Thursday, August 11, 2005

"Happy Birthday to me..."

Well, today I got the best birthday present ever. My computer is hooked up to the internet so I can e-mail to my heart's content, well sort of. When I opened my e-mail today I had 34 messages waiting. Not a bad way to spend my birthday:) Thank you to all the people who remembered and sent me a Birthday message. Unfortunately I wasn't able to read all the e-cards because of complications however I appreciate the thought. I also talked to my parents which was great. They said the connection wasn't very good and that I kept cutting out. I did ALL the talking so I don't know if I could hear them or not:)
Well, believe it or not yesterday I joined a gym. Yes, even in Haiti people are concerned about being in good shape. I go with Cadeau who works out everyday for 3 hours!!! I tried to convince him that this was too long to work out but he told me to stop complaining or go by myself:) I guess I will either become really buff this year or learn how to wait patiently without complaining. Both would be a plus I think! The gym is quite interesting. All of the equipment looks like its about 20 years old and about to fall apart. Hopefuly the machines don't fall apart when I'm using them and injure me:) But the good part is that there is a large track at the back so I can run or walk to my hearts content. There's even a tennis court. Too bad Anita never got a chance to teach me:)
Yesterday one of the guys at the house (who speaks perfect English because he lived in the States) told me that I'm not trying hard enough to learn Creole. He said that I need to stop reading books and start speaking. He said that other people who had come and visited learned much quicker than I am. I almost cried. I'm trying hard but I don't know that many words and when they talk they talk very very fast and it all sounds like one word to me. After I finished defending myself I decided I would try to take his advice and try to speak only Creole. (which means I won't be talking much!!) However, when I announced this to the rest of the guys they were not happy! They want me to talk English so they can learn. I told them I have to learn Creole first. Some of them won't talk to me right now, they are so mad. I'm sure they'll get over it.
I'm trying to think of any other info. that would be interesting. Haiti is very difficult to explain. There are people EVERYWHERE! People definately look at me with curiousity but they don't openly stare like they did in S/L. The food is good. They eat a warm meal 3 times a day. I eat everything served to me and I think it tastes good. It's very Haitian. Lots of rice and beans just like promised!! We rarely eat meat, only on Sundays. It's very hot but it's not a humid hot like this past July in Canada. I sweat ALOT but I have lots of energy. I'm trying to remember to drink enough.
Well, some of you may know more about me now then when I was still in Canada. I'm trying not to bore you with too many details. The e-mails I receive encourage me to write more so I must not be boring you yet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Kim,

I don't know if this helps, but when I was in Argentina I was told that my Spanish was good, but I was learning very slowly. I'm not too sure what part of it was "good". I guess they were trying to be gentle about it =).

Anita

Anonymous said...

I had the same experience when I was living with a French family in Quebec. I was there to speak only French, but they wanted a chance to practice their English. Keep at it, though. You can do it!!

Anonymous said...

KIM, this Creole thing will come together! God is with you and Happy Belated Birthday you young chick! Love Marg