Snow day in Haiti??

Yesterday morning I had this great plan to sleep in late. At 6:30 I woke up to the sound of a really strong wind blowing things around on the porch outside my room. I quicly got up and took inside anything that would possibly be thrown off the porch by the wind. The rain was also coming down quite strong and so I had to run around and close all the window slats so the rain wouldn't pour in. By the time all this was done I was too wide awake to go back to bed. So I sat and watched the wind and rain for a while. This is really unusual weather for this time of year.
I had made plans with one of the teachers from school to go downtown and shop, but knowing Haitians and their dislike of rain I knew that she would not want to go in the rain. So there I was stuck at home watching the rain fall. It felt like a snow day, it was cold out and it wasn't a good idea to go out without a car. Speaking of my car, I called the garage yesterday to see if my car was ready. They informed me that the mechanic did not come to work today because of the rain, so it really was like a snow day!
So I spent the morning in my pjs watching movies and drinking coffee. Then I walked over to Karen's for a bit to drink some Hot Chocolate in true snow day fashion. After that I started to feel a bit stir crazy. I walked around the house in circles, watched 4 episodes of TV in a row, and read for several hours!! I need to get out of the house today! Thankfully today the sun is out and although it's not hot out, I have taken my socks off!
Today we are having our staff party with the guys who live and work at the school. Tonight there is a Christmas Eve service at the English speaking church across the road from my house and then I've been invited to a Christmas Eve party. It should be a lot more exciting than yesterday!

Holidays...

Monday morning I went into work with the plans to organize and clean up the office, a job that I always want to do but never find the time or energy to do. After a few hours of cleaning I got a call from the guy who is helping me get all my proper paperwork for living and working in Haiti. He had a bit of time and wanted to go downtown with me to get my picture taken for my Haitian drivers license. I said no problem and downtown we went. When we arrived at the office they wouldn't let me enter. I was quiet confused so I asked what the problem was. Apparently I wasn't dressed appropriately and would have to return the next day with more appropriate clothing! I know that Haitians are quite particular about what you wear and it is quite specific to where you are going. So I asked what would be appropriate clothing for such an occasion as getting your picture taken for your driver's license. Since we were taking a motorcyle (my car is back in the shop again) I said that it would be difficult for me to wear a dress or skirt. It turns out that as long as I was wearing a skirt or pants and a shirt that covered my shoulders I was okay. So back I went the next day with jeans and a t-shirt, the best part is that in the picture you can only see my face:)

At school we have a carport (basically a concrete overhang) that Randy is convinced is unsafe and needs to come down ASAP. On Monday before I left the school Randy was showing some guys our carport and getting an estimate for how much it would cost to tear it down. When I returned 2 hours later I saw the carport in many pieces on the ground. I was amazed at how fast it came down. The guys who live at the school and Randy were standing around staring at it. I asked what happened and they told me that they stood on top of it and jumped up and down at the same time and it collapsed. I didn't believe it! There's no way it was that unstable. But they kept on insisting and since I didn't see anyone else around I started to fall for this story. Then the truth finally came out. A huge bulldozer had come by in the time that I was gone and knocked the whole thing down with only a few hits. A short while later the same machine came back and cleaned up the mess. What a powerful machine! In only a few hours the entire yard looked different. Now starts the fun of putting down a new concrete floor.

Programme Noël

Sunday afternoon we had our Christmas program/award ceremony/parent-teacher interviews all rolled into one. The classes had been practicing their songs/skits/poems since the beginning of December so we were eager to see them present all their hard work. In typical Haitian style we started 30 minutes late to a half full audience and by the time the program was finished almost all the seats were filled. The whole event went well, and it was wonderful to celebrate the birth of Christ with our students and their families.

Samuel and I presented awards to the first place student in each class and one student from each class who put forth great effort this past term.

This is the junior kindergarten class, they are the youngest class but their performance was one of the best.

This is the class for students with learning disabilities. They did a GREAT job!

This is Grade 5, they organized part of the program themselves.

I tend to avoid the spotlight but felt it was necessary to wish the students and their families a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year.

Picture Day

Here are "the guys" posing for the camera!

We finally organized a picture of all the staff at Adoration Christian School. We're a pretty good-looking staff wouldn't you say??

Back row: Samuel, Cadeau, Alix, Alyn, Max, Randy, Samuel, Evenz, Asselhomme, Guerdson

Front now: Me, Magdalyne, Ketia, Molina, Manman Manise, Karen, Marline, Node

Thursday was our last day of school. Today the teachers were given a day to work on report cards, I spent the day editing the report cards and trying to get caught up on some work. Sunday we will have a Christmas program, awards ceremony and parent-teacher interviews. The students have been busy preparing their song/skits for the program, I'm looking forward to seeing what they have prepared.

