Adventures in Belladare... vegetarians beware!

I was invited to join my friends Lesley and her husband Diego on a visit to Belladare, where Diego is from. We planned on taking my car which was still in the shop so Monday morning I stopped by the garage to see if I could persuade them to hurry up. By 12 noon I was once again in possession of my car and by 1pm we were on the road. We were not quite half way when we started to hear a grinding sound whenever we descended the mountain. We became nervous that the brakes were not working so we decided that we had to return home as the rest of the road was quite rough and isolated. Tuesday morning early we started out once again, this time with Lesley's truck. The ride was pleasant although for the last hour the road was quite rough and rocky.
While in Belladare we spent quite a bit of time visiting with Lesley and Diego's friends. I was also able to meet up with one of our teachers (pictured below) who is also from this area.I have always secretly wished to see how a chicken is killed and prepared from scratch and I was granted this wish while in Belladare. I even helped a bit by helping take off some feathers.

Most of our time was spent enjoying time with Diego's family at the house, playing dominoes and talking.

We were able to explore the area a bit. Below is a lake that is stocked with fish.

Here we are on our way to a river that is popular for swimming and/or bathing. I did not partake as it was quite chilly in Belladare the entire time we were there.

I especially enjoyed spending time with Diego's little brother. I found out that he did not do well on his last report card, so I switched to Teacher mode and taught him a math lesson. It sounds mean but I think he actually enjoyed the attention. We'll see how he does on his next report card:)

Overall we had a great time. I was hoping to inprove my Creole but only learned a few new words. I was however reminded that I need to keep learning as there are many words/phrases that I don't yet know. I was able to experience a Haitian New Year's Eve which involves going to church for HOURS (we only went for one hour) and then we tried to introduce some Canadian traditions such as counting down from 10, drinking champagne and shouting "Happy New Year". January 1st is a big deal here in Haiti as it is the date that marks their independence from France. They always have pumpkin soup because the French Slave owners used to drink it a lot but never allowed their slaves to drink it. We visited several homes and drank a lot of pumpkin soup. It was nice to get out of Port-au-Prince for a short while. Our trip home was uneventful and I feel rested and ready to go back to work tomorrow.