Another day at the Comfort House

Another day is done. I climb up to bed and scan for unwelcome visitors. Every night when I lower the curtain of my porch-of-a-room to deter the mosquitoes, I cross my fingers I don't grab right into a tarantula! When Ray told me there were tarantulas here, he included the fact that he had just found one in his bath towel when he went to grab it! Fun...! I crawl into bed and enjoy the few minutes of cleanliness and cool wet hair. The sounds of crickets, frogs, dogs, and lots of other unknown sounds serenade me to sleep. The occasional car roaring by blasting music as if I was in the middle of a club, or consistently laying on the incredibly loud horn is especially peaceful. By 7:30am, the batteries have died leaving us with no electricity, and therefore no fan. I'm sticky, gross, and have a very pleasant odor about me. If I take the sheet off a any point throughout the night though, I'll be eaten alive. When the knocking hits the gate, it's time to get up. Marioli is here, and the babies are about to get up. Meaning, morning chocolate, breakfast and meds. Another day is here.

My bed, and the nice ventilation system

In the last few days, I've been given a new roommate. Elda has been moved to the back room, where she was originally with 3 other girls. Being the character that she is, you'd think it was something she did, but not this time. Gessica and her wing-man Nadia needed some separation, as there was too much "plotting" going on. Maybe without her watch dog, Gessica will straighten up her act. She's one of the few street kids we have here, and we're doing our best to wipe the street part away. Funny thing was, she lied about "loosing" some money, and came in one night after her bath, and told me she washed her mouth out with soap because she didn't have any toothpaste anymore! I just started laughing, and tried to explain how awesome that was. Of course, she wouldn't understand....

Well... for the rest, not much has changed. Hurricane has brought a lot of rain in. Let's hope we don't float away! The wind started picking up Thursday, and we have seen 2 nights of heavy rain since then. It really isn't that bad, just makes showering a little harder. Can't really dry off outside, so you've got to be a little more strategic about it with all the kids around! Hopefully to be all done with by the end of the weekend...

My camera broke and is currently in the States with Trisha getting fixed. Lucky, because I'm not sure I would otherwise have been able to get it fixed before leaving Haiti! And, being that we haven't explored much outside the walls of this complex, it would have been a real bummer! We have been taking pictures with the S90 around here though, and I have included some below. Internet has been real bad lately, and this post has been a work in progress for over a week now! Luckily, I was able to upload the rest of the photos today, so enjoy!

Looks like Hans got the babies to do his laundry! Now, he's opted to add his clothes to the kids laundry pile, which gets done everyday. I'm still a little scared to do that, and am hand washing every other day!

We usually make our own peanut butter here, and it was that time again! Fernand (pronounced "Fay-nah") woke up on peanut butter day, crackling the peanuts on the stove at a surprising 6:30am. Being that my room is the front patio, and the kitchen is in the first room inside the house (with open windows between the rooms), I woke up to what sounded like popcorn popping. Deciding I wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore, I got up to learn the process: roast, skin, hand select, grind, add salt, oil and mix. Every aspect seemed to take a looooong time and I opted on laundry and lunch making while Fernand did an excellent job with the peanuts. After we shed the flaky layer from the peanuts, my thumbs were very soar, and I had only done a fraction of the amount Fernand did! Fernand took the peanuts outside, and tossed them into the air on a flat basket like bowl. The wind took away the flakes, and left the peanuts on our tray. From there, he went through and took out all the bad ones, another lengthy process. The peanuts that passed the selection test were taken to the market where they were ground. Once I saw them again, it was peanut butter! Fernand heated up some oil and salt, and added it to the mixture. Somehow not a lot of salt was added, but it was still good.

Fernand stirring the peanut butter

The kids were getting a kick out of me pretending to eat the peanut butter!

The dogs... First one is of Cara. The next of Dusty biting at Cara... it's ALWAYS play time for Dusty. Last one is of Elda and all 110lbs of big ol' Max. Poor guy is about 13 years old and can't hardly get up from sitting or lying on the ground. His back legs are giving out. Trisha said it's from too much jumping against the wall trying to catch lizards!

Pretty Cara. She's in heat right now, and it's driving poor old Max crazy!

She can never get enough...

My trouble making (now ex) bunk mate Elda doesn't like to sleep much, and it's always hard to get her in bed. Then, it seems like every third night of so, she wakes up in the middle of the night and starts playing. A couple nights ago, I was really wanting some good sleep, and can't say I really got it. She's not much of a listener either, so I think we were up for a good hour or so... I made sure she was getting up with me in the morning, and not sleeping in like she's so good at! I can't say my new bunk mate is much better. It feels like we're having an earthquake every night, and then again in the morning when she wakes up.

Elda just lost her first tooth: one of the bottom middle ones. I think she had Gessica pull it out for her. She's a tough little cookie that girl! The other bottom middle one just came out this afternoon. Think she swallowed it at lunch. She came to me and said it hurt, and when I looked, there was no tooth anymore! That was right after lunch...

Elda and I playing in the back... or rather, her occupying my lap AGAIN in the back.

Darlensky is known for peeing his bed every night. Once in bed, and then after the bed's wet, he moves to the floor. There's usually a puddle on the floor too by morning. This is how Hans found him at about 5am one morning! Don't know how they sleep like this, but I've seen Elda sleeping like this too! Just the other day, Darlensky had his first DRY night! He didn't pee his bed, but then peed his pants later in the day. Oh well... we're getting there!

 

So... ever since Mama left, Elda wants to help me all the time. Half the time, she says it, then runs away. But other times, she's really persistent. So, I was doing meds one morning, and decided I'd let her help me by bringing everyone's meds to them in the kitchen. Well, I gave her Darlensky's liquid meds and before she was even turned around, there was a small puddle on the floor! Being a little weary of the job I had given her, I decided she was FIRED! No more med distribution for Elda. But, here's me playing doctor!

Last Saturday, I decided it was cleaning day. I stripped the kitchen shelves, killed about 10 cockroaches, and cleaned cleaned cleaned with some wonderful help from Nadia. My fingers were pruney and nails soft by the time we were done. Never knew what cockroach poo looked like until now! The boys had some of their own cleaning they had already started: deep cleaning of all the fans. Turned out to be quite the job, but those things looked brand new by the time Vladimyr was done with them! So, needless to say, the kitchen was a disaster, but by dinner time, everything was all put back together!

The mess we made to clean... And also shows the stress crack from the earthquake on the far wall

My amazing little helper, Nadia

Vladimyr and Christian scrubbing fans in the alley

And, just some fun random pictures.... The kids LOVE the camera!

 

Goof ball Darlensky

Our little monkey... Lulu

Elda and I

Roodline, Elda and I

Playing around. Gessica on the bottom, Elda and Nadia on top. Not sure who's feet those are though!

Nadia and Elda... with Rosy poking through in the back

Hold me! (Romise... the youngest of the 13)

Little Mason, wearing a purse as a hat. Usually Elda's favorite...

Well, that's all for now! Thanks for staying tuned! We love hearing from you! More to come....

Posted by Abra