The roosters woke me up!

I arrived in Haiti yesterday after a thankfully uneventful day of flying.  All my flights were on time, all my luggage arrived, and everything (including all money for the new school that I was so worried about) made it safely.  It’s 5:14 AM and although I’ve been trying to sleep longer the roosters started crowing about 4:40 and I’ve been trying to get back to sleep ever since! I can also hear the distant beat of music out my window…at 5 in the morning!

My host family is wonderful!  Mario speaks great English so he and I are using that to communicate.  Evangeline and I use French together, and I use Kreyol with the children at the house.  The children and I only understand about half of what the other is saying but its good practice for me!

The home where I am staying is quite spacious and nice.  They have running water for the bathroom-it comes from a tank on the roof, I think, and Evangeline puts bleach in it once a day (she didn’t have to do this before the earthquake).  Also before the earthquake, water came out of her kitchen sink faucet but now she needs to get it from downstairs and put bleach in it before she uses it to cook or wash dishes. 

Music, dancing, and art are a huge part of Haitian life and last night, after a tasty dinner of Haitian food (fried plantains, beans and rice, salad, and fish-I didn’t eat the fish though), I was reminded of that.  The family cranked up the Kompa Haitian music and we all were dancing in the dining room.  If you heard Haitian music you would find it impossible to NOT dance!  Without warning, the music stopped and the house went dark.  The electricity went out!  And so it goes:  on then off then on then off…it has gone off at least 5 times in the 15 hours I have been here!  It’s a good thing the roosters are my alarm clock and I don’t have to rely on the electricity!

On the trip from the airport to the house, Haiti was exactly as I remember it.  I didn’t see tons of earthquake rubble as I feared I would, although the worst damage was in Port-au-Prince and I am staying in suburb.  Tons of people were along the road selling things as the dusty road meandered through lots of pedestrian and vehicle traffic.  I don’t get the impression that it is significantly more dangerous than when I was here last-it feels just the same.  That frenetic energy I so love about Haiti is still here. 

The old, earthquake destroyed school is actually the bottom floor of the house where I am staying, which worries me quite a bit but I try not to think of it.  If there were another earthquake, I am sure the entire structure would collapse.  Out the window, Mario and Evangeline pointed out a new, green, roof in the near distance.  The new school!  They walked me to the school, which is just a block away.  The roof looks great!  It looks very solid and very professional.  As I stood there with pride, Mario said, “this is because of you” and I added, “it is really because of my friends and family and students”, to which Mario added, “we are thankful that God brought you to us”.  I am thankful too.  Thanks again to all of you!

The completed portion of the roof covers the “auditorium” area, a large room used by several classes, as you can see in the picture.  About a third of the school doesn’t yet have a completed roof, so most of the classes are now meeting in this main room.  There are a handful of other classrooms that are not yet covered.  Above you'll see a picture of the bathrooms at the school-not much privacy there!  The lot and building are both quite large and the school currently has about 200 students.  It is a non-profit, and the monthly tuition is a whopping $10 US!  Things in Haiti seem surprisingly expensive so I am happy to hear that school is so inexpensive.  Teachers in Haiti make about $150 a month so $10/child for school can really add up on a teacher’s salary. 

Julie Peters Akey