Haitian Time

We got up around 7 am this morning and ate our breakfast oceanside. I love that every morning we get to enjoy our breakfast outside listening to the waves crash against the rocks. This morning we had french toast and fresh bread and it was really good. The food out here is not nearly as sweet as America but I am starting to really like it and it makes you feel way better.

Today we had a lot of experience with "Haitian Time." Some people like to just call it island time. This means that the people here will tell you to be ready by a certain time but they won't actually be ready for at least and hour and a half after that. Like today we were supposed to leave at 8 to head over to the orphanage but the van did not get here until 8:30. These people have no sense of rush. It is also very hard for us communicate out here so we never know what time to be ready. You just have to learn to roll with the punches and let whatever happens happen. Its the best mindset to have while you are out here.

While we were waiting for our van to arrive today we saw a Haitian lady out selling merchandise. We decided to walk over and see what she was trying to sell. She had all kinds of handmade items that she was selling. She had bowls, bracelets, globes and paintings. They all had there very own personal touch to them. She was a very nice lady and did not charge very much for her items. She also told us that she had made all of these herself. She did such an awesome job with it!

We arrived at the orphanage and were immediately greeted by the children. They all had big smiles on there faces and were yelling our names when we got out of the van. We went and sat down on a bench and soon we had kids climbing all over us. They were full of smiles. There is a two month old baby at the orphanage. The baby is not an orphan her mom works at the orphanage. The mom came over today and just handed me the baby. I literally fell in love with this little girl immediately. She had big eyes and was looking everywhere. It was so fun to hold a little baby. Below is the two month old baby.

The principal of the school asked us today if we would be willing to tutor students. Within like five minutes of the asking us he had a classroom of twelve students prepared for us to teach in. He told us that these students needed to work on there math skills. In my mind I was imagining it would like an American school where you would sit around the table and just work on math facts. Boy was I in for a surprise. These twelve kids were climbing across the tables and crawling under the tables. They were all yelling at each other. We had absolutely no control over them. They were just doing whatever they wanted to do and no one was going to stop them. When we finally figured out a way to teach them, we found out that these kids are actually really smart. We were working on their addition and subtraction facts and the students would come up to the board and draw the problem out for us. I was really impressed with that no if only we could get them to all sit down and be quiet. Haley and I learned that we just had to adapt to the craziness of the classroom and figure out new ways to explain the problems to them. We both walked out of the classroom and looked at each other and said I don't think those kids got a single thing out of that lesson. If anything the students taught us how to quickly think of activities. It was really hard for us because we are so used of using resources to do lessons. These kids don't have paper or pencils so we can't write out problems for them to do. We can't have them complete activities. We have to get really creative with what we do.

After our  crazy morning of tutoring we went and played with kids for a little while. I had bought a couple of soccer balls for the kids prior to coming out here. Today I noticed that the kids were out playing with it. They were so excited to have a ball and to be able to play soccer again. I will be really surprised if that ball makes it through the week. It was so dirty and was already loosing air by the end of the day. My little thumb sucking friend came back to my lap today around 1:00. I found out that she is only two years old and doesn't usually get a nap. She made herself comfortable on my lab and with in minutes she was softly snoring. I could have held her all afternoon but with the blazing hot sun beating down on us we were both sweating and she was slipping in my arms. I carried her over to the girls cottage and just set her down in one of the bunk beds. While I was looking around the girls cottage I noticed that some of the students had pictures of there sponsor families hanging on the wall. It was so cute to how much the kids appreciate and enjoy getting pictures and letters from there sponsor families. We were informed that one of the girls has a 90 year old grandma sponsoring her and her college is already paid off! I just thought that was amazing.

Some of the older girls decided that they wanted to put my hair into corn rows today. I have never had corn rows done on my hair. Let me tell you that these girls are really good at braiding. They get right down to business and they are not the least bit gentle with your hair. There were points when I was about in tears because it hurt so bad. I could not believe how painful it was to get your hair done in cornrows!

Earlier I had talked about how these people live on Haitian time. Today they went to go and get the van fixed. They had told us that the van would be back in the early afternoon to pick us up and bring us back. That was around 2 in the afternoon. We waited around for the van and waited. We played with the kids for awhile. Soon we had to go to the bathroom. I am a person who can deal with some interesting scenarios but these bathrooms are not my choice. I mean unless I would absolutely have to go I will not go there. So we were all waiting around and had to go to the bathroom and also were very hungry. It was not 4:30 and we had not gone to the bathroom or ate anything since 8 am. I mean a girl can only wait so long. Sean had asked me if I would be willing to take the tap tap back. This is pretty much a Haitian taxi. You sit in the back of pick up and the pickup has like a bench on both sides and then cover over top and you can only see at the back. Luckily, our tap tap was empty sometimes you seem them with people just hanging out the sides. In the tap tap you just ride around and once you see the place you want to be dropped off at you tap twice on the side of the truck and they drop you off. It was fun to ride in one and they are super cheap it only cost us 15 cents to ride in one. Below Riley helping me through my first tap tap ride. He was so excited! :)

We finally made it back to our hotel for the night. We all quickly ran to the bathroom and then went to get food. I was so hungry. I order a full meal which consisted of a salad, three layer sandwich, and fries. I pretty much inhaled my food it took us a little under 10 minutes to eat our food once it had arrived. Haley and I were still hungry after not eating for so long so we decided we would order some dessert. This dessert was like God's gift to earth. It was literally the best chocolate mousse I had ever had in my life. Lisa had order a flaming banana soaked in caramel. It was really good except that the caramel stuck to your teeth really bad. It was like eating one of caramel apple suckers. The sad thing is after eating all of that food I still hungry! I feel like a bottomless pit.

In our room I got a new name tonight! I am now being called the bug slayer. I was laying in bed typing out my blog. When all of the sudden these huge bug like the size of cockroach came flying through my room. I instantly started screaming and Haley just laughed at me until it flew right next to her. So I jumped out of my bed go and find the bug and get it our of room. In the process of looking around for it I looked at the floor and screamed. There was a crab. Yes, thats right a crab crawling across the floor. Haley and I were both scared and didn't know what to do. I was laughing/ screaming while looking at it. I finally grabbed a garbage can and put it over top of the crab. I was sliding the garbage can across the floor when all of the sudden Haley jumped and screamed again. She didn't see my hand pushing the crab and she had thought the crab was pushing the garbage can by itself. We were both laughing and crying on the floor. Once we stopped laughing I finally guided the crab back outside. After that I told Haley that the bug was still somewhere in our room. For some reason we both looked at her towel and saw the bug at the same time and jumped and screamed again. Our neighbors probably think we are crazy by now. I used the garbage can once again to get the bug out of our room. I am hoping we have no more creepy creatures in our room tonight! This also reminded me that tonight I was eating supper and I had felt something on my arm so I swatted at it. I swatted and gecko jumped off my arm and on to the table! My goodness I hope that was all the critters I have to deal with on this trip! Below is some of the kids playing with the soccer ball I brought!

I am finally adapting to the Haiti lifestyle. My showers have the occasionally blackout. This is when the electricity goes out and I just finish showering in the dark. This is actually pretty relaxing! I am also getting used of keeping my mouth closed while showing. The water will make you really sick so you have to be super careful when taking a shower! This trip is making me realize all the little things in life that I take advantage of!

With Love,
Abby