Hurricane??

So it's been brought to my attention that a hurricane is headed our way. Apparently Hurricane Tomas is forecasted to cut straight across Haiti, hitting our portion of the country (Valley of the Artibonite River) sometime on Friday.

Ray showed me a 5-day forecast that showed Hurricane Tomas strengthening to a category 3 hurricane, meaning winds between 111-130mph. Well, I just checked weatherunderground.com again to post a picture of the forecast, and it's already weakened. And while it's still expected to cross Haiti, it's only expected to reach category 1, which means winds between 74-95mph.

Ray doesn't seem too concerned, because we're protected by a couple mountain ranges, and not coastal, but he said we'll have a ton of rain dumped on us. Which may mean little internet (bad), but could mean little construction work (yeah!).

Anyway, don't worry about us. We'll be fine. But I'm learning... in Haiti, when it rains, it pours. After a devastating earthquake, and a cholera outbreak, why not top it off with a hurricane?

Posted by Hans

Not much new here

Trisha left today. She's flying to the US for 2.5 weeks to speak at a few churches and hopefully raise some money. While she's gone Abra will be the main man in charge of the house during the day, as Ray & I will still be working on the new house.

Over the past 13 days, since we arrived, Abra has evolved from a soft-spoken, asker or attention, to a hard-yelling disciplinarian, so I think it'll work. If not, I'll stay home a few days. I'm pretty good at yelling at the kids. And I've learned a few words in Creole to do so:

Sa'k pace? - 'What happened?'
Manjay! - 'EAT!'  (they like to play with their food)
Ale! - 'Go!'
Koun ya! - 'Now!'
Li bon! - 'You're fine!' (the kids like to cry about the littlest things)
Fine! - 'Stop!'

There are a few more, but you get the idea.

The babies are easy. They play, and fall, but rarely get hurt. They'll cry if you take away a toy, but seem to forget about it in a matter of minutes. Especially after a few 'Fine!! Li bon!'. It's the older kids that are a problem. Nadia (8) has been the biggest help, while Gessica likes to pout. The boys are trouble-makers. They're typical American kids.

I went to the local soccer game this past weekend. The stadium was just a field, surrounded by a 9 foot wall, with just a regular door letting in traffic. The outside was packed with throngs of people fightening to get in, with just a few security guys letting people past. If you didn't know it was a sports match going on inside, you would have thought they were distributing food or medical supplies based on how desperate people were to get inside.

Fenah didn't make much progress in pushing us past the rest, so I thought I'd try my hand, and was basically escorted inside. I was the only white guy, so they must have figured at least I had money to pay for my ticket. Once inside it was fairly sparcely populated, just a few rows deep of people surrounding the field. We saw Mayko, a local politician running for Senate (his face is plastered all over town). I tried to start a 'Mayko!' chant, but no one followed.

Around half time, people started climbing the wall to get in. Then security started beating them with sticks (or at least trying, little contact was made) as they climbed down the inside of the wall. In response, the crowd outside started throwing rocks and chunks of cement over the wall. Fans inside the stadium started running away, and as I did so I saw at least one lady get pelted in the back. The mob outside stopped, and I saw a few security guys (one with an uzzie, another with a shotgun) go outside to settle them down. No shots were fired.

Otherwise things here are fine. I'm excited for the upcoming Nov. 28 elections, as this will be the first peaceful transition of power for Haiti (assuming it's peaceful). Up until now, it's been one coup after another as Haitians are dissatisfied with their government.

Cholera deaths have climbed to about 300, but they say it's slowing down. Not sure if that's true.

Today Ray brought Trisha to the airport, so Abra and I have control of the house. So far everyone still has all 10 fingers and 10 toes, but we got 3 more hours to go.

Take care!

Sorry no pictures.

Posted by Hans

Dangers & Annoyances

Some of you may have heard about the recent outbreak of cholera in Haiti, and may be wondering whether Abra and I are safe. Well, we're smack-dab in the middle of it, and doing fine.

If you look at a map of Haiti there's a valley just north of Port-au-Prince called Artebonite, with a river, called River de Artebonite running right through it. It has a single 'main' road running through the valley, which is fairly sparcely populated. It faired pretty well during the earthquake in January, and therefore the government has been encouraging Haitians to move from the capital (Port) to the Province (valley). But now the river, which has been a critical life line for the valley, making it great farming land, is turning out to be quite the opposite.

