Thursday, September 13, 2007

Today I spent the morning mostly working on some stuff in the house for Larry and his wife. At about 9 we went to Forges to drop off a load of benches at one of our schools. It was really fun because I had not yet been to that part of the county or seen this school. We had to go through this little town to get there and I was amazed at how many people and stands were set up for a non market day. The road on which we traveled to get where we were going consisted of the creek, fields, and sand. When we got to the school/church I found the most crystal clear creek water I have ever seen. Roland and I will be returning to swim with the locals in the very near future. For today however, I simply waded out to the middle for some photos and to spend some time in some non dirty, non salty water. We toured the school and the church, unloaded our cargo and took off. We stopped at the market I mentioned earlier because one of the gentlemen with us needed some things. It was good we stopped though because there were two young boys that needed a ride and fortunately they knew Roland so it was not a problem. The driver was in quite a hurry because he also had to go out to the far west today. However, since he is such a nice guy he stopped at the mission for us so I could pick up a few things, popcorn oil, light bulbs, and a TV cable. I only found one of the three things, the popcorn oil, which was the most important one so that was a good stop. Back at the Orphanage, I spent some time talking with Larry and his wife about things to come, and then spent like an hour working with Tigens on his English. He has started letting me try to say some of the Creole as well, I think it is helping a lot. One of the parents asked me if I would teach him English as well so I will be starting with him very soon. Once Tigens and I were done some of the other kids wanted to help me speak Creole as well so we read from a Learn to Speak Creole book for a while. At about 4 Diana (Larry’s wife) asked Roland and I to go downtown to try and find a spool of Teal thread that she forgot in the states, she is making curtains for someone and needs to finish. This was quite the experience, because the Haitians did not understand what Teal was and they use really old sewing machines so their spools are either really small or the ones that are big on one end and get smaller towards the top. After failing at 4 different shops we gave up, bought light bulbs and a 12 pack of sprite, and went back to the Orphanage. When we got back I took 6 of the boys up to the house to let them read an email response from Rachel Buck, a previous intern at the Orphanage that they had emailed last week. They were all really excited because they miss her a lot, and are already planning what they can send her next. After that it was popcorn time, but first I went to the seven eleven to get a little more oil, because yesterday the owner said he had a little bit I could have. From 7-830 three of the boys and I made 3 batches of popcorn each for all 5 families and the children ABSOLUTELY loved it. And what is better is that one of the boys found like 2 gallons of oil in one of the storage depots from when they machine was here before. Now I have like a week’s worth of oil. However, I ran out of salt tonight so I have to go on a mission to find that tomorrow that is ok though because I can make popcorn without salt. I thought the night was going great, we were jamming to some Reggae, making popcorn having a great time, until, while I was cleaning out the machine I touched a part of it that was a little warm and burnt three of my fingers on my right hand. My pinky, ring, and middle fingers now have a “/” on the top portion of them. It is ok though, because I am used to popcorn machine burns and comparatively, these were nothing. I found some burn cream and band aids and am back in action. Bed time now, have a great (insert time frame). Peace