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| Friday, May 9th, 2008 | | 6:09 pm |
| | Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 | | 8:56 pm |
More veggies More pictures. These are of my birthday party, May Day celebration, my garden, and Jean Gardy's attempt at learning photography. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49563&l=42568&id=635241284I have braided 2 people's heads. Everyone is very impressed. The fact that I may not yet be as good of a braider as anyone else is completely blown out of the water by the fact that I can braid hair at all. I don't know who they think braids my hair every day. Clearly I have a Haitian stored in my room who does things like that for me. On the other hand, let's be honest, Haitian hair is not my hair. It's also confusing because you don't get to put a rubber band near the end and call it done; you actually have to braid all of it. That's hard. I never got to see what I did to Claudane's head because it was dark when I did it and I left too early the next day. However, Gina made me braid her hair (after I helped take the braids out) and it was still there the next day so I took a picture. No one has told me it was awful but I suspect I didn't make it as tight I should for it to last. However, she doesn't like to be braided tightly so I may have done well. In other news, I'm eating veggies from my garden every day now. Yesterday I was especially pleased because I made Haitian spaghetti. Haitian spaghetti is spaghetti with oil and tomato bouillon in it. Sometimes it has something else but people who are used to eating the Italian or Americanized Italian version of it should not expect a lot. So, I've been varying it. I took garlic and basil, mashed them, and put them in with the tomato bouillon. I also took lots of leaves (mustard, cabbage loose leaves, moringa, and malabar spinach) and okra (yum!!) and put it in the "sauce." It was quite good. Everyone thinks I'm weird for putting veggies in it but they're always willing to help me eat it so it must not be horrible. Thursday was May Day which was pretty exciting. May Day is an agricultural festival so it makes sense for CODEP to have a party, which it has done in the past. This year, we broke the party up and had 3 parties in different zones so people didn't have to travel so far. It was very nice. I went to Gwo Mon. We planted trees, talked about veggies, had a little worship service and ate food. You really can't beat that. Somehow we managed to feed everyone. The kitchen ladies had to give up some of their food to the kids in school but they wanted to and I know they snacked on some of the stuff they made so at least they'd be able to make it back home. Besides, they were pleased with themselves. It was good food. Hmm, well, I'm sure there's other stuff to tell you but I don't know what it is right now. So, I will write more when I think of it! | | Monday, April 28th, 2008 | | 7:53 am |
Here are some pictures for you. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48736&l=9714e&id=635241284Let's see, it would seem that I have failed to say there have been no roadblocks in Haiti for a while now. We're relatively calm again. Of course, food is still expensive. Not all of the subsidies have made it as far as the actual personal consumer yet but they're getting closer. We will see about the other stuff. Basically, the prime minister is gone and the president promised a bunch of things. We shall see! I will start my survey work again shortly (hopefully tomorrow) so that should be fun and tiring. I've got a whole new list of questions for people. In the meantime, my GPS work is getting near to completion so that's good too. I've finally started reading a collection of essays by Wendell Berry and I'm enjoying them a lot. Well, the introduction made my head hurt but the first essay by him was very good and fun to read too. He talked about Sabbath some which all you people out their should start reading about. It's good. It's also rather high up in the law and is good for you and the earth as well. Honestly, get on that. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading some more. That's good. I've turned 30. Crazy. My attempt at a cold left off for the day so that was good. We had a cake with 31 candles on it which I managed to blow out in one breath; everyone was very impressed. The kids made me some posters which Kathy hung in my room and they are very cute. They also bought me cookies and lollipops which is cute. I told them I'd carry the cookies with me on the trail and eat them and think of them and they thought that was ok. My garden is a source of hope for me. I think it's good for the kids too and they are eating out of it on their own some. Right now I have mustard and malabar spinich. The cabbage may never produce a head because we're eating the leaves right now. The moringa tree is spouting well. My okra is putting on fruit which I will eat even if that means I have to kill the little chicken that's beating me to it right now. My peppers are flowering. Most exciting of all, I have little tomatoes set on. I was so happy to see them. Pretty soon they'll be fat and red. Yeah! The kids have ripped up great sections of land to plant their own garden. I just may yet be an inspiration to someone. If they eat more veggies, that'll be a start. Well, I'm still trying to figure out whether to come back next year or not. Help! I've been spending a bit more time up on my rooftop just sitting and trying to relax to think and pray so that may help. I will keep you posted. I'm trying to take some little videos but haven't been able to get them on the internet yet so we shall see. Maybe you'll get to see them and maybe not. | | Saturday, April 12th, 2008 | | 1:02 pm |
| | 11:33 am |
Food Security
If you've seen Haiti in the news recently you'll know there's been rioting about food prices. Apparently food prices have gone up by about 50% in the last year and that's just more than people can handle. This week they blocked roads (mostly with burning tires). There was also violence in the cities. However, this weekend we're taking a break because everyone needs to go to market. People were hoping that the President would make a speech. He did but he mostly told people to take a pick and go garden and they wouldn't have this problem. I do agree with Preval to a certain extent on this but as you can imagine, it didn't help the situation much.
