Day Trip

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to tag along with some CRWRC disaster relief staff. They were going to a small village near Leogone, the epicentre of the earthquake. They have decided to work in the villages nearby Leogone and were beginning by asking each family or household to complete a questionaire in order to access the needs. I thought it would be a neat opportunity to get out of PaP and see a bit of the rest of the country.
Many people in this village lived in mud or tin houses so there were very few casualties, however, most people were still living in tents or under tarps.
At first we were able to walk around from house to house, then people started to get nervous that we wouldn't visit their house and started to surround us and share their stories with us all at once in an attempt to have us visit their house next. We let the village leaders take care of it and quickly disappeared.

Toni and I were given the gift of a coconut. We did our best to finish them but had to share with some adorable girls sitting watching us.


There was an orphanage/school in the village. We walked by and they were sitting idly so I asked the pastor in charge if I could play a game with them. I started to teach them "7 up" but they already knew it so all my instructions and acting were purely entertainment for them:)
I did a few surveys but every question I asked was repeated by everyone around just in case my creole wasn't understood. It started to drive me crazy so eventually I asked the 'crowd' to disperse so I could speak only to the person I was interviewing.
This was a pretty sweet tarp structure that a family had built. They even had carpet inside. I asked if I could stay with them and they agreed, however, when I discovered how hot it was inside and that they didn't have any fans I said I prefered my place:)
I couldn't resist holding this adorable baby, he didn't even cry, however, when he started to spit up I quickly passed him back to his mother.
It was a very interesting day, I enjoyed getting out of the city for a day. As you can see I forgot to put on sunscreen so I got quite the burn, thank goodness for aloe vera. I learned a few new cultural things, for example, if you didn''t eat rice or corn meal on a given day you didn't actually eat that day (bread, spaghetti and fruit do not count as eating). I also learned that some people think that the earthquake released harmful gases into the earth and it can no longer be used for planting vegetables. Overall it was a very interesting day and I'm glad I was able to tag along and see a different part of Haiti.