Dan and I began this week to be available to help kids who either wanted or needed support with math or English.  I even offered to be there for teachers interested in English.  The week began very slowly.  Dan sat where recommend by the principal and was completely overwhelmed by kids ages 7 to 12ish.  They were more interested in touching his arms (Interested in the hair on them) and running around then working on math.  There were a few kids really there to learn but their lesson was sorely tested by the chaos (in Haiti, you say dezòd) all around them.  Dan looked like a deer in headlights when I saw him at the end of an hour. (I was working with the older kids on English.)

That night, we strategized and I being the mean one, promised to shoo the kids away who weren’t participating in the math tutoring.  I did so the next day and the result was about four kids who were there and  really needed basic help on multiplication and division.  For me, it felt pretty unfulfilling.  Especially after I had offered help with English and no one took me up on it.  I was feeling pretty low, I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday night.  What were we doing there?

We kept going and I got a few pick-up classes in both English and Agriculture because the teacher hadn’t shown up.  I think I jumped way ahead in the Ag class, but Raphael, the ag teacher, is super forgiving. The reason he wasn’t there was because he was picking up rabbits for the 9^th graders..  I think my English class work was fun for the kids and a break from their English grammar.  I cannot fault the English teachers here on their work on English grammar but English pronunciation and conversation…

We also kept seeing the same kids coming for math help and a few more each day.  We keep having to shoo away those ready just to play with the hair on Dan’s arm but might have gained a little traction with the 4^th and 5^th grade crowd.  Looking for math games involving multiplication, please send pronto!

So it was an interesting week.  I hope that by keep showing up, the kids will trust us enough to keep coming.

We have started a few other English courses.  Dan “works” for Evenson Jean who has an “English Institute” on Saturday mornings.  For an hour and a half, he teaches English while I go to Garden Club.  Next week, we are going to switch!  We also give private lessons to Rica and her husband, Ricardo.  We gave them one so far and they missed the second one.  Mmmmmmm, wonder what that says about what they thought about our course.  This week, I’m scheduled to start two new ones.  Stay tuned.

I mentioned what are we doing here?  Dan and I talk about this almost every day and we definitely feel like it is mostly for us to learn.  We have been enlightened and enriched by what we have experienced, way more than any times tables or English greetings we have shared. We still aren’t sure what the purpose of this learning and experience will be but right now, we are doing our best to just be observant and absorb all we can.

Finally, you may have heard about the problems in Port au Prince.  It has been a bad week and depresses me because it keeps happening, so hopeless…  Here we are with these beautiful kids, happy, full of life and hope and their country is in complete dezod.  I’m not much with prayer, much more of a doer so this is really hard.  But would love to have you put your thoughts and spirit to the health and security of Haiti.

Lots of love for the week.

The new rabbits!  Saturday, Agro Raphael gave a lesson on care and handling.  Here, he’s showing how to identify the sex.

The 9th graders with their rabbits.

Gerry, definitely part of the dezòd, watching as Guerline weighs a rabbit.  As Dan says, he is a cute little diablo!

Hi all, Dan and I are finally getting into a bit of a routine.  Our company has all left and we have the house back to ourselves.  It is a relief to be honest.

Yesterday was the first Saturday morning garden club we have attended this year.  I had been experiencing some concern about the ag program since I got here.  Was it still active and were the kids still engaged?  I had never seen anyone in the garden over the last few weeks.  Well all my doubts have been erased.  There were 24 kids there, 8th and 9th graders because it was their week and a few 7th graders just because they wanted to be there.

The 8th graders worked in the garden, taking little starter plants and putting them into the mounded rows they had weeded and added compost to.  It is quite different then we would do, seeds like onions have to be started not directly into the rows because the ants will eat them.  The group was delightful to work with and super engaged.  The girls seemed to be the planters and the boys did the watering.  About the watering.  One of the reasons that the garden is small right now is because the cistern is almost empty.  Part of it is lack of rain but also the cistern is not working well.  Irrigation is a huge problem.  It is hard to effectively grow a large garden because you have to rely on rain and it is so inconsistent.

Agro Raphael, who is a great guy/teacher/agronomist/leader, first had to climb up on top of the cistern, drop a bucket into the cistern to get the water out of the bottom and drop it down to a waiting 55 gallon drum.  Then the kids formed a bucket brigade to bring the water to the garden; no way to enlarge a garden, only 55 very inconvenient gallons of water!

