Haiti Day 2

I apologize for yesterday's short blog; I was using someone's computer so I only had limited time!

Wow, what an incredible night. My bed/mattress is actually quite comfortable, and had enough space to kind of move around.  It was raining as we went to sleep, and I thought the sound of the rain was calming and relaxing...however, that sound was overshadowed by the barking dogs, crazy cat attack, snoring, and all the other volunteers moving around on their mattresses.  Fortunately I was still able to fall asleep at a decent hour...around 12...however I was very concerned about waking up on time...having been told we needed to be ready by 7:30am!  With the all day travel, and the late night I never thought I would be able to get up that early.....well, let me tell you, I quickly learned that this will NOT be a problem!  I woke up at 5:30am courtesy of some more wonderful Haitian sounds: cars honking, dogs barking and yes.....the rooster's wake-up call.  Seeing as I now had 2 hours to get myself together, I was in no rush!

Now, if you recall from my previous blog, I mentioned my challenges and hard work with the mosquito net...well all that hard work did NOT pay-off!!!!  I awoke with 20+ mosquito bites covering my legs, so lets just say tonight will be attempt #2 for mosquito net set-up.

As for the rest of the day; well today was orientation, and since Cara and I are the only 2 newbies, we were the only one's in orientation, making it very short!  What I learned in orientation:
    1 - Honking is just a friendly greeting or warning for fellow drivers when someone is passing by
    2 - Haitians like to be clean and appreciate others cleanliness
    3 - My first scary moment/wake-up call: Malaria story!!!  While I would love to share now, I think it might invoke some fear from my family, so I will share once I arrive home!!

Since orientation was only during the morning, we were assigned to painting the 10th school for the afternoon shift, which follows lunch!  We were told...you do not need to be hero's on your first day, which we quickly learned would not be a worry for us!!!  During our lunch time we were able to walk down one of the roads right off of where we are staying...which was very interesting.  Because there has been so much rain around here, there was a lot of mud, making walking very slippery.  There were so many men, women and children on the street; many without shoes, and some of the children without pants, but what was so remarkable, was everytime I said Bonjour to someone, their face lit up with the biggest smile.  I do notice people staring at us as we walk by, but more out of curiosity....all they want is a little smile.  There are so many different smells as I walk through the streets; grilling of foods, burning of rubbish, and sewage.  It is remarkable that so many people live in these conditions.

Lucky for us, we also were on dish duty for lunch...yet another learning opportunity.  Reminds me of girl scout camp: clean, rinse, sanitize!!  Fortunate for us, there was not a lot of dishes this afternoon, because several of the projects stayed out for the day as opposed to coming back to base.  Let me explain "projects;" there are different projects that the organization is working on in different locations in Leogane.  Volunteers select different projects to work on each day; some projects are half days, so you come back to base at lunch before going back out, and some are all day projects so you eat at the base.

So following lunch we headed out to our site to paint the school; it's the 10th school the organization has built, and they are currently working on the 11th and 12th..which we will be participating in!  In order to get to the location we are transported via tap tap...a very interesting experience to say the least.  A tap tap is basically a truck with benches on the back that we sit on.  When you reach your destination you "tap" on the top of the truck and then get off.  It was such a scary experience; with the roads having no speed limits, and people riding bikes and walking on the sides of the road I felt extremely worried....even getting a little car sick from the rough roads and fast speeds.  The ride was about a half hour....not neerly the distance we traveled to get to the base from the airport!

Once we arrived at the project we got right to work....we were painting the interior of the school!  It seemed like a fairly simple task, but the constant standing and moving, combined with hot and humid temperatures was definitely a shock to the system.  Within in the first hour I was feeling exhausted....and was able to take a break!  Good thing for the half day....it allowed us to get used to the conditions we will be working in for the rest of our experience.  As for this school, it is basically complete; containing 3 classrooms, and decorated in red and gold colors, with a very sturdy structure.  After returning to the base....entirely covered in paint, it was time for my first shower experience!!!  Let's just say, I will be very much looking forward to a shower back home.  Here we use a bucket filled with a limited amount of water....yes....that's barely enough water to get REALLY clean, however following the work day it felt pretty good.

Then it was dinner time!!  To be honest, we have yet to expose ourselves to the food cooked on base...we are living off of granola bars, and crackers with peanut butter!  I'm very concerned about getting sick (since EVERY person here has told me they have been sick) so I'm doing my best to avoid any situation that might get me sick.  Every night following dinner we have a group meeting, and since this was our first meeting, we got to introduce ourselves to the group and were able to learn about all the projects going on!  Once the meeting was over we are free to do whatever for the night!!!  Well, that's all for today.  Hope I answered some of the questions you had...if not feel free to post questions for me to answer! 

Til next time

Bec