Monday, August 30, 2010
Gym
Hell has officially frozen over. I have joined a gym. Yes, Haiti has gyms and yes, I have joined one. What next?
Saturday, August 28, 2010
OMG!
Ok, so it looks like I can load about one small picture every 20 minutes. Here are some pictures of rubble:
And here is a picture of how pretty Haiti is:
And here is a picture of how pretty Haiti is:
Week 3
This week was yet another very long one. By the time Friday rolls around, we're usually too tired to actually go out and do anything. Last night Justine, Geraldine and I made dinner, drank some wine, and watched Sex and the City 2. Good god was that a horrible movie and borderline offensive. Anyway. Every three months us expats need to leave the country in order to get a new three month visa upon re-entry, so Ali left for the DR yesterday and comes back Sunday. I'm pretty jealous! I hope to get over there at some point. I would also love to get over to Cuba while I'm here, but that's obviously a bit more tricky as an American.
Things are really ramping up, work-wise. During the month of September and through the beginning of October my organisation is doing two huge campaigns. Justine is in charge of the indoor residual spraying campaign. Over the course of four weeks we will (in theory) have 100 volunteers spray the inside of 18,000 tents, shelters, and houses with insecticide that kills mosquitoes and lasts about 6 months. The logistics of this operation are absolutely nuts since each person spraying needs about 20 litres of water a day. And we're an organisation of 5 expats with a total of four cars to our name. Then, at the same time, we're also doing a massive larviciding campaign, which is what I'm in charge of. Over the course of ten days we will have 250 volunteers putting a powdered insecticide in containers used for water storage in over 70,000 tents, shelters, and houses in 6 different areas of Port au Prince. The chemical kills the larvae of the mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. The logistics of this project will also be nuts due to the sheer number of households we're looking to cover, the fact that we're covering 6 different areas of PaP (unlike the IRS campaign where we're doing one area), and the fact that it's going on at the same time as the IRS campaign. We're also working "hand in hand" with the department of health for both of these campaigns, so the realities of just trying to get meetings with them that they remember we're having usually results in a lot of time being wasted. Also, for my larviciding campaign, we're hiring 6 new national staff members. On Thursday and Friday we finally started interviewing people. It's pretty hit or miss, and right now I think we have two people we would hire. We only have 4 or 5 more interviews left on Monday, so basically they all have to be awesome and they all have to say yes in order for our schedule to work out the way we've planned. Stress!!
A lot of this past week was spent driving around with our department of health contact and Geraldine trying to visit the different mayors of the areas we'll be conducting the campaign to a) inform them, b) ask them to find us a training room and a storage space for free, and c) ask them to find the number of volunteers we need from each area and make sure it's 50% men and 50% women and make sure they can all read and write. Times that by 6 and the logistics of just trying to get this off the ground seem almost impossible. It's pretty overwhelming, so I've just had to put my head down and think it through one step at a time to feel like I'm making any progress. If we had more time it would be fine, but we're on a very tight schedule as our project is only funded until the end of November, but everyone's contracts are ending before that, which means that by the beginning of October, as of now, it will just be me and Justine left. Not really sure how we'll pull these two projects off without at least a logistics person. Stress!!
So that's sort of the long and short of my major work here. We have some other smaller projects as well, like mosquito net distribution, but those are either winding down or are just much, much smaller. For some reason our internet connection does not like letting me load pictures onto the blog, so for a link to some photos I've posted on facebook, click here. Again, feel free to let me know what you're interested in hearing more about. You lose perspectives on these things quickly.
Overall things are going pretty ok. I'm feeling a bit more on top of the work in terms of understanding what needs to be done, although that doesn't necessarily make me on top of the work itself. It's the type of job where there just literally aren't enough hours in the day and where your to do list is always twice as long as what you have time for which makes you feel like you're constantly doing triage rather than having some organised system to your work. In a really backwards way, though, it's a challenge I like having and one I hope to someday feel like I've conquered. Another huge challenge is just staff management. Right now Justine and I have a team of 5 national staff members. While they're great in many ways, they are not at all independent. So whenever they're in the office it's basically like babysitting. You can't just give them a task to do and come back at the end of the day and expect it to be a) done and b) in the way you wanted. So the amount of planning and hand holding that goes into staff management takes a LOT of time and effort. And to think that we're going to be more than doubling our team in the next week is a very frightening thought sometimes. But we do need them and they are invaluable to our work, so I think I just need to get better at managing them.
This weekend we've got a random night out at some Argentinians (?) on the cards and maybe a day at Heather's pool tomorrow. Exciting stuff. I hope everyone is enjoying their ability to go where they want when they want and to walk freely in the streets. The things I'll never take for granted again....
