A Brand New Beginning

So today was the day!!! Danielle left this morning at around 9am. We laughed, we danced, we sang last night. It was awesome! Tears were shed and memories were made. I am very happy that I met her, her and I are like sistas for life girl! I've had a great 3.5 days with her, seems like we've spend all of our lives together. It was hard to see her go. Not only did she go, but Frank and Jan (the supportive papi and mamie of the adolescents at the orphanage here in Lamardelle) also left for a week. They will not be back until next Saturday. Oh boy that was a lot for the adolescents to take today. I was the only person left and that was a lot of pressure. Thanks guys! haha. It ended up being a very busy day for me. It was my official first day at work here! All by myself. Stanley, one of the social workers, not licensed yet, did not come in due to possible weather conditions. This wouldn't be the first time that he did not come in due to the rain. It is very common to see Haitians missing work days due to bad weather. I can see their reasoning, because the roads in Haiti are not in good condition, so if it rains the roads get really slushy and undrivable. So if the weather were to get really bad during the day, they would be stuck at the orphanage till the next morning. So I don't blame them, but at times, like today, it was just a little bit gray. It was probably the TGIF bug that he caught on.

So I made copies, read documents, started to update the five weekly adoption rosters, and sent updated reports to the adoption agency in the States. It was not bad for a first day. It was slow for me, but I am sure once I get going, I will be a lot more efficient with my time. The internet did not help at all due to this stormy weather. So I guess the hurricane turned into a mild tropical storm named Emily. So thanks Emily for making the internet signals impossible to use and work with. Hahaha....oh challenges of Haiti. Using the internet here is like watching water boil. If you keep staring at it, it will never finish loading. You have to walk away and then come back when it is all ready and good to go for you. Well at least until the next batch! I worked from 9am till 5pm today and after work I walked over to the Women's Amputee Camp by Manmie's. There is a small team of volunteers helping the women with their prosthetic limbs. They were getting new measurements and creating brand new molds for the women in the camp. It was like magic at work. I observed for about an hour and am just in awe at how incredible these women are. It is wonderful that the volunteers come down and do this service for the women as well, because they are improving their life by getting rid of their everyday physical pain.

We all ate dinner at Manmie's again and of course....AWESOME FOOD...as usual! I love the fact that salads in Haiti are always spicy...that just makes my day. Being able to find the small green peppers stuck in the salad leaf...it's a great surprise. We all chatted and had a great time. When I got back to the creche, all the teenagers were eating spaghetti...yummy. They were about to watch a movie so I joined in. All 8 adolescents, ranging from 12 to 24 were glued to the TV. We were watching Minority Report, with Tom Cruise and Collin Ferrel. Ha what a weird choice for a movie. Plus it was all in English and every 5 minutes you would hear the teens speaking in Creole, trying to decipher what they are saying and what is happening. I would help out with some French and we were all communicating. It was as if the movie was going on with French/Creole commentary. Ha it was good times. Some of the ideas that came out of their heads are just hilarious. They are fascinated by all the same things that teens in the states are fascinated by. Hanging out with friends, staying up late to watch a movie, and of course giggling whenever their was a kissing scene in the film. I had a great time watching the movie with them and I hope this helps out with all the different transitions that are happening in their lives.

Tomorrow, a team of volunteers from the states will come start painting the creche here. Today, everyone was frantically cleaning the walls and clutter that was in the foyer. It is going to be a very interesting four days of massive painting sessions.....