I learned a few days ago that cruise ships will dock on the
lovely beaches of Northern Haiti, but the stop will be labeled as “Hispaniola”
(the island that combines Haiti and the Dominican Republic) instead of Haiti –
possibly as a way to make you feel like you’re not vacationing in the poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere?
We didn’t take any excursions are go on any lengthy hikes
this weekend, just spent a lot of time on the porch here on the compound! Exciting weekend nights consist of cards and beer
and music playing on our iPods J During the days, none of us have to go to
clinic, we don’t have any more IRB paperwork to do, and we don’t have any
research data to analyze yet, so we have the weekends to relax for now. I do remember previous Tufts volunteers who
came to Milot talking about how you could get a little stir-crazy from the down
time around here. Milot is a very small,
quiet town, and we end up spending a lot of time on the compound, basically on
the relatively cool porch. Some of the
others are already getting a bit of cabin fever, but I’ve kind of been enjoying
the peace and quiet. I’ve spent a lot of
time reading (just finished Little Bee), and while I have that instinctive
guilt that I’m not being productive, I remember that I always crave the chance
to sit outside on a nice long, warm days and read all those books that I’ve
been putting off forever. The other nice
thing about having the porch and the free time is that we’ve been working out
every day! This is something that I NEVER
do when I’m overseas. I’ll work out once
every two weeks MAX, because I’m hot and lazy. But here, we’re waking up at
6:30 am to go running (excluding me, I am not down with that) or do some
strength training on the porch. I
brought a set of Yoga DVDs and have been organizing afternoon hot yoga sessions
(since it’s 95 degrees outside anyway) on the porch. Our participants have been growing every
session!
We’re supposed to have a barbecue this evening for one of
the volunteers’ birthday. So when they
say they’re getting fresh chicken for the grill, that means they’re bringing in
live chickens to be slaughtered here on the compound for dinner. The guys persuaded me to watch while one of
the med students did the honors of cutting the throat of one of the chickens
with a blunt knife. I watched from 40
feet away, reluctantly, and had to shield my eyes at times, especially when I
caught a glimpse of headless chickens flapping around in circles on the
ground. I guess if I’m going to eat it,
I should see this part of the food preparation as well.
Well, time to feast and get ready for another big week
ahead!
:)
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