We had two groups here during this time. I was with a group from Building Goodness Foundation in the mountains and they made a beautiful house. By the time we were ready to leave, the roads had just cleared so we didn't have to walk to Lacul (thank goodness). The other group was here at Lacul and got stuck in a couple of road blocks and did not leave on their scheduled flight. They all left for the airport early this morning.
I will be sticking close to Lacul rather than going up the mountains until we see what the next week brings. Please pray for the people of Haiti that they can find food and a resolution to this particular time of turmoil. | | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | | 7:11 pm |
Different strokes. Different folks.
Well, this has been an interesting week. Aren't they always? Why, yes, yes, they are.
The good news of the day is that another house has been carried into the mountains and is mostly stored and waiting for the building team to come next week. Always awesome.
Different strokes... the number of people I know in Haiti who have had strokes has just gone up by one and it makes me sad. There really isn't anything to do for a person who's had a stroke here. The person who makes me the saddest though is Evelyn because I know her the best. Evelyn is a funny lady who enjoys having me around and doesn't always make me talk which can be very nice. She had a stroke a long time ago and is partially paralyzed, can't walk really well and can't talk very clearly which makes coversations interesting. Nevertheless, she's still something of a matriarch as one could be only in Haiti. What makes me sad is that she really thinks there's a cure out there and that somebody will have a pill that will cure her hand and leg. I've tried to tell her that's not been invented yet but she doesn't believe me. I've tried to tell her that eating leafy greens will not increase her blood pressure but she doesn't believe me. There's not really a way to convince her. Sometimes I'm not totally sure I want to convince her that she won't get better, it's good to believe that. Unfortunately, this belief doesn't prompt her to take better care of herself (eat veggies, stop the tobacco, start walking yourself around like in physical therapy). I have no idea what to tell her. So helpless.
