The mini ants got through the wrappers on my cliff bars..

Odds and ends.

My last class of the day goes until about 7:00pm, when the bar nearby has already started blasting it's music. Listening to Pitbull while teaching.. I love it.

Lil' Wayne has become a daily topic of conversation in my classroom. One of my students who speaks English really well is always asking me to translate questionable lyrics – always good for a laugh.

Patience is a virtue...

And it's one that most people reading this probably wouldn't put on a list of my top.. say 20... best qualities. I've learned oh so many lessons in patience during my month in Haiti so far. For example, they said they wanted me to get an x-ray in Cap, which I was initially protesting, but after another night of little sleep even with pain medication I was all for it to see what's actually up with my body. So I diligently spread the word the night before that my classes were going to be cancelled the following morning. Then in the morning it was decided to wait another day. I honestly wouldn't mind if I hadn't had to cancel class, I guess I should have waited until the morning. I'm really concerned about continuity for my group.

So I'm still going over to see if anyone show sup who didn't get the message, and if not I'm just going to use the time to hash out more thorough plans and work on my online TESOL class.

*Immediately after writing that someone came and got me to say I was going to get the x-ray.

The x-ray experience was a worthwhile adventure. When you get an x-ray in the US the person asks you at least 50 times if there's any slim chance in the universe you might be pregnant. Not here. Just take your shirt off and we'll radiate you.

This excursion was significant because I had to make phone calls in Creole – and they were successful! I even got to try to make some photocopies. I have 30 half-complete books. The power went out halfway through.

I even got to still have class when I got back, there were about a dozen students. The students that showed up were ones that are really into everything, so it ended up being a great class working in groups with flashcards.

Turns out I couldn't have class Friday morning either way because there's a mobile clinic at the school. I'm sad to not see my morning students, but I'm happy to get so much time to plan and sort out my attendance so I can figure out who should get books first.

Nothing on my x-ray. So just hot compresses and this gel stuff that is kind of like icy-hot and has worked miracles.

Saturday night I got to have a little excursion. One of the women that deals with the financial side of things here just opened a restaurant/bar in town. I was just hanging out outside the hospital when she tells me to jump in the truck to come into town. It was great! Amazing food and music, and I got to keep practicing my Creole. The weird thing was for a while I was the only female in the place other than the owner and her mother. That's still taking some getting used to.

Sunday I was finally able to check out mass in Creole, which here in Borgne begins at 7:00am and lasts about two hours. There had to be at least triple the number of songs, and everyone knew all the words! The thin wooden pews reminded me of several churches I've been to in France. I could understand the priest for the homily, but everyone else was still a little too difficult to make out between my untrained ear and the crackling sound system. There was one part of mass I really didn't feel comfortable about – collection. The way it worked at this church was that two people stood up front like they would for communion and they each held a chest. If you were giving money then you got in line and put your money in. I wonder how people would feel about that method at home?

Today -

Another Monday – and another morning without class! There's a large meeting for the peasant organization so I can't use the school. My week is already being all switched around because of the big celebration in Borgne. It's the week where everyone who's left Borgne comes back, and it's all making it difficult to have continuity.  

*Apologies for the lack of photos - the silly usb ports on my computer don't like to recognize anything!