let me say this, too...this hike was completely uphill, there were no times where it was flat to give us a little relief...oh no, not at all. Yet the more we walked, the more we encouraged each other by singing, telling jokes, or just laughing hysterically at the whole situation. At 4 kilometers Maxandre and I decided to grab a "woulib" (free ride) from a motor cycle taxi that was heading up the mountain. I could have made it, but lets be honest...if I'm offered a free ride, I'll take it. After a short time visiting with the organization we all headed down the mountain, which was just as worse as going up. Legs were trembling, sweat was pouring down us all, but we were all determined to reach the bottom so we could go to the beach! After about 1 kilometer of going down the mountain...I was blessed, yet again, by a lovely man with lovely dreads willing to give me and Maxandre another free ride. We hopped on the motorcycle and down we went. Going down a huge mountain on a motorcycle is pretty scary--the drivers don't even turn the engines on! As we zipped by everyone hiking down the mountain I did feel a little bad, but...ya know, I got over that pretty quickly! When we all got down we headed to the beach for a swim which was greatly appreciated.

Courtney and I met with Abelard the other night, and looks like we're going to start volunteering with Haiti Partners (www.haitipartners.org)! They have a ton of things we can help out with. Courtney will be giving classes on computers, instructing teachers on how to better use WORD, EXCEL, things like that. I'll be helping with new program they're trying to initite among the schools--a garden program. Along with that we'll be helping translate when groups come to visit, translate documents, etc. I'm really excited to be able to help out and see how the organization is run. There are many wonderful people involved in it and it'll be a great honor to work with them.

Thats all I've got for now. Looking forward to seeing you all when I visit in December!







The Desperate Search for Icecream

Hello everyone!

This past Thursday night JanJan, Guerda, and Jhony (Limye Lavi people) picked Courtney and I up in Dabon and we all headed to Jakmel. Arriving around 9:30 pm Courtney and I headed straight to bed. Friday we both went into the Limye Lavi office to sit in on and participate in a SASA! (program on violence against women and girls, prevention of HIV/AIDS) seminar being held with and for the Manbo and Ougan (Vodou priestess and priests) who are in the surrounding communities. Interesting as always, but..thats not what this entry is about this time. 

Knowing that somewhere in Jakmel there is icecream, Courtney and I were determined to find some. Guerda told us that down the street from the office we'll find some. After the seminar, off we went. We walked in the restaurant, ordered two 8 oz. icecreams, paid, and went to pick out our flavors. Excited doesn't even begin to describe what we were feeling. Finding real icecream in Haiti is no easy task, my friends. We arrived at the golden, glowing case of icecream...only to find out that there was only pistachio and chocolate. Of course, me wanting to try something new and not be boring says, "Oh, Courtney, chocolate is so boring...lets go for the pistachio." Courtney, being the calm, go with the flow woman that she is says, "Oh, alright, it can't be that bad..." Little did we know...

After a friendly conversation with the women at the counter, we took our radioactive green pistachio icecream to the table and sat down. We opened it up, dug our spoons in, put them in our mouths and almost immediately spit the icecream back out. Our faces contorted, and watching each other we both broke out laughing. It was the strangest, most chemically tasking thing i have ever ingested. Quickly, we both decided we could not eat it. So we devised a plan to walk out, acting as if we were going to finish it outside, but really throw it out in the trash can I just knew would be outside. As we were walking out one of the women says, "Sa nou genyen, nou pa renmen creme nan? Whats wrong, you don't like the icecream?" "O, non non, n ap bwe lie deyo, mesi! Oh, no no, we're going to eat it outside, thanks!" was my reply.

We got outside, realized there actually were no trashcans (surprise surprise), and we didn't want to just toss it on the street. Looking around desperately I suddenly see a boy of about 10 running toward me yelling, "BAN MWEN SA, BAN MWEN SA! GIVE ME THAT, GIVE ME THAT!" As if he knew we were trying to get rid of it. I responded saying, "Ti gason, w met pran tout! Little boy, you can take it all!" and dumped it into his eager hands. The next thing we know another boy is running toward Courtney yelling the same thing. She responded saying, "Men, pran non, nou pa renmen! Here, take it, we don't like it!" We hopped on a motorcycle, looked back at the gleeful boys and laughed hysterically. It couldn't have been more perfect...except that our void for icecream was not filled. 

The next day we went into the market, haggled prices for scallions, carrots, peppers, etc. to make dinner...and still wanted icecream. However, both of us were feeling lazy and didn't feel like going out to look for any...the day went on, no icecream.

Now we come to Sunday. Breakfast made, showers taken, we're ready for the day...and to eat icecream. As the day goes on, the clouds get heavier. Plans to go to the beach with 2 SASA! people, Petit Frere and Daphney were cancelled due to clouds and a cold. Our spirits were still hopeful: we'll just go out later and get icecream! Well, later came, and so did the rain. I decided to text Vikings, another Limye Lavi person, to ask if he knew of anywhere close to us that was open on Sundays and had iceream. To our surprise he texted back saying, "Its raining now, but when it stops I'll come back and pick you both up to go buy some" (but in kreyol, of course...). Well, that just about sent us jumping for joy. Except that 20 minutes turned into about an hour and a half of non-stop rain. I noticed Courtney had been gone for about 20 minutes, and when she came out I asked what she was doing. "Making icecream." "...with that?" "Well...we've got a chocolate bar, sugar, and milk." Laughing at our desperation, I decided to go ahead and make some too, and even add our left over coffee. Before Courtney had taken the reigns to become the next Ben and/or Jerry, I had texted Vikings saying "the rains never going to stop!" (secretly hoping he would have some sort of solution) In the midst of our icecream making, Vikings texted me back saying, "I see that. When it stops raining I'll just have to buy some and bring it to you." I think I actually fell and rolled around the floor in pure joy.

