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