Thoughts From Clive Staples

If I could explain how much of a literary crush I have on C.S. Lewis I would (see quote on the blog title…). But, words could not do it justice so I won’t even try. A few years ago I made my way through some of C.S. Lewis’ non-Narnia books like Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters (amazing book!), but I realized I had not read his popular Chronicles of Narnia series. Well, with the wonderful Kindle and the dangerous “One-Click Buy” option from Amazon I have been working my way through the series. I read this last night and just put the book (well, eBook) down and let it simmer. Sorry, it’s kind of long…

[To set the scene…Shasta is a small boy who is riding a horse in the dark next to something he can’t see and he thinks it is a ghost.]

“Once more he [Shasta] felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”

Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had anything to eat.

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and-“

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”

“It was I”

“But what for?”

“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.””

What a great picture of God. I realize this isn’t a “What I did in Haiti today” blog post, but I wanted to share this with all 18 of you people J

Oh, and this excerpt is from The Horse and His Boy. Buy it. Buy the series. Read them. That is all.

Haitian Cooking Lesson

Earlier this week a fellow teacher and on-campus dweller, Irene, said that one of the ladies who cooks in our snack shop (cafeteria for all intents and purposes) had offered to give a cooking lesson to anyone who was interested. So, this morning, around 9 a.m. 5 of us on-campus ladies met downstairs with Mirlande to begin our schooling. I won’t get too much into the recipe here, mostly because it was exceptionally detailed. I will just walk you through the events of our day.

First we began by going to the mache down the street. Mirlande said the price would be higher with a bunch of blans with her, but it is still much cheaper than the grocery store. I don’t have any photos from the market but imagine a small alley crammed with people. Bright vegetables next to a table with meat, flies buzzing, deals being made, fun, teasing shouts going back and forth from vendor to vendor, lots of activity.

 

Our shopping list.

We got our food and headed back to Tiffany’s apartment to begin cooking. We had planned on starting our lesson around 9 but most of the day we operated on Haitian time and didn’t really get down to cooking until maybe 10:00. Time in Haiti will take a lot of getting used to for me. I will go ahead and say now, in my mind I thought we would be eating by noon, maybe 1 pm at the latest….we actually sat down to eat at 3 pm. But, it was well worth it. Anyway, back to the cooking process.

After setting out the food, Mirlande showed us how to cut the bef and then use a bitter orange to clean it. The meat had been outside with more than a few flies on it, so I was a little hesitant about eating it. After all was said and done the meat was rinsed twice with water, cleaned with a bitter orange, boiled for over an hour and then fried in hot oil. I think we killed any sort of germs that could be on it.

The next few hours were spent chopping, dicing, boiling, and laughing. At one point we walked over to the snack shop to use some of their tools there. We used this to crush some peppers to put in a coleslaw type topping called Pikliz which is exceptionally spicy but has great flavor. 

A couple of ladies who work in the snack shop during the week were there getting stuff ready for the next week. We used this blender type appliance to grind up garlic, green onions, and some shallots.

This green stuff is the Pwawo. It was so great! We used it in almost everything we cooked that day. 

The meal was really great: Taso (beef with the Pwawo - green sauce mixture on it), Diri Kole ak Pwa (rice & beans mix that had some onions and green peppers in it), Pikliz (spicy cole-slaw looking topping that goes on most everything), Carrot & potato salad (you can figure out what that is J), and Banana Peze (fried plantains).

Here are some more pictures of the process...

Removing small rocks and bad beans from the bag before cooking the beans.

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Pikliz!

The beans with their spices. We added rice to this too.

The plantains getting fried up!

After frying, you smash them, adnd then fry them again. mmmmm.

Fried plantains with Pikliz for an appetizer.

Time to eat!

Fabulous neighbors!

It took us a while to cook because we stopped often to chat and get to know each other.

  

We eat this same type of food most days during the week. Sometimes there is a different sauce or a different kind of meat. Usually all I really want after lunch is a good nap and, on this day, unlike a school day, I was able to go home and have one.



Degaje

(disclaimer: I had to google the spelling of this word and found that this is, approximately, the 957^th blog post on this exact topic. Yay for originality!)

I learned my new favorite Creole word the other day and now I see it everywhere. Degaje on the street. Degaje in my classroom. Degaje at my apartment. It is all around. What does it mean, you ask? Degaje pretty much means, “whatever it takes to make it work.” You may have a different word for it. The one I have heard most commonly is “rigged.” In Texas, usually you just put something together with Duct Tape. That’s a common form of Degaje. In my apartment, Degaje looks like this…

Example #1:

From what I’ve seen around campus the last three weeks, when an air conditioner is put into a wall, it is a fairly simple process. Step 1: Knock out a hole in the wall. Step 2: Insert air conditioner. Step 3: fill in outside of hole with cement.  This might now be the best usage of the word Degaje…maybe this process is all too common to really be titled Degaje.

Example #2 Curtain Rod (part 1)

You need to hang curtains in your room, but it is hard to drill hooks into the wall and, lets face it, curtain rods are expensive. So, here is what you do. Hammed a nail into the wall about halfway, then bend it up. Do the same thing on the other side. Then, grab a piece of rebar (not sure if that is spelled correctly) and set it on top of the bent nails. Finally, hang curtains. (This was already installed when I got here. I can’t take credit for it).

