Giant!

I'm sure that in the past I've written about my favorite grocery store in all of Haiti, Giant (not the same as the US store), but I can't remember so I'm going to write again.

Giant grocery store is located in a part of Port-au-Prince called Petionville.  It is "up the hill" from the port and know as the bourgeois part of the city.  Giant is a two story grocery store with a parking garage under the building an an elevator inside the store.  This is basically unheard of in Haiti.

I was able to go to Giant quite frequently while living with Dorothy because we had a vehicle.  However, now that I'm in my apartment, I am about three miles downhill of Giant.  That makes it much more difficult to get there.

This week, I heard that they were having a 15% off sale on groceries!  Groceries here are at least double (or more) the cost of groceries in the states.  So, of course as soon as I heard about the sale I knew I had to make a trip to Giant at some point this week.

Yesterday was that lucky day!  I know to all you readers this will sound crazy, but all day I was just looking forward to going to Giant.  It has been almost a month since I've been in a store comparable to something in the U.S.  When I'm at Giant, I don't feel so far from home, and for about an hour I forget that I'm in Haiti (as long as I disregard the armed guard at the door and the fact that all the prices are in gourdes and not USD). I also get to enjoy their air conditioning!

As much as I enjoy shopping at Giant, it is always an inner struggle while I am there.  Outside the walls are people living in tart tents and children running around barely clothed.  The only place that they can afford to buy food is from the street vendors along side the road.  Inside the store are rich Haitians, NGO's, UN troops, and missionaries...basically the only people in the country that can afford to shop in such a lavish place.  While I am thrilled that something as clean and lovely as Giant exists in Haiti, I feel like a rich snob when I shop there.  Funny, that's what makes me feel like I'm back in the US?  Something isn't right there.  Lord, help us.

My Pad

I know that I've already posted pictures of my apartment, but I don't think that I've really written much about where I'm living or what it is like.  It is such a blessing that I really think it deserves it's own post.

TLC School and the gate to the school and my apartment

My new apartment has been provided to me by the TLC Barefoot School where I will be teaching kindergarten in just two short weeks.  Since I do not get paid to teach, I can live in the apartment rent free.  However, I do have to buy my own food, transportation, airfare, and pay for internet/utilities.  It is a very nice deal, in my opinion.  I am VERY thankful for such a great little place to live and for the opportunity to teach here at TLC.

My apartment is located on the same property as the school.  It is directly beside the school .  I mean this literally...it is about five feet away from it.  The apartment was built on the second floor of a storage building/kitchen.  Dottie, the school director, actually lived here for a while before she ran her guesthouse, After she lived here, the principle (Nickson) lived here with his wife.

My 2nd floor apartment

During the earthquake, the apartment did suffer some damages.  So, they repaired it and did some renovations to make sure that it was safe again.  Before I moved in, it was repainted and furnished with some lovely new furniture.

My living room

view of the living room from the kitchen

kitchen

bathroom

For such a small little place, there are quite a few windows/doors.  That helps so much with keeping it cool.  During the day it gets quite warm in here (I'm assuming because it is on the second floor), but since it is small, it cools down quickly once the sun goes down and I open up the windows and doors.  It is on the second floor and on a small hillside overlooking a ravine, so I get a REALLY nice breeze that blows through my bedroom.  It is heavenly!  (If you have ever experienced the heat in Haiti during August, you will understand why I just wrote an entire paragraph about the temperature of my apartment, ha!)

my bedroom

the door in my bedroom that leads to my little balcony

view of the ravine from my balcony

view of the hillside from my balcony

the view of the ravine from my balcony

In addition to my apartment being adorable, there are some other really great perks that I did not expect.  I have a full sized refrigerator and full sized oven/stove.  Now, I've saved the best two parts for last.  Drum roll..........

I have electricity ALL THE TIME, and I CAN DRINK STRAIGHT FROM MY FAUCET!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Just in case you didn't notice by the bolded, underlined, red writing...I am VERY excited about that!)

Some wonderful people that I have never met hooked up a simple water filtration/chlorination system up to the water supply.  So, it is actually safe for me to drink from the faucet, open my mouth when I shower, brush my teeth with sink water, wash my dishes without rinsing them in bleach water...you get the point.  Seriously, I am so spoiled by this clean water that I sometimes forget I'm actually in Haiti.