Monday our holidays officially begin. I'll probably go in to work from time to time to get caught up on some work, but mostly I'll try to relax. I've been invited to a party on Christmas Eve and another one on Christmas day. After that I'm going to spend several days in the countryside with my friends Leslie and Diego. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days. Not sure how I'll survive without the internet...

White Christmas??

We may have our own sort of white Christmas here in Haiti. In the north you have snow, here in the south we have dust, and lots of it. The dry season has officially started which of course means no rain, or at least very little rain. The good news is that it cools of considerably at night and it's very lovely for sleeping. The down side is that it becomes very dry and very dusty. You could (and probably should) dust and mop your floors every day. It doesn't matter how many times a day I wash my feet they are black on the bottom in no time. The amount of dust we breathe in daily is just not good.
Speaking of snow. I brought some Christmas music here and listen to it at school and at home. I am noticing for the first time how many Christmas songs mention snow and cool weather. Intersting, since Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth and he was born in a warm climate...
Many ex-pats living in Haiti find this time of year hard and miss snow, cold temperatures, hot chocolate, sledding and all those other aspects of the winter season that we associate with Christmas. I personally don't feel sad at all. I began to dislike winter more and more each year to the point where I don't think I like it at all. I love the temperatures here no matter how hot they become. Sometimes I think I may have been born in the wrong country all together. I must admit that I check the temperature in Toronto as often as I can and have a little chuckle all to myself. I love the idea of a hot Christmas.

Welcoming Carle to the world!

One of our teachers and his wife had a baby boy this past weekend. We rejoice with them as they welcome a new little one into this world. His name is Carle Jean Pierre and Karen and I had the priviledge of meeting him this week.

He doesn't appear to be too thrilled to meet us, but we were thrilled to meet him.

The hardest part...

There are lots of things about Haiti that I find difficult but what I find to be the most difficult is the constant requests for help. When I am on the street or in a parking lot random people shout "Blan, give me one dollar." When I park my car, someone will "watch" it for me, or "wash" it for me and expect me to pay them for the service regardless if I asked them to or not. All day long people stop by the school with requests. They ask if we have a spot in our school for their child, if we could pay for their child to go to another school, or pay their rent, or buy them shoes or help them start a business. When there is a medical or dental clinic, there are always people with legitimate needs being turned away. One day a father of one our students came to speak to me, when we were done speaking he asked for money to take public transport home. On the days there isn't medical clinics people ask me to diognose them and give them some medicine. We've even asked more than once if we would take soemone's child and adopt them. I'm not a doctor, we have limited space at our school, and we dont' have unlimited resources. Everyone has a story, most of them are hard, many of them tug at my heart and often I feel my eyes filling with tears as they share their stories with me. Some stories are not true, and many are exagerated for dramatic effect; you can't trust every sob story that you hear. However, it is undeniable that life in Haiti is hard. I know that giving out money to everyone who stops by the school is not a solution, it's not sustainable and it's putting a band aid on a huge wound. I also know that by providing free and quality education we are helping many families in a way that will last a long time into the future. But it doesn't stop my heart from breaking when I hear the stories and I often wish we could do more.

My basketball team won!!! Before you get too excited... we won by default because the other team didn't show up. We played anyways with whichever girls were around and we lost to them, but thankfully it doesn't count!!
Yesterday, we didn't have any school as the teachers requested a day to write their exams. I was so looking forward to a quiet uninterrupted day to get a PILE of work done. When I got to school Randy announced that he was going downtown to visit a school that I have wanted to visit for some time now. He invited me along and I couldn't resist. We read in the newspaper last week that this school was closing its doors due to lack of funding. This school called C.E.S. is also a place for assessments for students with special needs and a training centre for teachers who work with students with special needs. We were sad to hear that they were closing their doors and went to speak to them about their situation. We were warmly welcomed when we arrived and the director quickly assured us that they were not shutting their doors for good as the article indicated but rather they ran out of money for this fiscal year and therefore were shut down for the month of December but will re-open in January. We were relieved to hear this and although they were not currently functioning they allowed me to tour the facilities and see how their programs are set up. While we were downdown we also visited another school for special needs students that we sponsor a few a students at. It was great to see that there are programs like these for students with special needs. Granted there are not enough programs like this and there needs to be more but it was encouraging to see these schools in action. On the way home, Randy gave me a tour of downtown. I love downtown, it's so full of activity and action all the time. There are people everywhere selling stuff and going about their business. It's even more fun on the back of a motorcycle, you feel more a part of the action. Unfortunately, my car is fixed and I can pick it up tomorrow. Back to boring life with a car!