Example #3 Curtain Rod (part 2)

My current roommate is getting married and moving out soon. She has lived here a while and had purchased a lot of the home furnishings that are in our apartment. Naturally, they are moving with her so I have had to re-decorate a little. I purchased this fabulous pink & tan shower curtain at the grocery store the other day. Then, another girl on campus gave me a white shower curtain to hang up as a window curtain. I decided to have the pink one on the window, but, alas, I didn’t have a curtain rod long enough for this window….but I did have two short ones! What do you do? You tape them together then hang a shower curtain from it to make a wonderful window decoration.

School Cancelled Due to Hurricane

A paper with these words was delivered to me this afternoon, about a quarter-till three, so I could tell my class before they went home. The thoughts in my head went a bit like this….”oh good, I’ll have time to plan and get some work done”, “Wednesday is my easy day, I get to come back and have my easy day, alright!”, “Hurricane, that might be kind of cool to experience.”, “I should have assigned a little more homework in my history classes”, “I’m going to get some fun snacks at the store this afternoon”, “better run this afternoon since it will be raining tomorrow and I won’t be able to.”  Ok, that’s all I will put you through. All of that literally went through my head, almost in that order.

You know the thought that didn’t come into my head until about an hour later…”What about all those people living in tents? What do they do when the rains come?” Likely, the big part of the storm is going to miss us, we will only get the residual rainfall. It will likely be a lot, but not a total onslaught of Mother Nature. But really, how much rain is too much rain for those tents? I’ve only seen a few of these homes. The ones I’ve seen are old and weathered, holes patched with more fabric or leaky cardboard, rocks and dirt for the floor, rusted tin at best, a thread-bare sheet (or nothing) at worst. What do they do when it rains normally here, not from the edges of a hurricane? I’ve been caught in a couple rain showers in the past two weeks, and they aren’t gentle. There is little warning and then the heavens burst open and buckets come down. I don’t know what they do.

I’m not beating myself up for my thought process mentioned above, I’m only human. I am, however, thankful that somewhere, in the back of my mind, that last thought was able to squeeze its way in past the self-centered, self-focused thoughts swirling around and make it to the front of my mind. I am thankful for that gentle prodding from God "Remember, it's about people. People. My crown of creation...people." My thoughts are sometimes the most selfish thing about me and I'm happy to be humbled in that area.

So, tonight and tomorrow, whether the storm gets bigger or smaller, whether it hits us or misses us by miles, pray for Haiti: for the people in the tents and for the ones outside who drive by. Pray for the people in Haiti who will be wet and pray for those who are in big, dry, houses. Pray for Nadia, Evanson, Moise, Kristal, Justin, and the dozens of other kids whose names I, unfortunately, can’t remember and who are living in tents or in smaller hut-like homes.

P.S. I know I said no little kid pictures, but last Saturday a couple of the kids grabbed my ipod (has a camera) and went nuts. Here is a picture of sweet Nadia, so you can put a face with a name.

The Sights & Sounds

(Disclaimer, this post turned out long. If you can only commit to a small amount of blog reading tonight, read this instead and come back and read my post later) J

In the last two days I have seen more of the city than I have in the last 2 weeks combined, and most of the “sightseeing” was done by foot. For a long time I have wanted to live somewhere where I could travel by foot, bike, or public transportation; somewhere that I didn’t need to depend on a car. Now, Port au Prince isn’t that place, but, because I don’t have a car, Haitian license, or the guts to drive here (yet….) walking is the best option. On Friday night, a few of us on-campus dwellers were heading to another neighborhood a couple of miles away for a movie night at another teacher’s house. It’s only about a 30 minute walk, but a 2 mile walk here is not like walking most places, even big cities, in the states. I’ll try and paint a picture for you as best I can.

When you step out the school gate onto Delmas 75 your senses are assaulted with Haiti. Sight: all around are people: people walking, people selling, people buying. All along the street are vendors set up selling almost anything. Radios and various electronics on this little table; cold cokes in this cooler, various vegetables in this basket, toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo on this sheet; brooms and cleaning supplies over here; any and all items you could want. Often you will also get to see a wide variety of animals on your treks; goats, chickens, dogs, and babies of each of those varieties. My favorites are the baby goats, so cute! Sound: the sounds almost never stop; motorcycles, car horns, big trucks with big engines, bigger trucks with bigger horns, people yelling, people laughing, more engines revving, more horns honking, all the time noise, the soundtrack of Delmas 75. Smell: this is the fun one. The smells run the gamut from delicious to disgusting. Walking down the street you smell car exhaust, fresh mangos (coming from a large truck where a lady sits and hands them out in exchange for the small price of 10 gourdes), urine, old rotting trash, corn grilling (smells amazing, haven’t gotten the courage to try it yet...someday), oh the smells.

