Haiti, Wednesday March 26

[Written from Haiti on Thursday -- too tired to write on Wednesday!]

Yesterday we got up at 3:45am in order to get to the airport for our 7:00am flight to Haiti. I detected some unexpected bleeding shortly before boarding the plane; I called the nurse helpline while in the boarding line to say, "I'm on the way to Haiti, I have this bleeding, should I be concerned?" She said it sounded ok based on my description. I at least felt better that I had developed this issue while still in the US; I hadn't picked up some weird Haiti bug. Still, this, on top of the pinkeye that had I developed the day before, wasn't exactly the best way to start off the trip.

We got to the airport in Port-au-Prince and realized that we had no idea what our group's bags looked like. We had carried on all of our personal belongings and had some old donated suitcases to load all of our checked luggage with supplies that had been donated for the school. So we had to read the baggage tags on nearly all of the suitcases until we finally found our 6 among the very last to be unloaded. We were met at the airport by the school security team, who loaded all of our stuff onto the back of one truck and the roof on another. We all packed into a truck and off we went. The ride to the school was about 20 minutes. We passed alot of roadside stands and little huts and saw some roadside pigs and cows. We crossed a dirty-looking river that some people apparently bathe in. It was hard to get a good look or a good feel for what the country is like from this short dirve. I did spot one Texaco on the drive (and another time I saw a Western Union); other than that I didn't see any signs of American culture or business on this short trip (except for Coke & Sprite ads everywhere).

When we got to the school we unloaded the suitcases that had all the donations. We were able to bring a ton of things that were very much appreciated -- soccer and basketballs, school supplies, a boom box, dissection kits, textbooks, art supplies, catechisms, sudoku books, shampoo, hair clips, printer ink, soccer uniforms, and all sort of small items/toys for student prizes. Then we moved our own stuff into the bunkrooms (one for women and one for men). The beds all have mosquito nets over them. The women's room had 8 people in maybe 150 square feet of space.

We were all really tired after the day-and-a-half of travel. We had some lunch and relaxed for a while, then went on a tour of the school. The school grounds are enclosed by a tall wall. The buildings are mostly painted a pale yellow. The classrooms don't have doors or windows. Each wooden desk seats two students -- these are the same type of desks, we were told, that seat 5 students at other schools. I can't imagine how 5 kids could possibly fit in those desks. We toured the library, which is small but well organized. The librarian proudly told me that they have Shakespeare and "Of Mice and Men" in the literature section. They have an old set of National Geographics that someone donated. The library also has a separate room with the computer lab -- more on that later.

After touring the school we sat in on part of a class. Most of the teachers here are Haitian, and they teach the main academic subjects. Some of the teachers are volunteers (mostly recent college grads) who are here for a year from the US. They teach English, religion, and computers.

After checking out a class, I went outside to find that the "Ti Ekol" students had arrived. Ti Ekol is the "Little School" -- a school for the neighborhood children that is run by the high school students. The Ti Ekol students are grade school age -- from as young as 4 or 5 up to 6th grade. They all mobbed me and kept saying "Miss! Miss!" and something in creole that clearly meant "take my picture!" They all crowded into the photos, and once I'd taken 10 or so they would crowd around me, clamoring to see the digital pictures. Then they wanted to do it all over again -- and again, and again, and again.

Then we came back to the house and got cleaned up for dinner. There is an indoor shower and an outdoor shower (both cold water). I chose the outdoor one, which was very nice. I could see palm trees and hear students singing as I scrubbed off all the day's grime. We had a yummy dinner of eggplant noodle casserole, played some cards, and went to bed early. I slept like a log.

High for today = Ti Ekol kids
Low for today = health issues