One thing always say when I come to Haiti is “boy, it’s good to be back on Haitian soil” Then I start chuckling and think does Haiti really have soil?  There’s plenty of dirt but I’m doubtful of the soil part.  We were also wondering why the bathroom is hot and steamy after a shower but there’s no hot water?  It’s true but I can’t wrap my mind around how that really happens.

We walked over to the orphanage to finish up the painting.  I’ve been wearing the same clothes since Sunday.  They are taking on a life of their own at this point.  Sweat, dirt, paint and who knows whatever else I’ve come in contact with.  Probably bodily fluids and puppy germs too.  I figured I’d only trash one outfit while I’m here.  Maybe we’ll having a burning party at the end of the week.

I feel like we are fighting a losing painting war here.   We paint, the next day there are dirty marks and scraped paint on the wall.  This afternoon I went a little crazy because and unknown child colored with crayons on one wall.  I gave a tongue lashing in English to the kids but I am positive they knew exactly what I was yelling about.  After lunch we came back and low and behold, someone painted over and repaired the crayon wall.  I must have made my point.

I think we finished but were not entirely sure since Chedner wasn’t there to tell us if he needed anything else.  I was about done mentally anyway too much chaos there and I was longing for some serious quiet time and a cold beer.  It’s super humid because it’s rained cats and dogs pretty much every night.  In the morning it’s like navigating a whole new course because of all the flooded areas.  I am not a fan of walking in puddles here. 

There’s a little puppy at Chedner’s place named, Life, I think that’s a pretty cool name for a dog in Haiti It’s kind of an oxymoron.  I brought down a few little sample sized bags of pet food and gave them to the kids taking care of him  Haitian’s don’t really keep dogs as pets or really keep anything of a pet nature.  The puppies are so cute and if I could smuggle one home I would.  People are so mean to animals down here and it pisses me off to no end.

There’s been some infrastructure improvements since last May.  They’ve been working/building roads in the neighborhood and working on improving drainage.   On our way back to do more painting, some smartass punk grabbed a Ziploc bag out of my backpack.  It was in a side pocket.  He thought he got the mother lode of who knows what.  Then he realized it was a bag of garbage I’ve been collecting while here.  He looked at me like I was nuts and why I would even have a bag of crap. It’s garbage in the sense of art.  Cool bottle caps, old broken tiles, hair    barrettes, a roller, just a variety of bizarre things I will eventually make into art.  Needless to say, I got my bag of stuff back

I think tomorrow I will be able to wear new clothes.    We are taking the nannies and the kids from the orphanage to the beach tomorrow.   We’re also meeting up with our friend Oriel who hopefully will be able to come for a visit this summer to the U.S.   Of course these kids have ever seen the ocean but they all have suits now and can at least sit by the water in the sand.  I know the nanny is ecstatic about going. 

The kids wanted to act like big kids and carry our stuff.  Clearly, it was way too heavy for them.  Alvarez kept falling back wearing the backpack which was as big as he was.

A little boy gave this plastic flower to me today.  I thought it was so sweet.  I bought him a package of cookies.

Sunday no sundaes.

I'm two days behind blogging and I apologize.  I'm running on 3 brain cells.  I am sleep deprived and am talking in foreign tongues.  I don't even understand myself.  I'll put it into perspective.  "Man, look at the bags under your eyes, you look like crap!"  Thank the Lord for inventing concealer and hiding this fact. When you are told this so bluntly, it must be true. Unfortunately, my lack of motor skills are preventing me from doing anything intelligent.

Hopefully, I can resume normal programming tomorrow.   I've been working on this for over an hour.  Sad...

A first (two times) in Haiti

For people who know me or know me well, I am always cold.  Even if it's warm, I'm cold.  This happened on a daily basis when I used to ride out to Sturgis on my motorcycle and it was 90 degrees.  I'd still find a way to be cold even when it was this hot.  My riding partners could attest to this fact.

I was actually cold two nights while down here.  The first night it wasn't so bad, I turned the fan down, then I ended up turning it off of me.  I pretty much hunkered down in the fetal position until dawn.  The second night was actually colder.  And it was as cold as it was at home early evening in good old Sandwich, Illinois.  I think it dropped to 63 degrees.