Walking along the road is really an experience. There don’t seem to be any hard-and-fast traffic laws so you can pretty much pass at any time, especially if you drive a motorcycle. We were talking this evening about how our friends back home were worried about robbers, malaria, earthquakes, and cholera ending us all when, really, all our friends need to worry about is the motorcycles!

As we were walking along on Friday, night began to fall and we could see the lightning flashing in the sky and just as we arrived at the house the rain began to fall. This was a quieter neighborhood on a dirt road and it was almost peaceful watching the lightning, listening to the rain.

This morning, Josiah and Jill and I went on another walk but to a different area. We walked through a relatively nice neighborhood down a well paved, smooth street and turned the corner onto a street that was half-taken up with a soccer game and half taken by a couple dozen tents. These tents were interesting though, because they appeared almost new (well, new is relative…they had less holes and were all mostly in one or two pieces). We continued past this area and into a small area of homes, about 10-15 but these houses were very different, even from the tents we had passed. They were put together with tarps, spare wood, tin, and a smattering of blue “Samaritan’s Purse” tarps. We went to the family that Josiah knew and several kiddos ran out to us and we walked in a big circle around the rest of the neighborhood. When we got back, they brought out three chairs for us to sit in so we sat and talked (well, as much as possible with Jill and me only understanding every other word) and played for a while. The little girls played with my hair and styled it in a very interesting way. The kids taught us Creole and a couple of small games. I am constantly learning here. Learning names, games, words, culture, everything.

I learn so much from these kids. And not just words, from them I learn Haiti. I have not once felt unwelcome here. As we walk along, three blans (tourists/white) all in a row, we say bonjou/bonswa to people we pass and they respond with a smile and a greeting. People let us sit and talk with them and play with their kids. They want us to see them and learn about them and get to know them.

Friends, Neighbors, Farm animals

The last couple days have been pretty good. I think I’m going to enjoy teaching middle school (ask me again in a month or so). There really isn’t much to report on other than school. Terribly exciting, I know.

Last night we had a mini-game night across the street at Kellyanne & Jill’s apartment. On campus, in the building I am in, there are 5 apartments (I’m pretty sure). Miquette and I share one, Josiah is in another (his roommate, another teacher, should be here next week), the Pruitts across the way, and another two couples live downstairs. Across the street there are three apartments in one building. Ben & Katie share one. Jill and Kellyanne in another. And Art lived in one and, after an October wedding, Miquette will join him. (these are the details you get when there is nothing else to report J ) So game night, last night: what started out as Bananagrams turned into “domino fun” with the Bananagram tiles.  Then Ben & Katie came over and we all talked for a little while and then everyone split up to go to bed. Seems like a non-eventful evening, but was really a lot of fun. I can’t say enough how amazing the community of teachers here is. It’s incredible!

This afternoon, Josiah told Jill and me that he was going to be heading back to the ravine where we had gone on Sunday and asked if we wanted to go to which we eagerly agreed! We went back to the ravine area where we originally went and we hung out with the family that Josiah knows. They have 9 kids and all are the cutest thing ever…I know that’s impossible (as well as grammatically incorrect) but it’s true.

We left there and wandered a different direction in the ravine than we had been. We ran into a kid who said “Josiah, mache?” (mache = walk) We said alright and began our tour. He took us all over the area. Up out of the ravine, down a road, and into a river bed. A woman and her baby started walking with us and she began begging for money. Jon Pierre (our guide) told her to go talk to the pastor of a church we had just walked by (has this kid read “When Helping Hurts” because he is speaking the lingo). We saw beautiful sights, heartbreaking sights, and lots of farm animals all in only a couple of hours. Good afternoon. I took my iPod (has a camera in it) but wasn’t really planning on taking many pictures. I want to walk around with these kids, talk with their parents, hold the babies and then come back and do it all again the next day. It feels weird to take pictures of them. How often do you take pictures of people around your neighborhood national-geographic-style? (I will throw in there that the kids absolutely LOVE having their picture taken, but the adults, not so sure). So, for those that are wanting lots of pics, they will come (maybe) but definitely not soon. I did take a couple around the streets and of us walking around.



taptap!!

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Our little tour guide is leading the way!

This evening most of the teachers who live on campus gathered at the Pruitt’s apartment on campus. Robbie & Irene (the Pruitts) cooked a delicious vegetable soup with veggies bought on the street and had some bread and butter and best of all (not that the soup wasn’t delicious, but nothing tops…) sweet tea! We had a great evening talking about school, students, other stuff outside school and students, and laughing a lot. I love living in this little commune J

First Day of School!

I’ve heard from many teachers that the first day of a school year never gets any easier. They say that even if you have been teaching for 29 years, out of all of those days, you’ve only had 29 “first-days” of school. This first day was umpteen times easier than last year, but for several reasons. 1) I have a year of school under my belt, not a lot, but more experience than I had this time last year. 2) It was only a half day of school 3) unlike last year where I was teaching third grade and had my class most of the day, this year I am teaching middle school. I have groups for 55 minutes at a time with a few breaks in between.

