losing insulation.

this photo has nothing to do with this post. just wanted to post it of us with about half of the techs in the North.

might as well post 2 photos with no relevance. 

what the heck. here's a 3rd. i LOVE this plant. anyone know what it is?

somehow time got away from me. the last thing i remember was waking up last saturday. and somehow its been another week?

needless to say days this week left me feeling spent.

(which is what i'd like to say when i die one day. so, anytime i get to say that before that point, isn't a bad thing.)

ever since the rains last week, a group of displaced people have been living at the state school in town. we're talking 200 hundred people living in a very close-quartered, unsanitary, and uncomfortable place. living in a rural town is very different than the city; there aren't tent cities like you see on the news and i feel mostly insulated from a lot of the things that might come to mind when you think of a place like Haiti. or maybe i'm just so entrenched in them, i don't notice anymore. i'm not sure.

but this week everything seemed different. the thing with working with DSI, is that it's vision is very long-term, structural, and doesn't lean on short-term aid. in doing so its vision is to eventually prevent the vulnerability of Haiti to something like this cholora outbreak. so, reacting seems pretty foreign to me at this point. but we are.

with estimates that the outbreak has been underreported to the tune of 400%, and with more families being effected everyday, people in Ferrier at least, are taking every precaution and are hopeful that doing so will be enough. i'm trying to glean some of their hopefullness, but i also know that there's no way to guard the city gates, that produce, merchandise, and people are traveling through here everyday, coming from places where there have been many reported cases.

in the meantime, the water technicians here have been ballers. they've given short spiels in 3 schools in ferrier, at the camp in town, and are planning a much larger training on sunday for the community-at-large. we've accompanied them in all of this but i'm a little worried about how sunday will go over. hallettsville h.s. track used to have a shirt that said 'we're faster than small town gossip', but you'd have to be michael green to wear a shirt like that here. word traaaaaaavels. so, there could easily be hundreds of people in attendence. i hope there are, but i have no idea what that might look like.

other than that, we're fine and in mostly good spirits. it's not cholera that kills, but the dehydration and in extreme situations, lack of antibotics, so its still pretty unbelievable to me how this outbreak has taken hold.

on a completely other note, what's even more unbelievable is that we wrap up with DSI in about 10 days! (which means i've skimped on this blog, because i haven't written nearly as much as i've experienced/thought/felt/wanted. grrr.)

bon, yon lot jou. (well, another day)

p.s. as for the source of the outbreak, read this.