I have electricity all the time because the school has a generator and an inverter with batteries.  If the electricity shuts off, the power automatically continues to run off of the batteries, if the batteries lose charge, then the generator automatically turns itself on.  It is glorious...I may never be able to live anywhere else in Haiti ever again, hehe.  It's not that I mind going without electricity, but when it comes to sleeping, being able to have a fan running all night long is truly a blessing.

Aside from the physical features of my apartment, it is also really nice just to have my own space.  I truly loved my time living with the kids at Faith Hope Love Infant Rescue, but nothing beats having my own house and some freedom.  Since I moved in, I have been able to spend lots of time getting to know new people and spending time with old friends.

In my free time, I have been going to help out with youth group.  My friends Marc and Kez are the youth leaders at our church.  So, I have been getting to know all the youth and tagging along for Bible studies and whatnot.  Four out of seven nights a week I have been going to some type of prayer meeting/Bible study/or worship. I hope that once school starts I will still have some time (and energy) to spend with the youth.

The kids in youth group are mostly all Haitian ranging from around ages 13 to 18.  I am amazed by their depth of understanding and their leadership.  Two nights a week I've been going to a group that is lead by one of the youth, and I've been really blessed by my time there.  I'm so thankful to be able to join them and get to know all the kids.

And of course, I enjoy being bombarded by all the local neighborhood kids every time that I leave my gate.

TiJan and Yvel

Hiking to Eagle

As most of you know, now that I am living on my own here, I do not have a vehicle.  So, when its time for me to get groceries I need to either time it to catch a ride with someone else, or put on my walkin' shoes.  It is not hard to find a ride to the store, but some days it is just nice to get out and work up a sweat.

This past weekend, I decided to hike there on foot.  In reality, it is not a very long walk to get to the nearest grocery store, Eagle Market.  I would estimate that it is about a mile or maybe a mile and a half (one way).  If that were in my little hometown with sidewalks and smoothly paved roads, that would be no problem.  In fact, that would be quite enjoyable.  The problem here is that from my apartment to Eagle is uphill the entire way.  This is truly not an exaggeration.  The entire walk to the store is one long un-ending hill.  Not only that, but the quickest way that I know to get there on foot is over a VERY rocky road.


 


There are designated hiking trails in the United States that are smoother and more enjoyable than walking on the roads here.  In fact, I would even venture to say that I have never seen any "mountain roads" in Pennsylvania that are as bumpy and full of ruts as many of the roads here in Port-au-Prince, especially during rainy season.

Yes, that is a GOAT on the road...not a dog.

Aside from the difficult road conditions, there are many beautiful things to look at along the way.

I've never been so thankful for air conditioning as when I walked into Eagle Market to get my groceries!  Because I have to carry all of my groceries a mile or so back home (thankfully downhill), I can never purchase much at one time.  I take a heavy duty backpack along with me so that I can carry everything back home.  I was praising God the whole walk home that it was downhill for the return trip.  Seeing the school and the gate to my apartment was like a glimpse of heaven.

**Disclaimer: If you don't want to be grossed out please stop reading here.

Once I got home and unloaded my groceries, I happened to glance in the mirror.  I was actually frightened when I saw how sweaty I was.  I am typically not one who sweats excessively.  I think it was because I was wearing a backpack.  Naturally when I saw myself in the mirror, I was horrified and thankful that no one else was around to see me looking like that I immediately took a picture so that I could share it with all of you blog readers....I mean, after-all this blog is to share my life in Haiti and that is a part of living here, right?  (Gross, I know...but I couldn't resist sharing!)

Disney Princesses and Tree Frogs

Saturday is the only day when I can "sleep in".  So, yesterday I decided to just take my time getting out of bed and enjoy my day off.  I woke up around 7:30 and then for the next 20 minutes, I just enjoyed relaxing in my bed with the breeze from the window blowing on me.  As I was laying there, I thought a heard a tapping at the door, but I was not expecting anyone.  Then, I heard it again only louder.  I got out of bed and walked over to my door.  Sure enough, there was a woman I had never seen before standing at the door knocking.  "Yes?" I said.  "Mr. Nickson told me I was supposed to come clean your house from 8AM until noon today."  I didn't know anything about it, but I opened the door and said, "Ok come on in."

