This week wasn’t quite as event-filled as last week.
I’ve been out of the house quite a bit more this week. One day I went with Shelley to pick up the
kids
from the English-speaking Christian school they attend. We took a
walk and checked out a really nice house they might rent for a guesthouse. That night we stopped at a grocery store,
which was surprisingly nice. We went to dinner at the school principal’s
family’s house. He grew up in Japan and made us some really yummy Japanese food.
On Saturday Shelley took me to Petionville, which is the richer part
of Port Au Prince. We took her motorcycle. It was my first time on one, and I
have to say, it was pretty fun. She has a driver, so it was the three of us
crammed on it. We stopped first at the Hotel Montana. The hotel itself was
destroyed in the earthquake, but the beautiful grounds, pool and restaurant are
still there. It’s way up on a hill and has a beautiful view of the city. The
crazy thing is that there are these beautiful, expensive places, and then just
blocks away, people are living in total poverty.
Just down the road from there was a line of street merchants with
souvenirs. Most of the souvenirs here are made from recycled oil drums. (You
may have seen the tin crosses and journals that The Apparent Project sells.) They
make jewelry, wall hangings, frames, etc. out of them. There were also a lot of
paintings, carved things and voodoo-related items, which are weirdly all
sequined. It’s weird to me that souvenirs look so much the same no matter where
you go. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of the same stuff in Mexico. We also
stopped a really nice home décor store, an even nicer grocery store (felt like
Fred Meyer’s but smaller) and finally a rooftop restaurant, which also had an
amazing view. All of those places felt like places I’ve seen in the States, in
fact, probably more expensive and nicer than places I’ve been too. I didn’t
expect Haiti to have stuff like that.
I’ve been on a couple more neighborhood walks with Shelley now and
gotten to go in a few people’s houses and hold babies. So sweet.
Other than the Petionville outing, the weekend was really relaxed. I
spent most of Sunday at the Clays watching movies and knitting samples. Keziah
put my hair in a bunch of funky braids so I matched Ember.
I’ve been having a little more Haitian food here and there. It’s kind
of the same thing over and over but it’s pretty good. The fruit here is just
like Hawaii; mangos, avocados…all my favorites. The little ones requested I
make pancakes with them one night. I forget how yummy pancakes are when you
make them with white flour (or in this case, Bisquick.) They just come out so
much fluffier than the healthy, whole wheat-y ones. Adding chocolate chips
doesn’t hurt either.
Classes are going well. They’ve all finished baby hats and now I’ve
split them up to do different projects. A couple of the ladies have already
completed a pair of baby shoes. We made a bunch of yarn out of jersey sheets
for market bags. It came out a little too wide, so today they unraveled their
bags and started cutting it thinner. I decided to take more time to fix mistakes
today, since Shelley would like them to be able to sell what they’re making in
class if possible. The amount they’ve learned is amazing. I’m having them do
stuff that I didn’t do until I’d been knitting for years. Shirly, my wonderful
translator and I figured out how to give the students some written instruction
today. They want to be able to work on their projects at home, and I think it’s
really helping them understand what they’re doing. I’m picking up a few words in Creole from
them, which is fun.
They thought it was pretty funny to put a baby hat on her bun.
Shelley’s parents are here for the week, and it’s Keziah’s birthday,
so the weekend will probably be busy. Of course Hurricane Isaac could change
all the plans. It’s supposed to hit here on Friday night. Please pray that it
will change course. A hurricane is not what the people living in tent cities
need right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment