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!
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