I am a big fan of starting the year with a half day. We started off our day by mingling with the kids dropped off at the school then, around 7:50 everyone headed over to the basketball court for an assembly. We sang some songs, had a small devotional, introduced the staff and then released everyone to start their day. We did 30 minute slots and the grade levels traveled together to the teachers they were going to have. I had my 7^th and 8^th grade history classes come to me. I gave them my spiel about rules and expectations and what they can expect in the class this year. I tried to learn names but was unsuccessful. I had several tricky names in my class last year and I now see that was prepping for the names in my class this year. I only mispronounced a few, score!

The school-day ended around noon and then the teachers ate lunch and went back to work in their rooms. Today was a great way to gently ease into the school year. Full day of school tomorrow though, the fun really begins!

Sean Penn's Favorite Restaurant

Today was the last day before the kiddos start school! Today is technically a holiday in Haiti, but a work day for us teachers. It was quite a productive day (for me at least). I got lesson plans for the next two weeks done and, a little more than that for one class. Ready to go!

This evening Jill and I were bored (the internet was out…this post is being typed sans internet and will be posted if and when it comes on J) so we decided to give the market down the road another try. Fail #2.  We went too late and everything was packed up. As we were heading back to my apartment we ran into another teacher who said He, Miquette, and a friend of hers were going to walk to a restaurant up the road and asked if we wanted to come…sure! Miquette’s friend works for an NGO here in Haiti, JPHRO, which is Sean Penn’s organization. Instead of walking, we hopped in the bed of the truck and drove by the restaurant…closed. We forgot about it being a holiday here. So we continued driving up into an area, a suburb-ish, of Port au Prince called Petionville (I pronounce it Pay-shawn-ville, which may or may not be correct). Riding in a car anywhere in the city is an experience. Riding in the bed of a truck is double the experience. But, it is a lot cooler in the breeze and you get to see all around so it is worth the risk of a serious injury.

We parked (by parked I mean drove the two passenger side tires up onto the sidewalk and stopped the car) and got out at a little restaurant called “Chicken Fiesta”. It had bright orange walls with former patron’s signatures in Sharpie all over the walls. A large mural of dancing chickens was painted on the back wall (my Watermark friends: the chickens on the mural looked like the ones from Gwo Papa Foul if that helps you paint a picture). The waitress handed us the menu and everything was in English. They served wings, fries, egg rolls, fried rice and various other Chinese dishes. I ordered the Sweet and Sour wings and a basket of fries J

The food was great, the atmosphere great, I loved it! The waitress spoke great English and was determined to get our names right (she wouldn’t take our food order until she had correctly written our names on the order pad). As we were leaving, Miquette’s friend told us “Now, you can tell everyone that you ate at Sean Penn’s favorite restaurant in Haiti.” Huh? Who would’ve thought.

School starts tomorrow! We only have a half day and then it starts full force on Wednesday. I am actually very excited (now that I have a couple weeks of lessons planned). I’m pumped to meet my students, learn their names, mispronounce their names, and start what will hopefully be a great year!

Pray: for my students, for the year at Quisqueya School, and lastly (because it isn’t as important) my computer. It is acting quite persnickety and if it chooses to die right now getting a replacement will be a nightmare!

Regular Sunday....almost

What began as a fairly uneventful Sunday did not end up that way. The day started pretty normally (well, as normal as I know. It’s only my second Sunday here), coffee, church, Epi’Dor for lunch, grocery store, lounging. Jill and I had planned on going to a basketball game held at the court on campus around 4:30. We met Josiah (another new teacher) along the way and walked over to the court. When we got there we found out we had to pay to watch the game, only 60 gourdes ($1.50), but 60 gourdes more than we wanted to pay for just a time killer. I’m so glad we are all cheap because the experience that followed was free and also priceless at the same time.

Josiah asked us if we had had the chance to walk around much. We haven’t mostly because we don’t know the area and aren’t 100% sure it is smart for two young American girls to walk around knowing very little about the streets and knowing even less Creole. So, he decided to give us a tour around the neighborhood. We walked down the streets about 5 minutes to the house of a teacher who lives here, but she was sick so we kept on moving. We ended up walking through a ravine filled with homes. Mostly broken, covered in tarps or spare sheet metal. Kids running around, flies everywhere. As we are walking, Josiah stops at an area where a group of men are playing a sort of Haitian domino game and several women and children are hanging around watching. He appears to know everyone. We keep walking, a couple of kids in tow and end up in a small tent village in the middle of what looks like an old parking lot. A building could have been here before, but right now it looks like an open lot. He knows kids and people here too! We keep walking a little ways, more kids in tow, and end up at a make-shift soccer field. Make-shift makes it sound more rudimentary than it was. They had smoothed an area that, I’m sure had been filled with large rocks or big holes, ground up old pieces of burned wood to make lines for the field, and had fashioned goals with old poles and chain-link fence. I was impressed. We stayed here for a while and attempted to talk with the kids and just play. My Creole is very very poor, but if you point to something a child will give you the name in Creole and then you tell them in English. We stayed here for a while until the sky started to get darker. It wasn’t too late in the evening, but the clouds that had hung overhead all day grew a bit more ominous. We began the slow walk out, with about 15 kids hanging on to all parts of us, asking us questions, and us (well, me) staring back blankly “pa konprann” (I don’t understand).