Things are really ramping up, work-wise. During the month of September and through the beginning of October my organisation is doing two huge campaigns. Justine is in charge of the indoor residual spraying campaign. Over the course of four weeks we will (in theory) have 100 volunteers spray the inside of 18,000 tents, shelters, and houses with insecticide that kills mosquitoes and lasts about 6 months. The logistics of this operation are absolutely nuts since each person spraying needs about 20 litres of water a day. And we're an organisation of 5 expats with a total of four cars to our name. Then, at the same time, we're also doing a massive larviciding campaign, which is what I'm in charge of. Over the course of ten days we will have 250 volunteers putting a powdered insecticide in containers used for water storage in over 70,000 tents, shelters, and houses in 6 different areas of Port au Prince. The chemical kills the larvae of the mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. The logistics of this project will also be nuts due to the sheer number of households we're looking to cover, the fact that we're covering 6 different areas of PaP (unlike the IRS campaign where we're doing one area), and the fact that it's going on at the same time as the IRS campaign. We're also working "hand in hand" with the department of health for both of these campaigns, so the realities of just trying to get meetings with them that they remember we're having usually results in a lot of time being wasted. Also, for my larviciding campaign, we're hiring 6 new national staff members. On Thursday and Friday we finally started interviewing people. It's pretty hit or miss, and right now I think we have two people we would hire. We only have 4 or 5 more interviews left on Monday, so basically they all have to be awesome and they all have to say yes in order for our schedule to work out the way we've planned. Stress!!
A lot of this past week was spent driving around with our department of health contact and Geraldine trying to visit the different mayors of the areas we'll be conducting the campaign to a) inform them, b) ask them to find us a training room and a storage space for free, and c) ask them to find the number of volunteers we need from each area and make sure it's 50% men and 50% women and make sure they can all read and write. Times that by 6 and the logistics of just trying to get this off the ground seem almost impossible. It's pretty overwhelming, so I've just had to put my head down and think it through one step at a time to feel like I'm making any progress. If we had more time it would be fine, but we're on a very tight schedule as our project is only funded until the end of November, but everyone's contracts are ending before that, which means that by the beginning of October, as of now, it will just be me and Justine left. Not really sure how we'll pull these two projects off without at least a logistics person. Stress!!
So that's sort of the long and short of my major work here. We have some other smaller projects as well, like mosquito net distribution, but those are either winding down or are just much, much smaller. For some reason our internet connection does not like letting me load pictures onto the blog, so for a link to some photos I've posted on facebook, click here. Again, feel free to let me know what you're interested in hearing more about. You lose perspectives on these things quickly.
Overall things are going pretty ok. I'm feeling a bit more on top of the work in terms of understanding what needs to be done, although that doesn't necessarily make me on top of the work itself. It's the type of job where there just literally aren't enough hours in the day and where your to do list is always twice as long as what you have time for which makes you feel like you're constantly doing triage rather than having some organised system to your work. In a really backwards way, though, it's a challenge I like having and one I hope to someday feel like I've conquered. Another huge challenge is just staff management. Right now Justine and I have a team of 5 national staff members. While they're great in many ways, they are not at all independent. So whenever they're in the office it's basically like babysitting. You can't just give them a task to do and come back at the end of the day and expect it to be a) done and b) in the way you wanted. So the amount of planning and hand holding that goes into staff management takes a LOT of time and effort. And to think that we're going to be more than doubling our team in the next week is a very frightening thought sometimes. But we do need them and they are invaluable to our work, so I think I just need to get better at managing them.
This weekend we've got a random night out at some Argentinians (?) on the cards and maybe a day at Heather's pool tomorrow. Exciting stuff. I hope everyone is enjoying their ability to go where they want when they want and to walk freely in the streets. The things I'll never take for granted again....
