A New Place to Call Home

Haiti. What a place! Like nothing I've ever seen before.

Let me start by telling you about some advice I was given before I left. I was told that in Haiti, you can choose to see the ugliness or the beauty. I choose to see the beauty and the good, in the midst of the ugly. There is beauty- flowers lining the walls, palm trees and various other greenery sprouting up all over, goats and chickens milling about the streets, beautiful people going places, always on the move. Then there are some unpleasant things- trash burning along the streets in garbage cans and in the ditches, children tapping on the car window begging for money or food, very large potholes in the road (makes for harsh driving conditions!), concrete everywhere and large metal gates.

It is hard to find a quiet place in the city. The sounds travels because the windows are always open to let the air in. In the morning I awake to the girls practicing the piano and the roosters crowing. Dogs are barking throughout the night. The sounds travel from the neighbors houses- their voices, the music they are playing, or their television. During the day I hear people talking as they walk by, the sounds of vehicles on the roads and horns honking.  

Daily life in Haiti is a lot different than life in Michigan. To begin with, it gets light at 5:00-5:30am and it gets dark at 5:00-5:30pm. I usually wake up between 5, 5:30 just because it is light outside and my body thinks it’s time to get up. Most people here go to bed early. I thought this was odd at first, but then I realized that when I wake up so early it only makes sense to go to bed earlier. At home I went to bed around 11:00-11:30...here I’m tired enough to sleep around 8:30-9pm. I’m in bed by about 9:30 on a good night! The heat can be very draining. 

It gets very hot here during the day and stays warm at night. The morning is the coolest part of the day. I think it’s normally about 80 degrees during the day- then again, I’m not really sure because we don’t watch a news program or a weather channel. And it doesn’t make much difference because you can’t do anything about the temperature. There is hardly any air conditioning, besides in the vehicles and an occasional room. In my room I have a fan blowing on me at night to keep the mosquitoes away. Most of the time when you sit still in a room, such as at the desk at the office, you keep a fan blowing on you to keep you cool and to keep the bugs away. 

I am adjusting to life here ever so slowly. Most days are very different from the next because right now I have no set schedule. This past week (I’ve been here for a full week now!) I have been touring the area and working with a team that is here from Canada. Their team consists of 12 people- they arrived on Saturday and they will be here until Monday. Only one or two people from their team have been here before so they didn’t know much about Haiti when they got here. We are learning and living together.

Me and Natasha (my cousin)