Then the rain started falling. And falling and falling. We went out the way we came only losing a kid here and there who had reached the end of his “wandering zone”. By the time we turned on to the street where our school is, all of the kids turned back and we ran in the downpour back to the campus.

Such a simple thing. Playing for a couple of hours with kids. I’ve done it so many times. I’ve done that in Brazil, America, Haiti too. But, the thing that was different about this experience, the thing that made it mean so much more to me. The thing that turned that hour and a half into something so much more awesome: I get to go back. I can go back and play with the same kids. Josiah knew these kids and this area because he had played soccer with the kids often after school and had gotten to know them and they took him to their house. He developed a relationship with these kids and their parents. I’m not, and don’t want to be, just another white person here for a while and then peacing out back home only to be replaced by another new white person next week. I can learn the language, learn the games, and learn the names because I’m not here for only 7 days. That reason right there is why I wanted something longer. Why coming back on short term trips just wasn’t what I felt was right for me.

God's Fruit Basket

One thing that has blown all my categories this past week is how God has provided for me. If you don’t hear that lingo often or that sounds weird, let me clarify. God did not leave a “Welcome to Haiti” Fruit basket on my doorstep or anything of that sort. I have been here for a little over seven days and he has provided what I needed, when I needed it all along the way. And much of that is nothing tangible or material. Examples: The staff here at the school has been incredible! I have had much of what I need (sometime want) given to me, often before I have had to ask. A ride to the grocery store. Lesson on salad making. A glass of sweet tea from my sweet neighbors from the south. Such small small things that to me are God shouting “Hey, I got this. You’re where I want you. Enjoy.” And the list goes on…I found all the supply type stuff in an empty desk in my classroom. I had nothing in the way of posters or decorations from my room (how was I going to get posters here along with all of my living stuff). Well, I open a drawer in a filing cabinet and there is almost every map I could want! Feeling a little anxious about teaching stuff I’ve never taught before and haven’t really reviewed since I was my student’s age. Oh, here are some awesome notes from last year’s teacher to get you started. I have no idea how to speak this language, what does this mean, how do I say this? The school is going to pay someone local to come and teach us Creole. On, and on, and on.

“I got this.”

He has also provided in the transition and how I have felt emotionally. I haven’t missed any of the comforts back home. That is not to say that I am snuggling up with the rats or that I wouldn’t devour a #1 combo from Chik-fil-a (hold the pickles) right now, it’s just that I haven’t missed home. I miss my friends, and my family of course! But, I don’t miss hot showers, or tv, or driving a car. That feeling, the not missing stuff, isn’t coming from me. I am not being cavalier; I just really love it here. I love it in a way that can only come from God; can only come from being right where he wants me to be. And, as I’ve said all along, I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t have a letter with a 5-year plan from God explaining my purpose and objectives. I do, however, have a verse. Micah 6:8 “He has shown you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Classroom is (mostly) ready!

I think this is about as ready as my classroom is going to get. It went from a big pile of dusty furniture to a room that I think learning can take place in...

View  from my desk. Like the super sweet globe from 1962 that I scrounged from a pile of dust and old books?
I LOVE all of the windows!

View from the back corner of the room.
Our school colors are purple and yellow, I didn't suddenly become an LSU fan.



View of the street (Delmas 75) from my classroom window.

Rodents

I had my first personal experience with a rodent-like creature this morning. Others around had seen them, it’s not that uncommon, I just hadn’t personally met one. This morning I did. I opened the cabinet to get my coffee and a little brown blur of fur hippity-hops to the back of the cabinet hiding behind….the coffee filters. Yes, I need those too. It is kind of a good thing he chose to hide behind something I need, otherwise I would have completely avoided the situation, closed the doors, and just left him there to have fun. But, I needed coffee. I was able to, with a long spoon, shuffle some stuff near him enough to scare him out of the cabinet. Only problem was, I was blocking his exit. He nearly jumped on me but missed and ran behind the fridge. I know, that’s kind of an anticlimactic ending.

This afternoon I went for a run and while I was running by the apartments one of the other teachers was staring at something on the ground, then, he scared it and I saw what it was…a rat. Not a little mouse, a rat. Ick. On the list of “things I really hate and never ever want on me” rat is pretty much third behind snakes and spiders. I will swim in a pool of rats before I deal with a spider. Anyway, I hope that little essay was able to completely gross some of you out J

Today was another day of training. I think I have my classroom the way I want it. I discovered that we have colored butcher paper so my room no longer looks like a prison cafeteria with desks! I tried to take pictures this afternoon with my iTouch but the light made them really blurry. I’ll try tomorrow with the big-kid camera.

For those keeping count at home, the mosquito bite count is up to 23. Feel free to pray for protection from malaria, I would appreciate that.

Despite the bugs, rodents, dust, and heat, I really do love it here. Something about it just fills up a place in my heart and gives me that content, after-a-big-dinner feeling.  *sigh*

Another great day in Haiti!