Well, our "icecream" freezing in the freezer, and the rain pouring down...we figured there wasn't much chance of us actually getting our so desired icecream. Until, my phone rings, I pick it up--its Vikings. He says, "Sarah, I'm out front...come downstairs and grab the icecream." Dressed in my frumpy, I-don't-feel-like-doing-anything clothes, Courtney ran down to grab the goods. She ran upstairs, we sat down on the floor right where we had been standing, dug into the bag and found two 16 oz. containers-chocolate and rum raisin. The rum raisin mysteriously tasted just like the pistachio so we put that aside. Sitting on the floor, laughing hysterically at our ridiculous escapades, we quickly devoured the long awaited icecream.

Its the little things that give us joy here, so thanks Vikings, and thanks Haiti for always keeping us laughing despite it all. Go over to Courtney's blog to get her perspective on our search for icecream. 

http://1yearinhaiti.blog.com/2011/10/10/ice-cream-expotition

Until next time!

Worms, Kittens, Cows, and Children.

Yes...these are the three things that have been most taking up my time the past week or so. I'll start with kittens and cows.

As most of you who know me well know, I love and always have loved animals...all types, all sizes, I love them. However, the animals here in Haiti are not really the cuddly type, willing to sit on your lap, snuggle...etc. I'll share an experience I had with probably the biggest bull I have ever seen in my entire life. This happened awhile ago, but that doesn't matter now does it? I was spending a few weeks in Meno, up in the mountains outside of Jacmel. I had taken a short walk to go buy a soda. Feeling good and independent, knowing most of the people in the community, I had decided to go on my own. As I was walking back to the house, down a small portion of the mountain, I came across a bull. A giant bull with giant, giant horns. GIANT, I tell you. I stopped right where I was, looked at the bull, he looked at me and then I realized that he was not tied to anything. I looked around to see what other route I could take, and saw none. SO...I had to go for it. I tried to give the bull as wide of a birth as I possibly could...my heart was beating out of my chest, and I was just about ready to pee my pants. Yet at the same time, it was almost as if I was outside of the situation looking down at how ridiculously funny it was, I started laughing. As I was just about to pass the bull I heard it move and grunt...next thing I know this GIANT BULL was chasing me down the mountain. I ran as fast as I could yelling "AMWAY, AMWAY, M AP MOURI!!! HELP, HELP, I'M GONNA DIE!!!" (a little dramatic, perhaps...). Finally I saw a small, narrow path that lead right to my house, I ran into the path and luckily the bull was too large to pass through. I reached my house completely out of breath, but laughing hysterically. Everyone at the house wanted to know what was going on, and as I told them they literally fell on the floor laughing. Now, whenever I come across a cow/cull/calf/donkey/horse/goat/etc. (which is everyday, several times a day) I make sure either give it a HUGE space, or simply find another route.

Now for the kittens...

You all know I especially have a soft spot for kittens. Ever since May I have been telling myself I'm going to find or buy a kitten and make it my pet here. Due to all the moving around I did, I realized that wouldn't be practical and it would be better to just wait. Well...it just so happens that the house I am in now has three brand new kittens (well, now they are about a month old), AND three brand new puppies. For the past few weeks I have been trying desparately to get at least one of these kittens to warm up to me... IMPOSSIBLE. I give them food (out of my own food!), milk, I try to hold them...with not luck. Instead they turn, look at me right in the face...hiss, scratch, and bite their way out of my arms. However, perhaps the funniest part of all of this is that everyone in my house thinks I am CRAZY for all of this. They sit there laughing hysterically and watch my feverishly and desparatly trying to get these cats to like me, thinking I am crazy. Well, you can all rest assured that I will not give up...one day these kittens will love me.

WORMS...I know you have all been waiting for this one. Well, I have worms. Nothing serious at all, really...just gross and funny. Yep, thats about all I have to say about that.

Now for the children...
Last week Courtney and I were able to participate in one of Beyond Borders/ Limye Lavi's trainings. The training was Monday-Friday, from 8-3 and was on the ESK (Edikasyon se yon Konvesasyon/Education is a Conversation) Method. It was given by Guyto, a staff member here in Haiti. It was absolutely fascinating to be able to participate. Courtney and I were able to learn so much, not only about the ESK method, but about how people here look at and view children and children's rights. The ESK method works for children's rights, making sure they are in school, teaching parents/guardians/etc how to deal with children in other ways than beating them, verbal violence, etc. The method is wonderful because it is all based upon discussion. Groups of 10-20 people are formed in different communities, where the groups work through a series of 5 books, each on a different subject, over a period of 5 months. The books touch on sexual violence, physical violence (fighting/beating), verbal abuse, importance of communication between children and adults, and good examples of parenting. Each session a story is read, questions are posed, a short skit is played out, and the people in the group discuss the story, questions, etc. It was great to be able to participate in the discussions and share stories, opinions, and thoughts with everyone else. The changes that I saw when looking at and hearing what people were saying in the beginning of the training in comparison to thoughts and ideas at the end of the training were pretty amazing and encouraging. I am continually impressed and encouraged by the work of Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi in this beautiful country. Change is coming, slowly but surely.

I've been here for six months now...looking back, these past few months have flown by! I'm sure the next six months will too. I'm not sure what the future holds for me, but I know that more time in Haiti is a given. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you (hopefully) when I come home for a visit in December.

Until next time!

-Sarah