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Past Week
(Written last night)
Last week seemed very long, especially since we didn’t have an entire day off at any point last weekend. This weekend was much better. On Friday night Justine’s friend Brian came over and we young folks (all but the CD) just hung out. We made some punch using the fresh juice our cook/cleaner had made that day and had a nice time just sitting around and talking. On Saturday Brian picked us up in the morning and we headed to the beach. We went to a “secret” beach that he knew of right near
Saturday evening we were sort of hosting a party at a local bar/club type place. The playlist Ali worked so hard on ended up being a bit of a disaster based on a lack of communication with the DJ, I think, but it was still a really fun time. The place itself was quite cool. The bar/eating area was covered, but looked out on a dance area that was open to the outside. We had a fair number of people come and had a really fun time dancing. My friend Jesse came who I know from my Peace Corps days. He just arrived in
Rewinding to last week: like I said, it was long. The good news is that I’m starting to feel like I have a better handle on what’s going on and am actually starting to feel a bit useful. A nice change. We’re working with the Cuban Medical Brigade on one of our very big projects, so on Wednesday Justine and I spent all day with two of them going around to their different bases to try and make plans. We left the house at 6:30am, picked them up at their house 45 minutes later, and then drove three hours to their base in Petit Goave. We met the guy in charge there, Frank, who is probably one of the funniest people I’ve interacted with in a long time. The Cubans don’t speak a word of French, but they do speak Creole. Since we don’t speak Creole, most of the day was conducted in Spanish (which Justine understands and speaks a little of) and one woman, Maria’s English that she learned during her four years in The Gambia and used to translate the Spanish for us. We went to three different bases of theirs that day, spent about 7 or 8 hours in the car, and didn’t get home until 9:30 at night. Luckily the Cubans were so lovely and I got to see so much that it was worth it. I loved that at each base nothing could begin until everyone had kissed everyone on the cheek, coffee had been served (even at 6:30 at night), and pleasantries had been exchanged. Everyone was so nice and seemed really open to our crazy project and totally willing to help us. They’re very laid back, which I know will sometimes be frustrating, but they also really know their communities, so I think they’ll be a great partner for us. We ended the day by treating ourselves to some Domino’s Pizza. Yes, they have a real Domino’s Pizza in Port au Prince. Who would have thunk it? It cost us approximately one million dollars, but it was worth it.
It was really good for me to get to drive through some of the areas we work in, even if it was just barely scratching the surface of each area. Now I have a visual when we talk about these areas for planning purposes, have some idea of how far apart they are, and have first hand experience with the legendary traffic. I’m going to spend Tuesday and Thursday of this week going to different areas, so I’m hoping to get more and more comfortable with the lay of the land and be able to plan and make decisions more effectively because of it.
I realize that someday I’m going to have to sit down and write a more detailed post about what the heck it is I actually do, but this post is long enough as it is and I’m tired! That’s for another day. Goodnight for now!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Haitian Frogs
OK, as promised here is something a bit more uplifting: What Justine and I have been up to in our free time.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Second Impressions
As of Friday evening I had survived my first working week in Haiti. As in made it out alive, but just barely. Things continue to be hectic and crazy. We usually start working somewhere between 7 and 7:30am and usually continue till around 6:30pm. Definitely not the work day I'm used to. And this weekend we worked 3 or 4 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. Again, throw in the language barrier to all of that and it makes for a pretty exhausting, um, life. Not to be dramatic. Now, don't get the wrong idea. It's not like I've actually been doing work all of that time, because I'm still just trying to get my head around this entire insane project. Instead I've been trying to act like I have some idea of what's going on, which I think is more tiring than actually knowing what's going on. And because we work and live in the same place, there are pretty much no boundaries when it comes to talking about work. After an 11 hour work day, if you're sitting drinking a beer on the porch and someone remembers something about the budget you were working on 8 hours ago together, they'll bring it up. Definitely an adjustment for me.
Today Justine and I started to divide up different parts of the project and assign ourselves to certain partners and proposals, so hopefully that will start to force me to take some sense of ownership of certain things and just dive in. Although I'm still very frustrated with my French, I do feel that I've made some improvements in both my speaking and my understanding in the last 1.5 weeks, so that's good, I guess.
What's been really nice the last weekish is getting to know the other people who I live/work with. The Country Director is a bit older, and I still have a really hard time with his French Canadian accent, but I feel like he tolerates my lack of understanding his French and anything else, really, quite well. The other two people (I didn't know before) are Ali (guy) and Geraldine (girl), both French. Justine and I are right around the same ages as them, and they're really cool. They've been uber patient with me and my crappy French and have already taught me some great phrases and swear words. They both have really good English (of course), so we tend to speak a lot of English on the weekends (well, if having been here for two weekends can be considered "tending to") which isn't necessarily great for my French, but is really nice for my sanity. I try and force my French during the workday, but it's nice to be able to have the option to have a break, unlike in Guinea where no one in my village spoke English at all. And we've been getting along so well already that I've been able to say, "When I say 'Pardon?' in French, please don't then just say it in English. Repeat it in French because I would really like to understand the way it's said." And they understand that and have been good about it. And they also want me to correct their English, which is funny because I really had to think about why Geraldine had had too much alcohol but too many cigarettes. English is hard sometimes. We all went out this weekend to a friend's (ok, I knew him for a week, but they're friends with him) going away party on Friday and then to another NGO's party on Saturday. After doing some work on Sunday Justine and I went to our friend from LSHTM's house, Heather. It was really good to see her and her place (they have a pool!) and to catch up on what's been going on since she left London.