Well, with the additional population, of mostly poor Haitians, to an area that has neither running water (besides the occasional city well) or electricity, you're asking for trouble. And sure enough, many people in the valley depend on the river to bathe, wash clothes, and drink. Leaving the population very vulnerable to a water-born disease like cholera.

About 4 days ago we heard about 30-odd people having died at the local hospital, and before we knew it, another 20 had passed. By that next day, they realized it was cholera. Cholera dehydrates it's victims, who usually shit 10 liters of diarrhea in a day. Once recognized, patients can be hooked up to fluids, otherwise they usually die within a couple days.

So far it's 'only' claimed about 200 lives, and sickened about 2300 people. The president, Rene Preval, is already hinting at canceling November's elections (convenient), which could make things interesting. The real fear is if it reaches Port, which I'm just hearing happened today. They estimate 800,000 cases, with an unmeasurable number of deaths.

The diseased river runs about 1/2 a mile from our house here in Verrettes. Still, we haven't been effected, with our handy filter providing us with safe, purified water, so don't worry about us. We're in pretty good health.

I'm over my sunburn, and my blisters are healing. Instead I've developed a heat rash, and our ankles have been destroyed by mosquitoes, and the consequent itching. But we're doing well.

Just life in the time of cholera.

Posted by Hans

Long time no talk

It’s been a couple days since our last post. As Abra and I settle into our new roles, we hardly have time for this blog. But I thought I’d tell you a little bit about our days.

Ray and I are off to build the new house early. He let me sleep in until 8:00am the first day, but it slowly crept up to a 4:30am wake up call this morning. It was market day, and we had to beat the crowd before we couldn’t drive through town in our mammoth truck. The market seems to take over all the roads, and with cars a minority, you’re out of luck if you’re driving!

We usually work until about noon, when we get lunch (rice, beans and mystery meat; today it was goat) from a local restaurant. Then we’re back to work until sometime between 2pm and 4pm, when we go down to the river and bathe. We mostly do rebar-bending, cement laying & smoothing, or rock moving. Mostly rock moving. And that’s not fun. Ray is nice enough to put up a tarp for shade most of the time, though he does it more to slow the cement drying, then for me, the ‘blan’ (comes from “blanc”).

It’s always fun walking through the market, or bathing in the river, as a blan I draw quite the crowd (or at least a few stares). I like to think it’s because they’re impressed with my chiseled abs, but I’ve been told otherwise.

We get back to the house just in time for dinner. The food here has been really good. We’ve had spaghetti with meat sauce, avocado pizza, tuna casserole, and of course the staple: rice, beans & sauce. All very delicious! And then it’s the kids’ bath time and then they’re off to bed. Everyone takes turns bathing in the walkway outside the house. We use buckets, to pour water over our heads. It’s only cold water, but that’s all you want after sweating all day in 80F weather. Nights are much more pleasant, at around 65F.

Abra gets a more pleasant wake up time- 7:30am, when the children start to wake up. The babies need changing, but lucky for us, Gessica (7 years old) is well trained in this. Except the time she let Romise fall off the changing table. Gessica and Nadia (8) do most of the chores around here, from the hoards of dishes, to table setting and diapers. Abra’s pretty thrilled about that! Troublemaker Christian gets poop-clean up (oh yeah, there are 3 dobermans: Old man Max (13), Cara (5), and mischievous little Dusty (6 months).

Abra then helps Trisha with breakfast (usually cereal) for the kids. On Saturdays the kids get eggs, and on Sundays they get pancakes.

Math class has begun. Roodline in the foreground. Gessica and Rosy in the back

Christian at the chalk board working on his numbers

Gessica counting on her fingers

Hans teaching math class with Nadia in the foreground

Nadia using Roodline's fingers to help her with her math problems

William practicing his number writing

Did I mention the TARANTULAS?! Abra's pretty stoked... She wasn't getting any closer to this one than she needed for this photo. Unfortunately, there is nothing to compare the size to, but this guy's leg span was about 5-6 inches!

After breakfast, the kids go out and play, draw, read and do math. Nadia is already doing plusses and minuses, while Gessica can, but likes to be walked through it. They usually all have PB&J sandwiches for lunch around noon, then dinner at 6pm. Twice a day, the kids get a chocolate vitamin shake to make sure they get the nutrients they need to stay healthy. Nicely, we get them too! (though ours are vanilla).

