Today we started off the day packing up the supply room and having a hot dog for breakfast (we are trying to eat as much as possible of the frozen food).
After working for 2 hours on organizing and stacking up the bins, we left for the worksite around 9:00am. Interestingly enough, we were thrown a curve ball when Madam Thomas (grandma at the house) asked when we were going to take her to see what we have been working on. When we got down to the van, we saw Radal and Deborah (the two youngest kids) in the backseat ready to go. Emily’s first thought was "oh no". Once the kids were going we knew it had to be a half-day and even that would be a half-day too long to have them at the construction site. I'm not sure Madam Thomas knew what she was getting herself into. It's difficult to communicate with the three of them anyways because they only know creole (the kids know a little English). During the car ride, we couldn't even get the kids to sit down. Aye!
We are not sure they get out much because Madam Thomas really stared out the window when we would pass refugee camps on our drive out.
The latrines are almost complete, which is very exciting. Unfortunately, we ran into a well issue. Kendra took the water to be tested and the salt content is still too high, among other things. She asked them to stop working on the platform until we could get it sorted out. Digicel (cell phone company) came out with our solar light today. Security is finally going to be a little less of an issue until we can get a wall going. They provided the light for free but will be collecting a small fee from a cell phone recharging station at the base. It is an interesting concept but we are not sure if people will be able to afford it.
We finished painting all the pavilion pieces while Radal and Deborah explored the site and Madam Thomas sat in the shade. We worked until 4pm, took some final pictures, said goodbye to the workers and headed home.
We took showers at the house after work. There were only about six buckets worth of water left because something else broke now. Kendra has been reminding us the floaties in the water are ok, it's just like a lake she says, then instructs us to put 3 capfuls of Coptic in our shower water. We did 2 more hours of packing and cleaning. There are a lot of supplies Kendra keeps here from canned foods to water filters, tools and your basic camping gear for Haitian survival.
Our last night in Haiti means seizing the moment so we went to pick up our Chilean friends (Marcos, Carlos, and Gianny) and our Paraguayan friends (Captain Florintine and Major Rodriguez). We took them up to Domino's for pizza. Only 1 of them spoke a few words of English, the rest only Spanish. Kendra and Carter speak Spanish, so it made it hard for the three of us to communicate. The night was very entertaining right away and they acted mildly impressed when we tried to practice by talking with them. Emily and Danny understand way more than Spanish than they can actually speak, but they were very patient. We dropped off the Paraguayans and as we were driving the Chileans back to their base camp, they all started swirling and saying no, no, don't take us back. We all got a good laugh out of it.
It was about 11pm when we headed back to the house and NO ONE was out on the streets, it was very weird. The Haitian way is to be ready for business by 5 or 6 am and in bed by 10 pm.
After working for 2 hours on organizing and stacking up the bins, we left for the worksite around 9:00am. Interestingly enough, we were thrown a curve ball when Madam Thomas (grandma at the house) asked when we were going to take her to see what we have been working on. When we got down to the van, we saw Radal and Deborah (the two youngest kids) in the backseat ready to go. Emily’s first thought was "oh no". Once the kids were going we knew it had to be a half-day and even that would be a half-day too long to have them at the construction site. I'm not sure Madam Thomas knew what she was getting herself into. It's difficult to communicate with the three of them anyways because they only know creole (the kids know a little English). During the car ride, we couldn't even get the kids to sit down. Aye!
We are not sure they get out much because Madam Thomas really stared out the window when we would pass refugee camps on our drive out.
The latrines are almost complete, which is very exciting. Unfortunately, we ran into a well issue. Kendra took the water to be tested and the salt content is still too high, among other things. She asked them to stop working on the platform until we could get it sorted out. Digicel (cell phone company) came out with our solar light today. Security is finally going to be a little less of an issue until we can get a wall going. They provided the light for free but will be collecting a small fee from a cell phone recharging station at the base. It is an interesting concept but we are not sure if people will be able to afford it.
We finished painting all the pavilion pieces while Radal and Deborah explored the site and Madam Thomas sat in the shade. We worked until 4pm, took some final pictures, said goodbye to the workers and headed home.
We took showers at the house after work. There were only about six buckets worth of water left because something else broke now. Kendra has been reminding us the floaties in the water are ok, it's just like a lake she says, then instructs us to put 3 capfuls of Coptic in our shower water. We did 2 more hours of packing and cleaning. There are a lot of supplies Kendra keeps here from canned foods to water filters, tools and your basic camping gear for Haitian survival.
Our last night in Haiti means seizing the moment so we went to pick up our Chilean friends (Marcos, Carlos, and Gianny) and our Paraguayan friends (Captain Florintine and Major Rodriguez). We took them up to Domino's for pizza. Only 1 of them spoke a few words of English, the rest only Spanish. Kendra and Carter speak Spanish, so it made it hard for the three of us to communicate. The night was very entertaining right away and they acted mildly impressed when we tried to practice by talking with them. Emily and Danny understand way more than Spanish than they can actually speak, but they were very patient. We dropped off the Paraguayans and as we were driving the Chileans back to their base camp, they all started swirling and saying no, no, don't take us back. We all got a good laugh out of it.
It was about 11pm when we headed back to the house and NO ONE was out on the streets, it was very weird. The Haitian way is to be ready for business by 5 or 6 am and in bed by 10 pm.
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