Living Haiti

There's a first time for everything...

I've been experiencing a lot of "firsts" lately in Haiti. I went to my first Haitian Funeral. There are not enough words for me to adequately explain it. It was simply amazing, something like I have never seen before. My friend Gertrude gave the Eulogy for her brother. I didn't understand much of what she was saying. It took me a while to find the word to describe to her how she looked and sounded when she stood in front of the church filled with people. I came up with it a couple days ago...Regal. That woman had some serious poise.

I also got sick for my first time in Haiti. I usually have somewhat of a steel stomach when traveling. Others in my group will get sick, but I never do. This summer when traveling through Europe I got a bit sick, and this past Friday I got what can only be described as some version of the tropical plague. (of course that's not an OFFICIAL diagnosis) All I know is that I was sick, and it was not pretty. I layed in bed for 3 days. Gertrude did an amazing job of taking care of me and made me eat, even when I didn't want to, and drink about every kind of juice she could possible find and make. There was no way I was getting dehydrated. Yesterday I finally felt back to the land of the living!

Yesterday I went with a young man that I've known for many years. He used to work at the orphanage here, and met my friend Lindsey and I in a week that contained many comical events of the two American girls trying to paint children's rooms with oil based paint in the 412 degree weather. Clearly he remembers me and finds great delight in talking with me...me in my broken Kreyol, and he in his broken English. Us communicating is really something to behold! He came by yesterday to take my by his church. He's a leader there and they lost half their building in the earthquake. He wanted to know if my organization could help, so I told him I'd take some pictures. Ladies and Gentelmen...on my way to his church I experienced my first haitian transportation on a motorcycle. I've been on motorcycles in the states but this is different. These bikes are smaller and many times there are 3 people on each bike. It's pretty entertaining. I, of course, was in a dress knowing that this conservative Christian man was taking me to his church. Great....so I climb on a bike, in a dress, sandwiched between the driver and my friend. I realize about 5 minutes in that I'm clutching the poor man in front of me...normally people don't hold on! So...I released my grip, and setteled down as I became more convinced that I was safe. When we got to the church he asked me to take out my nose ring because "not nice people in Haiti have nose rings". So...I did it...because I like him. Maybe when our language barrier is less I'll try to convince him I'm not some kind of modern day Jezebel. It was somewhere in the midst off this trip that it all sunk in...THIS is my life...I LIVE in Haiti now. I get this amazing opportunity to help people. And I get to do wacky things like this!

After that I went with Kim Sorrelle, from an organization called Rays of Hope for Haiti, and Gertrude and Patrick to look for a new used car for Gertrude. Kim is hilarious and has this, "I'm going to tackle any problem that comes my way," kind of attitude that I find entirely refreshing and exciting. From what I can tell, she doesn't speak a ton of kreyol, but she never lets the language barrier get her down and goes full speed ahead. I think she's the exact person you want with you when buying a new used car in Haiti. Let me tell you though...this is not like going to the used car section at your local lot. We went to about 5 different places yesterday and saw a total of about 12 used cars. Yeah, in a city of 3 million people, there are approximately 12 used cars. I wish we could all sit around the table and I could regale you with the stories of this extravaganza...but I will share only this one for now. My favorite moment came when Kim asked if we could test drive this old truck that they wanted to sell to us for 13,000 US dollars. They said yes, so she got in the drivers side and tried to start the car. It wouldn't...that's when they got a battery of the car next to it and put it in this truck. As they were working on that I walked around to the drivers side and noticed the front tire was flat...like wheel on the ground flat. I mentioned it to them and Gertrude said the tire on the other side was flat. I walked around to see that noticed that the new battery was being held in the car by cement blocks. Clearly we could have walked away with an AMAZING deal...a car with two flat tires and no battery for the low low price of 13,000 US dollars. Needless to say, shopping for cars is a tiny bit different! Maybe we'll find a car tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!