The Hardest Things

One of the hardest things about this place, is that when you see something that needs to be done, you can't just do it. This is not a culture where efficiency is accepted and appreciated. On the one hand, you have to follow an unwritten code of pleasantries. There's this way they have of constantly blowing smoke up one another's asses that seems to be the order of the day. Anybody that knows me even just a little knows that this is not a skill I possess. On the other, nobody has respect for you unless you are the boss. It takes one square move by your superior to effectively neuter you in the eyes of the masses. There's no coming back from that. If they have determined that you have no power, or they perceive that you have no power, you are pretty much useless here. 

Social Butterflies

I said "My, my" like the spider to a fly

"Jump right ahead in my web"

Well, we had a crazy busy weekend. Friday we spent the evening car shopping. Then we had friends over for drinks. Saturday we went out clubbing and up to the mountains to see the sights. Sunday we spent at Hotel Montana. The social scene is definitely picking back up like it was before the holidays. 

I am a member of an expat bloggers web forum and through that I routinely meet new people down here. Some are locals, some are foreigners and some are Americans. I've had pretty good luck so far and have met some really great people this way. 

Day Trip To Okay - Kanaval

Day Trip To Okay - Kanaval, a set on Flickr.

Tuesday we drove to Les Cayes (Okay to the locals) for National Kanaval - Haiti's answer to Mardi Gras. We spent the afternoon at a public beach and then headed in for the Kanaval parade in the evening. It was a day of AWESOME! Being able to get out of the city limits and see so much of the mountains and the ocean and the province! Ah! Of course, in retrospect - the decision not to carry my camera into town for the parade was not the best, I missed out on taking some spectacular pictures, but considering the vastness of the crowd, I'm not that mad about it.

Carnival Nationale

This will be an interesting week if it plays out the way I hope it does. 


Our older kids that go to Haitian schools have the whole week off as the island buzzes with Kanival celebrations. 


Our little ones that take school here on the grounds only have Tuesday off. :(


Because of this, I was unable to travel to see Kanival in all it's splendor. 


A friend has offered to let us ride with him as he delivers a car to aux Cayes (Les Cayes) just for the day. Aux Cayes is where the "official" Carnival Nationale celebration takes place. 


Meanwhile, the kids are prancing around the yard singing, "Say nan kugran m'pran" = It's the spark I take - roughly translated - I am the body electric!


Happy Mardi Gras to my American friends and family!

Christmas Past

Okay, so I know this is long over due, but I did tell you I had a rough holiday so sue me! 


Anyhoo, Christmas would not be complete without the advent story - so here for your viewing pleasure, are the C&S players in the telling of the birth of our Savior:

Luke 2

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that 

a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² 

(This was the first census that took place while 

Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ 

And everyone went to their own town to register.

Dinner AND a show

The dining-out experience in Haiti is something I will never forget the rest of my life. I have such a new appreciation for American customer service. I have always been a decent tipper, but I think living here these past 5 months (yes, tomorrow will mark 5 months!) have given me a whole new perspective on what a good server is worth. 


Here's what a typical night out looks like:


They have printed menus, but that doesn't mean they have these things available. So as you ask for things, the waiter will say he has to check. Then he "dashes" away to the kitchen. 10 to 15 minutes later he returns and tells you if they have it. They you ask for the next item and the process repeats. It takes between a half hour to hour and a half to order. Then it takes at least an hour before the food comes. And when the food comes it's always worth a good laugh to see how they interpret "vegetarian spaghetti with pesto and mozzarella" which a. doesn't have mozzarella or pesto, and 2. is made with fettuccine noodles, not spaghetti. You have to order your drinks two at a time or you will die of thirst waiting for them to come with drinks...and then it takes another half hour to get the bill, which you then have to check item by item, and each question you have the server "dashes" off to ask for an answer. Then when you hand them your credit card they try to tell you they can't process it because they would rather have cash, after all, it's hard to short the till on credit card receipts. All the while, you know the poor guy is barely making any money and then they don't get tips to boot. It's worth the experience.

