Photo Montage from Haiti

Well, we have been safely ensconced in Manchester for several days - busy sleeping, boobing around Altrincham (the area we are in) and our first Manchester United game. However, I see much more cacooning going on as we are very much loving the time alone.

Now that we have relaxed a bit and have a good internet connection, I am sending pictures from Haiti.

School 16 & 17
I am really disappointed because I had pictures of what the kids are using for a school right now but somehow I have lost them.  You will need to use your imagination.........as you come towards the front of the property where the new schools are, you see a "tent" made many different types of tarps (IRD Aid, Blue, Samaritian's Purse, etc) cobbled together to create a 3 room tent that is about half the size of one of the new schools.  Now you look inside and there is nothing but a dirt floor, some of the desks that didn't get destroyed in the earthquake and some cement blocks that some of the kids are using as seats (on the floor).  The only thing dividing the 3 rooms are portable blackboards.  Now imagine sending your child to learn in this environment for the last 2 years!  No wonder everyone was excited to see us working on the buildings.

Sarah and I attaching chainlink to the frame - one of the
many new skills I acquired.

Wilbur supervised much of the work.  However,
at some point during rendering, Wilbur disappeared and we
never found out what happened to him - perhaps he was rendered as well.

Ti Chat (in Creole - little cat) was the other favorite on site.
He was very tiny and extremely skinny.  You can see that one
of his ears has been mangled.  We started feeding and petting him and he
fell in love with us.  If we had been going home after Haiti,
Ti Chat would have come with us.

Spidey was on the cement mixing team.  Sometimes cement was
mixed by hand.  Michel's back ached quite a bit when this
happened cause he was always one of the mixers.

Cement rendered walls.  Once they dried, the tarp
covered boards were taken off and then we would
render the outside of the walls.

Adriana - by day 2 of rendering our fingertips
were raw so we took to putting duct tape on
our fingertips - Jen was kind enough to
bring blue tartan duct tape - very fashionable!

Interior walls painted - starting to look good!

Me, Henrietta, Jennifer and Brooke painting outside - I became
Queen of Straight Lines and was the "finisher" to ensure lines
looked as straight as possible.

I hate to say this but Spidey was a bit of a "Fabrice".  Fabrice
was the name of a previous volunteer who was incredibly lazy
and found many ways to avoid work.

Some of the kids helping paint the schools.

Valcine is happy with our finished product - thanks boss!
The landscaping and room names were added after we left Haiti.

Our Week Off

Michel enjoying the amazing bean bag hammocks!

One of many stunning Haitian sunsets.

Looking from the hammock area towards the
diningroom/bar area.

The Beach

Out for dinner at Trois Table where we got to know the
owner/chef/server.

Hockey Night in Haiti

Miso, one of the staff, organized a hockey tournament.  See below for how hockey is played in Haiti. 

A Better Sense of Communal Living

Made a video on one of the days I was sick just to document the lack of privacy. Amazingly, it was not that much of a hardship.

Odds & Sodds

During WOFW (Week of Fun Week), there was a
tarp toga competition.  Miso won!

When is a brick not a brick - when it is
Lily's dog, Brick - who thinks he is a lap dog.

Sitting on Garry's deck over looking Port au Prince.  Not
all of PAP is captured in this photo. 

Maryse, Zita's goddaughter, and her mother.

The blue tarp is my egg sandwich lady!

Some houses in Haiti have the family crypt in their front yard.
It is a little creepy by Canadian standards.

Gobble Gobble Thanksgiving Photo Scanvenger Hunt

So, for American Thanksgiving, I paired up with Dylon (base manager), Kristen (his significant other), and Miso (Joint Logistics Base manager) to undertake the challenge of the Gobble Gobble Thanksgiving Photo Scanvenger Hunt.  We were given specific photos challenges (with some creative interpretation allowed) and these are the photos we submitted.  Unfortunately, we were not nearly as creative as some of the other teams so did not win.

Challenge - Picture of a team member wearing one of the local
merchant's mesh t-shirts.  Thank god, Dylon spoke decent
Creole otherwise many of these pics would not have happened.

Challenge - Team member must make an
egg sandwich at one of the local stalls.

Challenge - Picture of entire team behind Maritas' counter.

Challenge - At least one team member bathing
like a local at one of the wells outside base.

Challenge - team praying outside "The Blood of Jesus" Boutique.
I insisted that Dylon's belly button remain in the picture.

Challenge - A team member must wear
Miso's Mickey Mouse ears.  Miso gave all the
other teams only 2 minutes to use the ears - we,
of course, had all the time we wanted.

Challenge - Team member wearing a JLB security guard's hat.
We got carried away with this one as Miso is in charge of
these guys so we got access to their shirts, hats, gun (they unloaded
the bullets) and billy clubs.

Challenge - get entire team on a moto.
This is one of the most common "taxis".  I have
seen as many as 6 people on a moving moto.
That would not fly in Canada!

Challenge - Team picture with the base's cutest couple.
This made for interesting interpretation.  We chose the baby goats.
One team chose Michel and I as the cutest couple - we were
very touched.

Challenge - Team on the tightrope.
The problem was that the first team to use the tightrope took
their picture and then stole the tightrope so all the other teams
had to improvise.

Sorry this took so long.  Loading all the pictures/video took about 3 hours.  I need to learn how to decrease their size so they load faster.