Different folks... well, there's been some new instances of real craziness. One of the guys I know has a daughter who just went crazy. Apparently this is quite common in women especially around their first child. This one isn't pregnant but is married and lived away from her family so maybe it's the same thing. Fortunately too they often get better. In the meantime, she's shouting, running around, ripping apart the house and therefore is tied up and making her family exhausted. Not a great situation but one for which there is some hope as her older sister also did this and got better. A different situation is one of my neighbors who suddenly snapped and started going after people, throwing rocks, running around naked and things of that nature. Much to everyone's relief (for his protection and other's) he was recently caught and also tied up. He may be sent to a psychiatric hospital in Port-au-Prince but they're expensive and quite possibly not all that great. It's rather horrible to think of someone tied up but better that than roaming around hurting yourself and others. Also, better to be tied up by your family than in a worse situation. Bizarre. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
Well, I'm doing rather well. I'm done with my taxes which is fabulous. I've been thinking a lot about whether to come back next year or not. Rick is of the opinion that I'm a 10 year or so Haiti person. I'm being somewhat more tentative but I did have a revalation the other day - I'm really just starting to get the hang of this, it'd be silly to stop now. I've finally got the language pretty well, I'm getting a beginning on the handle of how Haitians think, people are starting to treat me not so much like an honored guest and more like a person, I'm learning a lot about CODEP, planting gardens, eating well. Ah, who knows! In the meantime, my blood pressure and my weight have dropped but not nearly enough to get excited about so I seem to be very healthy. Well, that's about enough for today. Bunches of love and sweaty kisses on the cheek ('cause that's how we say hey there). | | Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 | | 2:43 pm |
Life is always interesting Well, check out my pictures... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43861&l=6bf46&id=635241284I have been learning a lot. I've planted black beans, Congo peas, corn, my garden, harvested chocolate, gone to a health clinic, decided the Episcopal church in Haiti is best for me, made lots of hot chocolate and learned that my family is a bunch of slobs (not totally, just that not everyone is Haiti is like them which can be a good thing sometimes). To explain the last bit... I went to visit Mitha. Mitha is the sister of one of the animators and is sort of my friend. That is to say, sometimes I like her a lot and sometimes she makes me want to scream. She likes to ask me for things (which is something I've never totally reconciled too) and ask me if I know things and then make me prove it (which I really hate, if I say I know something, I know it, don't ask me to prove it, aaahh!!) On the other hand, she's smart and funny and we had a good time. We had a little sleepover and talked about boys, I thought it was really funny. Of course we also did the laundry by hand, made spaghetti for breakfast (she let me do it) and went to church (which was really loud with lots of singing and other instruments). How I know my family is not like everyone else in terms of hygiene... Mitha made me wash my hands after bathroom time and before eating. Very good. In the less exciting (or maybe too exciting) category... we went to bathe before church. Bathing for women is done topless and involves lots of water and soap and whatnot. Anyway, I had showered the afternoon before and figured that meant I was good to go until the afternoon again. Apparently not. While I did my little bathing experiment (not topless), Mitha along with a bunch of boys stood around (bathing) and commenting on how I should be bathing and suggesting what I should be doing. Sigh. As you can imagine, I was not particularly happy about it and not willing to take suggestions and just got mad. They eventually gave up but probably thing I'm a terrible slob. Oh well. Anyway, we went to church together. It was interesting. Hmm, what can I say, I am such a Presbyterian. Mitha is not. She's something in the charismatic line. There was only one person who spoke in tongues though so I think I probably got off lightly. It's such a problem because I'm such a synic but at the same time want to believe that the Spirit can totally take over a person too. Ah well. Anyway, they had the most impressive music I've seen to date. Lots of instruments. Two of the leaders got into a bit of a stand off as the service was ending which everyone thought was rather unnecessary. In all, I'll go back for Mitha but I suspect it's not in my line of church anyway. I've gotten attached to the Episcopal church though. I found that a whole bunch of people from my area in the mountains go to St Ettien so I can go anytime! Yeah!! Let's see, health clinics... another frustration. A bunch of people from my area went to a clinic in St Ettien. We got up very early to get there before everyone else. I went to take Evelyn, a funny lady who's had a stroke and as a result is partially paralyzed on her one side. We went and we sat. They came and took our money. They then told us oh, the doctors are from Cuba and they couldn't leave, come back next week. Why take our money? I don't know. Still, now we've got a receipt (prepaid) for next