We went to see what Orlange was cooking. Two large pots of oil on a charcoal brazier, one cooking chicken, the other banann peze (friend plantains). Did she have any akra? “Wi, genyen” she replied. The shredded taro root with spices, deep fried in little fingers is my favourite. While waiting, Emerson got caught up with a friend, and then we visited a nearby iglou (cooler) to see what was on offer for drinks. At the next little table, I spied some “tiwose”, a very sweet klaren (cane sugar alcohol) drink. We bought a small cup.

We settled at a bench in the dark behind the stalls to eat our chicken, banann peze, akra, and pikliz (a spicy coleslaw). We gathered a cloud of dogs, waiting for tossed-off bones. Emerson cracked his with his teeth and gave the pieces to those closest to him. I kept mine whole and made sure to toss it to the dog that was standing on the outside looking in. When we finished, I noticed Ti Nwe, Emerson’s sister’s dog, who had walked down to the market looking for a little something to eat, which he does every night. Ti Nwe must be the fattest dog in Fond des Blancs. Also the only one I know that will shake a paw, except when he’s distracted by bones or other morsels. He used to growl at me, but now he wags his tail. He’s a granmoun, an old man, fat and going gray. I apologized to him for not saving him a bone.
The conversation is always interesting. Politics, religion, agriculture. Emerson is a good cultural coach, though I realize he gives only one perspective and often times he is biased. I try to balance what he tells me with what I experience and hear from others. He loves teaching Kreyol proverbs. I never get them right. I can understand the words and translate them literally, but they almost never mean what I think they mean. Many times I’m left shaking my head. I’m in that state a lot, now that I think of it.
Date night ends with a full belly and a ride to the hospital gate, but not inside because the moto makes too much noise. I walk through, tripping in the dark and greeting the night security guards.

I read a lot. I follow the blogs of some very good, talented writers. I follow blogs of people who study writing and journalism – and still see them using “lay” when they should use “lie”, “myself” when they should use “I” (why is it so hard to say “I”?) “bring” when they should use “take”. And I thought everyone knew that “irregardless” isn’t a word, but I keep seeing it.

I love English, but my problem is that I don’t remember grammar terminology that well. I just refreshed myself on what gerunds and relative clauses are, and I’m working on my excessive use of commas. I do know when something isn’t written correctly and acknowledge that there is a difference between proper English and what has become acceptable, especially in American English. That’s why I like this cute blog, Boggleton Drive. It makes complex grammar rules simple with comical illustrations. If you’re a wordie you may like it too.

I’ve been doing this blog for so long that I forget if I’ve ever written about the mandarin we have here at this time of year.

These are the type and size that we usually call tangerines at home in Canada, and while we can buy the smaller ones by the small crate this time of year in the north, they have nothing on these little, juicy beauties. These are tree ripened and bought in the local market at the center of town. One of the most delicious things I’ve had in Haiti has been a glass of juice made from mandaren. They’re expensive in Canada so we would never dream of juicing them, but it was really quite exquisite sweetened with brown sugar (sik mawon).

Ahhhhhh, I did write about these before

We received 4 cases of M&M chocolate covered pretzels as part of a food donation. While my heart leapt when I saw the boxes, I knew the dilemma they pose.

1. We do not distribute candy in our nutrition programs. I mean, how could we?

2. There’s only 4 cases, not enough to distribute through our other programs

3. It’s a donation to our organization, so no matter how chocolate-starved we blan get, they’re not really meant for us to eat

I had to have the boxes moved to my house because the shipping container where we were storing them is too warm. They’re sitting outside my bedroom. I need to make a plan for them quickly, while I still have some willpower.

As part of the project we are visiting the communities where we’ll be providing services to let them know what’s going on and asking for their input on some of the activities. This means that I’ve been getting out a lot lately. I’ve been to places I haven’t been yet in my time here.

This is a rice field near Abraham, close to the national highway at the topmost part of our coverage area. There’s a very large region that is flat and wet that is bordered on both sides by mountains. We thought we were going to get rained on, but these clouds passed us by.

Today we went to Villa for 3 meetings in that area. It’s a 2 hour drive up and down several mountains. As you can see, it is breathtakingly beautiful. We had great meetings, but the drive is ranking up there with the 3 worst in my time in Haiti. It rained just before we headed back home, which makes the winding roads dangerous. We slid around a bit, got knocked around a lot, but made it back safely.

The Sea of the Antilles is in the background.

So here goes. 10 Things I’ve been loving lately:

1. Avocados the size of my head – need I say more?
2. Nights cool enough for a blanket
3. A warm bucket bath (when the nights cool enough for a blanket make the morning shower downright chilly)
4. The chorus of croaking frogs after the rain
5. Being able to check things off my “to do” list
6. Finally having a paying job
7. Waking up with a cup of Haitian coffee
8. Driving out into the countryside for community meetings – the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful
9. Online shopping – what would I do without Amazon and the helpful people who carry my purchases to Haiti for me?
10. The situation I’m in – it hurts at times, can be frustrating, lonely, and demoralizing – but I would not give up this experience for anything. I doubt if I’m impacting Haiti, but she sure is changing me.

