Thursday: November 11
(Happy Birthday Dad!)
Woke up at 5:00 am for the drive to Haiti. After loading the car and saying our goodbyes, we hit the road around 6:00 am. Kristin is in Seminary School, so Liz spent a while reading about "rhetorical criticism" out loud. It was extraordinarily dry, but there is nothing you can't make entertaining. When one sentence read "Go in my Torah," I commented, "That sounds dirty!" Many future jokes revolved around that. The DR/Haiti border was crazy because it was Market Day. Absolutely insane! And I had to pee so it felt like we were stuck there that much longer. We were stopped about 5 times on our way through, but eventually we crossed into Haiti. About two minutes after that I had to admit that I could not wait any longer and we pulled over to the side of the road. I returned to announce that I felt better, but I now had nature in my pants: new joke for the trip. We then stopped at Love A Child to wait for Valentin. (After hearing about things that have been said and done, I have lost just about all respect for the organization.) We saw Luke, Dr. Scotty, Kirstin, Junior, and Lamy. We all went back to Valentin's house and were surprised with a big sign that said "Byen Vini A Liz e Andrea!" and a cake as well. We got situated in our room where Liz and I each have a bunk bed. We'll still need to get some furniture. Valentin and his family are great, and their daughter, Stellcy, is absolutely adorable with ample amounts of energy. We had a little incident opening a bottle of wine and my clothes smelled like white wine for the rest of the night. And the mosquitoes still love me!
Friday: November 12
Woke up to the EARLY rising Haitian sun and Stellcy's singing. We had a delicious breakfast and then left to escort Kirstin to the border. We make a quick stop at Camp Hope on the way to see the school. On our way back, we stopped again to pick up the registration forms for the English classes Liz and I will be teaching starting on Monday (there are over 50.) I feel sorry for them having to have class with me. We'll see how that goes...cross your fingers. We were exhausted when we got home, so we took a little nap. After dinner, I practiced Kreyol on my computer for a little bit and then Valentin gave me a Kreyol test which I was told I passed. He joked that he is going to cancel translators for February. I will not let that happen. Valentin is absolutely hilarious! Full of what Liz calls "bad Haitian jokes." I'm getting better at contributing. Never a dull moment.
Saturday: November 13
At breakfast Valentin helped us a little bit with some of our Kreyol questions. I feel confident that we will pick it up relatively quickly. However, understanding is another story entirely. They speak so fast and with so many contractions that learning to understand seems impossible. Time will tell. Valentin is amazing with how many languages he speaks and how he can switch between them so seamlessly and without hesitation. Wish I could do that! Now Liz and I are at the internet cafe where we are working hard blogging, facebooking, emailing, etc., but mostly I'm just scratching my mosquito bites relentlessly. I think we are supposed to be working on making English placement tests. I'll get on that.
All in all, we made it here safely and everything is going really well.
Take care all! <3
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