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.

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.

compliments of the house.

i'm pretty happy when we get complimentary sos pwa and rice with every meal we eat out (i mean, all 3 times).

and i don't know what i'd do without the complimentary alarm clock that helps us welcome the day. every day. consistently crowing between the hours of 03:00 and 06:00, without falter.

(yes, you read those numbers correctly. they were confirmed again this morning)

but i thought i'd seen it all, until we found complimentary halloween decorations adorning our walls last night.

i was brushing my teeth, thinking about flossing and celine dion's twins, when an explosion of tiny spiders drew my attention. i then preceded to play whack-a-mole armed with my flip flops, the reserve forces (read: stephen), and the resolve of an arcade-ticket-hungry 5th grader.  shortly after driving every tiny spider into the crevices of the wall, something else caught our eye.

the most generous of hallow's eve decor.

this guy. errr, lady.

okay, forgive me for not taking my own picture. (how could i have forgotten to document such a precious moment?) this isn't exactly what the scenario looked like, but the lady spider and her brood bore striking resemblances - minus half her size and half that many tiny spiders...

happy halloween from the land where giant spiders and their accessories are compliments of the house.

24 squared.

so, i hit the big 2-4 on the not so big 2-4 of this month.

seeing as i already had a family-wide pre-birthday-birthday-party before my haiti departure (thanks again, mom!), the only thing left to do was invite a few friends and waste away beachside.

we did what had to be done.

labadee. on the nicest portion of the beach. besides, of course, the gigantic compound owned by Royal Caribbean for the last several decades.

one of their megalithic ships was docked that day and tourists were spilling over and flooding into their private resort compound - think zipline, inflatable glaciers, and a roller coaster. yep. roller coaster. such stark disparity. 

jean claude, miguel, and stephen crab stalking

allow me to introduce you to Norm's Place. we heard about the legend that is Norm and his wife and their mysterious hideaway in Labadee. as legend holds, Norm sailed to Haiti about 30 years ago, fell in love with the place, and never left.  he then set about restoring some old French colonial ruins that were housing those manning a nearby fort. he uncovered an old indigo vat and restored a huge colonial lime kiln on the property. angelique, his lovely wife, showed us every inch of the place. 

sadly, norm died after 12 years fighting cancer only 7 months ago. what a magical legacy he left. among others, i'm sure.

the entrance. only accessible by tap tap boat.

cannonballs. the season's chicest garden accessory.

you probably wouldn't believe it, but 24's not feeling so bad. thanks norm, angelique, stephen, and friends and family both near and far. here's to hoping i get to drag you to Norm's Place some day and/or stumble upon more semi-secret mythic hideaways about this time next year.

news.

as the news disseminates from a few sources here to the rest of the world, i've noticed a few things that i would not have understood had i not been living here for a little while. i wanted to share them with you.

you've been hearing a lot about the artibonite region. though, the region has not been confirmed as the official source of the outbreak, the first cases were confirmed there, specifically, Saint-Marc. it is the pink region below, and as you can see pretty expansive. then the outbreak trickled into PAP in the yellow region and several cases have been reported in Cap Haitien and Limbe, both located in the orange. we are in the green region and we feel pretty removed from everything at the moment.

the artibonite river, below, as you can see by the elevation indication, lies in an expansive valley.  the area is home to the country's 'ricebasket'.  some reports attribute the outbreak to recent rains that caused the flooding of the riverbed and/or workers in the field. 

from here

people are taking this very seriously.  we heard talk of the outbreak even in the remote cove we were in this weekend, on every tap tap ride we've been on, and from our friends back here in ferrier who have been very clear to warn us themselves. i was reminded how so many people are experts in the study and understanding of death.

people are smart and doing what they can. the bacteria in itself isn't deadly. not getting re-hydrated with clean water or treated if necessary is. 

it's frustrating for us to be here working with an organization that's focused on employing Haitians to work towards the long-term goals of clean water access, employment, and economic sustainability and for so many news sources to latch onto the story and sensationalize it in favor of the traditional narrative the media paints of Haiti: that the average Haitian has little awareness albeit intelligence amidst their situation and that once again, where would we be without the godsend NGO's?

don't get me wrong, i have seen and heard and read about the incredible issues that NGO's are addressing here, but are we not asked by the media to forget and forsake the inherent, weathered, and incredible wisdom and capacity of the Haitian people themselves?

you can read for years about the roots of the current Haitian situation, but it seems important more so now than ever to maintain within perspective who knows what here.

i don't know anything about how to survive and thrive without clean running water, internet access, and a Target Super Center for more than a week. if anyone is an expert on the Haitian experience, perhaps it's the Haitian people themselves.

i'm not fixing anything, here.  in fact, i feel more helpless now than ever. 

the orange.

from here

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange--

The size of it made us all laugh.

I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave--

They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,

As ordinary things often do

Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.

This is peace and contentment. It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.

I did all the jobs on my list

And enjoyed them and had some time over.

I love you. I'm glad I exist.

Wendy Cope 

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.