On our drive back from Heather's house last night I saw my first dead body outside of a funeral home. Ever. That was...really disturbing for me. I was in the front seat of the car and we were heading up the main road that goes to our house and in the headlights I saw something at the side of the road, but couldn't tell what it was until we almost passed it. It was a man, fully dressed, laying on his back literally on the side of the road. He definitely hadn't been there a few hours earlier and when I asked Justine said there are a lot of road accidents in our area. When I asked what would happen to him she said nothing until his family comes and gets him. I couldn't believe there was just a dead body laying on the side of the road and that people were going about their normal business. I was definitely a bit freaked out, like when we saw a kid get run over by a truck on our second day in Guinea. I don't know if I'm alone in making it to this age without having seen a dead body out in the open, but I was definitely fine not having seen that before. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep because I couldn't get that image out of my head. I'm sure he won't be there the next time I go down that road (tomorrow), but I will still be nervous and looking around when I do. I'm sure it won't be the last time I see a body in this country, but I definitely was not expecting that last night. Makes me feel ridiculously sheltered and lucky to not have ever fought in a war or anything where that would be a regular sight.
And while we're talking about depressing things, one of our Haitian staff member's cousins was kidnapped today. Apparently Haitian Americans and rich Haitians are big targets these days. Based on these two events I just described, I'm beginning to think that the safety and security regulations I complained about in a previous post aren't so ridiculous after all....Many NGOs assign not only drivers to their staff, but body guards.
I'm definitely feeling really blah, though, due to a lack of any exercise at all. I've never been a gym person, but I've always liked not owning a car and walking everywhere. Now that I can't do that, I might seriously have to consider breaking down and joining the gym. Ali and Geraldine go every night, so at least I'd have people to go with. Ugh.
Ok, so not the most exciting or uplifting post, so the next one will be. Sorry folks, just trying to tell it like it is.
Today Justine and I started to divide up different parts of the project and assign ourselves to certain partners and proposals, so hopefully that will start to force me to take some sense of ownership of certain things and just dive in. Although I'm still very frustrated with my French, I do feel that I've made some improvements in both my speaking and my understanding in the last 1.5 weeks, so that's good, I guess.
What's been really nice the last weekish is getting to know the other people who I live/work with. The Country Director is a bit older, and I still have a really hard time with his French Canadian accent, but I feel like he tolerates my lack of understanding his French and anything else, really, quite well. The other two people (I didn't know before) are Ali (guy) and Geraldine (girl), both French. Justine and I are right around the same ages as them, and they're really cool. They've been uber patient with me and my crappy French and have already taught me some great phrases and swear words. They both have really good English (of course), so we tend to speak a lot of English on the weekends (well, if having been here for two weekends can be considered "tending to") which isn't necessarily great for my French, but is really nice for my sanity. I try and force my French during the workday, but it's nice to be able to have the option to have a break, unlike in Guinea where no one in my village spoke English at all. And we've been getting along so well already that I've been able to say, "When I say 'Pardon?' in French, please don't then just say it in English. Repeat it in French because I would really like to understand the way it's said." And they understand that and have been good about it. And they also want me to correct their English, which is funny because I really had to think about why Geraldine had had too much alcohol but too many cigarettes. English is hard sometimes. We all went out this weekend to a friend's (ok, I knew him for a week, but they're friends with him) going away party on Friday and then to another NGO's party on Saturday. After doing some work on Sunday Justine and I went to our friend from LSHTM's house, Heather. It was really good to see her and her place (they have a pool!) and to catch up on what's been going on since she left London.
On our drive back from Heather's house last night I saw my first dead body outside of a funeral home. Ever. That was...really disturbing for me. I was in the front seat of the car and we were heading up the main road that goes to our house and in the headlights I saw something at the side of the road, but couldn't tell what it was until we almost passed it. It was a man, fully dressed, laying on his back literally on the side of the road. He definitely hadn't been there a few hours earlier and when I asked Justine said there are a lot of road accidents in our area. When I asked what would happen to him she said nothing until his family comes and gets him. I couldn't believe there was just a dead body laying on the side of the road and that people were going about their normal business. I was definitely a bit freaked out, like when we saw a kid get run over by a truck on our second day in Guinea. I don't know if I'm alone in making it to this age without having seen a dead body out in the open, but I was definitely fine not having seen that before. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep because I couldn't get that image out of my head. I'm sure he won't be there the next time I go down that road (tomorrow), but I will still be nervous and looking around when I do. I'm sure it won't be the last time I see a body in this country, but I definitely was not expecting that last night. Makes me feel ridiculously sheltered and lucky to not have ever fought in a war or anything where that would be a regular sight.
