Picture time!!

Since I'm home for two weeks, you get lots of pictures! Sorry for the lack of posts in the last month, the internet has been out at the orphanage for quite a while. 

Back in September we got to meet Michelle Martelly (Sweet Mickey) while he was campaigning in our neighborhood. The kids were all really excited to meet him because he's such a popular musician, but they unanimously agree they don't want him as president! Back in September we got to meet Michelle Martelly (Sweet Mickey) while he was campaigning in our neighborhood. The kids were all really excited to meet him because he's such a popular musician, but they unanimously agree they don't want him as president! 

We got invited to the wedding of one of the orphanage nannies. 

Getting ready for Christmas...the girls decorated me before the Christmas tree showed up.

Christmas Party

There are some big bugs in Haiti. This is about the size of my hand. I don't have pictures of the cockroaches because I'm usually too busy throwing shoes at them to get my camera.

Goats are pretty cute. 

This woman sells charcoal to the surrounding neighborhood. The dog and puppy live in/around/on/under her charcoal bags, and are very adorable. 

Pretty clouds over the city. 

Pretty clouds over the bay. 

Beautiful sunset from the roof of Dr. Bernard's house up in Thomasin

Election Thoughts

Last night Haitian officials announced the results last week's presidential election. The three frontrunners are Mirlande Manigat (a Sorbonne-educated law professor and former senator, who would be the first female Haitian president), Jude Celestin (a businessman; the candidate of the current, very corrupt, administration; I haven't found a single person who actually supports him, so how he came out in second place is highly suspect), and Michelle Martelly (a very popular Haitian musician whose platform is almost entirely based on the popularity of his music). 3 guesses which one I'd like to see win? Ah, yes, the one who actually has an education and more than a vague shred of political experience. It's encouraging that in the first round she
(Manigat) was in the lead by 100%.

Sunday School

Note to self: when Haitians unexpectedly invite you to an event they are in any way involved with leading, you will probably be put on the spot for a speech/prayer/activity/something so THINK FAST.

So yesterday, Sunday, the older girls invited me to come back to the church with them in the afternoon. They said that they help lead a little kids sunday school class, and they thought I might like to come play with kids. Awesome! I was super-excited for several reason. 1. It's taken a lot longer to establish relationships with the older girls, so I was encouraged to see them reaching out to me. 2 I really like playing with kids. 3. I jump at any chance to get outside the orphanage walls and walk around.

Everything was going great, I was really enjoying watching the girls work together to wrangle a group of forty 8-15-year old kids into some semblance of order. The class met in an open area on the top floor of the church with an incredible view of the whole Port-au-Prince bay shining in the warm yellow light before sunset. The kids sang worship songs, memorized a bible verse, and were just starting to sing some more when Stephanie plops down beside me and says, "Okay, so what game are you going to play with the kids?"

My train of thought - First: "I should have seen this coming", then - "Duck duck goose! Wait, no, that's a terrible idea, there are way too many kids, and I don't know either 'duck' or 'goose' in Creole. Why can't I think of any other games???" After scrambling for a minute I remembered that Simon Says had recently been a huge hit in my English classes (thank you Katie times a gazillion). I quickly explained the game to Stephanie so she could help me explain it to the kids. She didn't understand what "Simon says" meant, so I said, "It's just a name, it could be Stephanie says, or Cecelia says, it doesn't matter." At that her eyes lit up with undertsanding and she proceeded to explain that the game we were going to play is called "Cecelia Di", explained the rules, and handed me a microphone. What followed was the most energetic and competitive game of Simon Says I have ever seen. So even though it was not remotely related to their bible verse for the day or anything like that, I'm going to go ahead and call it a success. And they invited me to come back again next week; which I plan to do, armed with an activity prepared in advance this time!

Our christmas tree beats your christmas tree...

...Why? Does your Christmas tree have balloons on it? Or a penguin? Umm...didn't think so.

 

So the weather is beautiful here, with temperatures in the 80's every day and usually a nice breeze. This makes it a little hard to remember that it's winter and snowing back home. It's also strange to be singing advent carols at church and making plans for Christmas celebrations in this weather!

 

Last night I was up on the roof after dark and discovered to my delight that people put up Christmas lights in Haiti too! I guess I had assumed that was an American/European thing, but nope, even in third world slums people hang up a variety of spazzy, blinking, colorful lights at Christmas. (How exactly this relates to the birth of Christ, I have yet to figure out.) Also the girls have told me that people set off fireworks all over the city at midnight on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so I'm super-excited for that.

 

Today the girls dug up a fake Christmas tree, from who knows where. This thing has definitely seen better days. It's like the Charlie Brown christmas tree. But, undaunted, we raided the craft shelves in the library for everything and anything that was red or green or remotely ornament-like. Several packets of water balloons were blown up and hung on the branches as ornaments. Larger balloons were placed strategically to disguise structural problems and make it stand up straight. We made red and green paper chains. Red and gold tinsel appeared. Someone collected a bunch of beanie-babies and artfully arranged them around the bottom, except for the penguin who holds a place of honor nestled among the lower branches. The whole time the girls sang Haitian christmas songs (which are way more lively than English ones), and when they declared the tree finished they started a rousing chorus of "Oh Christmas Tree" in French. Except they had the usual problem of not remembering any of the words after "oh christmas tree", but they just made up some verses of their own. Guess some things are pretty consistent in any language. :p 

 

I don't think I have ever had more fun decorating a tree (and I LOVE decorating christmas trees). I'm gonna go ahead and claim that we have the best Christmas tree outside of Swizterland this year (gotta give credit to the Swiss, they take their christmas trees very seriously).

 

Tomorrow I think I'm gonna try to make an angel for the top. Wish me luck!

 

Thanksgiving

I wasn't expecting to get any kind of Thanksgiving celebration in Haiti, since - surprise surprise - Haiti does not celebrate this American holiday. So it was a lovely shock when Dr. Bernard dropped by the orphanage on Wednesday and said, "Oh, by the way, you're coming up to my house for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow." As it turned out there were some mechanical failures in the kitchen, which postponed the dinner until Friday night, but it happened eventually. And the food was amazing, we had everything; turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, even pumpkin pie. I ate a ridiculous amount of food and was very happy. And an added bonus, Dr. Bernard graciously invited us to stay for the weekend, so I've gotten a much needed break. His house is up in the mountains above Port-au-Prince, so it's much cooler (I've been wearing a sweater and scarf all weekend!), and also much quieter. I've been spending time reading, playing with the babies and toddlers at the infant's orphanage next door, and sitting on the roof looking out at the amazing view, just being quiet and still. It's been a pretty stressful past three weeks, but I didn't realize how worn out I was until I got the chance to rest. So thank God for knowing what I need better than I do. And for letting me rest in a place where I can spend my whole day just holding babies if I want to. :p
Life is good.

Love, Cecelia