Wow the internet is working...

A senior kindergarten student hard at work!

Maia the superchild is almost writing already!

The beautiful newly painted lines

We have some donated jerseys so we are able to use them in the tournament.

Apparently I do have one picture of myself and my sisters from when they visited

Basketball tournament

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I LOVE sports (just kidding, this couldn't be further from the truth). Randy has set up a basketball tournament at the school for the secondary students as well as for people in the community. Over 75 people signed up to play. I tried to escape joining a team but Randy said it would be a great bonding experience with the students, blah, blah, blah... as usual I did as I was told:) Last Tuesday was my first game. Now admitedly I know very little about sports and I have precious little talent when it comes to playing, however, I apparently know ALOT more than the girls on my team. I don't think they have ever played basketball before. They didn't appear to know what to do when they received the ball. I did a lot of running around the court but they rarely passed the ball so my running was in vain. The team we played had one good player, so their strategy was to always pass the ball to her. Needless to say the other team won, 4 - 0. I have decided that during the Christmas break my team will meet every morning at 5 am to practice for our games in the new year. Do you think the girls will show up?? (just kidding!!)
The guys take the tournament very seriously. They are quite dramatic when they don't agree with a call the ref has made and sometimes they put on quite the show. I enjoy watching their games more for the drama than the actual playing although they do play quite well. The tournament goes until the end of January so I'll keep you up to date on how my team is doing.

Walking

Things I noticed on my walk home from church today:
1. a guy wearing bowling shoes
2. a woman going pee on the sidewalk
3. your nose starts to burn when you breath in dust for any length of time
4. Haitians like to make comments/ask questions when you walk by eg. "Are you lost?" "Can I give you a ride home?" "Look at the beautiful white woman".
5. the UN have an ambulance complete with an ambulance siren and a UN escort
6. it's the dry season and when it doesn't rain for a long time it becomes VERY dusty!
Haitians generally think you are crazy if you walk anywhere if you have the means to pay for a taptap or a motor taxi. I just smiled and let them think what they want. It's probably not far from the truth.

Haiti by foot

My car is still getting fixed so I've been carless for a bit now. Unfortunately so are Randy and Karen. Thankfully they were able to borrow their neighbour's trucks for a bit, so we've been carpooling to work everyday. However, on weekends I'm back to being carless. I have a variety of people who live close and can give me a ride so I usually do okay. Today, though, I decided to walk instead. There is a Christian International School not too far from me and they were having a fundraiser Bazaar. I walked over to my friend's house to get a ride with her and then walked home afterwards. It's different seeing Haiti by foot. You notice a lot more because you're going so much slower. I saw a few interesting shops that I'd like to check out some day. A few people tried to start conversations with me. I just said hello and kept walking quickly by. The bazaar was fun. I had my nails painted, bought a Creole book and some nice cards. It was good to see some people I hadn't seen for a while. I'm slowly making connections and starting to feel like I know a few people. Tonight there is a "Night of Arts" at the same school which I am looking forward to.

Time flies by...

My sisters have left and taken all their great pictures with them. I took very few pictures when they were here because I was planning on uploading all their pictures before they left. However, they both have Sony cameras and their memory cards didn't work with my computer and they forgot their camera cords. Hopefully they remember to send me one or two (hint, hint). Since they left things have not slowed down at all. It's been busy, busy, busy.
Wednesday I had an interesting experience. One of our staff member's sister is quite ill. She's been ill for quite some time and last week she had to be hosptitalized. We've been visiting her regularly at the hospital and on Monday the doctor said that she needed to have three pints of blood. I agreed to go and give blood for her. It was quite the experience. We spent over one hour at the hospital waiting for them to figure out what exactly we had to do. Finally they took a sample of her blood and sent us downtown to the Red Cross. When we finally found Red Cross it went relatively quickly. We brought five people which was good because only three people were able to give. When we went to leave they told us they could only give us 2 pints of blood and we'd have to come back the next day for the last one because the hospital that she was in didn't have a place to keep the blood refridgerated. The whole experience taught me that I need to leave the school more often and see the rest of Haiti. I've lived here in total one year and three months and I still feel like a tourist staring at everything and fascinated by all the sites and sounds. I think every once in a while I should tag along with Randy and see what life is like outside the walls of our school. As for the girl in hospital, she's started to look better each time we see her, we pray that she will regain strength with time and return to good health.