This post is about things I did yesterday, which was just a strange day.

I’ve started waking up early, so therefore starting work early. I’ve always been someone who needs 8 hours of sleep. Since I’ve come to Haiti, I struggle to stay awake after 9 pm, so by 10 I’m usually sound asleep. That’s not a bad thing, but lately, I’ve been waking up, WIDE AWAKE at 4:30 am. There’s not much else to do but start work, so I do.

So, at 4:30 am yesterday, after I turned the coffee on I checked email, and started looking at my running to-do list. I had to leave to go to a meeting Les Cayes by 8:00, so it gave me time to get some things done beforehand.

So I: cleaned my room, prepared some requests for purchases, checked on the newly developed rat/mouse invasion in the building I live in, made a request for the screen to be fortified against those rats and mice, returned some dossiers to the hospital archives, and got ready for the meeting.

Then we left for Les Cayes, a two hour drive. The meetings are always in French, and while they are beneficial and it means we get to participate in the national nutrition activities, they are also demoralizing and frustrating because being unable to understand much of what is being said is very detrimental to my professional confidence. Even though everyone is always very nice to me, I leave feeling like I haven’t a clue.

We usually try to maximize the use of our vehicles, so our Spinal Cord Injury team was waiting for me to finish so they could make a home visit on the way back. I got to go with them, which was really great because the patient was one of our spinal cord injuries from the earthquake and I had spent some time with him at the hospital.

While I was in my meeting they went to pick up some things that had been ordered for a party at one of our nurses’ residences. There were trays of pastries, snacks, and a huge cake – without a box. The cake was on a flat piece of cardboard, which was on top of a metal tray. The only place to put it in the vehicle was on my lap in the front seat. I realized at one point that if we had a head-on collision, I would probably be sliced in two by the tray that was wedged between my stomach and the dashboard. My family would love to get me sent back that way, I’m sure.

M., the patient, lives in L’Asile, which is about 30 minutes into the mountains off the Route National near Aquin. The road starts out okay, but becomes even worse than the Fond des Blancs road. The cake slid around a lot, and I managed to keep it in place by putting my fingers on the cardboard base. It’s safe to say I destroyed the decoration at the base on 2 sides, but as Sadi, the driver said, it’s the condition of the top that counts. He also said we have a knife, and that if it cracked we were all going to eat it. All well and good, but I don’t really like these cakes.

We reached a point close to M.’s house but the vehicle couldn’t continue. I left the cake in the truck and walked with the team up the hill to his house. It was so nice to see him. He’s a parapalegic, and he’s living on a very steep hill, but his yard is flat enough for his wheelchair and his family is attentive to his needs. He is so happy to be back with his 3 sons and his extended family. It was good to see him.

4 ½ hours later we arrived back in Fond des Blancs with an unbroken cake that had started to slide around a bit. My fingers were pretty well covered with sticky, pink frosting.

It was a good day, but I think whoever ordered a frosted, unboxed cake from Les Cayes needs to find a closer bakery. I mean, really.

There are still hundreds of thousands of people displaced and living in horrible conditions under tents. There is still an incredible amount of need. But, we are seeing schools built, businesses opening and every time I go to Port au Prince I see something new that has changed or been rebuilt since the last time. But so much more needs to be done and the efforts are being hamstrung by the inability to move forward with the acceptance of a Prime Minister by the Senate. The major reconstruction can’t go forward without one. President Martelly has just nominated his third and he has been approved by the lower house. Here’s hoping that the Senate will approve.

I was talking to a chief  of one of the UN agencies last week. He was telling me that there isn’t a lot of funding in his agency for programs in Haiti right now. The demands on the agencies from the crisis in the Horn of Africa are impacting what they can do in Haiti, and this won’t change until pledges that were made for Haiti are honoured. Maybe if the new Prime Minister is approved this will happen.

UN Urges International Community to Honor Haiti Aid Promises

VOA    Posted Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 5:35 pm

I struggle a lot with mistrust working in Haiti, and I hate the way it feels. In the past few months I’ve had my mistrust affirmed, and that feels awful too. The last paragraph of the blog post gives good advice.

My first response to Simon’s elaborate scam was eye-rolling distrust. This type of story can cultivate skepticism, prompting us to pull back. But it doesn’t have to. It does not mandate that we retreat. It’s been said that to love well we should be “gentle as doves and shrewd as serpents.” The path of helping those in need is not paved with easy solutions nor is it averse to corruption. This is no reason to pull back. The needs and opportunities in our world are too great to not give generously. Yes, we need to be abounding in compassion, but not the undiscerning kind. Go to Kenya, but send back a scout if you sense something is amiss. Pour out generosity, but do so discriminately. Love abundantly, but always ask hard questions. No retreat. No close fists. No bitterness. Go boldly, shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.