Grateful for pavement

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It's been way too long since my last blog post so I hope you didn't forget about me!!



So much to tell you guys since I last posted so I am going to try and remember everything to the best of my ability.

On Thursday night we lost power and didn't have it for 48 hours. You are probably wondering what I did during that time… Well……. I did so much.

Friday morning I woke up, took a shower and then we "tried" to fix the broken printer. The only way the printer would work was if you held the power cord in place while we printed. We had to print 70 copies of the instructions we made on how to work the water filters and it took us over an hour (I am grateful for my printer at home). Our job is to hand out all the water filters to each student to bring back home with them to their families. Not only do we hand them out, we also need to teach them how to use and clean them. Around 4:30pm we had our first training to English speaking students. Surprisingly, I think they understood us the best they could and then Catherine translated our directions to them in Creole. Everyone in the class was full of questions so it was really fun to interact with them! One guy was so thankful for the water filter, it was amazing to see the big smile on his face when he left that day.

Later that night we got ready for our first night out on the town. We all got ready with minimal light and headed out the door ready for some Haitian fun! The first thing we did when we got in the car was blast Beyonce (classic white girl move) and stop at the store for some $1 beers. Each of us purchased two each for the long car ride to the bar. The bar we were going to was called Irish Pub (it was so American). The drinks were overpriced but so good and the waitress hooked us up with a hookah at our table. Who even thought smoking hookah was as casual as that. After the tequila shots we were off to the next place, this was a Haitian club. The club scene was different then the bar as we all got in a group and danced. The music was a mix of the United States Top 40 and Haitian music so I was having a great time. The people in the club consisted of a mix of Turkish tourists, Haitian men and women and then us (the whitest girls ever). As we left around 1:30am it started raining (thank god, it cooled the place down) and when we arrived back at HAC all our stuff was in the middle of the room to prevent it from getting wet. I slept so while that night as the rain trickled away on the roof.

The next morning was the latest I had slept in since I've been here and of course it was our most jam packed day. We departed HAC around 11:00am and made our first stop at a Haitian jewelry shop called Haitian creations. The ladies who make the jewelry use recycled materials to create beautiful necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bags, etc. After we visited the Haitian Independence Museum and that was definitely a cool experience. A group of Haitians asked to take a picture with us which I thought was super funny but they were very persistent about it. The next place we stopped was your classic American supermarket called Deli-Mart. Here we were able to purchase snacks that weren't Haitian and CHOCOLATE. I miss chocolate so I was craving the Oreos once we bought them. The last stop on our long day out we went to a Haitian market. So. Many. People. Authentic Haitian goodies were sold at this market but I also experienced some weird sights. One of them being a cat on a leash? Like what? Also water was sold in the form of plastic bags. You have to bite off the corner to get water out of it. HOW COOL RIGHT?

When we got back I splurged on Oreos which unfortunately are now gone because the cats got ahold of them (I am not kidding). But most importantly was the noise that kept me up for the night. The workers decided that it was a good idea to work until 3:00am in the morning as they were screaming and using machines that were shaking the building. I feel like a walking zombie right now.

Go Germany!!!!!

P.S. the title is showing how thankful I am for paved roads because 3/4 of the roads here are straight dirt



Besos from Haiti,

SarBar

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Comments

[G'Ma]

pavement
can't believe you are in 2nd week already. how much of the countryside have u seen? Have u been back to orphanage .Enjoy. Love g'ma and Paws