The 9th graders worked on animal husbandry for their Saturday garden club.  First they vaccinated all the goats.  Because it is so dry and the goats are undernourished, they are susceptible to parasites.  So the kids learned  to how do the vaccinations.  This was an impressive teaching moment.  Raphael showed them once how to do it and then from there students took over.  He never jumped in to correct their attempts, just gently talked them through it until they got the hang of suctioning the medication into the syringe at the right quantity.  One girl, Guerline, loved applying the shot to the goats.  And she was good at it and I think a future veterinarian.

After they finished vaccination, they worked on cages for rabbits that they will buy (As soon as the cages are finished.)  Rabbits are an idea Raphael has for a good meat source and an excellent way to teach genetics.  Stay tuned!

The morning  ended with a big bowl of diri koule, (Rice with beans) for each student. Raphael with the help of Vladimy who handles finances for the school sold six goats in November to fund food for the kids and the start of the rabbit project.  The ag program has always been near and dear to me and to see the program becoming self-sustaining is so great.  Now to just get irrigation happening for the school/kids/community!

8th graders add the compost.

The girls starting new plants.  Lake Valley, in Boulder donated bunches of veggie seeds.  It was funny, after planting all of these, Raphael realized they were not sweet peppers, all hot!  Good thing, the Haitians like their food spicy, they just aren’t used to so many types of spicy peppers.

Guerline’s first goat to vaccinate.  She looks a little hesitant!

She handles the billy with no problem!  He is the biggest goat around and the dad to most of the new babies.

Had to post a pic of the babies.  They are sooooo cute!

Had to post this too.  This is Danica and I was impressed by her precise seed planting!

Got to join in a bit.  Mostly watched, learned a bit of kreyol, enjoyed and took pics.

 

I noticed the other day, that when I leave my house to begin my commute to the school to work, I feel an incredible lightness and joy.

It could be because I am leaving our house that has become grand central station for the neighborhood since our landlord, the ambassador, came home, took over the house and the hood.  More on that later.

It could be that I am on my bike!  I got a new (To me) bike last Saturday and I love it.  It is the perfect fit for me, tall, upright frame and handlebars.  It only has one gear and kick back breaks and it is pink and white and I truly love riding it. I didn’t realize how much I was missing riding as fast as I can (Not very fast), feeling wind and watching the world go by.

But mostly, I think it’s the community.  I love going by the same people each day and saying Bonjou (In the morning), Bonswa (In the afternoon), hello and how are you when it’s a St. Paul’s kid (More on that later too.)  Really Haitians live outside and riding down the road makes me feel part of it.

I usually head to school between 7 & 9 depending on what we are doing and home between 5 & 6.  It’s usually pretty quiet on the road if I go after 8 when the kids are all in school.  More just woman and men doing what they need to do for the day; getting water, heading to the market with their produce on a motobike or a donkey. Except on Thursday mornings.  Thursday is the big Carrefou Lendi market and my ride takes me directly through it.  I usually have to get off my bike and walk through.  The market is an amazing  experience and while not unique (I’m sure markets like this happen the world wide) definitely eye-opening for a Coloradan.  The Carrefou Lendi market will definitely make it into a blog post.

Later in the day, the mood is so different.  I think that everyone comes to the edge of the road to hang out, early evening.  It’s like cocktail hour without the drinking and out on the road.  There are the young guys always sitting in a little shaded covering (Actually they are there morning, noon and night) and they always good naturedly hassle me.  There is the intense soccer (Called football here) game on a homemade field.  Those kids never notice me.  There is the pump.  It is the meet and greet of the 10-16 year old crowd late afternoon.  They are all doing their families evening water collection but none too fast.  They are generally having a great time.  There are many people just out there watching the world go by.  And there is occasionally a familiar face; Tamara at a loto stand, Jean Luc also at a loto stand, Rica and her kids in Carrefou Lendi, Kinsley and Gitmey and the boys close to St. Paul’s just hanging out.  So it has been the perfect combination of joyful bike riding and people connecting for me.

Okay about the Ambassador.  I can only say that since his arrival, our home life has changed dramatically.  We have had between two and four people spend the night with us and as many as 15-20 during the day spending time with him, bringing food for him and celebrating his being there.  And there is no other word to describe the Ambassador then to say he is a character and thrives on connecting with this community, his home.

For Dan and I, it has been a bit of a challenge.  For those of you who know Dan, you know how much he loves lots and lots of strangers around him all the time.  And for those who know me, you know how much I love people messing up all the things I have arranged to my liking.  But we are both trying really hard to stay positive and accept that it is their community and his house. And it has greatly increased our cultural awareness indoctrination!