I honestly don’t plan on blogging everyday so don’t get too emotionally attached to this habit J Everything is just so new and exciting that I have to share, but eventually a rhythm will set in and updates will be slightly less exciting. Today we had orientation day 2 which was very similar to day one in schedule. I still am not 100% of all that I am teaching. I know right now I will be teaching 7^th & 8^th grade social studies as well we 7^th grade keyboarding. There is talk that I will have a PE class which will give me 5 classes. They like to keep new-to-Haiti teachers at 4 classes, but since PE isn’t really that big of a load (sorry PE teacher, who knows, I may feel differently in a couple of weeks) I think it will be ok.

There are curriculum maps already made for 7^th & 8^th grade, but they were made by a former teacher and we are pretty much re-doing a lot of it. It’s a little stressful because I have never mapped out a year in a subject and decided what was important to teach. And, to be honest, my knowledge of ancient civilizations is a little rusty, but shhh, don’t tell anyone!

Kellyanne and I walked down to the grocery store earlier (we really don’t go all that often, but there are several random items that seem to get forgotten). On the way back I bought some avocados from a street vendor. I had an amount I wanted to pay. I held out the bill, said “twa” (phonetic spelling) and I got them! I felt like I had conquered something.

Interesting thought from our devotion this morning (yes, we start our days with devotions. Isn’t that awesome). The guy who led it said that one time he had put a question on a test that said “Why do you get out of bed each morning?” I thought that question was so interesting. There are about 437 different "churchy" answers, but try and not go with cliche. Just something to think about.

Quisqueya Teacher/Life in Haiti Orientation: Day 1

Today officially began work! It feels good to start my day with more of a purpose instead of aimless wandering around the school. We started orientation with coffee, pastries, and introductions. It was so fun to hear everyone’s stories from around the room. When I was telling people back in the U.S. what I was going to be doing I got some weird looks, because it isn’t “normal.” Here, it’s normal. People who have been here for 3 years, 7 years, 13 years, 25 years!

We did the regular old orientation thing: talked about goals for the year, handbook kind of stuff, blah blah. We tried to watch a video but the sound didn’t work so we got a little extra time to work in our rooms. I finally got to see which room I have and yay! It’s so big! All the furniture was piled in the middle of the room under dust and more dust. But, after two hours of sweating, sneezing, and way more sweating I got all of the furniture where I wanted it and did some minor (very very minor) decorating. It’s not 100% ready to go, but it is close. Way easier than last year where I was scrambling to decorate my 3^rd grade classroom in cute polka dots and signs and posters and borders and bulletin boards, etc. I have two dry erase boards but no bulletin boards. If I want to hang something on the wall, I was told the best way to do that is to superglue it…hmmmm. Not sure that would fly at my old school J

We ate lunch at the school and then elementary and secondary split into two different meetings to cover more general information. A lot of questions I didn’t even know I had were answered.

This afternoon I went running around the school again with another new teacher, Jill. Later I attempted to cook spaghetti noodles and some chicken (confession: I had to google how to use a gas stove because I was scared of blowing up the entire house). I had to borrow matches from my neighbors and when I went to return them they told me to bring my food and eat over with them. We had about 6 people total eating together, talking, laughing, discussing the day. This is a good time to say that I love LOVE where I am living. It is so great to be a 90 second walk from my classroom, 10 second walk from my “gym”, and about a 5 second walk from my neighbors.

Orientation day 2 tomorrow!

P.S. I will take pictures of my classroom when it is fully ready for little minds to learn it...we aren't quite there yet.

Church and Avocados

I have two new favorite things in Haiti…church and avocados. I’ll hit church first. When I was in Haiti in February our team experienced Haitian church and this time it wasn’t a lot different (with the exception of the service being in English instead of Creole). There is a church called Port-au-Prince Fellowship that meets each Sunday at our campus chapel. My bedroom looks out at the gate to our campus and I saw streams of people walking through the gate. Every once in a while a taptap would pull up and almost everyone inside would pile out and come through the gate. It was packed! Someone said they are considering splitting into two services. The service began with worship…about an hour of it. But it was so engaging that I didn’t even notice until we sat down what time it was. Haitians are very passionate about their worship and it is so refreshing and encouraging! I didn’t know several of the songs but the words were amazing, I wish I remembered them now. After worship the pastor spoke. He spoke on the importance of spending time with God and I admired his candor in opening up with this statement “I don’t think any of us, myself included, really know how much we need God.” It’s so true! He spoke in a very simple way about a very simple idea that I thing most of us (definitely myself included) don’t fully understand, despite its simplicity. How we need God each and every moment, big and small. From each and every heart beat to dealing with heart attacks. From starting the car to recuperating from a car accident. I know I find it way easier to trust God with the really big things in my life, but the small day-to-day tasks I think I can handle on my own. Wrong. Such a good reminder this morning.

After church I came back to the apartment and Miquette, Kellyanne, and I made a salad! It was so pretty and colorful and amazing! Making a salad here is a little more of an ordeal than back home. You have to wash and scrub everything in water with a little bleach. Then, anything with a skin (tomatoes, cucumbers) Miquette scrubbed with dish soap and then rinsed in drinking water. We rinsed the lettuce in the drinking water after the bleach water. Bah! I think all of this made me love the avocados even more because you don’t have to wash them! I mentioned avocados and Miquette eagerly ran outside the gate to buy some from a street vendor. 50 gourdes ($1.25) for 3 avocados…the biggest avocados I have ever seen! And they were so amazingly tasty.

