the things you see.

in the wake of the unpredictable storm that was Tomas, the river that runs through Ferrier is spilling over and creating islands between towns.

it's funny how much happens here that we have no clue about, and this would have been just another one of those things on a long invisible laundry list of such events, had i not been dared to go see 'dlo la anba nan grand rivye' (the water down in the Grand River area).

my thought process at first sight of the situation: whoa. no way. is that the UN? what are they doing? there's more? i'm not going in that. in these shoes? - 5 minute interlude - yeah, okay. let's go.

(besides thinking of course: man i hope everyone's alright... okay, maybe i was more worried about waterborne disease seeping through my shoes than other people. maybe.)

when we got through about 5 more minutes of walking through knee-deep water, we mounted the top of a little hill in what is on any other day, the market (see the market stalls on either side of the street), to get a better look at the situation. i didn't even realize that there had been a large road where there was now a large river until it disappeared. apparently, it cut off people who were stranded on the other side and the UN was boating people across. 

we heard that an elderly person got caught in the river and somehow didn't make it out alive. i'm not sure who it was or if anything else similair also happened.

in other news, this week was Ferrier's Fet, a week-long celebration of the town's Patron Saint, St. Charles. it was cray.zay. and beautiful. and crazy. i don't have any pictures, but perhaps i'll make a better attempt at describing it some other time.

today i went with friends to a food, soap, and chlorine distribution at the State School in town. the spread of cholora seems to be picking up again with fears of the post-Tomas conditions contributing to the spread. today, Haiti's Ministry of Public Health was driving through the streets airing all the standard health precautions to anyone within ear's reach.

in short, my eyes have seen more than i ever thought i would in only a week in a seemingly tucked-away town in the middle of an island in the middle of a great big sea. and i'm pretty sure i haven't seen any of the good stuff yet.