And with the Hello, Hello, Hello and how are you?  Well that comes from my sister, Fran, who gave me a few songs to teach the kids to sing this week for all the visitors that were here for the St. Paul’s Day Festival.  It’s a riveting tune and with my voice, even more riveting.  And now I’m lucky enough to hear it everywhere.

 

Hello, Hello

Hello and how are you?

I’m fine, I’m fine

And I hope that you are too!

Bonjou Bonjou

Bonjou, koman ou ye?

Mwen byen, mwen byen

Mwen swete ou byen tou!

Feel free to make up your own tune.  I do every time I sing it.  Now I just have to get them to understand that it’s a question and answer kind of thing.

Bonswa ak pase yon bon journe!

The side yard and a temporary guest.

Across the street.

 

Monday January 21, 2018

I’m sorry if my postings appear out of order.  Our Internet connection has been almost worthless except for email and WhatsApp. Ideas have been racing through my mind before I’ve had the chance to get them down in writing.

Our first 2 weeks here have been hectic but also a lot of fun. We’ve been buying and gathering things for our house in Baconnois and getting things set up. Teresa actually began giving English lessons to grade schoolers at Saint Paul’s School which she loved but it was also tiring.

We bought a new mattress (rolled up in a box), a bed frame (strapped to the roof of our car), a small propane stove, a rotating fan, and a junior-sized refrigerator (essential for cold beer). – all in Port Au Prince and hauled them out to hour home in Baconnois which took 2 trips. Port Au Prince (PaP) to Baconnois is about a 4 hour drive.

Despite these modern conveniences we have no running water. We get water for bathing, flushing the toilet, and washing dishes from a nearby river and more recently a pump station. We drink potable water from 5 gallon carboys that are from the company Culligan. We exchange these carboys in the town of Leogane which is about a 1 hour drive from where we live.

Our house is on the main road (National Highway #2) which goes from Port Au Prince along the northern edge of the southern peninsula. Traveling from Port Au Prince to Petit Rivier the road is paved.  But, from Petit Rivier to Baconnois, the road is rough – unbelievably rough. It’s been graded at one point in time but the road was never paved. The rough grading leaves a road of sandstone rocks and sandstone powder. Without the asphalt topcoat, though, the sandstone powder gets washed away leaving a road surface comprised of softball-sized rocks. Having come here for 10 years, Teresa is used to this. To the uninitiated, myself included, it’s shocking. You keep wondering how the car tires do not all pop at once. To show a car traveling this road would be a fantastic commercial for any tire company.

I got our solar panels, charge controller, inverter, and batteries installed successfully thanks to some very nice documentation from Grape Solar in the USA and from a site visit at a lovely beach-side hotel we’ve stayed at in Petit Goave. With this system we have enough electricity to run our refrigerator, our fan, a 10W LED lamp, and to charge our devices.  (I’ll do a “deep-dive” posting on this system at a later time.)

Our bathroom has the following: a small sink, a 55 gallon water drum, a toilet that flushes when a bucket of water is poured in it, and a shower stall/drain which is a rectangular area with a short concrete knee-wall.
In Haiti, used toilet paper is generally not flushed down the toilet. Instead it is carefully folded and placed in the trash to be burned along with other household trash in the yard later.  This is what everyone does. The “flush” as I said is accomplished by pouring a bucket of water in the toilet bowl. We are using Ajax powder and Clorox liberally in the post-flush cleanup.

Bathing/showering works as follows: We heat a tea kettle full of hot water and mix this together with quart of water from a 2 gallon bucket of room temperature water. Rinse, Lather, Rinse, Rinse, etc. until the hot water runs out. It’s totally adequate for a very nice bath/shower experience and it feels great to be cool and clean at the same time.

Cooking: So far Teresa and I have been cooking simple and very enjoyable dinners that consist of fresh local vegetables sautéed in olive oil with garlic, salt, and pepper and served with either rice (diri), corn grits (mayi), or beans (pwo). Haitians love Louisiana Hot Sauce which is found everywhere. Breakfasts have included oatmeal, peanut butter toast, and bananas.

For dessert we’ve had “Tablet” which is a praline made with peanuts instead of pecans and is fantastic.

We’ve managed to source some nice red wine (Argentinian) , the local beer – Prestige, and the national favorite Haitian Rhum – Barbancourt.

Our Bedroom: As I mentioned we bought a new mattress and bedframe in PaP. We sleep under a sheet and under a mosquito net at night and usually burn citronella candles to help keep the mosquitos at bay.