Later, Kellyanne, Irene, and I walked to the other grocery store, “Eagle”, to get a few things we had forgotten. I went for a run this afternoon and it was amazing! I don’t feel comfortable running outside the school right now so for the near future I will be running along the wall that encircles the campus. 5 miles = 1 mile. It was great to move my legs!

Haiti: Day 2

Today = awesome. First things first, it feels about 10 degrees cooler here than in Dallas (sorry Dallas friends). There is a really great breeze blowing that seems to cool everything off. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Last night was interesting. The school usually operates on a generator from 7:30am – 9pm. After this, the inverter kicks in. On the inverter you have to be careful what you use because some things really suck the power out of it. Hair dryers, microwaves, air conditioners are all off limits. On the inverter though, you can use a fan, which I brought. One problem last night though…the inverter was out of juice so…no power. I was lulled to sleep by the sweet soothing sounds of car horns, loud car engines and motorcycles, and the general merriment of those walking up and down the streets or leaning against the wall of the school. All in all, it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t terribly hot and I was able to sleep through the noise.

This morning I woke up bright and early and began to think about how I can get my coffee fix. I brought Starbucks VIA packets to use until I was able to get to the store to get coffee, so I thought making coffee this morning would be pretty easy…wrong. There was no power, so no microwave, but I thought I could heat water on the stove. Easy enough, but our propane thing was empty…no stove, no hot water, no coffee. The electricity came on a few hours later and I was able to nuke some water so, crisis averted!

The shower was another situation entirely. Miquette warned me that sometimes there will be water available, but it won’t come out. This happened this morning. So, being ever resilient against what Haiti is attempting to throw at me, I used a cup and took water from one of the four full buckets in the shower (saved for this very situation) and took a very short, chilly, cup shower.

This afternoon I went with my principal, Rod, to the grocery store. He was going anyway and asked if anyone needed to go so I took the chance for a ride up to the large grocery store, Giant (yes, the name of the store is “Giant”). It was really overwhelming. I walked in and was surrounded by American food and luxury items. Cheese, meat, frozen pizza, peanut butter, even cookies and cake mixes! You could get pretty much anything you wanted. I was a bit overwhelmed, but walked away with enough food to last me for a while…all of it was pretty American, only because that’s mostly what there was!

After that we went to the phone store to get me a Haitian cell phone. We walked past a few men outside hawking their phones and into the store. I chose a phone but was told they were out of that one. Rod said we should check with the men outside. They had the phone I liked and Rod talked them down to a good price. They sold us the sim card and we were on our way, easy as that!

There were no minutes on the sim card, so I needed to load it. I could get a card from a vendor on the street and set it up or I can set up an account online and charge it through paypal. When you do it online, you get almost double the minutes for the same price! The only problem is, the website is only in French and I know approximately three words in French. So, unless the entire process consisted of “Good Morning”, “Good Evening” or “Yes”, I was going to have to employ the help of google translator. I decided to give that a try and was successful! Thanks google!

This evening, Kellyanne, Irene & Robbie, and Tiffany & Jarrett, and myself went over to Steve’s (the school’s director) house for dinner. He and his wife and their two kids live about a 5 minute walk from the school down winding back roads that are anything but paved. I hiked the Inca trail this summer and it was smoother than these roads. Steve is a fantastic cook and made way too much pizza and we stuffed ourselves silly. We sat on their back porch eating and talking and it felt like we were somewhere very not Haiti. It was strange when we left the house to the same streets we walked in on. It was like we had popped into another world for a while. A very enjoyable evening.

My room is finally unpacked and everything put away. Here are a couple of pictures for you. I’ll put more of the apartment and the school grounds up at some point.

 The curtains were here when I got here...I hate to say it, but they're growing on me...mostly in a too lazy to do anything about it kind of way though.

This post turned out a little long, oops.

Made it, wahoo

Disclaimer: Most of my posts won’t be long. I don’t particularly enjoying blog posts that are the same length as the Illiad so I won’t make mine long with the exception of this one J