Trisha and Ray go to the local Paul Farmer (an American philanthropist) hospital for free medications (surgeries, however, are not free). Most of what is in this house is donated: huge 50 kilo bags of rice and kidney beans, cereal, shampoo, and vitamin supplements. However, with rent, market food, gasoline and internet, it still costs quite a bit to run this house. Donations are graciously accepted at www.HaitiComfort.org! Also, Abra said she’d spend some free time updating their website, which is a perfect excuse to take pictures of the kids. The kids were very excited to see the camera, so most of them are posing, but hopefully we’ll get a few candid ones down the road.

Nadia, 8 years old

Christian, 7 years old

Elda, 5 years old (Abra's bunkbed buddy, who also shares the same birthday as her!)

Lulu, 6 years old

Darlensky, 4 years old

Lulu, Elda, William (4 years old), Rosy (7 years old), Darlensky

William, 4 years old

Rosemond (Rosy)

My sunburn is all gone, and so far I haven’t gotten a new one. Trisha was nice enough to give me a couple bottles of sunscreen, which I lather on every morning. So far, one morning application of 35 SPF is enough for me (shocker!). At the end of the day, my skin does feeling hot/burning, but no burn appears. Ray is nice enough to not push me as hard as the other workers (hey, I’m free right?!), and I routinely take breaks in the shade during the hot part of the day. Did I mention rock moving is a b-i-t-c-h? So I need a break anyway. I feel like I do one-third of the work of the Haitians Ray has working with us. But did I mention I’m free?? Free is important when you’re down to your last few bucks, your house if half finished, and you need to move in by Dec. 31.

The new house is beautiful, or at least it will be. It’s going to be 7000sq feet, with a second floor, and an enormous patio. Ray doesn’t know how long it’ll take to finish, but he has massive plans for a gazebo, fish-farm, and a perimeter wall.

There’ll be plenty of work that needs doing post Dec. 31 (though between now and then is most critical), so if you want to donate time, and you don’t mind bathing in a river, let me know and we can set it up! Trisha and Ray have some hired help for the building and kids, but anything in addition to that is always appreciated! Most people come for 1-2 weeks, so you don’t need to do a 6-week extravaganza. 

Anyway, all’s well. Hopefully we’ll get more pictures of the area- which is beautiful- though locals don’t seem to like their picture taken much. Here are some more from around the house and a few from the market (and way to the market) today. 

Rosy, sitting at the kitchen table

Elda and Dusty

Lulu, Mason and Michael (Babo)

Lulu and Gessica in the back and "the BABIES" up from (Romise, Mason, Babo and Marissa Rae)

Romise and Gessica

The twins: Mason and Michael (Babo)

Little Marissa Rae

Lover boy and his girlfriend (Michael and Romise)

Pickup full of people!

Some houses along our walk to the market

On the way to the market

Back at home. Big Max, with Trisha tackling the med distribution in the back

It’s 8:45pm now, and I’m exhausted. G’night all!

Posted by Hans

When it Rains, it Pours

It's 3:30am, and Abra and I slowly emerge from an all-too-short slumber. It's Thursday, October 14th, and we have a 7am flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica to Haiti (via Miami, no less).

We had packed the night before, as well as stocked up on breakfast breads, so we were feeling pretty ready. We called a cab, and by 4:15am we were already at the airport. We were the only ones at the airport. We checked in, went through security, found our gate, with 2 hours to spare, and not another tourist in site. We took the opportunity to frolic through a deserted terminal.

We arrived in Port-au-Prince at 3:30pm, where we were funneled through an old hanger (converted into "Immigration", and then "Baggage Claim"). We then walked out into the blistering sun, where we were soon met by Trisha. Trisha and Ray own a missionary orphanage in the small town of Verrettes, two and a half hours north of Port-au-Prince. Except it's less of a business, and more a family. We'll be staying with them for the next 6-7 weeks, with Abra helping Trisha out with the kids, while I do the best I can helping Ray construct a bigger house a half-hour down the road.