Our “Hood”: Behind our house are our 3 main neighbors –a “30 something” bachelor named “Pito”, a family of three (Ricardo, Madame Ricardo, and their 10 year old son James Lee whom we love, and a family of five (Louinor, Madame Marie Michelle, and their sons – Wilderson, Olvienson, and Wynn Kerry). The kids are all amazingly curious about us and what an oddity that we present to their community.

Life in the Haitian countryside takes place largely outside in your front yard along the roadway. As I’ve jogged and biked through the town, the greetings have been very warm. Again, it’s hard not to think that we’re providing some unusual entertainment for the neighborhood.

There’s an upcoming festival at Saint Paul’s Church and School which is consuming most of the community’s attention at present. My role as an afterschool math aid will kick-in after the festival. I’m enlisting the help of a 10^thgrade boy named Kinsley, and a 10^thgrade girl (who is at the top of the class) to help me break though the language barrier. I’m also hoping that the largely symbolic nature of math will help me be able to connect with kids struggling with their math homework.

I hope this provides a useful overview.

Thanks for reading our blog and feel free to message us through WhatsApp anytime.

All the best,

 

Dan

Since I’ve known Dan, he has used this silly expression to drive me crazy.  “Little boats stay close to the shore.”  I think he used it whenever I was pressing him to do something more than he wanted at that moment.

Well, after a week in Haiti, it is safe to say, he is way out in the middle of the Caribbean!  We have experienced so much over the last week.

• Beautiful Caribbean beaches in Grande Goave at Hotel and Lakay Taina. We stayed at a tiny hotel with the sweet proprietress, Madam Solange and her husband, Christian.  The hotel has seven rooms, brightly colored and adorned with hundreds of tropical plants.  They are clearly plant lovers.  We sat at a tiny beach restaurant, Lakay Taina.  Pierre treated us so well, with great dinners, great conversation and lots of little yummy tidbits.  It was a beautiful interlude in the middle of shopping, packing and driving.
• The shopping and packing, aaah, if I never have to go to a store again, that would be okay. Our little house has nothing to start with except two red vinyl couches, one table and four chairs, no shelves, no dishes, no sink, no bed, no sheets, no towels, no nothing. So we have spent way too much time (Probably not nearly enough) shopping and deciding what is essential and what is unnecessary (And maybe really a luxury).  I don’t think we will really know until we live without for a while.  We won’t have any furniture, it is so expensive and maybe we can find people to help us build things.  Dan thinks boxes would make great drawers for our clothes.  We visited six stores (Not including groceries stores) in the last two days.  Enough about that.  I feel like we look very privileged to Haitians with a car full of “stuff”.  I feel it necessary to explain to them that it is the way we are paying rent.  Still I do think we are dealing with our privileged selves and trying to balance where we came from to where we are.  Stay tuned for this.
• The driving… Dan and I have spent many hours in the car in the last seven days. We have solved all the infrastructure problems of Haiti (In our heads), we have used every nasty word we know, we have been stressed and we are still trying to achieve a zen state while driving. Dan says driving in Port au Prince would make an amazing video game.  The Streets of Port au Prince: Action, holes and other obstacles and stimulus from every direction (People walking across the street from all directions, five lanes of traffic in a two lane road and above all the motorcycles, the motorcycles.  They fill up every little space, when all the cars are stuck, they weave in and out moving people where cars can’t go.)

Dan  says I have to stop now.  We are leaving with all our “stuff” to Petit Trou at 5:00 AM.  I just have to add, if you know Dan, he is no little boat.  Going to Europe when he was 17 for six weeks with a buddy, going to Georgia Tech, site unseen, moving across the country to Colorado, hanging out with me.  He is a hidden adventure junkie!

On the beach at Taina.

Getting to be there for Djoumia’s second birthday.  Who is Djoumia, more on that later.

Getting to see friends in Petit Trou.  Patrick and Roslou and their two sons, Pat and Patrico

We’ve been crazy busy cleaning and exiting the “tiny house” outside of Lyons, packing for Haiti, moving things into our storage unit, saying goodbyes, etc. And the weather in the Boulder area has been single digits! The thought of “baking our bones” in the heat of Haiti sounds great right now. Teresa tells me I will regret this statement. The heat and humidity there can be oppressive. Still, this sounds good to me right now.

Anyone who would have observed our packing this past week would be laughing at us. We have included some things that make laugh – wiffleballs and wifflebats, a small salad spinner, funnels, tubing and a racking cane from my home brewing supplies for moving water in Haiti (sadly not home-brew),  enough pills to open a small pharmacy, an Aero-Press espresso apparatus (Teresa must have a good shot of espresso wherever she goes!).

Upward and onward!

Dan