I arrived in Haiti today. Sounds weird to say, but I’ll keep going. Flights were very boring and very uneventful, just the way I like them, but that doesn’t make for very interesting reading, so I will fast forward to landing in Haiti. I visited Haiti in February so I had a general idea of the layout of the airport and how everything would work. After landing we got on a shuttle to take us to the main part of the airport. We got off the shuttle, went through customs and then headed to baggage claim. This is where it turned into a two ring circus (wasn’t quite crazy enough for three rings, but definitely deserved two). The bags are on a regular conveyor belt rolling along but everyone is shoving in to get theirs. No order whatsoever. Carts are being shoved into your ankles (three times in one minute, thank you lady in the pink shirt, that was fun), bags being handed over heads to people behind, general craziness. The converyor kept going, and going, and going and my bags were still MIA but, finally, they rolled by. I hoisted them off the belt, and dragged them (even “dragged” makes it sound WAY more graceful than it was) over to the customs area. The customs lady took my paper, didn’t look at it, and waved me through. Outside the airport someone checked to make sure my luggage tags I received at DFW when I checked them in matched the tags on the bag. I’m SOOO glad I kept that little piece of paper. After this final checkpoint I entered the madness. Outside the airport is a long covered sidewalk that takes you to the exit and the parking lot where people can pick you up. Airport workers try and grab your bags to help you with them, but they will also expect a tip after their service. I wanted my hands on my bags the entire time. So, while trying to be as least-jerky as possible I threw out several “no, no thank you, seriously NO” phrases to people helping with my bags. As I am walking I start to sort of panic inside “Wait, where exactly is my ride picking me up? Did I walk by him? Is there another exit where he might be?” The sidewalk seemed to get longer and longer the more I worried but all of a sudden I was at the end, not sure if he was in the large throng of people outside the exit and not wanting to leave the ‘safe’ confines of the airport to see. Then, I hear my last name from one of the airport workers behind me on the sidewalk…he says it again and I say tell him it’s me and he points to the only white dude in the crowd with a sign that says “EPLEY.” Yay!!! I knew he would be there, we had confirmed he would, but I still panicked a little.

We got into an older truck and started driving to the school. The school is about 2-3 miles from the airport but he said this would take us at least half an hour in traffic. We ended up going a different route (way more winding, bumpy, and way more awesome) but it took about the same amount of time. I’ll stop here and say, my favorite thing about travelling is the drive from the airport to where I am staying. This is my absolute favorite thing about visiting a new country. When I was here in February we left the airport and headed straight out of town. This time, we were heading straight into town. Half an hour, some goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, tents, cars, big trucks, and a teensy fender-bender later, we turned onto a street lined by a large grey fence. Behind this fence was the school.

We pulled up to the gate and honked and a man opened the gate and let us in. We were greeted by the director of the school who took me to my apartment that I will be sharing with Miquette! I am so excited she will be my roommate! More on her later… After I dropped my bags off, Rod (my principal) took me on a tour of the school. It is really an amazing place. Pics to come in the near future.

I came back to the apartment and began to unpack. The girl who was in this room last had left a lot of her stuff in the room, but she will be back in the morning to move it across the street to her place. I set up my bed, wrestled my mosquito net up, and unpacked a few things.

Miquette and another teacher, Kellyanne, invited me to go to dinner with them. It was already dark when we left the school and we walked about 4 short blocks to a little cafeteria area called Epi D’or. It was like a little foodcourt with sandwiches, pizza, ice cream, and an assortment of other things I couldn’t quite make out.  I got a sandwich and a drink for about $3 and it was huge and so tasty! The girls told me that here it is usually cheaper to go out to eat than to get groceries and cook at home…backwards huh?

Miquette is the school nurse and is originally from Haiti. She lived in Michigan for a few years but has been back in Haiti for a while. She is engaged to another teacher at the school and will be getting married in October! She won’t be my roommate for a while, but I will enjoy living with her for now. She led Kellyanne and I around the restaurant, telling us what stuff was, and giving us tips on life in Haiti.

I have been here about 6 hours and love it. I know that eventually the newness will wear off, but I’m going to soak in it right now like a big giant bubble bath.

Leaving, Take 2

Upon arriving at lovely DFW airport yesterday, I realized that my flight had been cancelled due to inclement weather from Tropical Storm Emily. A wiser person would have checked their flight status before arriving at DFW but, oh well, lesson learned. With absolutely no complications I was booked on pretty much the same flight a day later (today). And, because I learn from my mistakes, I checked the flight online before leaving for the airport and, good news, everything is on time! I’m learning to be flexible right from the beginning!

So, my venture to Haiti is starting one day late, but yesterday was not a complete loss. I was able to teach my roommate’s dog, Ziggy, how to roll over! Old dogs CAN learn new tricks!!

P.S. please continue to pray for Haiti and the rain they are getting/will get there.

About to Leave

It's 5am and I am about to head to the airport! Bags are packed and hopefully weight under 50 pounds each. Thanks for joining me on this journey! I go to Fort Lauderdale, have a short layover, and then head to port au Prince. My plan is scheduled to arrive in Haiti at 3:50...Pray for safe travel and that everything, including myself, will eventually end up in Haiti and that tropical storm Emily makes a quick exit out of Haiti. Will post next chance I get.

The Best Problem to Have

A couple of nights ago my amazingly awesome friends threw a combination birthday/going away party. What an amazing night it was! Two years ago I moved to Dallas knowing 5 people (all of them relatives). Over the last two years God has blessed me with friends, both in quantity and even more important, quality. I have an incredible community group of women who have loved, supported, encouraged, and helped me grow these past two years. I am eternally thankful for each and every one of these women and for all of the relationships I have developed during my time in Dallas. The other night really showed me how very very blessed I am, surrounded by friends and coworkers who I have come to know and love and will miss terribly the next few months. I am so glad to have these friends to miss. What a sad day it would be to leave here and miss no one. I love all you guys!

My friends wrote sweet notes on a balloon :)