week. Clinics, solving the very treatable problems of the Haitians that have gone on for far too long. Still, there's people like Evelyn who will never get better but seems to think she just needs to see the right doctor and her hand and foot will get better. There's Mdm Jean Claude who wants a blanc to give her a pill for all of her problems but isn't particularly willing to hear that if she'd eat better (hello veggies!!!) and cut out the coffee and salt addiction she'd be better for less money. I don't know. Clinics, highly necessary, there's not nearly enough of them and yet, a mere band-aid on a rather large wound. Tell them pills won't solve all of the problems, go eat veggies and treat your water, wash your hands, don't pass the germs around. But, understandably, they're sick and need the pills and you can't fit everything into a 10 minute session. What to do? Thank goodness I'm not a doctor. Just send me some, I know what to do with them. On a lighter note, I've been watching the soccer teams play in my area (very fun, now cancelled because our field is planted). I took up a soccer ball for them. I am now on the committee for the championship games. Oh dear. | | Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 | | 6:27 am |
More pictures and a little update http://psu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41233&l=93c98&id=635241284Also, life continues on... currently I have a group from PTS here. It's too early in the morning to tell you all about them and besides we've gotten to eat and that's about it so far. However, we're happy they're here. Kathy is currently at home because her mother is ill but we think that she'll be back soon as her mom has stabalized. We've had a couple more losses in the mountains. My little friend Bertoni has gone (unwillingly) to live with his father. We are pretty sure he (dad) is coming back for Minushka. The only question is whether she'll go with him or head for the hills. There have also been some more deaths. Enese's mother-in-law and the father of one of our chefikips being the most recent. They both seem to have been relatively old. Well, must be off. | | Sunday, February 17th, 2008 | | 1:26 pm |
Homecoming
Well, it feels like I've been here forever again. Still, I have some vague memories of when I first returned. First of all, it was warm again. Really, moving from the tropics to my house shouldn't be done in January. Still, if one wants to see one's family from time to time (which I do), one must deal with these things. Jean Claude must have been really happy to have me back, he's hugged me a couple of times.
I brought back pictures of my family, our house, and snow to show people. They love it. They love that my family looks alike. Dad has a beard and so does Jean Claude. Our dog, Sherman, wears a collar (and is sooo big). My parents are very young. My sister cuts her hair (why is that?) We gather berries. There's such a thing as a two seater bike. My brother has a baby which he holds but I do not (have a baby that is). We have a really nice house for our sheep. Water can freeze outside.
Basically, life's still pretty good. I have to go to a spring to fill up my cistern now because rain isn't falling much yet. We did clean out the cisterns though so we're ready for when it comes! I have screen in two of my windows which is quite exciting as I can now sleep with the windows open and not fear mosquitoes. Oddly, I still get mosquitoes and I definitely kicked a bee out of my apartment twice and it still came back. Oh well, when we get screens on all of them maybe that will change.
We've had three deaths in the area recently. The first was one of our group leaders. We had just finished his house and he hadn't moved in yet. The other two were relatives of people I knew. I went to Sove's funeral. There wasn't a lot of wailing because he had no wife or kids. Still, there was some and some crying as well. The funeral process here is quite involved. The night before a funeral there is a gathering at the person's house with talk and cards. The funeral follows the next day. After that, there's the washing. Everyone and everything comes to the river and all of the clothes get washed. Basically, there's a lot of visiting, talking, eating, and taking care of the practical. It's interesting. And then there's the wailing which isn't describable but makes the hairs on your neck stand up.
Well, back to business as usual. I'll be coming up with questions to ask people again sometime soon I imagine. Until then, I'm having great fun with my GPS unit which is fabulous. We've got lots of groups coming in February (including my seminary again!) and I think we'll be installing lots of cisterns which is also exciting. Ok, signing off. | | Friday, January 11th, 2008 | | 5:29 pm |
Those results I've been promising you...
Well, I talked to the ladies and we gathered the reports from the animators and we learned all kinds of things.
People in CODEP have around 7 or 8 people living in their house. This means that each person who works in CODEP is usually supporting at least that many people. Pretty awesome. They have around 5 kids and usually some grankids as well.
They try to put their kids in school but sometimes it's too expensive. When this happens, some just do not go. However, quite a few people use the money they make in CODEP to help pay for schooling.
CODEP has some people and groups who are totally volunteer. There hasn't yet been space for them in a group or they don't have the time to be a full-time (3day) member so they volunteer. These people and groups plant lots of trees too!