 
And the fun started right there. On our way back to Verrettes, Trisha eases us in with stories of how she and Ray ended up in the middle of Haiti with 13 HIV+ kids under their roof. She then goes into how she's had to bribe officials after being pulled out with an expired license. And finishes with stories about the kids: like the one who recently tried to set the house on fire, and another who can't manage to wake himself up at night to go to the bathroom. She and Ray have been here for 6 years, and have found quite a life for themselves, giving everything they have, and more.

About 30 minutes from home, the car's headlights dim to uselessness, and we end up with my hand out the window holding a flashlight to maneuver through the narrow, pedestrian populated roads. Did I mention it's dark by now, there are no streetlights, and the houses don't even have electricity. About 15 minutes later, the rain had lowered visibility to about zero, and we pull over to squeegee. But once we're ready to go again, the battery is too dead to get the car out of PARK. Trisha uses the last few minutes on her phone to call Ray, who drives down to meet us with their second car: a dump truck. We end up pushing the van back to the house with Trisha in the driver seat. "When it rains, it pours," Trisha explains. That night Abra and I take showers outside in the rainstorm. It's a perfect introduction to Haiti, and to the next month and a half of our lives.

The next morning, Abra and I wake up at 7:30am and start off by helping Trisha set up breakfast for the 13 kids. Roughly, the ages are:

Mason (2 years old, boy)
Michael (2 years old, boy, aka "Babo")
Romise (2 years old, girl)
Marrisa Rae (2.5 years old, girl)
Darlensky (4 years old, boy)
Rosy (5 years old, boy)
Louvensky (5 years old, boy, aka "Lulu")
William (5 years old, boy)
Christian (6 years old, boy)
Elda (6 years old, girl)
Gessica (7 years old, girl)
Nadia (8 years old, girl)
Roodline (16 years old, girl)

After breakfast, Abra stuck around the house with Trisha, while I went with the 'boys' (Ray, and a few guys who work for him: Vladimyr and Fenan), and we head out to the new property. It's a huge swath of land, mostly flat, with a clear-water river running along one side. In the middle there's the outer wall of the complex being built. Within that wall, the walls of the first floor are already up. He walks me around the property, telling me all the visions he has for the various parts. You can see construction progress at their website www.haiticomfort.org.

We head back to the house, for Friday night pizza night. Delicious!

The kids are in bed by 8:30pm. Lucky for us, they are set up with internet, and a couple hours later we're in bed too. Abra's on the top bunk, sharing a room with Elda, while I'm sleeping in a room with 2 cribs for the twin boys.

The next day, and Abra and I are slowly starting to learn the routines of meals, meds distribution, showers and bedtime. I've taken to teaching math, while Abra has helped with drawing and reading. Ray takes me for my first 'work day' to a local school he's helping at. It's Saturday, and not really a 'work day', but we thought we'd give them an hour to move some sand. Ray tries to help out the local community whenever possible, and had just built them an administration building. I laugh, because it really wasn't any work, but in an 80F day, and not used to physical labor, I dumped a gallon of sweet and got blisters across my hands. I keep telling Ray he got the wrong brother, that my brother, Seth, would be better fit for this. I'll have to toughen up.

Saturday is movie day for the kids, and they sit contently for hours watching Sesame Street and Indian in the Cupboard. A pleasant relief for Trisha and Abra, while Ray prepares spaghetti dinner and I write this blog. I'm almost recovered from my sunburn. Things are on the upturn. For now, no rain.

Time to help with dinner! Take care.

Posted by Hans

A Day in Ochi

Waking up to a blistering hot room, with a fan on high, but still not at all satisfactory, I decided it was time to start the day. I felt just about as sticky and gross as before my shower the night before. Our only real plan in Ochi was to hit the Eiffel Tower of Jamaica: the Dunn’s River Falls for a little watery climb. We got some breakfast, wandered the streets for a little bit, and found a route taxi to take us the 3km to the falls. Cuddled in the back seat with 3 other somewhat large people, I felt like a true Jamaican.

Being that you start the climb from the bottom (hence the word “climb”), we first walked down to the astonishing, golden sand beach. The view was incredible. And then, just as you walk 100 feet to your left, the rock staired falls come rippling down right into the ocean. How much more beautiful can it get?

