Taking the good with the bad

(from Friday, June 1)

Day 3 in Haiti!

First of all, the meals here are delicious!  We’ve had spicy rice, squash, chicken stew, beans – all slow cooked with some chili heat!  It smells like hot paprika around the volunteer grounds for a couple hours before each meal.  We even had the cook’s spin on French toast this morning and pizza tonight! 

After two nights in our double room – Fort Rollet-Siew – we have moved to a new location on the grounds – the four ladies from Tufts are now bunking in an 8-bed dorm, slumber party-style.  I’m glad for the ceiling fans, because it felt like a sauna in there during the day, complete with a plethora of mosquitoes.  There are chickens hanging out around the grounds, with confused roosters coo-ing at all times of the day.  There is also one single menace bird that chirps very loudly at 5 am and wakes us up. 

Yesterday, Shelley and I visited the Nutrition Center at the hospital in the morning, filled with adorable toddlers, and we were able to ask the ladies there about how things work in the center.  I speak French, and the ladies respond in a Creole French mix.  We also watched a demonstration of a new water purification system from other visiting Americans, then met some other administrative staff in the hospital.  We had a “birthday party” for our Tufts mate, Amelia, with Prestige beers (the Haitian beer of choice in our lodgings) and card games on the porch.

This morning, we went to a workshop with community cholera workers, which was all in Creole.  Hence, we did not learn too much.  But it was interesting to see the workers all together.  I am learning some Creole phrases here and there though from my Creole Made Easy book – I think I’m getting the hang of some words and will hopefully learn a lot over the next 8 weeks!

After lunch, we all (13 of us) hopped back into a van and headed to Cap Haitien through some tough traffic to visit the town’s public hospital and meet a woman who is working with a great organization that has been running capacity building programs in hospitals in Haiti.  Cap Haitien is on the coast (so we did get a quick glimpse of the ocean) with large hills, with houses built on the slopes.  The heat is quite oppressive for most of the day, as expected, so it was an extremely sweaty day.  After the hospital, we journeyed over to Meds and Foods for Kids, which was super exciting.  This is an organization manufacturing and distributing ready-to-use therapeutic foods called PlumpyNut – a nutrient-dense peanut butter paste given to severely malnourished children for quick recovery.  This is the same type of product that I worked with last summer in India.  This organization here in Haiti also works with local peanut farmers to promote high-quality local production of raw ingredients.  It was fascinating to chat with the staff there and tour their facility.  I hope to go back soon and find out more about their work!

Afterwards, we swung by the airport to pick up another American visitor to the hospital.  While parked there, I took some pictures of the airport and a tiny Hertz Rent-a-car.  We have been told to be very prudent about taking pictures of people around here, as many people may not like it or will ask for money.  That’s totally understandable.  Well, apparently my Hertz glamor shots were in the direction of a man walking by (but who didn’t actually end up in any of my pictures), who proceeded to approach the car and ream me out because I did not have the right to take his picture.  Alas, I was flustered and in retrospect could have tried to reason with him and explain.  Oh well… lesson learned?

An eventful couple of days!  Taking the good with the bad - intense heat, a little taste of hostility, but delicious food, terrific field trips, and mostly super friendly people. I’m a little concerned about having the energy to do all the computer desk work in the evenings that I need to do this summer after mornings and afternoons going into the field in the heat… All I want to do after 4 pm is take cold showers and lay down! 

Tomorrow morning, we set out at 6 am to hike to the Citadel – hilltop ruins for which Milot is famous.  It should take a few hours, so I’m hoping we survive the heat!  

:)