Well, as of yesterday morning, I have been in Haiti now for a whole week. I’ve been traveling quite a bit visiting several of our different project sites including; Leveque, La Tremblay, Yvon, Furcy, and Petit Goave. Haiti is both quite beautiful and quite different than my usual American life. Furcy and Yvon are both up in the mountains and the views were nothing short of breathtaking. Below is a picture of a mother and her children walking back to their home from church on Sunday morning in Furcy along the path in the mountains with the view just beyond. There aren’t even any vehicles up in this area. We parked at the top of the hill, and walked down probably at least a mile. I had the opportunity to ride a horse part of the way back up to the vehicle, that was much easier than the hike!
I have been getting to know a lot of people and have been settling into my life here in Haiti for the next year. It has been great this past week to really get outside the walls of the campus here and start to meet some of the communities that we are working with in partnership. The sights of the cities are becoming more common to me, but it is still shocking to see the difference between the cities here and other major cities around the world. My eyes are just glued to the built environment everytime we travel. Yesterday, I experienced my first major rainfall here in Haiti and it was interesting to see this in the context of the city. The markets temporarily closed up and then bustled with activity again when the rain slowed, people were making use of the water coming from downspouts, and gulleys normally full of just dirt and garbage starting raging with dirt brown water – taking everything with it in it’s path. I’ve heard that these gulleys become quite dangerous during these rain storms and that usually at least one person dies in them each time. So I was grateful to hear that our partnership agency, UMCOR, is working on a project to put in many footbridges around the city to help alleviate this problem. Working in such a different environment can be tricky and stressful, so I was happy to learn that there is a gym nearby that many of my colleagues attend. I have signed up and attended several times already and am excited to report that the gym also has hot water! Since the Methodist Guest House only has cold water and is sometimes only a trickle, this was some of the best news of the week!
A year in Haiti 