Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Random tidbits
I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left here! I am encouraged by my recent progress but please pray that I am able to complete the work that I started - specifically, that I will be able to get the information from the necessary parties and that they will have time to assist in these ventures. An unexpected side-effect of the constant exposure to French with the documents I'm referencing and half of the worship songs at church is that I'm slowly picking up French and its pronunciations. It shares many of its language roots with Spanish, with which I am familiar.
I've decided to find an eye surgeon to come to Double Harvest. I've emailed all of my friends in the medical industry (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospital chaplains) in hopes that they will know an eye surgeon (also known as an opthamologist, thanks Trina) willing to take a few days out of their schedule to perform desperately-needed surgeries for those we have seen at the Double Harvest clinic. If you know anyone who would be interested, please let me know!
Some of the Van Wingerdens were down at Double Harvest last week putting in a new concrete wash basin around the water tower they had previously constructed in the "squatters village" just outside of the Double Harvest grounds. The village is named Coupon and could use your prayers for provision! The Van Wingerdens are a huge family of successful businesspersons from North Carolina who started Double Harvest Haiti in 1981. They are the main financial supporters of the mission and many of them spend a significant amount of regular time down here. The Van Wingerdens also have Double Harvest mission projects in Kenya, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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I spent some more time last week with the head agronomists at Double Harvest - Pierre & Phillipe. As I've mentioned before, they are interesting characters. Pierre mentioned that the previous weekend he had traveled far north in the country to participate in a volunteer environmental assessment. I asked him where he picked up his (unusual for Haiti) spirit of volunteerism. He said that after many years in the scouts as a child, the spirit of helping others had always stuck with him. I also asked if he had lived in Haiti his whole life - he said that he had lived here all but for a few years where he attended the historically significant Tuskegee University in Alabama.
As some of you know, where I am living and doing most of my work at Double Harvest is in a "multi-purpose" building consisting of the hardware and tools storage, miscellaneous farm equipment storage, the "cold room" for harvested vegetables, a few apartments for short-termers, and (previously, thanks to me) offices. Anyway, the guy who is in charge of tools inventory is a really jovial guy named Carlot. He attends L'Eglise Baptiste de Coupon (Baptist Church of Coupon, on the grounds of the Double Harvest mission), tallies the church offering every week, and leads the morning devotions at the medical clinic. But I think I need to slip him a new music CD because he has been playing the same instrumental Christian bluegrass CD over and over all day long since I have been here. Quite surprisingly this has not yet developed the "ice cream truck effect", likely due to it's upbeat rhythm, but I feel it coming. I can only imagine how long this CD has been in rotation.
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I must admit that I'm a little bummed that I'm not able to do regular touristy actitivies like walking the streets and being a real consumer of culture here. When I travel I'm used to taking it all in, seeing all the sites, and really exploring the culture. Unfortunately, much of the decent "touristy" stuff in PAP is in an area of downtown that is not safe for foreigners. For example, the US Consulate and Embassy here both have strict curfews for their employees. Oh well! At least I am definitely taking in some of the rural culture. Becky mentioned that we may visit an old fort this weekend, so I am hopeful!
Likewise, I wish I could determine where the Haitian National Cyclocross Team practices. How fun would that be to meet up with them and watch them practice?! They don't have snow, but they certainly have mud and the terrain is perfect, even on the city streets! Haiti is totally built for cyclocross! And many Haitians bike everywhere - it's probably like 100X more likely (or more) that a Haitian has a bicycle than a car. Which brings up the question - why no bike lanes? There are barely even "shoulders" on most roads. I mark it up to poor urban planning (or lack thereof).
Sidenote: As some people reading this might not be aware, I have participated in cyclocross racing for the last several years in the midwest. It's fun sport, keeps you active during the "off-season", and is great for spectating.
Electricity in Haiti is really sporadic. Where public electricity is available for consumers, it may or may not be available that day based on the whim of power company. In rural Haiti, there is no electricity period. But that doesn't stop people from purchasing cell phones! The problem many face is where to charge them up. There are charging stations at some gas stations around town where people can plug in and wait for them to charge. In rural Haiti, people will charge at ANY (and I do mean ANY) outlet they can find. In many outlets on the premises of Double Harvest you can find a slew of cell phones being charged up during the work day. And on the weekends people bring their phones to church to plug them in - even in the outlets 7 feet off the ground! Sometimes they'll come to church just so they can pick up their cell phone that they left there earlier in the day, or the day before. The optometrists mused that DH should start a campaign where they have multiple power strips at the entrance of the church and use the slogan - "Come to church to give your spiritual life AND your cell phone a charge!" I like it.
In culture news, a cool turn of events for me this weekend was determining that I wouldn't have to wait until I returned home to view the Project Runway finales that my sister had recorded for me. This is one of my favorite TV shows and I left for Haiti just before the finale. Instead I realized that the finales were probably available on iTunes, and they were! Sweet!
# posted by A*Dub @ 6:43 PM 
