<---Wiki on the left, cadrak on the right. I feel so lucky to have been here for the MOH graduation today. Only 2% of Haiti's entire population graduates from high school, so it was a really big deal. the entire service was in french and there was a lot of singing and clapping and excitement. most of the speeches revolved around thanking all those people who had helped make the education possible and when the names were called it was the parents who stood up and everyone in the assembly applauded to the parents/families. there was a lot of talk about going out and making a new haiti. it was really exciting and i was so happy for all the students to be honored this way. it was especially nice for us bc Wiki graduated today and we were able to congratulate him and see who his parents were. we all took pictures with him (and cadrak of course) and when i congratulated him he said "i've been waiting for this day for thirteen years". and i know that wasn't an exaggeration. he is a great person and i think that he will do great things. i can't wait to surprise him on sunday! this afternoon i went to the market with the other interns and we bought some mangos and other random stuff for the party. roger, the other male intern, bought two live chickens that he is going to fatten up for us all to eat. the kitchen ladies are really excited; i'm kind of curious to see if they really do run around once their heads are cut off. bc there was only a few of us, it was my most intimate experience of the haitian way of life that i've had yet. i wish that i could take pictures of all that i see when i'm in the midst of the haitian people, but i know that that would be beyond rude... often when we are in town there is a lot of "blan! blan!" bc there are never any white people in the slums (ie most of haiti) and kids will run up to us trying to sell stuff or see if we have anything. today there was this one kid hanging around us about 13 yrs old...he didn't say anything, but just kind of stood at a distance wherever we went. the boy was all skin and bones and covered with dirt from head to toe. he had two completely different shoes on....one green croc which his toes had broken through and a girl's red sandal. he had a nice face. i smiled and waved and he shyly did the same. no matter where we went i could feel his eyes on me...not in a weird way, just kind of like he was curious. i remembered that i had a package of crackers and peanut butter in my bag, so i gave it to him and he thanked me and put it in his back pocket. he continued to stay with us most of the time we were there, never saying anything or asking for anything, but for some reason he was the only thing i noticed for the longest time. i don't know why this image struck me so hard, but i was frozen in the moment between me and a boy who's life was a world apart from mine. venna, a young female interpretor, had accompanied us into town and we squished into a tap tap filled with 15 people. i was exactly in the middle, and it was hot. after we had finishe
d our shopping venna said we could go to her "house" which was nearby. she was so excited to bring us there and show us around. the structure was actually a lot nicer than the shacks i had seen around, but it was still pretty shaky. it consisted mainly of one small room with a side space with a hot plate which she called the kitchen. the picture that i attached shows both the her shower and her bathroom. on the left is the white bucket that she uses as a shower, and the green bucket to the right is her toilet, which she described to us as her bathroom. she was so excited to show us everything. she takes care of her sister and her brother and also another girl whose whole family had died and she had taken in. there are also 3 other boys that live there who have no where else to live right now. she said its hard bc it's expensive, and we figured out that it costs about $250 american to live there for a year. later this night i found out from someone else that she had been robbed 3 days ago and they had stolen $150...her house savings.a side note on stealing. if a haitian is caught stealing from the market, the townspeople will catch and lynch him and that is considered social justice. put tires around him and light him on fire. in the cops' eyes, that is what the thief deserved and retaliation is expected. if someone hits someone while driving he won't stop bc if he did there is a good chance that the mob of onlookers would kill him. not to make haitians sound like savages, just illustrating how the people take justice in their own hands, bc there is nothing coming from the top.
while the others were inside talking i was outside with the kids letting them play with my camera. two of them had no pants on and all were filthy. they were really REALLY funny. i would show them the pictures and everytime i pointed to someone they would all say the that person's name in unison, it was so cute. they really get a kick out of getting to see what they look like. it's pretty funny to see their reactions.
one easy game that i've found that most of the kids like to play is the one where one person's hand is one the bottom and the other's is on the top and the bottom person needs to slap the hands on the top before the other pulls away. i tried to teach this to one of the little boys....he wasn't quite getting it, but he was having a lot of fun with the hand slapping part so i just went with it. the kids were all around and i heard someone yell "friend! friend!" from nextdoor and there was a boy probably around 17 in an open house. he put both hands out palms up, so i knew he wanted to play the slap game. i went over with my entourage of little half-naked kids and we started to play. the only thing was that when he slapped my hands, he slapped them HARD. it would make such a loud noise that all the little kids around us were in stitches. and when i finally got him, they all cheered! it was quite the spectacle. by the time we were done, we had drawn a mini crowd and my hands were red and throbbing. i have not laughed that hard since i've been here; it was the the kind of deep laugh that doesn't even leave room to take a breath...
on the walk back, one lady tried to give me her baby.
i don't know if i mentioned this before, but when i was riding through port au prince
when i first got here i saw a rickety old mini bus which said "Groton Public Schools" on the side which is the name of where my dad and relatives teach. but then of course i realized that there could be lots of grotons, so i didn't really think about it. well today when we were getting ready to hail a tap tap back i amazingly saw the same bus parked on a side street. i walked up to it and sure enough, on the bottom it said Groton, CT!! How unbelievably CRAZY is that? I'm in haiti, and somehow i run across a bus that is from the small hometown in my tiny little corner of connecticut. wild.we ended up walking back to the compound which wasn't too far, and it was nice to appreciate all the beautiful haitian landscape. lots of banana trees and rolling green mountains. animals and farms and villages.
we had hobo packs for dinner again, i eat way too much here. we also made a million pb & j sandwiches for the big orphanage beach trip tomorrow. we are each in charge of a group of the kids, so i'll have my hands full . i'm becoming really close with the other 4 interns...we have a lot of fun together, especially at night. the leaders are always busting on us, trying to see who they can give the dirtiest job to. lawrence has begun making us chase the truck in order to jump in the back (not easy in a skirt!). both him and dr. cheryl are really frank with us about everything...it's nice to be in a what-you-see is what-you-get type of atmosphere.
sweaty and full and tired...off to bed. it's been a good day, i'd say one of the best.
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