I went to Florida for about 4.5 days. It was glorious, glorious, glorious. It was the first time in my life that I took a vacation and spoiled myself to death. Something I adapted to with surprising ease, although my bank account probably feels differently. It was also the first vacation I've taken in the States that wasn't home to Boston in...years. I don't even know the last time.
On Saturday I flew to Miami. Everyone wants to know how long the flight is for some reason, so I'll tell you: 1.5 hours. I flew an airline I've never heard of before, Insel Air. My organisation pays for one flight every three months to either Miami or the DR because with the visa you get upon arrival in Haiti, you have to leave every three months and come back to get it renewed. Insel Air was the cheapest flight, so Insel Air it was. That airline couldn't really seem to make its mind, cause on the flight to Miami there were no Creole or French speaking airline staff and everything was done in English, which was clearly not the first language of most of the staff either. On the way back I had some of the same cabin crew, but this time they did announcements in French. I couldn't really figure out where they were all from. The good news is that my flight to Miami was about half full and the flight back was practically empty.
The bad news was that on the way to Miami, as I was ready to collapse on the plane and sleep for the 1.5 hours, the guy behind me started asking me questions about the immigration forms. He spoke about 5 words of English and there was no way he would have ever figured out the forms on his own. So I told him to give me his passport and I was just going to fill them out for him, but apparently he took that to mean, "Come sit next to me and talk my ear off with your five words of English for the rest of the flight." Ugh. So Bruno is from Brazil, is 29 and single, had never been to the US, wanted to study English while he was there, and was very, very nervous. He was also very grateful for my help, couldn't believe the coincidence that we were both 29 and single, and kept kissing my hand in thanks and calling me The Princess of America. And he had terrible breath. It was....awkward, to say the least. He was supposed to be flying back on Thursday, which is the same day I was flying back, so I was worried about having to sit next to him again and hear all about his trip (I realise I'm a terrible person). But then I felt really bad when, on Thursday, he was not on the flight. I wonder if he didn't make it through customs or something. Oh well, I did my part.
Anyway. I got to Miami and then hopped a flight to Key West. I met up with my cousin who has lived in the Keys for 11 years and just bought a house down there. I hadn't visited in almost 10 years, we realised, and I forgot what a great little place Key West is. We bar hopped with some of her friends until 3:30am and even managed to take in a live concert and the last bit of a drag show. Oh, and I ate my weight in ice cream and waffle cones covered with chocolate and rainbow sprinkles. Good times.
My time in the Keys was mostly spent eating a lot of food, sleeping, relaxing, catching up with my cousin, and spending lots of money. It was great. We got massages and pedicures, watched football, ate smores and key lime pie next to the fire in her backyard, shopped, and drank a lot. The freedom of just being able to walk around on the streets was so liberating! And not spending hours in traffic everytime we got in the car was pretty awesome as well. Oh, and being able to drink the water right out of the tap. Totally underrated. Don't take these things for granted, people!
On Tuesday evening I flew back up to Miami and stayed with a friend from grad school for two nights. I think I was there for about 36 hours total, spent about 15 of them sleeping, and the rest shopping. My friend is in med school and so was nice enough to loan me her car (and GPS!) while she was in class and studying so I could go around and do all of my errands. That was very interesting in a city I am not at ALL familiar with! Oh, and did I mention I've never used an iTouch or a GPS before? Which were the two tools I had to work with that day to get around? I feel old, but also amazing cause I figured them all out like the genius I am. And I even managed to buy myself a new ipod nano which is all touch-screeny too. I'm not quite as much of a genius at that yet, but I'm sure I'll get there. I spent most of the day trying to fill the order the Cuban doctors had given me before I left. They're so sweet, so it's hard to say no, but I also just can't fit 4 playstation 2s and a laptop in my luggage, I'm sorry. I ended up getting them 3 playstation 2s and had to buy an extra suitcase just to fit those in! I was worried about somehow getting into trouble in customs because of some buying-electronics-for-Cubans law I didn't know about, but everything went very, very smoothly on the way back too.
Overall it was a perfect trip, just not long enough. It was very relaxing to actually be on vacation and to have felt like I earned it. It was so great to spend some time catching up with my cousin and meeting her friends and just seeing her life down there. My friend from grad school had had to leave London somewhat abruptly, so it was also really good to see her again and catch up on the year plus that has passed since we finished school. They were both incredibly gracious hostesses and I can't wait to take advantage of their hospitality again. :-)
So yeah, now I'm back. My contract was extended until November 24th, so I'll be here until then. We still haven't heard about whether or not we're getting our cost extension, which would allow my organisation to be here for another 6 months. If we don't get it then we also get to close the entire operation down here before the 24th. That should be easy. Not. I'm not particularly interested in staying with this job into the new year as the organisation is just much too disorganised and unsupportive, etc. I'm hoping to make it to a friend's wedding in India at the end of December, maybe hang out there for a month or so, and then maybe look for another job here in Haiti. I dunno, on va voir.
But in other news (which people have been asking about): there's a cholera outbreak here. The first one in about 50 years or a century, depending on who you listen to. It is currently in a region north of Port au Prince and so far has not spread. But as the Brits say, it's early days and it could quite possibly spread. The fear is that if it spreads down to PaP and makes it into the camps we could be in big trouble. I'm hoping that if it does spread we at least have had some warning and can/will be a bit better prepared than we were for the outbreak up north. I don't know much more than what you all do since my organisation isn't involved in this type of work, but if it spreads down here it will be interesting to see how it is dealt with. The precautions we take on an everyday basis (drinking treated water, being very conscious of hand washing, eating in very posh restaurants (ok, jk on the last one, but only sort of...)) are basically the same you would take to avoid cholera anyway, so don't worry. Hopefully they will contain it in that region, figure out/treat the source, and we'll be out of the woods. Hopefully. I'll keep you updated if things change.
Meanwhile, anyone have any questions for me? Not sure what you anonymous blog readers are interested in hearing about. Suggestions welcome.
That's all here for now! November 1st and 2nd are a national holiday here, so I'm looking for plans. Suggestions?
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