So we started our trek, hand in hand… who ever thought of this idea anyway?! If one person falls, I see the whole line of people following suit just like little lemmings. You’re being pulled by the person in front of you, but held back by the person behind.  Your feet are therefore not quite where you would have otherwise had them, your balance off, and whew! There you all go! Brilliant. Anyway, they made us hold hands as we climbed through the “tougher” parts of the falls. The water felt refreshing, and the sun nicely blocked by the canopy above. A huge relief from what I was feeling this morning!

Not being able to leave the camera behind, we found a Ziploc to keep it dry. Hans had pockets, and thinking most of the water was just at our ankles, we hoped for no problems! Well, turns out, there was a small hole in the bag, and the water definitely came above our ankles. This is why I should have brought my cheaper camera! We still managed to get some great shots, and I believe the camera’s still working just fine! (So far, I’m still a happy camper!)

Before leaving, we took another look at the warm water beach and decided for a few bucks to take a little jet ski ride and see some dolphins. Hans had never been on a jet ski before so was pretty stoked. Though still somewhat enjoyable, I felt we had once again been put under the Jamaican wrath: the say-lots-but-nothing-all-at-once vagueness they’re so good at. I thought they were going to be wild, free dolphins by how the “mon” described it, but I should have known better. At least I wasn’t supporting the actual dolphin “park.” 

Finally, we cabbed it back to town, leaving two giant wet spots on the backseat. Still intending to head to Montego Bay for our last bit of our time in Jamaica, we grabbed some quick food, picked up our bags, and were off again for our last Jamaican bus ride: never complete until you’ve been squished in a 5 person row only meant for 4, and have to listen to people grunt loudly on their cell phones, or across the bus to their friend. It’s really amazing how not like English their normal dialect is. It’s almost as if they’ve dropped all the hard sounds and just mumble everything together. The funny part, is they don’t even seem to understand each other many times!

Arriving into Montego Bay after dark, Lonely Planet lead us quickly to an affordable guesthouse. Feeling once again like a million bucks, the cold shower didn’t bother me too much!

Tomorrow, the sunglasses hunt was on! My pupils are loving me right now, after 2½ weeks of no relief. Cuba seems to carry only one style, and most stores don’t have them. And, though Jamaica has many more, I still haven’t gotten any. Assuming Haiti is going to be another Cuba situation, I’m determined to find some before we leave Jamaica!

Posted by Abra 

Ya Mon, We Be in Jamaica!

Surprisingly (or maybe not), Jamaicans actually talk like that, it’s not just a Hollywood cliché. And we’ve already received our first crash course: it’s Jaw-may-cans. With an emphasis on the ‘Jaw’.

We arrived in Kingston late Friday night. I guess 8pm isn’t that late, but when you’re arriving in a capital city, it’s already dark, and you don’t have a hotel reservation it’s late. And some nice fellow sitting next to us on the plane kept sharing horror stories about the perils of Kingston.

They assured us Jamaica’s capital isn’t worth the bother. That we’d be walking targets, ‘whities’ they said, almost guaranteed a confrontation. Besides the danger, they also said there isn’t much to see there, so we decided to leave first thing the next day. And one of the guys was nice enough to drive us to a hotel in the safer part of town for the night.

The next morning I was ready to go, but Abra wasn’t feeling too hot. She was sick, bloated…and well…not good. Lets just say she had a very interrupted sleep. But I dragged her to the bus stop anyway.

We found our bus to Port Antonio, a small village built around a beautiful bay in the northeast portion of the country. Our bus was a typical tour-bus (mind you this is their regular public bus), which operates more like a giant shared taxi. It doesn’t work on a schedule, doesn’t have designated stops, and leaves when it’s full. There are 2 seats on one side, and 1 on the other, and as the rows fill up, a seat folds down into the aisle. Four to a row right? Wrong, five seems to be the norm. Except it’s not 5 equally spaced, it’s 3 people to the regular 3 seats, then it’s Abra and another girl splitting the fold down seat. She’s thrilled. She’s feeling sick, squeezed into a tiny seat, and about to embark on a 3 hour trek across the Blue Mountains, with all the winding, one-lane roads that that entails. And it seems the bus drivers have an ongoing bet for ‘best time’.

Well, we made it, and found ourselves a nice guesthouse for the night. Then we set out to explore the two main streets of the city, before settling in at an internet café.

