Thursday, January 5, 2012

We're Safe & Well!

Hi everybody!

I’m writing you from bright and sunny Limonade, a fairly small village in the northern province of Haiti. We have been here since we arrived on Monday and will be making the four to six hour trek back to Port-au-Prince on Saturday. We have been staying with Gabrielle Vincent, the president of Sonje Ayiti, a non-profit organization that does great work here in Limonade. Unfortunately, her house does not have very good internet access, which is why we have been unable to post a blog before now.

Right now, however, we are working out of Rafaval, a cocoa factory run by a number of Haitian women in Limonade. Kylee, Billy, Hannah, and I were showing two Haitian teachers a lesson planning document we made last night on my computer and Patrick, our translator, was kind enough to let us borrow his modem to update you all!

Overall, we have had an amazing experience here in Limonade and in Haiti in general. However, I think our new folks experienced a bit of culture shock at the airport in Port-au-Prince, where you walk out and the “red hats” all try to “help” you with your bags. After navigating the airport via vice grips on our bag” and stubborn refusals to tip for the red hats’ “help,: we met up with Gabrielle and made the afore-mentioned four to six hour ride from Port-au-Prince to Limonade.

To say the ride was adventurous might be a large understatement. The first leg of our trip consisted of hairpin turn after hairpin turn up and down a mountain, which promptly lead to the “Parady Puke.” Fortunately, Brian seemed to make a full recovery in time for approximately three hours of travel on unpaved roads full of potholes, boulders, and mini streams that needed to be crossed. Despite the adventurousness, I think all of us appreciated the opportunity to see the Haitian countryside and see far more of the country than we would have from the air.

Thoroughly exhausted after arriving at Gabrielle’s house, we ate dinner, reflected, and went straight to bed – at 8pm. It was awesome. Approximately 6.5 hours after going to bed – 4:30am, for those whose math skills might be lacking – my bed (i.e. the top bunk) promptly fell onto Nick (i.e. the bottom bunk). Sorry to humiliate you, Mom, and don’t worry, Nick’s parents, he survived the ordeal completely unscathed – not even a scratch! Actually, he barely even woke up. Needless to say, it has become our go-to topic for a good laugh. And the Haitians think it is the funniest thing since forever. So that happened.

As for more substantial things, we have been split into two teams (though we both work out of Rafaval) – the Business (Nick, Taylor, Brian, Katie, and Melody) and Education (Kylee, Hannah, Billy, and Timmy) teams. The Business Team has been working with the women from Rafaval on a variety of things to help their business; I’m sure you will hear more details of their work in a future blog post.

The Education team has worked with three teachers from a school in Cima, an even smaller village outside of Limonade, to work on a method for lesson planning and curriculum building. Not surprisingly, the language barrier has been a struggle and the team without Gabrielle as a translator has been at a disadvantage. I think we have done a great job of pushing through, however, and we have made remarkable progress with our respective groups. I can’t really speak for the Business Team, but I know the Education Team has been encouraged by our progress and the teachers have made us feel that what we have worked with them on will actually be useful to them. We have been extremely cautious to repeatedly seek their feedback – there’s nothing worse than assuming what they need (like we could ever know) and giving them something that isn’t all that helpful. We have worked really hard to make sure our mutual time (so both our time and the teachers’) has been spent effectively.

There’s so much to talk about, but this blog has already gotten pretty long and there are many more people whose perspectives you all should hear from. Please just know that we are all feeling very safe and secure here in Limonade – the hospitality from Sonje Ayiti and the Haitian people in general has been heartening. We feel like our time and the resources used to get us here have been well-spent and we’re very much looking forward to the next several days here in Haiti.

So long for now,

Timmy

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad everything is going well. Timmy, I hope you have found another bed, and Nick, I'm glad you aren't hurt.

    I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one gets sick. Can't wait to hear more!!!

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  2. This sounds like a fantastic experience. You will remember it the rest of your life. Good luck!

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  3. Looking forward to hearing more stories ~ hopefully not involving bunk beds! Take care and be safe!

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