Anne of Green Gables

I drank this new Haitian fruit juice called "Korosol" and it was delicious. Korosol is a big prickly fruit, around the size of a watermelon and it is so good. Apparently in English they call it the "Soup Sop." No idea! So in Haiti they blend the fruit up and mix it with milk. It was super good and apparently it puts you to sleep, but for me it did the opposite, it actually kept me up. I had the drink, courtesy of Frank, who upon giving it to me in a mysterious green cup, told me it was from his "secret stash" and that I was going to "have a good night's sleep." So I immediately thought, "are you giving me alcohol and got scared...and started to look in my cup." haha, he laughed and said no, it's a seasonal Haitian fruit juice blend. So needless to say I drank it and my mouth was very happy with the intense flavor of the fruit. It was very yummy. So just before lunch today, one of the adolescent girls came running into my room while holding this gigantic fruit and was like "ou connais?" (you know this?) and I happily replied that yes it's Korosol, from my encounter last night. She was super happy and was like yeah "we are going to make some juice for you" and ran out. So it was a good day with Korosol juices. Although, the second cup that I had, my stomach was not very happy. I think it was the milk powder that they put in it that made me sick. Oh well, it was still good.

All afternoon I was in the infant/toddler room playing and taking care of the children, because once again, there was only one auntie in there. The auntie, Gezelle, was leaving at around 3pm, which would mean NO ONE would be left to take care of the children until 5pm. That is a 2 hour gap! Oh boy, I was worried. Most of the children had diarrhea today, so it was changing diapers and re-washing the babies over and over again. One child started walking toward me and you can just see this trail of light brown liquid dripping out of his overfilled diaper....yeah it was quite a sight. Another child had it running all over his stomach while he was napping. And another 6 months old threw up all over my shirt and himself while I was playing with him. So needless to say, it was a lot of bathing all around today. I was busy giving all the children water after we were done washing them, so they can re-hydrate from losing all that water. I guess all of the babies/toddlers here drink water on a regular basis and likes it, so that is a great thing. Most western babies do not like water and just drink milk. I guess it makes a difference when you are sweating so much in Haiti, water is the first thing you want to drink. I did more therapy with Precious today and the bond that we have is really starting to solidify. She is starting to prefer me over the other aunties now, which is a great thing to see that she is capable in her development to obtain attachments. That is a positive step in the right direction.

In the evening, Jan and I had our first American girl's movie night. Jan is the mother figure for the adolescents here at the orphanage and she only speaks English. Her and Frank, her husband, came back last night from being away due to the painting project at the creche. I was very happy to see them back. It is nice to have some company and to speak some English again. So Jan and I decided to have a movie night, just us two English-speaking girls. We watched, one of Jan's favorites, Anne of Green Gables. I had no idea what it was about and it turned out to be awesome. We only watched Part one of the first DVD, out of 5 DVDs total, and it was amazing. It is the life story of a girl named Anne Shirley and she is an orphan. So I am officially hooked. It is funny because I was thinking today how amazing it is that I am watching more movies here in Haiti than I do anywhere else. It is because anywhere else I am way too busy and not to mention going to the cinema is very expensive. It is nice to just sit down, once in a while, to watch a good movie or series in good company. So I am very grateful for all these movie watching experiences. The only other time that I've watched so many movies was on all the various overseas plane rides. Ha, go figure.

Tomorrow is a holiday for Haiti, they are celebrating the Catholic holiday for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. So that means no work tomorrow! Which also means, huge laundry day!!! Finally. It will be my first laundry experience here at the creche, which we wash all things by hand and hang them out to dry on the clothing line outside. It will be a big washing day tomorrow! Wish me luck!