The next day, Sunday, we were up at a blistering 7:20am, as we were hoping to see a few out-of-town sights. First we headed to the Blue Lagoon, made famous by Brooke Shields’s body in the movie, ‘Blue Lagoon’ (real original). It’s a deep water (200 feet) bay, with such clear water it appears as an amazing rich blue. We hired a boat to take us around to nearby Monkey Island, Tom Cruise’s Beach House, and the gorgeous Dragon’s Bay, home to the deserted and crumbling Dragon’s Bay Hotel. Awesome pictures.

(Actually just outside Blue Lagoon, but its prettier out here, and the water is just the same blue!)

Next we headed by private car, for a ridiculous fee that won’t be mentioned here, up into the Blue Mountains. The driver was Rasta, and it seems money is a taboo topic. We also had a ridiculous time trying to describe where he was going to bring us/what he was going to show us. There was a lot of agreeing, a lot of ‘Ya mon’, and little said. I’ve had a harder time communication with Rasta’s than with speaking Spanish in Cuba. We thought we were getting a mini-private tour through the Blue Mountains, we ended up getting a taxi ride that stopped at a waterfall.

 

 

After 4,400 feet of elevation, and miles of more winding, one-lane, two-way, blind-corner roads, with cliffs on one side, and a speed-minimum of 50 mph, we reached a point where a mudslide had knocked out half the road. We had to cross by foot, to be picked up on the other side by Hopey and Doggie, from our new Rasta family for the night. 

Thirty minutes later and we finally reached their town of Section, a small, spread out conglomeration of houses, with supposedly 50 people and no stores. We were given a very comfortable room, overlooking a nearby valley. We were literally in the middle of the clouds, and surrounded by lush as-far-as-the-eye-can-see vegetation of bamboo, coffee plants, and banana trees. Our Rasta family (a bachelor pad with 4 dudes) cooked up some delicious vegetable stew with Johnny Cakes and fish (apparently they can eat fish) for us. It was actually really good, and I’m not just saying that because I had no expectations. These mountains are dotted with these coffee-growing Rasta families, all connected by these ridiculous windy roads, hours away from civilization.

It seems the main adjective Rasta’s use (or at least the one with the most positive connotations) is ‘natural’. Everything is natural. The food is natural, the mountains are natural, and of course, their dreads are natural, mon. I can’t wait to see their faces when they discover the word ‘organic’. Well, naturally, we had communication issues when it came to a fee. We were told in the beginning a sweet price of $15 USD. And when it came time to paying we though we’d give him a flat $20, since it was such a great experience. This seems to be the time at which money-as-a-taboo-topic disappears, and he had the audacity to ask for another $20. We still needed a ride back down the mountain, so we had little choice but to cough up the dough.

Oh, and we were given Rastafarian nicknames. Apparently I’m CoolWata, and Abra is CuttyRanks. I’m not sure where they came from, but I am sure I’m using it. They were given to us by Lakey, a stoned-out-of-his-mind Rasta (smokes 30 joints a day he said nonchalantly), with bloodshot eyes and dreams of visiting Miami.

After listening to some Reggae music, and having a Bob Marley jam session of our own (my guitar and vocals weren’t up to par), we ended up calling it a night at around 8:30pm, when everyone else headed back to their rooms. No wonder they kept referring to 3pm as ‘in the evening’.

The next day Abra and I hiked into the Blue Mountains to a look out point where you can see Kingston. The pictures weren’t great, and probably won’t appear below. I was stupid enough to take my shirt off, and got burned like the little bitch that I am. The pictures weren’t great, but probably will appear below. 

Next Doggie drove us down to the collapsed road, where we hiked a couple miles to the ‘town’ of Wakefield. There we caught a bus to Buff Bay, where we caught a bus to Annotto Bay, where we caught a taxi to Port Maria, where we caught a bus to Ocho Rios (aka Ochi). I guess there weren’t any direct busses. But transferring from one to the other in typical NASCAR pit-crew speed was awesome with 35lbs backpacks and a sunburn. It was also exhilarating to speed by other cars going 120 km/hr in a 50 km/hr zone, with no seatbelts, and a driver smoking Ganja.

Anyway, we made it to Ochi, and found a cheap motel. We bought ourselves some ridiculous Jamaican fast food (Beef and Cheese Patties, don’t ask), and began the long and repetitive process of Aloe Vera application.

More soon!

Posted by CoolWata