Women (and children) spend 2-5 hours (depending on the area) each day getting water from a spring. This is just one reason that the cisterns that we install are important. Think about the savings in time and energy! In addition, a small amount of water nearby means they can treat it and know if it is good, clean water.
Not everyone treats their water but a fair number do! They use powdered clorox, lime juice, salt, or commercial water treatment. I had thought that no one would because they didn't think it was important or it's too expensive, and many do fall into these categories, but I was glad to see that some people do treat their water.
People still do not eat enough veggies. You probably aren't suprised if you remember my early longings for spinach. People eat veggies about 2 times per week. They eat moringa between 2 and 3 times per week. While these numbers are clearly not high enough, I have some doubt as to whether they're right at all...
One day, I was out walking with Venus, one of our animators. After I had talked with the women in the group, asking them about vegetables and gardens, Venus was upset. He told the group that he had spent lots of time with them, working with them and explaining the importance of a garden and vegetables. He knew that the animator before him had also done so. Why weren’t they doing these things? Their answer was, in short, they were. They had “vyann panye” growing beside their house which they ate regularly. They had little gardens, but a hurricane had just come through and now it was dry. They had fruit trees, they just weren’t in season. This reassured Venus immensely, it just made it confusing for me to compile data!
So, I'm not sure of the numbers. No matter what, they (and I) could use some more veggies.
On the upshot, it does seem that the longer you're in CODEP the more likely you are to have gardens and fruit trees so there continues to be hope.
Someone told me this story...
Before I started in CODEP, my mom worked for CODEP. We had planted Congo peas on a section of land and had gotten only one pod per tree. We were so discouraged we almost didn’t replant again. CODEP put ramps and trees on that land and we replanted. We planted 2 little marmits (a small can) of beans and harvested 20 dry marmits (a large can).
Women are an important part to any development project. From them comes food, water, and children. More importantly, if you educate the women and involve them, development happens, without them it is way more difficult. So, 2 of our 14 animators are women. In groups, the percentage ranges around 40. Our group leaders are about 20 percent women. So, I think these numbers are encouraging. I don't have anything to compare them to right now but I suspect this is what we could call a very good beginning. Hope so!
CODEP supports 577 students through the support they give to four schools in the area.
I think I told you already that we planted over 900,000 trees this year. Keep in mind these trees are raised from seed completely by the groups (who even gather the seed). It's a chore and a half. The majority of the trees are eucalyptus (63%). After that there are some indigenous trees, most of which are used for furniture, house building, etc. (25%). We also plant practically any fruit you can think of (except apple, peach etc because they don't like heat) and they make up 12% of our trees.
We also planted 140 miles of hedgerows. That's a lot of soil and water which will now remain in place.
We also have a gas program which 53 people take part in. This program does not replace wood as a primary fuel by any means but reduces dependence on it to some extent. The burners are not designed to cook a pot of rice and beans but can be used to make coffee in the morning. For this year, 540 tanks of gas were used instead of using charcoal or wood to burn.
Well, that's the basics. It was awesome to get to talk to lots of people and I found out a lot that I didn't ask about. Now, this coming time I get to do it again but with different questions. Should be good.
Wow, that was a lot of information with a bare minimum of context but I hope that gives you some idea of the things I learned so far! | | Monday, December 31st, 2007 | | 6:36 pm |
| | 5:34 pm |
Well, I'm trying to get somethings done before I make it home...
This past trip was interesting...
I saw 2 turkeys fight. Now, while chickens fightly looks vaguely amusing, turkeys are big and it was a bit scary. I didn't want to break them up so Jean Claude got a stick and starting beating on them so they broke it up.
I saw my first scorpion in Haiti and of course it is in my cistern because I failed to kill it. I hope that since I'm giving it a month to move out it will be gone when I return.