And while we're talking about depressing things, one of our Haitian staff member's cousins was kidnapped today. Apparently Haitian Americans and rich Haitians are big targets these days. Based on these two events I just described, I'm beginning to think that the safety and security regulations I complained about in a previous post aren't so ridiculous after all....Many NGOs assign not only drivers to their staff, but body guards.
I'm definitely feeling really blah, though, due to a lack of any exercise at all. I've never been a gym person, but I've always liked not owning a car and walking everywhere. Now that I can't do that, I might seriously have to consider breaking down and joining the gym. Ali and Geraldine go every night, so at least I'd have people to go with. Ugh.
Ok, so not the most exciting or uplifting post, so the next one will be. Sorry folks, just trying to tell it like it is.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pictures
For some reason blogger does not seem to be liking my attempts to upload photos. Unless uploading one photo should take more than 20 minutes. So in the meantime I'll post links to pictures. Here are some from my leaving drinks in London.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
First Impressions
Bonjour tout le monde!
Where to begin....there's so much to be said, and yet I'm hesitant to put anything down in writing because my thoughts on it all seem to change on a daily basis. I'll start by catching you up on what I've been doing since I arrived last Thursday night.
Friday was my first day of work. With the time difference, the French, the multitude of different French accents, and trying to grasp what the heck this project is about and what my role is, I about died from tiredness by noon. But since we tend to work from about 7:30am till 6pm or so, dying at noon wasn't really an option. I tried my best to stay afloat, especially during the 2.5 hour long meeting in French that I had very little context for, but it was hard not to feel like I was completely faking it. Because I was. /am. I managed to make it through, though, and luckily then it was the weekend!
Saturday I accompanied Justine to an incredibly nice hotel where she was getting a massage and pedicure. The hotel is still rebuilding, but the pool, restaurant, and spa are already open again. I was blown away by the American prices of everything and by just how nice this hotel was. I was further blown away when we went to the grocery store afterwards. I keep wanting to compare this experience to my experience in Guinea, and it becomes clearer and clearer to me every day that this is going to be nothing like Guinea in so many ways. One of the big ways being the amount of stuff you can buy here!!! Things I would have killed children for in Guinea: Kraft mac and cheese, real cheese, chocolate, deli counters, cereal, milk, etc are all available. These are things I couldn't even find in London and here I can just go down to the store and buy them. Everything seems to cost about twice what it would in the States, but it is available. And, what's an even bigger adjustment for me, is that you're expected to buy all of your food at these grocery stores. There's no going to the market or (from what I've seen so far) stopping at the side of the road for fruit or veggies. It's all very strange to me and is definitely taking some time to adjust to.
Being driven around is also an adjustment. I see the tap-taps (taxi-type transport for Haitians) and think that I should be squished in the back there with them and be looking down my nose at those posh ex-pats. But now I am a posh ex-pat and feel pretty guilty about my chauffered car and my expensive American groceries. I dunno, it's all very strange...
Ok, moving along. Saturday night our team of ex-pats (there are 5 of us) went out to dinner at a pizza and ice cream place to say goodbye to the Technical Director, Felix, who had been visiting our site for three weeks. I only knew him a few days, but I really liked him. He spent two years in Guinea as well, from 1986 - 1988, living in the same region as me, so he got a huge kick out of trying to recall his Pular with me. After dinner Justine, Ali and I went to an ex-pat pirate themed party put on by another NGO. That was....interesting, but good to meet some people. I saw a girl I served with in Guinea there, so that was kind of funny. We got home around 4am and woke up at 7:30am on Sunday to go to the beach. We went to Obama beach (yes, it's actually called that) which was really lovely. It was very pretty and the ocean was like bathwater. I swam and napped a lot.
Yesterday was day 2 of work. I'm still trying to learn about all of the activities we're doing/are going to do and all of the different partners we work with and who we need to hire, etc, etc. I finally got set up with an email account and so am slowly being let in on correspondence. I'm in the stage where I feel totally useless, but I think that's pretty inevitable when you start any new job and just aren't fully in the know yet. Especially when that job is in another language.
Last night I was finally able to move into my room. I've been staying in Justine's room with her as there was a bit of room shuffling going on, but now I've got my own. It's about the size of a tissue box, but it's been nice to finally be able to put some things in drawers and not be living out of a suitcase for the first time since July 18th. It's funny to be sleeping under a mosquito net again and be taking malaria pills, but luckily the transmission here is quite low.
