Guest Blogger: Amy!

Kim is too tired from entertaining her sisters so I (Amy) have taken over blogging duties for today.
Today was another beautiful, hot Haitian day and we woke up bright and early to have breakfast and head to the school. I can't believe I'm getting up so early when I'm on vacation but apparently school starts really early here and if we don't get up early and go with Kim to the school we'd be stuck here till Kim finishes her work. So we dutifully follow our older sister to school : ) Well, that and there's lots to explore and we didn't want to miss out. This morning, Ysmaille picked Gwen and I up at 8:30 and drove us to the house that he is building and then from there we went to where he is living now. We met his cousins and his uncle and some other random friends. We could have met many more but the morning was getting on and we were getting a bit tired. He took us back to the school where we helped one of the classes do a craft and then we had lunch--rice and beans with vegetable sauce--it was yummy.
After lunch, Kim, Gwen, Karen, Maia and I went together to do some shopping. We first went to a store called Haitian Creations where women sew bags and purses out of scrap material--much of it uphostery remnants. After buying a couple of bags we then went on to the metalsmith's village which consists of scores of metalwork shops where they repurpose oil drums by hammering the metal out into elaborate designs of birds, fish, trees, people etc. Most are decorative wall hangings but some are made into mirrors, bowls and even napkin holders. Walking in you can hear the sound of drums on metal and you can see how they make them by cutting out templates and then forming the raised design with hammers and other metal working tools. We had fun looking through the shops at all the designs. In the end, we ended up buying several wall decor items and a couple of mirrors and some candle holders.
This evening for dinner, some of the guys who work at the school came for dinner. We played some cards and had a delicious meal of chili and bread.
It was a great day but it will be nice to shower and wash all the dirt and dust off our skin and out of our hair.
Not sure what the rest of our trip will hold for us but I'm sure it will be just as adventurous.
On a side note--Kim's car is still not working properly but it will hopefully be looked at and fixed tomorrow.