There was an accident on the road one night right below my house. Fortunately no one was hurt. The driver was apparently sleepy although from the smell his brakes weren't all that great. He tried to stop, fishtailed and wound up sideways completely blocking the road. Well, there were all kinds of people around. So, they unloaded the truck, found some rope and two trucks (yes two trucks not tow trucks) pulled him upright again. After that, he went back up the mountain to sleep. The end.
One day I washed clothes in the river. I'd been putting it off for a very, very long time. You see, I'd rather not know how to do it because then I won't have to do it. I'm not stupid. However, when my mama Enese says come on April, I come. She gave me some of the light laundry and I apparently did all right. However, while I was waiting for them to do the rest of the laundry, I rinsed. Apparently I did all right at that too because one of the other ladies washing at the river that day (this is a social event) starting giving me her stuff to rinse too. Enese and I were amused. All in all, I got rather tired (but got chocolate labouyi and a mango out of the deal) and my back really hurt. Still, considering how much I thought my arms were going to hurt, I did just fine.
And yes, there was Christmas. Not so much a holiday here. There was a Christmas Eve service at the church nearest me and I almost went but I started feeling a bit under the weather so I didn't. I sat at my neighbor's house and listened for a little while though. Christmas day, I worked. Honestly, it's just a rather normal day here. Bizarre. At the same time, at least Hallmark doesn't own the holiday. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Everyone does gifts for New Year's Day so Father Christmas doesn't come to people in the mountains (apparently he does stop at Port-au-Prince though, sad). Anyway, Kathy had given me a bunch of stuff to give to people - toys, cloth, hair stuff, hygeine stuff and I bought some shells. I finally got sick of being all down about Christmas and decided that as long as I had all that stuff I should really give it away. Jean Gardy came with me to help deliver it and we went to everyone else's house too and he was just in awe. It was so cute. So then I finally got around to delivering to the Jean Claude household and started with Clauna (the youngest girl). After that I gave Jean Gardy the stuff for Claudane and he ran out the door, shouting "Claudane, Clauna, you don't have to fight, there's more!) Oh, I chuckled. Crazy kids. Anyway, it was good. Still, odd. I can't decide what the appropriate thing to do for Jesus' birthday would be. I just don't know.
And now, here I am, ready to go home. Ok, actually, I'm not ready at all. My clothes are being washed because I can't leave dirty ones here. I'm not packed. And, well, I will miss my family in the mountains too. Yesterday I hung out with Enese's family so that was good. The kids were crazy. They gave me food. We did some little pieces of work and we talked. Today I hung out at my house. People came by, we shelled beans, Mdm Jean made yummy pumpkin soup, I roasted pumpkin seeds, Mdm Jean made hot chocolate which I love. All in all, a good day. My room looks too empty there now but also clean. Oh, and Ti Dezod aka Mimi aka the little kitty who's my baby (although not owned by me) stayed in my room last night. Sorry Sherman. I have a couple more pictures to show you and still need to get the results from my survey up but basically, that catches you up. Perhaps I will be seeing you very soon!
Happy New Year! Oh, ps, everyone does spring cleaning for New Year's. A new clean beginning. | | Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 | | 6:40 pm |
Money and Fighting Fish Well, as my report and the year come to an end, I feel obligated to tell you that CODEP needs money. It's true that we always need money, but it is still true. Our greatest limiting factor in this program is money. To give you an great example that I knew would come up in our animator meeting, we need fertilizer. You see, we do a great job planting trees. This year, including our volunteer groups, we planted over 900,000 trees. That is hugely tremendous especially when you consider that the UN just said Haiti was in crisis level of deforestation. I believe they meant that we've hit below 2% plant cover left but do a search to be sure.Here's the Yahoo article http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071220/sc_afp/haitienvironment_071220151425. Anyway, we're making it go the other way. However, if a tree can get a handful of fertilizer in its first year (and second too), it can grow all the better. Currently, we cannot fertilize all of the trees that we plant and we will probably never be able to do that. Two reasons that we would like to fertilize as many as possible are as follows... 1. if people don't see their trees growing, they get discouraged and begin to allow their animals to graze in the planted land 2. Earning a house requires that you have trees of a certain diameter and if we can't fertilize trees, people earn their houses less quickly. It's funny; I know and love quite a few groups that need money. I think it's because I am working in this one that I can see exactly where we could put more money if we had it. Of course, there are a host of other places to put it as well, but fertilizer is just one example. Now, as for the fighting fish, well, it's not a metaphor or anything. I saw 2 yellow fish while I was snorkelling and what caught my eye was that they were open mouth to open mouth so close that their mouths made a little diamond <> like they were kissing. Well, I thought, what have we here? So, they broke it up and then they started banging against each other and I could hear it! They did the mouth thing again before they decided to go other places away from each other. I thought it was really cool. | | Friday, December 21st, 2007 | | 6:16 am |
Water
I have some thoughts on water...
