The view was amazing the entire 3-hour ride, although it was very bumpy. Most of the Haitians that saw us stared or called out, “blanc” for white, but almost all of them were very friendly. On the ride up, I also developed a new obsession with digital cameras because I promised a friend I would take some pictures. As we drove higher into the mountains, we eventually entered into the clouds, forming a thick foggy mist around us. We arrived at the school and after some set-up time went into the classroom to play games, sing songs, and do crafts.
There were 62 children in the classroom that I was in with a very friendly and enthusiastic teacher. First, we helped the children make puppets out of paper bags and paper cut into the shapes of a head and a body for the bear. They colored their pieces, a skill they recently acquired, and then we glued them together. Next, we sang two songs in Creole along with simple dances and then played some simple rhythm games. We distributed some food to the children, and then Candice did a seminar for the women of Haiti on Sexually Transmitted Diseases that was translated by our host, Bill. During this time, I was able to get a lot of awesome pictures of the Haitian people. The Haitians loved having their picture taken because they got to see themselves on the screen of the digital camera. Jen and Matt were exchanging Creole and English lessons with some of the Haitians, and all of us enjoyed interacting with the people there.
After the seminar finished, the children and their mothers left and we ate the lunch that we packed with our hosts, Bill and Dorothy, our tap-tap driver, and Makenzie. After lunch, or throughout different part s of the day, many of us had the opportunity to use a non-western toilet for the first time (a hole in the ground). I think that for most people it was not nearly so difficult as they expected, but I can only vouch for myself and I really wasn’t too worried to begin with.
Next, we took a short tour of the surrounding area on the mountain with our hosts and met some of the people that lived near the school. They also told us about some of the other programs that the organization was doing, such as lending seeds that the families would plant and then return once the harvest came in. After enjoying the landscape and meeting new people, we returned to our tap-tap for the ride home, which proved to be much shorter because it was downhill and because I managed to sleep for some small spurts on the smoother roads.
It was really nice to return to our temporary home and wash the mud and dried dirt off of ours feet. We spent the rest of the evening preparing dinner (although most of the work was done by Dorothy, who is a super-awesome cook) and playing Yahtzee. Unfortunately, we had a small tragedy because I again lost to Matt. I have made another personal goal for the trip, that I have to beat Matt at least once and I think that if we play enough games that should be a statistical probability (although I was never very good at statistics). All in all, it was a very full and exciting day and an awesome opportunity to see Haiti outside of Port-au-Prince.
Some pics from the Day (not by Stephen):
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