Better late than never, eh?

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Well, I guess I should have written this last week, but what can I say... I didn't. So, here is last weeks blog, written this week. The theme is, I suppose, Port-au-Prince, which, of course, I have not seen much of. Regardless though, I will give it my best effort.

First, i'm not sure where I left off on the last one. I think I was still living in Villa Manrese, which was the religious house with the awsome view. I moved out of there two Fridays ago. The director of Fonkoze, Anne Hastings, was going to Paris for the week, so she very graciously let me house sit her flat for the week she was away. I spent the weekend + week at here place, and it was ver good. She lives in Paco, which is a nice region of PAP I think... there seemed to be a lot of NGO's around where she lived. It was also very close to Fonkoze, so I also had the chance to walk to work. Walking to work was a nice change from being chauffered around everywhere, which is not as glamourous as it sounds. Every morning I was met by Favel, who "escorted" me and a Fonkoze intern (Amy, who lives in a flat below Anne's) to work. My day usually began at 6:45 with Amy for coffee, than off to Fonkoze for our 7:30 AM Creole class. The classes are Friday - Monday from 7:30 to 10:30... not much of a challenge on work days, but not so easy on the weekend. I'm afraid I missed the Sunday class that week becuase of another excellent BBQ at someones house who works for Digicel... it had a truely fantastic view.

But I digress. My week was really interesting. A SFF board member was in town to help with the business plan and overall stragety. First, a bit on the Fonkoze Family, which emcompasses three organisations: Fonkoze Foundation, who start new branches and deliver the social programmes, Fonkoze Finanical Services, who are designed to be the profitable microfinance bank (and with whom I am doing my work term with), and Fonkoze USA, who raise money in the US. SFF stands for Servise Finaciale Fonkoze (SFF). The board member, Josie Sentner, is a (former?) investment banker based in NY. We hashed out strategy and ideas for SFF's future for the week, which was a lot of fun, and a real learning experience. Josie has a lot of finance experience, and I learned a lot from her. The week ended on Friday (as most weeks do), with a clear action plan on how to proceed.

The following weekend was also a lot of fun... Saturday afternoon I went to a BBQ hosted by a German embassy person. I was a fourth-order invitee (i.e. I knew someon who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who was invited), but thorougly enjoyed the BBQ. That night, I went to a party, but I don't know who hosted it... I managed to make it to Sunday morning Creole classes this time, but was probably a bit rough around the edges (I needed more coffee). Well, that takes me up to the point I should have published last week. The following week (this past week) was a lot more interesting, but i'm probably not going to write it right now since I have a 8 am flight tomorrow morning to the Dominican Republic for Tara and Paul's wedding (Tara is my cousin in case non-family members are reading this). I'm flying to Santo Domingo, but not the main airport, which means I could not find a reasonable way to get to Punta Cana, where I'll be staying. So, i'm going to be taking a taxi at great expense in order to reach the beach for some undeserved rest and relaxation.

That's all from me right now... more to follow tomorrow when I'll disucss this past week, when I went into the feild and visited Fonkoze clients. Oh, and remind me in the future to discuss Creole, which is a very interesing language... quasi French, but not!

Cheers,
Ian

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Photos

Sunset over Port-Au-Prince
I think the title is self descriptive. Also, I purposely didn't put a hyphen between self descriptive, becuase apparently, Canadian's use a lot of hyphens... it's just what I heard somewhere.

Deck next to Anne's
The deck next to where I was staying for th e week. There is a pool there as well.

Patio and view
Again, Anne's flat where I was staying for the week. Nice view, eh?

View of PAP on way to work
From just outside Anne's door. The caribbean sea is in the background.

Double wall
Here you can see the original wall, and then a second taller wall built on top, presumably as the security situation worsened in Haiti.

Wall with signs
There are a lot of walls with painted signs on them... I think it's sort of neat.

Run down grand house
There are a lot of really nice houses that are a bit run down. I'm not sure why (well, i'm actually sure why... PAP is not a rich city)... b ut why was such a huge house built here and not completed.

Texico
Gas stations look the same everywhere in the world!

Road next to where I work
Again, self descriptive. I work just behind that wall.

Fonkoze headquarters
Where I work

View from Fonkoze of hills outside of PAP
It's a nice view, eh?

Top of house
There are a lot of ornate roofs in PAP.. this roof belongs to the German-Haitian association, which is Fonkoze's neighbour.

Interesting roof/top of house
I wonder how such a place get's built... it's a very interesting house.

MSF hospital in Haiti
One.. MSF (Doctors without border, or Medicien Sans Frontier in by butchered french) have the coolest vehicles because they all have cool flags flying next to their cool looking 4x4s. You can't see that in this photo though. The architecture is indicative of the types of buildings you can see in Haiti.