Preparing the Way

And we're off! (Just me, for the time being)

I flew down to Santo Domingo on Friday and stayed the night there before taking the first minibus out to Pedernales on Saturday morning. "Minibus" is a slightly misleading term, perhaps implying something cute, like a mini skirt, or efficient, like a minivan. Nope. Minibus means minimum amount of space for maximum amount of cargo. I counted 20 seats when I got on, but there were, by the end, 38 people, a parrot, and lots of plastic lawn chairs packed into our happy family ride. Always an adventure!

Pedernales, DR, and Anse a Pitre, Haiti are almost just as I'd remembered them, but the children and the trees have of course grown way, way up. The papaya trees we planted our first year are producing many, many papayas each month, and the Mayan nut trees ("chokogu") that were the focus of the reforestation project are looking strong as well. This morning we went out into the mountains to water trees that were planted in the past few months. Watering one tree means filling a five-gallon bucket at the reforestation main site, hauling it a good ways out of the site, up a bunch of rocks, and back down again, and then dumping the bucket onto the tree's base, which is covered with discarded clothing as a type of mulch. And that's one tree. The Haitians who are running this part of the project now were running circles around me. I appreciated their kind (and practical) gestures of only filling my buckets halfway. They've assigned me to breakfast-making duty tomorrow.

My favorite moment so far has to be watching the World Cup final yesterday afternoon. Someone in Anse a Pitre rigged up a television and set it up in a cinderblock room. You had to pay to get in, so I found some Haitian teenagers and offered to pay for them if they would show me where to find the secret location. Inside, it was packed with fans of all ages, leaning in to see the set, and exclaiming at every single event in the game. I learned pretty quickly that we were cheering for Argentina, so I went along. But then when Germany scored, there was equal excitement, so much so that I thought the Argentine goalie had saved it, and we were cheering for the save. I was pretty confused when it went into overtime, because I thought the score was 1-0, Argentina. Turns out my Haitian game-watching pals were for whoever happened to be scoring at the time. Made for a celebratory afternoon, no matter what!

Can't wait to be joined here by the group of folks from Bethesda (and my parents!) who have trustingly and lovingly signed on for a week of learning from, meeting, and hopefully making some longtime friends in Haiti. 

I'll keep you posted!