Friday, July 23rd, 2010

I woke up about 6:00 but decided to fall asleep again. When I got up I went out to find the others and the first thing I heard that morning was a very sobering fact. Bill was sitting out front with Hilary and Dorene and as I walked up to the door he was telling them that the Haitian government only graduates the top 5% of students. That is the only amount they consider they have graduate worthy jobs for, or some such thing. The other 95% literally cannot graduate. That was tough to hear. Anyway, for breakfast we had eggs with seasonings and more juice. The intern girls told us that there was a donkey that went off every morning that sounded like it was dying. Logan and Marty said it did! After breakfast we went to the dorms to kinda break ice with the kids. How many names can I remember? Anyway I picked up Francee, 1 1/2 years old, and carried him around while meeting some girls. I took him with me to the Port girls' room where I met Betsy, Malcolm (yes, a girl), and Sabine. Sabine sang Jesus Loves Me, then This Little Light of Mine in English and Creole. I started teaching her Create In Me A Clean Heart with the motions. Then we went over to the porch where a bunch of the others were gathered. We played jump rope and talked and teased. Francee fell asleep in my lap, and the girls kept trying to wake him up but he was out... While we were sitting there Otenel, Willie and Jimmy were playing with Hilary's hair and headband, and Betsy reverse French braided mine. Davenel, Wesley (said 'Wisley'), Ronald ('wanel') and Jackinson stood by the garage watching us. But they kept acting shy. After I took Francee to his bed I played cards with one of the girls. Apparently there is almost no system to their card games! You make up the rules as you go. We went back to the porch and hung out until gradually all the children disappeared except Ronald (Wesley and Davenel had gone to soccer practice). We came to learn that all the kids had headed for a fruit tree growing between the girls' dorm and the kitchen. It was called a kenep tree (officially Mamoncillo). Some of the boys were climbing it and dropping fruit down. One of the girls held a tub up and they just dropped fruit into it. The fruit is between the size of a shooter marble and a ping pong ball. It has a thin, leathery green skin that you crack with your teeth. The flesh is an orange color with a big seed in the middle. The flesh is sweet and a bit sour, but more just different. The texture is crazy! It's kinda like jelly, but then a bit more like gelatin and grapes too. It has fibers like you find in apples though. It tastes good. You can't chew them though, you have to suck the fruit off the seed. For lunch we had Haitian spaghetti with fried hot dogs, rice w/ beans, avocados and pineapple. The fruit here is amazing! There are citron, coconut, pineapple, mango, papaya, kenep and other trees that grow there naturally. The avocados here are beyond belief! They are soft and soooo juicy, and they're almost sweet. So fresh... After lunch I took a nap. When I got up the girls were using washable paints and doing face painting. Davenel draw birds for a couple of them, he's a pretty good artist. The kids also love teasing us by taking in Creole and not telling us what they said. Jennifer gave the kids some candy and then they were trying to put the trash in our pockets so they didn't have to throw it away. Some of the kids were having foot races just because and Hannah joined them. She's really fast!! I think one of my favorite things to do was just when we all sit around with the kids on our laps, tickling them, talking, laughing. That afternoon Jennifer went to the store and Benji, Dorene, Hilary, Danielle and I went along. Danielle and I sat in the truck bed, but you have to hold on pretty good 'cause it's a rough ride! The streets around are rough and muddy, ruts, rocks and puddles everywhere. The store was really small, and it was the best store in Pignon. One wall was about 10 ft. and the other maybe 14ft. They had a variety of things though...chips, syrup, spaghetti sauce, crackers, soaps, shampoo, salt, ketchup, canned goods. There were hardly any kitchen staples. We looked for coffee creamer but we couldn't find it at any of the three stores we went to. We headed for a fourth but got stopped by construction in the road. A big pit with rebar gridding went all the way across so we couldn't get over! There are between 30,000 and 40,000 people in and around Pignon. But the buildings are small and rugged, my mind can't comprehend how there are that many people in those conditions and space. For dinner we had leftovers. I learned that the big green citrus fruit are not limes as I thought, but oranges! Hannah, Hilary and I did the dishes, we had a our devotion time, took showers and then some of us headed to bed. We were laying in bed when Hannah came racing into the room and jumped onto her bed! She was worried about the cockroaches and tarantulas. It was really funny. Then Hilary thought she was feeling a cockroach in her sheets. After that we got into the randomest, silliest conversation. It began with Hilary's boyfriend's job (he works construction and Bridges Over Missouri). Hannah thought Bridges Over Missouri was restoring old red covered bridges around the state, and I thought it meant to road bridge repairs. We laughed so hard when Hilary corrected us to say that it was actually working with brain injury patients! Boy, were we confused. From there it went on to a guy who fell off scaffolding, cracked his head, and his brain landed in a bucket of paint...but the dude is still alive! After that craziness we came to the conclusion that cracking your skull is nothing like splitting a kenep! (inside joke) and then after trail mix at 10:30 we went to sleep!