First of all, as you know, my water usage in the mountains is limited by just how much I (an my helpers) want to haul up to my roof to put in my cistern. It's also the dry season and our cistern that collects the rainwater is getting very, very low. This has cut my water usage tremendously. I flush only when necessary. I turn off the water when I'm lathering up. Basically, I hardly use any water at all. It's gotten to the point where I almost feel a bit ridiculous when I come back to L'Acul and take a shower with the water turned on all the time. I just don't know what I will do when I go home and the water is even hot. Anyway, everyone please take some time to consider your water usage. I know people are starting to be aware of this again in the states but do your own special thinking on it. You can collect the water that runs down the drain while you're waiting for your shower to get hot and do something with it. There's all kinds of options.
The other water thing is a bit more fun. Rodney is one of the kids on the beach. He has a dugout canoe. When I went out in the canoe with him on Sunday, I said, you're going to let me paddle this sometime aren't you? And Rodney said, yes! We were going to do it that day but I got moved up the hill. So, yesterday we had a staff party and Rodney was hired to give rides. I kept waiting for an oportune moment (namely when there weren't other people charging the boat) and Rodney kept reminding me he had no use for me unless I was going to paddle. Eventually we made it and I managed to get the canoe out to the reef and back completely by myself. Rodney kept moving around and making it tippy. The boat's a bit harder than your average canoe to steer but I managed. Really though, what's most exciting to me about all that is that Rodney was willing to let me do it. He never tried to take the paddle from me. He did tell me to go again when he thought we'd been sitting for too long (I was looking at the coral). Anyway, pretty cool. That made me happy. | | Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 | | 3:41 pm |
I sorta promised to write and say the house was done
Well, we set out to go to install the cistern and finish the house and poor Amy twisted her ankle, not too badly but badly enough she couldn't go on. So, I spent a relaxing day with her in front of a house playing with kids, adults, and bubbles. We had English school. We played with stuffed animals. We got freshly roasted peanuts. We hiked back out to Anba Tonel. And yes, the rest of the crew got the job done. The house is finished, I have no pictures to prove it but let me assure you it's done and pretty, we wouldn't do it any other way.
I'm currently back at L'Acul. Tomorrow is the staff party and I'm staff so I get to party. Rodney is going to let me paddle his boat. I'm super excited. Friday is our last animator meeting before we leave. I'm hoping to collect the rest of the information I need to finish my report for ERD. I can then finish the report and head up the hills to stay until time to leave. People apparently keep working during Christmas though so it may not be the relaxing time I thought it would be. That's ok though because school's been done for a while and although I love my kids, I do need to go out to the hills to get away from them from time to time. Still, it'll be good not to be woken up in the morning by them studying. Because everythign is learned by rote, they chant a lot when they study. Rather interesting. Ok, that's good for now. Bye! | | Sunday, December 16th, 2007 | | 7:44 am |
Building Goodness Foundation Well, I read quickly over my journal and I seem to have slighted BGF so for more information, including pictures of the trip in October check out their website http://www.buildinggoodness.org/Basically, they're a whole different organization that builds our wood houses for us. They also build other things in other countries including in the States. Many are professionals in construction to one degree or another. Anyway, cool organization. Start one in your town. The basic way they work here is they fly in, stay at the guest house, hike into where they'll build the house and stay there until it's done. It only takes them a couple of days to build it. Getting things carried in and out before and after are the stuff that I get to do. They build, I run around and interpret. I hardly ever get to hammer. Bummer. Oh well, more people can hammer if I run around! Fun, fun. My report for ERD is coming along nicely. I may be able to tell you all about it later! | | Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | | 4:47 pm |
| | 10:16 am |
Hmm, better write something before those building guys get back
Well, I did get sick and had a fever and wouldn't you know it, the stupid thing just doesn't want to leave. The fever did but the cold, in the tradition of seasonal change colds the world over, will not go away. Everyone here has a cold. As you know, it's cold in Haiti now. I know that I will freeze when I hit Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks. Oh, and if you want to see me in PA in a couple of weeks, make your reservations now... :-)
This past week I went into Gro Mon a lot. We had another Building Goodness Foundation group which I feel certain I must have told you about before. Basically, they build stuff the world over. For us they build a 2 room, 12x24 foot house with porch. Quite nice. When a CODEP member has done quite a lot of work, they become eligible for this house. At some point we carry a bunch of lumber and plywood and metal roofing and nails and well, everything, into the mountains. This particular commute for me, unloaded, at a pretty good run was just a bit over an hour. That would make it long. The group went in and stayed there and built it (barring a few minor details that we will get built this week). Pretty exciting. Ezayi, the guy we were building for, a chefikip (group leader) in CODEP was very happy and smiley.
Currently we have another group here which is the last group of the year. We just got back from market which has been expanded and therefore even the meat department feels open and airy. Quite nice!
My current project: finish the report to send to Episcopal Relief and Development so they know we do lots of good work (which they already know fortunately). Basically, summarize what I've learned while talking to people! I'll be sure to let you know all about it when I get it done. In the meantime, all's well. Oh, the hurricane or whatever it was brought us a much needed rain but I haven't heard of anything other than that. | | Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 | | 8:30 am |
Sorry, I'm just really not good at blogging...
Right, well brother Eric, if I spell her name wrong, it's your fault. Eleanor Jane Steed-Leese is my new relative. She's probably cute but I still haven't seen pictures. What's the point of the internet if you can't get pictures of brand new babies? Humph.
Anyway, sorry on the blogging lapse. I warned you that when I got into a routine I would get worse at it and sure enough, it's happened. I'm spending lots of time going and talking to groups to collect information. I've talked to over 60 women about water, veggies and whatnot. I haven't started to analyze the info yet so you'll have to wait on the results.
I've got myself a little English school which is now up to 4 students. No CODEP people just neighbors (some of whom are relatives of CODEP people). One of my students is currently impressing his teacher at his real school because we're learning what he needs to know ahead of time. So funny. Unfortunately I'm not being very original so we follow the same plan every day. They tell me what they did that day and what they plan to do the next day in English and another student translates for them. So, they practice past tense and future tense and learn words that they'd use often. On top of that I've started a little notebook that they can request what I write in it so that's what we've been doing. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to send them on to me!
I spend some time with Venus, one of our animators, the other day. He is usually such a calm guy but he got pretty fired up a couple of times. Good to see. We've recently discovered some fish ponds they built in his area. They're looking good. When everyone in the group told me they didn't have veggies or moringa (please google this and check out this awesome tree) he gave them a real talking to which they took and promised to shape up. I think they will. He made me want to go home and plant a garden right then. Also, before we even left he made me eat a huge bowl of pumpkin soup for breakfast. I couldn't finish. He told me if I finished I wouldn't have to eat until supper and he was probably right. Oh well.
Well, I really have to go get ready for church and I feel a cold coming on. I hate colds in the tropics. Oh well, I got a big salad last night! | | Saturday, December 1st, 2007 | | 6:17 pm |
I am an aunt
My brother has a baby girl. More info to follow. I hope. |
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