We noticed at brunch a local Haitian volunteer with a bible under his arm... hopefully, we an find out from him where he attends for next Sunday. It's hard to identify the churches.
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| Khiya with a friend.... |
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Day 6..... (sorry, I lost track of days; hence no day 5!)
Happy International Volunteer Day! What a great day... normally, Sundays we are on our own for meals, but today, we were served an awesome brunch...french toast, bacon, mangos, payapas, mandarins, real fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. We were very spoiled. After brunch, 15 of us caught a tap-tap to Paradise Beach. We didn't partake of lobster today, because we were full from brunch. Watched the locals catch lobster just 4 feet from shore. They let their traps out on a rope, pull it back in, and voila! Some of them were really big. It's a beautiful area - almost surreal, with it's restaurant that serves 3-course meals, complete with wine. Surrounded by the type of poverty you can't even imagine or describe... Didn't feel right...
We noticed at brunch a local Haitian volunteer with a bible under his arm... hopefully, we an find out from him where he attends for next Sunday. It's hard to identify the churches.
That's it for today.... pretty uneventful, other than traversing waterfilled potholes - I mean craters - almost as big as our tap-tap... also crossed a river..... just another day...
We noticed at brunch a local Haitian volunteer with a bible under his arm... hopefully, we an find out from him where he attends for next Sunday. It's hard to identify the churches.
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i remembered my account!!!
ReplyDeletethe location of the beach was beautiful. the water a wonderful shade of blue with the mountains in the far horizon, the sky bright with the odd cloud, the sun warming us... then to look down, the garbage in the sand/gravel, and in the water. the haitians are very clean people but the country is incredibly dirty. pride in oneself is very evident but clean clothes, whites are way whiter than i can get in canada, the kids bathing in puddles if need be, vehicles washed on the side of the road. unfortunately the pride stops at their door. garbage is littered everywhere. the gutters are strewn with waste material. pop bottles everywhere, no public garbages, when one is done with something it is thrown on the ground. teaching hand hygiene is a challenge because the people see themselves as so clean and take time to ensure they look clean thus the concept of something being dirty inspite of not seeing the dirt/germ is a foreign concept but on that all hands is working on directly. this concept is further taught with the water and need for clean h2o. difficult to explain something unseen. There is so much work to do here and so little time. it is so important to address issues one at a time, one person at a time. Trust is earned slowly and that is what needs to be addressed first and foremost. All hands has been working closely with the community for almost a year now and has a great relationship with people here. we are widely recognized with people shouting to us "all hands?". this shows with the number of local volunteers that show up on a daily basis. the trust has begun at the ground level and is working up. i overheard a conversation yesterday with our hygiene teacher and a local volunteer. she was trying to explain the need to wash hands after using the bathroom to a local volunteer as they were working side by side. the volunteer said her hands were clean so she didn't need to. in the end, the volunteer turned to the hygiene lady and said ok she would wash her hands. my thought on that was that although she didn't believe her, she trusted her. interesting. i really need to get my hands on a hand hygiene kit that we use teaching the grade 2's in alberta. how beneficial that would be here. this concept goes further with teaching clean water concept. so much work to do.