Haitian Holiday

I last wrote about the challenges of home schooling on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning it was a breeze. I count all the victories! Not sure why the inconsistencies but thankful for the smooth days that remind me they exist.

We were planning to go into Port Au Prince on Wednesday but couldn't get ourselves together and both girls were in need of a nap so we postponed to Thursday. Wednesday afternoon filled up with important things like playing xbox and such. I realized in passing that the internet was working, and not just working but working fast. That was the moment I thought ... what were all the things this week I wanted to look up? Of course very few things came to mind. I spent some time looking at ways to be creative to teach first grade between my turns to play xbox. It's amazing how much I miss the internet and how little it actually impacts the quality of life. I can usually guess on a recipe or go without reading a blog or navigate my way through how to kill a nest of tarantulas with my own common sense. Ok at least the first two.

So Thursday we pile in the car and head to PAP and Petionville (1.5 to 2 hours away) to talk to a carpenter about making Lilly and Ava a little table and chairs as well as find a basketball goal and have lunch out. We weren't 15 minutes outside of the gates when Alex mentions that it's a holiday. It's some kind of agriculture day. Go figure. He assured us that only government entities were closed. As we got closer to PAP Alex said oh and all the hardware stores are closed too. And then we drive up the mountain to Petionville and Alex says yeah, almost everything is closed today. A small detail that would've helped us reschedule. I chalk it up to "it's Haiti." Every Haitian on staff knew it was a holiday and watched us pull out of the compound to go into town. Nonetheless we met our three objectives. And we enjoyed being out. It was good to feel the breeze with the windows down and see life happening outside the walls. At the end of the day I was actually glad our trip wasn't lengthened by "quick stops" in all the places we would've gone that were closed.

I gave Lilly the day off school since we live in Haiti and it was a Haitian holiday. We saw parades of kids holding tiny plants on one side of the street. Alex said they would plant the baby trees somewhere. The point is to improve the agriculture and beauty of Haiti. Ironically on the other side of the street, men were selling long sticks to make scaffolding and bags of charcoal which require deforestation for cooking. One side of the street people are planting and on the other they are destroying. One is adding to beauty and creation, the other side, working against it. Isn't that always the way it goes? Someone always working against us?

The girls and I played games on the road. We counted coconuts on the trees and named the craziest things people carry on their heads (knives) as well as shout out what street foods we would or wouldn't eat. We found Stan a basketball goal (for a small fortune), ordered the table and ate out all in the small window of 8 hours time.

Lunch options out can be limiting (as can bathrooms) in Haiti. We stopped at one place called the Shack, a burger and fries joint, that probably had a decent burger but smelled like old oil and a lot of sweaty employees. The Haitian soap opera was playing on TV and I opted to try somewhere else. We ended up eating at the Quartier Latin which would have been great for a date with some live music. The environment was good but the food expensive and menu limited. The girls were pleased when I ordered them cheese pizza and Charles was happy to order a burger and fries despite our change in location. I passed since they didn't have gluten free options. Unfortunately, the girls' pizza was four cheese which I hadn't noticed and Lilly was quick to notice there was "blue stuff" all over it. Let's just say they aren't big blue cheese fans and so Charles ate a burger and fries and took a pizza home with us along with $50 less dollars and three cranky, hungry passengers. I think this is the kind of thing I remember from Bolivia where running errands is an all-day escapade with very little productivity. We went to one American type grocery store and home store along the way. The home store had a swing set out front with grass. Lilly walked to it, taken aback ... "Look mom, it's grass!!!" So she may either always be thankful for the little things or be in a bit of culture shock when we get back to the States. We left the grocery store with three personal blue bunny ice creams and some trail mix. At one point Ava said my tummy hurts from the backseat and then proceeded to eat another bite of ice cream. Poor thing ... too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. We made it back and last night Lilly's prayers included, "thank you God for providing ice cream to my belly."

Counting all our blessings.