I turned off one of our three fans.  Usually, each person gets their own fan and then there's a fan that just blows all over.  Yes, you need three fans just to sleep and drown the outside noise.  I was still cold so then I turned the fan that blows all over to just face the wall on low speed.  I knew within an arm's length I could pull out a wool blanket.  I was thinking, I am not using a wool blanket in Haiti because it just seems too contradicting.   I also knew that I'd probably get hot then and have to start the whole fan operation again.  I was also thinking that it was dark and what happened if I opened the warm wool blanket and some critter crawled out.  I didn't want that either.  I was thinking about putting on my rain jacket but then I knew I'd probably start sweating wearing that.  I wanted to get a beach towel but I was too tired to go get it.  So basically I rolled back into a tight ball to retain my precious body heat and tried to go back to bed.  After all, I didn't want hypothermia to set in.  That would be funny though and definitely a great story to tell.  Maybe next time, if there ever is a cold next time in Haiti.

It has been really rainy down here.  I think one night it rained from like 9pm until the next afternoon at least after lunch time.  It was thundering and lightning during the night and coming down like nobody's business.  All I kept thinking is, ok, if this is the end of the world, where the heck am I going to find an ark.  Where could I even find enough wood to build an ark?  I came to the realization that I would make an ark out of the garbage.  I know I could find enough odds and ends to make something that would float.  Of course in the morning, it was just plain raining.  And it continued to rain and rain some more.   It really made me mad because I had stuff to do.  When we finally ventured out in the afternoon it was a big soupy mess.  We had to change course a couple of times to find a path that wasn't knee deep.  I was thinking which way will I have the least amount of water and mud to trek through.  I felt like "Frogger" hopping on little rocks to cross the path and get to the other side.  Sometimes, I missed the rock and thought to myself, I sure hope I have no open anything on my feet.
We walked to Chedner's to see the progress of updates to the orphanage there.  This was the place we did all the painting and cleaning and everything else last year.  You pretty much would have never guessed we were there in the first place.  It does look a lot better even though there's a lot more work to be done.  The kids were happy to see us.  We brought over some new flip flops, some snacks and loom band bracelets and a Jenga game.  Oh and I brought flat Stanley.  I don't think the kids fully understand the whole Stanley thing.  Plus let's face it, Stanley is a little scary looking.  He's pasty white, sort of having a lot of feminine details (thank you Maggie...not).  He's the Bruce Jenner of the school story world wearing Haitian clothing for a woman.  I get confused by him.

New "family" bedroom.  2 people will sleep here and 2 babies.


 

Hallway on the  2nd floor that still needs railings.  It will hurt if you fall.

This is where the water will be linked to the house.  Right now it's just filled with garbage.  Maybe that's why they don't have water.



This used to be a store room/office and now it will be where the girls sleep




They put railing up here so again, someone won't die falling off.

 

I was so happy to see railings here.  It made my stomach queasy thinking about falling to my death.



 

Unknown food but it smelled good.

Chedner brought down the kids report cards for us to look at.  Honestly, for most of these kids who have only been to school for a few years and some being 14 yoa, they did pretty darn good.  Only one kid really seemed to really struggle a lot.  I felt like a proud parent.  I can't wait to see the progress when I go back again.


Jenga, not just for Americans



They got over Stanley's feminine side and came to grips with the situation

On the way back we had to dodge the puddles and the mud because when we left, there was no water.  The well wasn't working when we left and this is never a good thing.  I hate going to the bathroom at all costs until I can no longer wait.  It gets a little ripe to say the least.  Thankfully there was enough water up standing on the roof that I was able to clean my feet and shoes off.  This would have been a good time to test my life straw.  A life straw is basically a filtered straw and you can pretty much suck water to drink out of a mud puddle or river or whatever.  It filters 99.9% of things that will make you wish you were dead if you get them.   Thankfully, I travel with a small arsenal of things that will make my innards feel better if I catch something funky.

We had some goat stew for dinner.  It had very good flavor and was a little spicy.  I don't mind goat but I don't really want to suck on the ribs to get the meat off.  The bones are very soft and I just don't want to gnaw on the bones that much.  I was told that marrow is the new dining delicacy in the U.S.  I can eat almost anything for the most part or will try about everything at least one time just to get in the club of adventurous eating.  The guinea pig I had in Peru I thought I'd be wigged out about it but it was fried and seasoned so well that you really didn't know what you were eating.  The only way I knew I was in fact eating guinea pig was seeing in in whole form.  It was like he was flattened from being run over.  Maybe that's how they harvest guinea pigs in Peru, you run them over until they are flat.  His little paws and little teeth gave it away.  I actually pulled out his teeth and brought them home.  I don't know where they are though.  I'm a sick-o, I can't help it.

I didn't realize this was the report card that wasn't so good.

Parents, if you plan on enrolling your child in school in Haiti, here's the rules you must abide by.