This morning I went with two members of our Haitian team to a training they did for another NGO. It was all in Creole, so that was interesting to try and follow along based on my rusty French. It was good to see the team in action, though, and to see them talk about malaria and mosquito nets to youth. Hopefully Thursday I'll actually go to a camp with our Haitian team and observe them distributing nets with the Hatian and Norwegian Red Cross. I've only seen the camps from the car so far and would really like to actually get in one and look around.
So that brings you up to date on my activites. There's already talk of dinner out tomorrow night and NGO parties this weekend. These things become quite necessary when you live and work in the same place. And when you're not allowed to just go out and take a walk. I find myself going stir crazy in the compound pretty quickly. And the regular day to day activities that usually would take up time and would introduce you a bit to how things are done locally don't exist for me. We have a woman who cooks, cleans, and does our laundry for us every day. It's quite bizarre for me and, again, is taking some getting used to. I feel ridiculously sheltered here, but because I am so new it's hard to know if it's actually needed or not. There are definitely security issues, but I do think a little Peace Corps mentality involving integrating with the local culture wouldn't go amiss. Ah well, they didn't hire me for safety and security, that's for sure.
That's about it for now! Do comment so I know you're reading and let me know what you want to hear about. It's hard to know what others will find interesting. Will write more when there's more to say.
Where to begin....there's so much to be said, and yet I'm hesitant to put anything down in writing because my thoughts on it all seem to change on a daily basis. I'll start by catching you up on what I've been doing since I arrived last Thursday night.
Friday was my first day of work. With the time difference, the French, the multitude of different French accents, and trying to grasp what the heck this project is about and what my role is, I about died from tiredness by noon. But since we tend to work from about 7:30am till 6pm or so, dying at noon wasn't really an option. I tried my best to stay afloat, especially during the 2.5 hour long meeting in French that I had very little context for, but it was hard not to feel like I was completely faking it. Because I was. /am. I managed to make it through, though, and luckily then it was the weekend!
Saturday I accompanied Justine to an incredibly nice hotel where she was getting a massage and pedicure. The hotel is still rebuilding, but the pool, restaurant, and spa are already open again. I was blown away by the American prices of everything and by just how nice this hotel was. I was further blown away when we went to the grocery store afterwards. I keep wanting to compare this experience to my experience in Guinea, and it becomes clearer and clearer to me every day that this is going to be nothing like Guinea in so many ways. One of the big ways being the amount of stuff you can buy here!!! Things I would have killed children for in Guinea: Kraft mac and cheese, real cheese, chocolate, deli counters, cereal, milk, etc are all available. These are things I couldn't even find in London and here I can just go down to the store and buy them. Everything seems to cost about twice what it would in the States, but it is available. And, what's an even bigger adjustment for me, is that you're expected to buy all of your food at these grocery stores. There's no going to the market or (from what I've seen so far) stopping at the side of the road for fruit or veggies. It's all very strange to me and is definitely taking some time to adjust to.
Being driven around is also an adjustment. I see the tap-taps (taxi-type transport for Haitians) and think that I should be squished in the back there with them and be looking down my nose at those posh ex-pats. But now I am a posh ex-pat and feel pretty guilty about my chauffered car and my expensive American groceries. I dunno, it's all very strange...
Ok, moving along. Saturday night our team of ex-pats (there are 5 of us) went out to dinner at a pizza and ice cream place to say goodbye to the Technical Director, Felix, who had been visiting our site for three weeks. I only knew him a few days, but I really liked him. He spent two years in Guinea as well, from 1986 - 1988, living in the same region as me, so he got a huge kick out of trying to recall his Pular with me. After dinner Justine, Ali and I went to an ex-pat pirate themed party put on by another NGO. That was....interesting, but good to meet some people. I saw a girl I served with in Guinea there, so that was kind of funny. We got home around 4am and woke up at 7:30am on Sunday to go to the beach. We went to Obama beach (yes, it's actually called that) which was really lovely. It was very pretty and the ocean was like bathwater. I swam and napped a lot.
Yesterday was day 2 of work. I'm still trying to learn about all of the activities we're doing/are going to do and all of the different partners we work with and who we need to hire, etc, etc. I finally got set up with an email account and so am slowly being let in on correspondence. I'm in the stage where I feel totally useless, but I think that's pretty inevitable when you start any new job and just aren't fully in the know yet. Especially when that job is in another language.
Last night I was finally able to move into my room. I've been staying in Justine's room with her as there was a bit of room shuffling going on, but now I've got my own. It's about the size of a tissue box, but it's been nice to finally be able to put some things in drawers and not be living out of a suitcase for the first time since July 18th. It's funny to be sleeping under a mosquito net again and be taking malaria pills, but luckily the transmission here is quite low.
