Today was the first day all 26 of us went into the village. The
guys didn’t have the option to stay back and work, so we all piled into the
truck and drove to Source Matelas. We picked up the translators and headed to
what I think is probably one of the nicest neighborhoods within the village.
Once again, we broke into groups, each with a translator and
started walking. See, I thought this was weird. The past couple days we had
been in what I would compare to the slums that we see in cities in America-
only with more rustic living spaces. Where we were exploring today was more
like the suburbs. The houses were actually nice and had real yards and fences.
It was interesting!
Kevin, Emily, Kathie, Ed, Chip, Danni and I followed Joseph into the neighborhood. Ed stopped to chat with an old man by the basketball courts who was dressed in a soccer jersey and actually fixed computers for a living. He and Ed hit it off as they had similar interests in tech. A few of the others joined the conversation while they rest of us watched the intense soccer game going on behind us on the basketball court. About a dozen dark, muscular teenage boys were flying barefoot around the court, passing the ball, diving for any chance to get a shot in. I flinched as I saw a couple of them fall hard on the concrete. To all the soccer players out there, you have no idea how lucky you are to have grass fields to play on.
After Ed finished talking to him, we all said our goodbyes
and continued down a narrow path, walking deeper into the neighborhood. As we
were passing one house, Joseph kind of coaxed us awkwardly into the front yard
where a couple of children were watching us warily against a wall as their
mother washed clothes in a watery, sudsy bin on the ground. As soon as the
woman gave us permission to come onto their property, a young girl in a pretty
dress and short cropped hair pulled out chairs for all of us. The hospitality
of that family was incredible.
Danni and I sat on a cement step to try and get the little kids to interact with us while the rest of our group sat in a circle and talked with the woman of the household through Joseph. Her mother was actually around the corner from us, making juice out of berries she was hand-squeezing into a pulp. I'm not gunna lie, the little kids were really difficult. They did not know what to make of us, so staying safe rather than sorry became their motto.
They huddled close to the wall and watched us warily - a similar relationship to me and a spider in the shower. One child was too young to really do anything though, and Danni and I sat by him. He seemed to have quite the cold. As he watched us like we were aliens right in front of his face, his nose oozed snot and the gnats were all over it. They swarmed in the goo, in his eyes, all around him. It was absolutely disgusting. Even these people, who I would consider the wealthier of the Haitian population, didn't have it all together. It was so sad.
We also met the father of the household, the woman's husband. He had his arm bandaged up and in a sling. Motorcycle accident. Broken arm. This is apparently typical for the people there. As I have said before, their driving is crazy...
Another man, who I THINK was the washing woman's brother, came and sat down in our circle. He didn't speak English, but he did speak pretty fluent Spanish. This was enough to make communication possible with little work of the translator. I could understand English, and respond limitedly, but it was enough for conversation. Emi and Chip could get out a word here or there too. But I did most of the communicating. It was really awesome. Kevin would ask questions through me and I would translate. It was just a really awesome opportunity. I only wish that I was better at it. Gives me more motivation to pay attention in Spanish this year I guess!
We eventually said goodbye to the family and moved on to their neighbors. It was actually pretty funny, because the kids from the first house who had wanted nothing to do with us, followed us around the back of their house and were observing us as we went into the next yard.
This second household consisted of a woman, who was cleaning the dirt ground with a broom, and her three children. She also had another one on the way. One of the older children tried to drag her younger brother over to see us, but the poor little guy literally freaked out. He was screaming and kicking and crying. I felt so bad. I didn't know how to tell her to just leave him. But she was actually pretty social, and with a bit of coaxing decided to sing for us. In the showering of applause following her performance, her face lit up. It was really cute.
After a prayer for the family and the safe delivery of the next child, we continued on. This is when I first noticed that the teenage girl with the short hair and pretty blue dress had followed us this entire time. I remember having the desire to talk to her the entire time, but I never found the words or the right moment. Later, however, we would find out that she could care less about me anyways, as she had another purpose for following our group.
We continued down the street until we came across another house. I don't think any of us were actually planning on stopping there, but Joseph kind of walked in, and we were supposed to stay with him, so what other choice did we really have?
I think the hesitancy came from the fact that it looked like more of a garage than a household and all we could see through the door was the front of a car and darkness. I decided to be brave and was one of the first of us to waltz in. And that is when I saw them.
Two amazingly beautiful little babies were on a rug on the carpet. A woman was sitting with them and the larger one was hunched over a little pillow. The look on my face must've given me up. Joseph laughed and told me I could hold one if I wanted. I wasn't about to steal the smallest one from the hands of it's mother, so I gingerly picked up the pillow-hugger.
I just remember the baby's eyes, as they watched us. The beautiful, big, brown eyes. Oh, she was beautiful. She got passed around between me, Emi, Chip, Kathie and Danni. Kevin and Ed just took pictures.