Mi Vida Loca

So, yesterday one of our neighbors' hens got in our yard. I didn't want to make a big deal of it before the kids got into their classrooms so I pretended not to see it. But once I got all of our blue shirts (preschoolers) and red shirts (primaries) into their respective rooms, it was on like Donkey Kong! 


So, I tell the guard at the gate, Mr. Germain, to open the walk-thru and try to head her off on the right flank while I came at her from the left. 


Well, the readers' digest version is, I got at least a mile run in at the beginning of my day. That little chick ran this way, that way, and then the other way again. She ran in the chapel, out the side door, back in the side door, through the yard, back into the chapel...you get the idea!


Crazy days!


Today I taught myself how to drill through tile. Yeah, my days are carazee! lol


Also, I got to make some mini-mes for our My Body series: 

what's under there, we do not share!

the parts you see there are okay to share

yes, those are granny panties!

 

don't judge my fashion sense, there are only so many colors of
construction paper available! And don't look too closely
at those fingers.  I'm a teacher, not an artist! lol

Okay, that's all for now. I need a glass of wine and a shower!

Parachute!

Who doesn't remember this? The bestest days of primary school for sure. It's no different in Haiti, even with a little ole bitty one like this: 

the children are introduced to the parachute

they're still a little too wild for this, but hopefully as we continue
demonstrating the teamwork model they will get it

it's a good thing they are so little and can fit under this thing!

rock-a-bye baby!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Here's today's post - in pictures:

Now that our kids have "unlocked the code" they just can't get enough to read!

Birthdays are special days around here! 

Hair grooming is an ongoing event when you have 13 girls to care for

and again with the books...they just couldn't be any happier!

Catching Up

I always feel like I'm trying to catch up. 


It's been an incredibly long and difficult journey and I never feel fully rested. 


I am always at least a week behind in my journaling which makes it hard to remember what to write about when I do get a chance to sit down. 


Today I hope to repair that dysfunction. 


Laura Beth, Mitch's niece, and an absolute angel from God himself, has been here over 3 weeks now. She has been such a blessing! Even if she never did a think while she's here (which she has already done soooo much!) it would go down in my book as a success. What it has meant to me to be able to talk to someone who is similarly cultured and understand where I'm coming from...it has lifted a HUGE burden from me. I am now able to relax, focus and do what I enjoy doing. 


Of course, I can't blame this place (the mission or Haiti in general) for all of my woes. Let's face it, I martyr myself. That's what I do! I can't help myself. It's like I got labelled with that as a child and I continue to find myself playing that role no matter what I do or where I do it. 


So, back to catching up. 


I'm going to try to go back and post some of my photos. I've nearly forgotten I even had a camera here! 


Today's selection is a sample of things that we do around the mission just for the bonding and community of it. We are, after all, a fill in family for all of our children. 


In this first photo, you see our evening director, Yonel, who grew up at the mission and stayed on as director, being shampooed by a few of our girls, Bianka (6) Samanza (9) and Junie-Anna (7). What fun they had!

who doesn't love to have their hair washed? 

One of the mistakes I made when I got here was not getting enough background info on Birthday celebrations. Turns out by getting cakes for everyone's' birthdays individually, I was setting a precedence too difficult to maintain. So in November or December, we decided that we would pick one birthday each month to have cake for everyone who's birthday was in that month to do cake. For Dec, we had Kevin on the 22, Bianka on the 24 and Danny on the 28. (Apparently I'm not as behind in photos as I thought - this is for January) Moise (Moses) on Jan 1, Lorvens 4 on Jan 12 and Shedeline 5 on Jan 18. So instead of having several of the Epi D'or round cakes, we had one chocolatey goodness sheet cake from Petionville! Good call Miss Michele! This cake was soooo good!

the most delicious cake in Haiti!

This last one is my failed attempt at those really cool pix of people gobbling up the moon. We have such spectacular night skies but I a. have a crappy camera and 2. suck as a night photographer! 

Ti Martelli has a little green cheese snack!

Okay, well, that's it for this post. Stay tuned for more!