guess who we found?

worlds colliding - alliance translating for janet

lucky for us, the janet dorrell and 8 brave lucky travelling companions made their way to ferrier last week. it was just so nice to have some waco in our midst.  if you know anything about janet, you know how fun it is to hang out with her; one minute she's dancing to her own tune an the next she's buying ice cream from the back of a bicycle for everyone ( it was so tasty!).

one day, she organized a little gathering that quickly morphed into a thank-goodness-there's-no-fire-marshal-here-sized gathering. she invited Gadyen Dlo to talk about our water treatment systems (that's one of the techs, giving the spiel). then janet demonstrated how to make oral re-hydration solution at home and everyone made their own at home-birthing-kits (complete with 2 pieces of string, a razor, soap, and an antibacterial pad in an empty matchbox). reminded me that i know nothing about childbirth and that none of that sounds like an ounce of fun.

it was strange but wonderful to get to peak at haiti through the eyes of this group of first-timers. i tried to remember what that was like for me when i was here 2 years ago with Janet on her 'exposure trip'.  everything looks so different to me now. the hazy glow is still largely intact but on top of that i've realized that everything is much more complex than i ever imagined it could be. and i have so much more to learn.  but, i'm still a blan; that much hasn't changed.

my home is your home

within 5 minutes of arriving back in Ferrier, after a few weeks of travel, Mme St. Ville (the guesthouse mother) assured us that we would be taken care of while we are here and were to call the house our home and her our mother.

no problem.

guesthouse in Ferrier. isn't it dreamy? kitchen on the left. rest of house on the right.

a 'guesthouse' in haiti functions much like a bed & breakfast in the states (only much more relaxed) or a pension in europe (croatian shoutout!). it is generally a service provided by an institution (church, organization, etc.) and a hot product consumed by foreigners (travelers, ngos, etc).

i'm still not sure how to feel about it. the women who run the guesthouse (which also functions as an office out of which they use to run a child sponsorship program) are lovely. i mean, really lovely. the kind of people that smile for most of the day and engage you in conversation, mindfully dumbing down/slowing down their kreyol vocab and speech so that you can understand them...

but it still feels very uncomfortable to have 2 meals cooked for you a day, the table set, and the housekeeping responsibilities covered. we don't have to lift a finger.

but, in many ways, this is a standard set-up here. it supports the local economy. you can't do it all - work, clean, cook. but in many ways those all sound like cop-outs. i mean, why can't we do it all? everyone else seems to.

i suppose, we'll see how it goes. for now, i can breathe with dignity when i wash my own clothes and dishes. and when everyone who lives and works here gets to sit down together (and up until now, that has always involved the transferring of a skill - either us learning kreyol from someone, or someone learning english or computer skills from us which i really enjoy and is another post).

some really tasty things happen here: Haitian oatmeal, plantains of every make and model, fresh orange/grapefruit juice...

on the porch. nice to see you again, texas. 

anyhow, i have a feeling Mme St Ville will be eating her words soon. we novice Haitian tourists have eaten up quite a bit of her wisdom and expertise. sort of without reserve. but more on that and other misadventures later.