The younger one eventually got into the mix as well. One of the babies was in Danni's arms and began to be perplexed by her long blonde hair. It was the funniest thing to watch; she just pulled on her hair and stared at it. Meanwhile, the baby in Chip's arms discovered Chip's chest through his shirt.
For the record, I have this part of the day written in my notepad as "Chip's nips." Hilarious, I know. But the baby was apparently hungry, and was going after his nipples through his shirt. I started laughing, "Haha, he's hungry! Hon, those aren't Mommie's! They don't exactly work the same..." Probably the highlight of my day for its humor factor, not gunna lie.
After the males finally convinced us to leave the house, we continued down the road. Now there was another teenage girl along with the one in the blue dress. It was strange. I could not figure out why they stayed with us.
We came to our fourth and final house not long after. There were little boys in the front yard, along with a baby girl walking around in a little dress who was super cute. There was a woman sitting in this front window space who had a ton of canned and boxed foods behind her. It almost looked like she had a little shop going on from the front of her house.
Ed asked if he could have a coconut from the tree by her house. Joseph translated, while laughing, "She says if you can climb up and get it, you can have it."
So what does Ed do? Is it even a question? He drops all of his bags and cameras on the ground, and walks right up to the palm tree. Up the tree he went. Like a monkey. Literally, he looked like those Amazonian men you see throw themselves up trees to get to fruit on the Discovery Channel. It was hilarious. All the Haitian women were cheering and laughing like monkeys. It was awesome.
Joseph whipped out a machete and chopped the tops off of the two coconuts Ed had knocked down. We all got to slurp up the coconut juice inside. I was all about it - until a spider crawled over the top just before I went in for my third sip. After that, I wasn't having it. But I was back on for the coconut meat. That was gooooood! It tasted more like almonds than coconut, but I liked it. It was new and different! Raw coconut, knocked down from a tree by a climber, from the middle of a Haitian village, chopped up with a machete by a Haitian man. Pretty cool stuff!
As we were walking back along the road, the same couple of girls were still following us. They were whispering to each other and giggling - and THAT is when Kathie and I put it together. As the tried to figure out how to say "I love you" out loud in English, we smiled. Sure enough, when Joseph asked, they told him to tell Chip, "You have beautiful eyebrows!" They were crushing. Chip loved it.
As we headed back to the main area to meet up with our other group members, we caught a whiff of something. Now, Kevin has been to a lot of places all over the world. So he's not exactly a newbie when it comes to interesting food. When we finally came up to the vendor that was producing the smell, the adventurous Kevin couldn't keep his desire down. Working with Joseph, he purchased what was basically fried dough.
Now, as you can imagine, most of us were pretty skeptical of this Haitian street vendor food. We have been warned time and time again not to eat or drink anything not approved of, in fear that we might come down with the "Haitian Sensation." But I decided to take a chance. Besides, God would keep us safe. I assumed. Hoped. Prayed.
I am so grateful I took that chance. It was delicious. I kept asking for more, but Kevin pulled a magic trick and within the span of a minute, it had disappeared into the stomachs of about a dozen of our group.
It was just prep for the lunch that we were heading back for!
Tune back in soon to find out the reasoning behind the title of this blog!
-Katie Coming to You from Haiti
Danni and I sat on a cement step to try and get the little kids to interact with us while the rest of our group sat in a circle and talked with the woman of the household through Joseph. Her mother was actually around the corner from us, making juice out of berries she was hand-squeezing into a pulp. I'm not gunna lie, the little kids were really difficult. They did not know what to make of us, so staying safe rather than sorry became their motto.
They huddled close to the wall and watched us warily - a similar relationship to me and a spider in the shower. One child was too young to really do anything though, and Danni and I sat by him. He seemed to have quite the cold. As he watched us like we were aliens right in front of his face, his nose oozed snot and the gnats were all over it. They swarmed in the goo, in his eyes, all around him. It was absolutely disgusting. Even these people, who I would consider the wealthier of the Haitian population, didn't have it all together. It was so sad.
We also met the father of the household, the woman's husband. He had his arm bandaged up and in a sling. Motorcycle accident. Broken arm. This is apparently typical for the people there. As I have said before, their driving is crazy...
Another man, who I THINK was the washing woman's brother, came and sat down in our circle. He didn't speak English, but he did speak pretty fluent Spanish. This was enough to make communication possible with little work of the translator. I could understand English, and respond limitedly, but it was enough for conversation. Emi and Chip could get out a word here or there too. But I did most of the communicating. It was really awesome. Kevin would ask questions through me and I would translate. It was just a really awesome opportunity. I only wish that I was better at it. Gives me more motivation to pay attention in Spanish this year I guess!
We eventually said goodbye to the family and moved on to their neighbors. It was actually pretty funny, because the kids from the first house who had wanted nothing to do with us, followed us around the back of their house and were observing us as we went into the next yard.