This morning I went with two members of our Haitian team to a training they did for another NGO. It was all in Creole, so that was interesting to try and follow along based on my rusty French. It was good to see the team in action, though, and to see them talk about malaria and mosquito nets to youth. Hopefully Thursday I'll actually go to a camp with our Haitian team and observe them distributing nets with the Hatian and Norwegian Red Cross. I've only seen the camps from the car so far and would really like to actually get in one and look around.
So that brings you up to date on my activites. There's already talk of dinner out tomorrow night and NGO parties this weekend. These things become quite necessary when you live and work in the same place. And when you're not allowed to just go out and take a walk. I find myself going stir crazy in the compound pretty quickly. And the regular day to day activities that usually would take up time and would introduce you a bit to how things are done locally don't exist for me. We have a woman who cooks, cleans, and does our laundry for us every day. It's quite bizarre for me and, again, is taking some getting used to. I feel ridiculously sheltered here, but because I am so new it's hard to know if it's actually needed or not. There are definitely security issues, but I do think a little Peace Corps mentality involving integrating with the local culture wouldn't go amiss. Ah well, they didn't hire me for safety and security, that's for sure.
That's about it for now! Do comment so I know you're reading and let me know what you want to hear about. It's hard to know what others will find interesting. Will write more when there's more to say.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Thursday, August 05, 2010
PAP
So I arrived in Haiti safely, soundly, and with all of my luggage! Amazing. Everything went pretty smoothly, minus the part where we sat on the runway for over an hour in Miami. They said someone was sick and had to deboard the plane, so they had to unload all of the bags to find that person's bags and then load all of the others back on. Or something. Justine thinks it was because Wyclef came into town. Leave it to me to arrive the same day Wyclef announces he's running for president.
Anyway. The airport experience was quite similar to Conakry - only slightly less chaotic. Slightly. By some miracle Justine found me (thank god! Realized I had no address or phone numbers or anything if she hadn't) despite my lengthy delay and we hopped in the air conditioned (also thank god) car. I got to experience some of Port au Prince's (PAP) infamous traffic and about an hour or so later we arrived at the house/office!
It was amazing to me how much the drive to the house reminded me of Conakry. And what was more amazing to me was to realize I actually had missed it a bit. All of that organized chaos...it's just so funny to be in it again, but with lots more white people this time.
When we arrived at the house I met the other expats currently here. A French guy, Ali, an Italian guy, Felix, and the country director, a French-Canadian, Alain. We dove right into the French eating dinner together and I tried my best to keep up. My understanding isn't terrible, although Alain's accent is quite difficult, but my speaking is incredibly rusty and will need a lot of work/confidence building. Everyone seems really nice, though, and Justine said they were incredibly excited to have a new team member, especially a girl. Felix is leaving on Sunday and the only other girl (forget her name right now) comes back soon....and I think that's all the expats we have for now.
I'm utterly exhausted and am so excited to sleep right now. I feel like I haven't had a proper, full night's sleep in ages. Not that I'll get one tonight with the heat and mosquitoes, but at least some of the anxiety has subsided now that I'm here. I still can't really believe I'm finally here and that this is finally happening! Tomorrow we dive into the work, so wish me luck and cross your fingers my French improves quickly!
Anyway. The airport experience was quite similar to Conakry - only slightly less chaotic. Slightly. By some miracle Justine found me (thank god! Realized I had no address or phone numbers or anything if she hadn't) despite my lengthy delay and we hopped in the air conditioned (also thank god) car. I got to experience some of Port au Prince's (PAP) infamous traffic and about an hour or so later we arrived at the house/office!
It was amazing to me how much the drive to the house reminded me of Conakry. And what was more amazing to me was to realize I actually had missed it a bit. All of that organized chaos...it's just so funny to be in it again, but with lots more white people this time.
When we arrived at the house I met the other expats currently here. A French guy, Ali, an Italian guy, Felix, and the country director, a French-Canadian, Alain. We dove right into the French eating dinner together and I tried my best to keep up. My understanding isn't terrible, although Alain's accent is quite difficult, but my speaking is incredibly rusty and will need a lot of work/confidence building. Everyone seems really nice, though, and Justine said they were incredibly excited to have a new team member, especially a girl. Felix is leaving on Sunday and the only other girl (forget her name right now) comes back soon....and I think that's all the expats we have for now.
