Feeling HOT HOT HOT

Well I'm here! It was a good flight. I kind of forgot that is was my first time flying into Haiti by myself. It's a bit different that way, but nonetheless, I guess now I now how its done. You see first it's pretty much the same as anyother airport, first you go through customs then you go to the baggage claim and wait for your bags. However, once you get your begs, you are suddenly bombarded with people that want to, you know, "help" you carrying your bags. "Oh, how nice" you may think, but when they start fighting and yelling over who gets to carry the bags, then it's a little less, well...nice. Oh, and you better not forget to tip at least one of them. Lubens was right outside the airport waiting for me. It was kind of cool because we actually flew to Jacmel from Port-Au-Prince. It was a scheduled 12 minute flight. The plane seated maybe 12 or 15 people and compared to the normals plane, flew pretty close to the ground. I was neat to be able to see so much of Haiti from the air.


Okay, the that last paragragh was written over a period of the last three days. I hadn't really gotten much of a chance to just sit down and write but hopefully I will now. So I've been here for 3 days now so I will try to start from where I left off in the first paragraph.

Okay, airport, Haiti, landed in Jacmel....alright, so then we went to the base. It was kind of weird coming back with out my DTS team. As you some of you may know I was also a little worried about the room situation. (For those of you who don't know I am staying with the two girls in the DTS, one of the other staff members here and the consin of Lubens's wife and they are all Haitian and I will told that one of them speak English or spanish) I was also a little worried too because the last time I was there the room really wasn't set up for people that were going to be staying an extented period of time. But actually, the room turned out to be pretty good. I even have a drower! I kind of have my own little corner and there is also a ledge on the window here I can put stuff. I was pretty please.

I'm not going to lie to you, that evening was pretty tough. I was kind of wondering 'am I really going to be here from the next 3-5 months??' What did I get myself into. I tried to keep busy. I unpacked my stuff and then Lubens said that the he, his family and Naomi, were going to get something to eat and he asked if I wanted to come but I told him thanks but I think I'm going to rest a bit. By that time I had planned on just take a shower and go to bed. I got all my stuff ready and then when I got into the shower I just started balling. I felt like a pretty big baby but it felt pretty good to get let it all out. After the shower I felt a little better. After that I was pretty thirsty and went down to get some water. All the students were down there having dinner and one of them I actually knew from the last time I was here. His name was Lucson and he speaks spanish. So that was cool, at least I could kind of talk to someone. So then I got my water and started back up the stairs and I met other one of the students and was just coming down the stairs and HE SPOKE ENGLISH. Not only does he speak it, but he speaks it very well. He told me that I should come down so he could introduce everyone to me. It actually turned out to be pretty cool. I was telling them how I wanted to learn creole and they started telling me that them and Lubens had talked about it and two nights a week we were going to have english and creole class. They were pretty excited about it. So the night ended up no being so horrible. I talk with Nixon (the one that speaks English) for quite a while and he ended up sharing his testamony. It was pretty cool.

All in all I would say that I was given a pretty warm welcome. They are very good about helping my learn creole but also at just trying to communicate through the language barriar. I've learned throughout the past couple days that Rachel (one of my roommates) speaks a little spanish and a little english and Nixon also speaks spanish so he is helping me with both. It's cool because I talk with Nixon and Lucson quite a bit in spanish. I appears my spanish was better then I thought, which was pretty cool. They keep telling me that after 3 months with them, or especially after 5, I will be able to speak creole like a Haitian. We'll have to see about that. They also say that my spanish will be a lot better to. I hope so. It's nice that they are so willing to help me with both languages and also are trying so hard to use and learn english.

So, over all, things have been pretty cool (and of course but that I don't at all mean the temperature.) It is so hot here. Most of the time you just sweat even if you are not doing anything. But at 2:oopm the electricity comes on so then at least you can be by a fan.

The DTS seems to be going pretty good so far, things are definately run differently here then they were in my DTS. The students here work a lot more and they don't really stick to the schedule very much. They may just be because it's the first week but I have a feeling that not all of that is going to change. I can't imagine working and building stuff outside in the sun like they do in this heat. I'm just in the office and I still break a sweat.

For this past week I mostly worked in the office area, I organized it and set some stuff up for Lubens. It's funny how he wasn't joking about making me co-director of the DTS. He kind of leaves a lot of stuff just up to me. I guess every else expects me to know what I'm going too because the students are asking me stuff all the time and I'm thinking 'I just got here, you've been here longer then I have.' But I do my best. Actually I think it's almost just kind of better to be thrown into the position becuse then you know what you're really made of, and it helps you catch up quicker. But I guess that's just kind of the way things are done around here. They are not really in to the particulars or specifics. You just find a way to get done what you think you are being told to do with what you have. For example, Lubens gave me a list of thing for the students to do for work because we weren't having class that day and one of the things on that list was to build a frame for a roof over this space between these two buildings. And that's all he told me. So I tell the students and they asked me how and I said just do what ever way you think is best, but they were like "where all the nail?" and "I don't think we have enough wood." But they did it (Ludbens gave them a little direction just as a lesson to use what you have) but the roof was build.

Overall, they take pretty good care of me here. They never let me carry anything heavy and I never have to tell them to do something twice. And sometimes I feel bad giving them so much work (cause that's what the boss tells me to do) but they never complain. One time I needed to get a table thing that was covered in stuff out of this storage area, cleaned off, and then brought up to the guest room. I ask then and then said you that if you guys can just get in out of storage, I can clean it, but they were like, 'no, no, you don't have to do that, I will do it.' I was very impressed. Also I didn't go to lunch one time because I wasn't feeling very well and wanted to sleep a little (but mostly because they were just having spagetti with the sauce already mixed in) and almost every single one of them asked if I was sick and how I felt now and stuff like then. Nixon was like, "it's not good for you to skip a meal." I thought it was pretty sweet that they cared.

Okay so I'm gonna wrap it up here pretty quick. I think this is going to be a pretty good experience and I think I will learn a lot from it even if it isn't always exactly what I want to be doing at the time. Being the only person from your own culture in a country that is not your own is an experience that I think everyone should have. It kind of gives you a different perspect of on things. For one thing, being here has really redefined my definition of 'uncomfortable' but I think it's good to have your personal definitions checked every once and a while. Well, I guess that's it for now. Oh, and drop me an email of leave me a comment. (I REALLY love comments). Also, if you want to see more videos and picture for Haiti go to the left-hand side and click on the "Video" link. There also a couple other link there that are worth checking out.

Stay cool (You will have to do it for me),


Lauren McConkey
Jacmel, Haiti