Mr. Nickson and Dottie had already arranged for a woman to come and clean my apartment a couple times a week.  It sounds crazy considering how small my apartment is and the fact that I'm the only one living in it.  But, the way the dust and ants are here it really would help to have someone else clean it thoroughly.  We had talked about her coming on Wednesdays and maybe Saturdays but I didn't know when she was going to start.  Growing up my family never had a cleaning lady, so I didn't' really know the procedure.  Since my apartment is so small, it felt strange for both of us to be in there at the same time.  So, I carried my dirty laundry outside to wash it while she cleaned.  I don't have access to a washing machine here, which means I have to do it all by hand.

I spent the next three hours washing and hanging out laundry.  I didn't necessarily have a lot of clothes to wash, it is just very time consuming.  Especially because I had decided to wash my sheets as well.  It was my first time washing sheets by hand...let me tell ya...I did not enjoy it.

At noon, the cleaning lady was finished.  She did a wonderful job, and cleaned every square inch of the apartment.  It was not very dirty to begin with, but it looked great after she was finished.

In the late afternoon, I stopped at Dorothy's house to visit the kids. About the time that I was going to walk back to my apartment, a heavy thunderstorm started.  So, I decided rather than get soaked to the bone and walk home ankle deep in mud, I would wait until the storm passed.

I let the kids pick out a movie to watch while I made popcorn.  After watching a short Jay-Jay the Jet-plane movie, the girls talked Richardson into letting us watch a Disney Princess Sing-Along movie.  I'm a fan of Disney Princesses myself.  I had Rosa and Claudine on my lap as we watched and sang along to each song.  For each princess that sang, the kids would should out, "That's me!  That's me!"  or "That's Miss Katie!"  It was really funny.  The girls really got a good laugh when Snow White was singing.  They showed one of the seven dwarfs, and I quickly said, "That's Chacha!"  He was not impressed with my joke.

After the movie, the rain had slowed enough for me to walk home.  After getting home and drying off, I decided to go to bed.  I feel asleep quickly and peacefully.  Then around 2 AM, I woke up and thought that I heard something.  I told myself it was nothing, but then I heard it again.  A very quiet faint "tap" sound.  As I lay in bed trying to go back to sleep, something wet hit me on the face.  I quickly JUMPED out of bed and turned on the light in a split second.  I couldn't believe it....a green tree frog had just jumped on my face, onto the bed, and then down onto the floor.  Only in Haiti.

I spent the next 20 minutes trying to catch it to put it outside.  There was no way I was going back to sleep with it in the house after it just jumped on my face!  Let me tell you, tree frogs can really jump!  He could travel about three feet in one jump.  Eventually he hopped onto the rug next to my bed.  So, I slowly dragged it out the door and onto the porch where I released him.

As funny as it is telling the story, I was not amused at the time.  I have been having some trouble sleeping at night.  So, prayers for that would be greatly appreciated!!

Inservice Week

Aside from gallivanting around the tent city, this week has been pretty draining.  All week we have been doing "teacher in-service" here at the school.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all of the children came to get their uniforms.  It was very exhausting!!

Each of the 92 students were given 2 pairs of denim jeans (or shorts/skirt/jumper), two T-shirts, two pairs of socks, two underwear, a pair of sneakers, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a bar of soap, a comb, and deodorant (for the older students).  It was a lot of work to try and find the right size jeans, shirts, and sneakers for all 92 students.  The most difficult part was finding the right size jeans.  The Haitian children are SO skinny and long legged.  If we found a pair of jeans that fit in the waist, they were too short in the leg.  If we found a pair that fit lengthwise, then they were too big in the waist.  It was quite frustrating!  When the kids got there, I usually started by checking what size jeans they were wearing to get an idea of what they might need.  One little girl came in wearing what I thought to be bermuda shorts.  When I checked the size, I was blown away.  They were size 18 to 24 month toddler pants on a 4th grade girl!!!!

After handing out uniforms, the rest of the time was spent writing lesson plans, filling out grade books, organizing the classroom, making copies, etc.  I am only teaching Kindergarten, which is from 11:30 AM to 3 PM.  There is another young girl, Vanessa, who will be teaching Pre-K from 8 AM to 11 AM.  We share the same classroom.  She is 20 years old and a former TLC student.  I have been sharing as many ideas with her as I can.  Not that I have a whole lot of teaching experience myself, but I am excited to help mentor her.  She has been an assistant teacher for a few years, but this will be her first year as a teacher.

With lots of work, "our" classroom has finally taken shape and really looks nice.  I still feel as though I have a lot of paperwork/planning to do.  Thankfully I still have all next week to prepare!