love technology

Today the internet was being difficult, so I was not able to spend the time I had anticipated getting information transferred to this forum. I will continue to work on that as time allows. For now I will continue with updates from the previous week.


Friday, February 26, 2010

The day was spent preparing for our first team's presence since our arrival 2 weeks ago. Nicole tried to walk me through her responsibilities and expectations for the group. It was a day of simple tasks of laying out towels and sheets and determining exactly where people would sleep. The day was filled with excitement and anticipation.


Saturday, February 27, 2010

Nicole and I went to the market again. I have determined at this point that my responsibilities will include assisting her there on a weekly basis. I don't mind the experience, although I still find it difficult to understand the language enough to interact while there. This day Jeannette and Clement accompanied us again, along with Clement's son who helped carry the bags since we were buying food for a total of 22 people. I was grateful that occasionally I was beginning to identify the numbers that were being mentioned. Clement told me the creole name for couple items such as popcorn while we were waiting for Nicole and Jeannette.

Towards the end, we dropped off the produce at the truck. Clement's son stayed there while the rest of us walked back down the road looking for toilet paper. Clement led our group, followed by Nicole, then Jeannette, and me at the rear. About every 4-5 steps Jeannette was turning around to check on me or grabbing for my hand. At first, it made me feel like a small child but I determined that if it made her feel better then I would hold her hand. I almost volunteered to walk in front of her, but didn't know how to communicate that thought and figured if she really wanted me to then she'd just move to the side until I passed. [I spoke with Nicole about this interaction while we were washing the produce later that morning. Nicole reminded me of the reality of death related to vehicle accidents in Haiti and explained that from what she has seen that culturally most pedestrians will watch out for each other in this way.]

On our drive home, we passed a car driving the opposite direction that had a smashed roof. Even with my poor creole, I was able to understand the conversation between Clement and Nicole indicating that the SUV had been beneath a portion of a falling wall. The driver of the SUV was smiling and hanging out the window because he couldn't sit in the car any other way. He knew he was attracting attention, but it seemed he was just happy to be able to drive his truck and get where he needed to be.

The group arrived that evening. There was a total of 7 people. We were expecting 6 guys and a woman, but there were 5 guys and 2 women. Apparently spell check accepted Lousy for a name which Mike and Nicole assumed was mistyped for Louis. In fact, it was for Louise and we had to change our plans for sleeping arrangements. The exciting part for me was that I wouldn't be sharing my space with someone all week as originally planned. We ate dinner (my first authentic cuisine, I'll share more later), completed introductions, completed an outline for tasks the following day, and called it a night as some of the team members were beginning to fall asleep.


Sunday, February 28, 2010

Church service was a little easier to follow this morning because Pe Auguste was not in attendance. Pastor Gabriel and one of the other predominant men in the church led the service. More of the songs were in Creole than French, which helped some with my understanding. After the service, I assisted in putting the chairs and pews away which allowed me the opportunity to see inside some of the classrooms of the school that is associated with the church. Wooden benches with a plank attached for table tops and a single chalkboard were the only materials identifiable with school. I saw no papers, books, pencils, or maps ...not that I was looking closely. Although still standing, many of the walls were cracked the entire length and did not appear to be sturdy on any level. School has not been in session since the earthquake on January 12th. There has been rumor that the schools are expected to open on March 1st, but the argument all along has been that there are no buildings in which to meet. Seeing just this one school, I can't imagine how the country expects school to happen in the immediate future.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Yesterday the Building Goodness Foundation team worked on some homes in the mountains and therefore the children and I were able to continue with our school routine fairly undisturbed. Today, the BGF team was working here on our compound. Literally I conducted school in the midst of a construction zone. On a typical day we struggle to overcome the distractions of the loud ocean waves, the obnoxious humming of the old and tired refrigerator, and the semi-regular passing of helicopters. Today the sounds of hammers pounding and saws grinding made concentration nearly impossible. Add excitement of having new people on the grounds and I'm amazed we accomplished any work. I did create time and space about once an hour to go outside and view the progress. We also spent most of the afternoon doing activities outside that were physical to make the most of all the energy that was flowing around us. A hour was spent in the outer gardens viewing and discussing pineapples, coconuts, bananas, and papayas as well as following the visible shift in the earth. The children took turns using my camera to document things of interest such as a black and lime green butterfly, a lizard, and the pineapple plants.


I plan to share some of these pictures, including one of the five of us on our walk. The kids took some beautiful shots and may be able to convince me to use the camera more often because of that fact :)