I'm utterly exhausted and am so excited to sleep right now. I feel like I haven't had a proper, full night's sleep in ages. Not that I'll get one tonight with the heat and mosquitoes, but at least some of the anxiety has subsided now that I'm here. I still can't really believe I'm finally here and that this is finally happening! Tomorrow we dive into the work, so wish me luck and cross your fingers my French improves quickly!
MIA
I'm sitting here in the airport in Miami waiting for my flight to Port au Prince in about 1.5 hours. I am completely exhausted, which is something I, for some reason, did not expect. Looking back, that was naive.
Leaving London yesterday morning was incredibly emotional. I was that girl crying on the street, the bus, the plane, etc, all by myself. I had to pack up my backpack at my friend's house where I've been staying, go back to my old flat and repack my backpack and two big bags I was checking, take a taxi to the airport, sit on the runway for an hour before even taking off, and sit through a 7+ hour flight to Boston. I had the shortest overnight layover in Boston known to man (got to my parent's house around 8pm, went to bed around 10, woke up at 4:30am and left for the airport at 5:45) and caught my flight to Miami this morning.
Sitting here in Miami I think I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock. Everything being written and announced in both English and Spanish is something I'm definitely not used to. American accents everywhere is also quite strange, as is the number of people who have smiled at me and been friendly for no particular reason. Toto, we're not in London anymore. It doesn't really matter, though, since after less than 24 hours in the US I'm heading to a brand new culture.
Still not sure what to expect when I arrive. I'm not sure who is picking me up or where I'll be taken or what is expected of me today. So I just had a coke and am hoping the caffeine fuels me for a while so I can take it all in. I've been told to expect chaos at the airport in PaP, so I'm hoping Conakry will have prepared me somewhat for that.
Ok, wish me luck! Will write more when I can.
Leaving London yesterday morning was incredibly emotional. I was that girl crying on the street, the bus, the plane, etc, all by myself. I had to pack up my backpack at my friend's house where I've been staying, go back to my old flat and repack my backpack and two big bags I was checking, take a taxi to the airport, sit on the runway for an hour before even taking off, and sit through a 7+ hour flight to Boston. I had the shortest overnight layover in Boston known to man (got to my parent's house around 8pm, went to bed around 10, woke up at 4:30am and left for the airport at 5:45) and caught my flight to Miami this morning.
Sitting here in Miami I think I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock. Everything being written and announced in both English and Spanish is something I'm definitely not used to. American accents everywhere is also quite strange, as is the number of people who have smiled at me and been friendly for no particular reason. Toto, we're not in London anymore. It doesn't really matter, though, since after less than 24 hours in the US I'm heading to a brand new culture.
Still not sure what to expect when I arrive. I'm not sure who is picking me up or where I'll be taken or what is expected of me today. So I just had a coke and am hoping the caffeine fuels me for a while so I can take it all in. I've been told to expect chaos at the airport in PaP, so I'm hoping Conakry will have prepared me somewhat for that.
Ok, wish me luck! Will write more when I can.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Goodbyes
It's officially my last full day in the UK. Oh, London, what a long strange trip its been, eh? Although I am sad things didn't work out here the way I had hoped (ie I didn't find my amazing dream job that pays me in pounds), I also feel that everything happens for a reason. The timing of this job in Haiti has been so perfect on pretty much every level that it's hard not to think this must be the reason London hasn't worked out. I am incredibly excited about the new job and feel so lucky to have found something so perfect for me after what seems like an incredibly long 10 months post-masters degree. I'm still quite nervous, so right now the anticipation is the worst part. As of tomorrow that should be remedied.
I had some leaving drinks last night and was really amazed and touched by the turnout. Thanks so much to all of you who came! I got to say proper goodbyes to people and took some last minute photos. Hopefully someday when I unpack my bags and find my camera cord I can start posting some pictures. Speaking of which, it will be nice not living out of a backpack for a while. I've been homeless since July 18th, essentially, and luckily have great friends with great futons, but it will still be nice to settle in somewhere.
OK, well hopefully my next update will be from Haiti! UK friends and family - thanks for everything. I've had such an adventure and have so many great memories of my time here. I'm going to miss you all loads, so you had better stay in touch!!
I had some leaving drinks last night and was really amazed and touched by the turnout. Thanks so much to all of you who came! I got to say proper goodbyes to people and took some last minute photos. Hopefully someday when I unpack my bags and find my camera cord I can start posting some pictures. Speaking of which, it will be nice not living out of a backpack for a while. I've been homeless since July 18th, essentially, and luckily have great friends with great futons, but it will still be nice to settle in somewhere.
OK, well hopefully my next update will be from Haiti! UK friends and family - thanks for everything. I've had such an adventure and have so many great memories of my time here. I'm going to miss you all loads, so you had better stay in touch!!
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