Peace Cobbler and Paint

Last night Korina did Emily’s hair while Danny made peach cobbler-ish with oatmeal for dessert. It was good. 

Kendra had another meeting this morning, so we got to sleep in, but Alonda and Emily heard a round of gun shots early this morning, so they couldn't really sleep. (Don't worry, from far away)

JohnBern left us today to go play with his jazz trio this weekend in Santo Domingo, then Santiago. We already know it won't be the same without him, but are glad we will see him in Jarabacoa before we head home.

We spent the morning cleaning the workroom, then we watched Iron Man on Danny's MAC.

Everyone lives outside here. We've made the same 45 minute drive everyday from the house to the land and it seems like there is always something new to see - people selling donated items, kids walking in their uniforms to school, trash and rubble everywhere, motorbikes and vehicles almost colliding. The senses are always on overdrive. Hopefully the first thing the new President does is pickup the garbage and remove rubble. That alone would lift spirits. We hope he doesn't just give away housing though.  Haiti needs a better plan to be more self-sufficient. The Delmas 6 camp is so delusional that they actually drew up plans for all 1,000 of them to live together in a new neighborhood with a school and houses. The crazy part is this blueprint has an amusement park in it, yes you read that right. So even though 60% of the Haitian government's budget is from foreign aid, they will definitely have money left over for rollercoaster’s and swimming pools. We still can't believe how badly the committee at Delmas 6 betrayed Kendra after all she did and that they are still expecting such big handouts. There are still some 860,000 displaced people over a year later. Even though we are here and can see it with our own eyes, it still boggles our minds. 

After driving in Floyd (the van) most of the time, this afternoon Kendra sent a HELP employee and van to pick us up. Before, when riding in Floyd, everything felt like we were watching a movie out the window and today, with the windows down in this smaller vehicle, we could really get the true sense of what we were seeing. From the noise to the smell and sights, it felt more 3D... More real. It sounds weird but it's true. The feeling was bizarre after being here so long.

On our way to the site, the 45 minute drive turned into an almost 2 hour drive because a box truck was turned completely on it's side. Traffic was insane.

We arrived at the site late in the afternoon to find Russ and Kendra working on the pavilion. Russ welded while Alonda and Emily painted. Danny continued to bury sides as Alonda, JohnBern, and Emily had done yesterday. Three of the guys from the latrines watched Alonda and Emily paint while they repeated "rete eciete" (which means "stay here"). Edward had taught it to us on Tuesday because he wants us to stay in Haiti. Luckily, Deborah (the little girl from the house) taught us "allay" which means, "To leave". We were happy to practice it.

Alonda and Emily painted the whole workday. The paint was terrible and it made the whole project very difficult.

Due to the accident, the traffic on the way back was ridiculous. On the way home we stopped and got Carter Haitian food, then got back to the house with barely enough energy to make dinner.