This second household consisted of a woman, who was cleaning the dirt ground with a broom, and her three children. She also had another one on the way. One of the older children tried to drag her younger brother over to see us, but the poor little guy literally freaked out. He was screaming and kicking and crying. I felt so bad. I didn't know how to tell her to just leave him. But she was actually pretty social, and with a bit of coaxing decided to sing for us. In the showering of applause following her performance, her face lit up. It was really cute.
After a prayer for the family and the safe delivery of the next child, we continued on. This is when I first noticed that the teenage girl with the short hair and pretty blue dress had followed us this entire time. I remember having the desire to talk to her the entire time, but I never found the words or the right moment. Later, however, we would find out that she could care less about me anyways, as she had another purpose for following our group.
We continued down the street until we came across another house. I don't think any of us were actually planning on stopping there, but Joseph kind of walked in, and we were supposed to stay with him, so what other choice did we really have?
I think the hesitancy came from the fact that it looked like more of a garage than a household and all we could see through the door was the front of a car and darkness. I decided to be brave and was one of the first of us to waltz in. And that is when I saw them.
Two amazingly beautiful little babies were on a rug on the carpet. A woman was sitting with them and the larger one was hunched over a little pillow. The look on my face must've given me up. Joseph laughed and told me I could hold one if I wanted. I wasn't about to steal the smallest one from the hands of it's mother, so I gingerly picked up the pillow-hugger.
I just remember the baby's eyes, as they watched us. The beautiful, big, brown eyes. Oh, she was beautiful. She got passed around between me, Emi, Chip, Kathie and Danni. Kevin and Ed just took pictures.
The younger one eventually got into the mix as well. One of the babies was in Danni's arms and began to be perplexed by her long blonde hair. It was the funniest thing to watch; she just pulled on her hair and stared at it. Meanwhile, the baby in Chip's arms discovered Chip's chest through his shirt.
For the record, I have this part of the day written in my notepad as "Chip's nips." Hilarious, I know. But the baby was apparently hungry, and was going after his nipples through his shirt. I started laughing, "Haha, he's hungry! Hon, those aren't Mommie's! They don't exactly work the same..." Probably the highlight of my day for its humor factor, not gunna lie.
After the males finally convinced us to leave the house, we continued down the road. Now there was another teenage girl along with the one in the blue dress. It was strange. I could not figure out why they stayed with us.
We came to our fourth and final house not long after. There were little boys in the front yard, along with a baby girl walking around in a little dress who was super cute. There was a woman sitting in this front window space who had a ton of canned and boxed foods behind her. It almost looked like she had a little shop going on from the front of her house.
Ed asked if he could have a coconut from the tree by her house. Joseph translated, while laughing, "She says if you can climb up and get it, you can have it."
So what does Ed do? Is it even a question? He drops all of his bags and cameras on the ground, and walks right up to the palm tree. Up the tree he went. Like a monkey. Literally, he looked like those Amazonian men you see throw themselves up trees to get to fruit on the Discovery Channel. It was hilarious. All the Haitian women were cheering and laughing like monkeys. It was awesome.
Joseph whipped out a machete and chopped the tops off of the two coconuts Ed had knocked down. We all got to slurp up the coconut juice inside. I was all about it - until a spider crawled over the top just before I went in for my third sip. After that, I wasn't having it. But I was back on for the coconut meat. That was gooooood! It tasted more like almonds than coconut, but I liked it. It was new and different! Raw coconut, knocked down from a tree by a climber, from the middle of a Haitian village, chopped up with a machete by a Haitian man. Pretty cool stuff!
As we were walking back along the road, the same couple of girls were still following us. They were whispering to each other and giggling - and THAT is when Kathie and I put it together. As the tried to figure out how to say "I love you" out loud in English, we smiled. Sure enough, when Joseph asked, they told him to tell Chip, "You have beautiful eyebrows!" They were crushing. Chip loved it.
As we headed back to the main area to meet up with our other group members, we caught a whiff of something. Now, Kevin has been to a lot of places all over the world. So he's not exactly a newbie when it comes to interesting food. When we finally came up to the vendor that was producing the smell, the adventurous Kevin couldn't keep his desire down. Working with Joseph, he purchased what was basically fried dough.
Now, as you can imagine, most of us were pretty skeptical of this Haitian street vendor food. We have been warned time and time again not to eat or drink anything not approved of, in fear that we might come down with the "Haitian Sensation." But I decided to take a chance. Besides, God would keep us safe. I assumed. Hoped. Prayed.
I am so grateful I took that chance. It was delicious. I kept asking for more, but Kevin pulled a magic trick and within the span of a minute, it had disappeared into the stomachs of about a dozen of our group.
It was just prep for the lunch that we were heading back for!
Tune back in soon to find out the reasoning behind the title of this blog!
-Katie Coming to You from Haiti
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