Learning Patience

I'm having to learn a new rhythm of things here. It takes the morning to have a few pages printed. The afternoon may be spending figuring out how, when, and at what cost I might make copies. Copies may or may not be achieved the next day. I keep a running list of people I need to talk to, because the one person you're looking for isn't in, and might be in PaP, or at home, or coming back soon, depending on whom you ask. So I move on to the next place, or, more often, I find someone else there who is also on my list, so I change tasks. I can count on finding the original person I wanted passing on a random street, or at a party, or anywhere else I'm not expecting. If one were to do things only in order, nothing would ever happen, I'm quite sure. I get the feeling that there's some order in the chaos, but I sure can't find it....

Travel Advice

(The water is back on!)

Two rules of commute I've learned this weekend:

1. When hopping off of a motorcycle (most common form of taxi here) to the right, one ought to be QUITE careful. I have a lovely burn about the size of a kiwi on my calf... Fortunately, the proper way for a woman to ride (in a fitted skirt, anyway) is on the left side.

2. One ought not drink beer and get into a car. You're thinking, "No kidding! Drinking and driving is bad." But I mean don't drink and ride for any distance. The combination of a few kilometers to the beach and half a beer has the same effect as shaking a coke for the same duration. The roads here are truly an interesting phenomenon. Sometimes (every few km or so) you may find a paved section, but most of it doesn't even have potholes, as though they were partially paved. The water running through has created ruts and holes. I'm fairly sure that the chunks of cement in areas are the remnants of Duvalier's destruction...

The water is out

The water went out yesterday. Apparently a line was cut during some road work. A nun told me that once the water was out for three months, but I hope that won't be the case this time. I've been lucky to have a shower and toilet at the Foyer, but I managed well enough with a bucket of water and the bottom of a water bottle. I'm amazed out clean and put-together everyone always. I'm pretty sure my hair is going to be in a rough ponytail or bun for two and a half months, because it's never going to dry clean and smooth...

M'ap aprann kreyol

My language skills have been put to shame here. While I feel like I'm starting to remember more of the French I learned in school, and I can almost get around in Kreyol after four days, I can't tell you how many people I've met here who speak French, Kreyol, Spanish, and lovely English. Parts of the educational system may be quite weak, but there is definitely a well-educated group here in the city.

Evaluation

Well, I'm experiencing in person all the theoretical difficulties in evaluation that we've discussed in class. We don't have a full list of program participants, to try to visit them. When we visit schools, the directors aren't in, and no one else knows of the program. I'm absolutely positive they're only letting me see the best teachers. My presence has made some professors nervous. I've been able to sit in on maybe eight classes, and tomorrow is the last day of class before exams. I am hoping that giving questionnaires to students and teachers will supplement our information. Because we were really hoping to use the classroom observations to measure impact, perhaps I will have to create a control and treatment group when I visit again (?) in September. Only two of the five teachers from each program who have applied to attend the training are being selected, and while they are supposed to be the "best," I'm fairly certain that the criteria are rather arbitrary. We'll see?

Je suis arrivee

Well, I've made it here, and it's been quite the two days. After an hour of sleep, I woke up at 3am yesterday, and my whole family took me to the airport (with a short detour by Kinko's- I'm sure the fellow was shocked to have me walk in at 4am wanting to make copies...). I made it into the line at the airport only an hour ahead of time, and there were 30 people in front of me, but the woman at the counter didn't seem to notice. Two short flights- to Miami and Port-au-Prince. Then a 12 passenger plane to Jeremie.

The Island

Flying into Jeremie was a lovely introduction to the island. From the air, it looks as though most of the country were uninhabited, lush and green mountains, with cliffs plunging directly into the sea. To the right, we could see a storm coming, with the rain crashing against the water and creating a thick, white mist.

From the airport they take you by van to your destination. I'm not sure if the roads we were on were some of those destroyed by Duvalier when Jeremie fell out of favor, but I'm really surprised any vehicles survive such rough paths. We passed the time naming the plants we recognized: coconut, hibiscus, breadfruit, key limes, almonds, mango, and a few others. It seems that I have missed avacado season, but there are enough new interesting foods that I may not notice.

Contact Info

I should be able to get mail for the summer at the place where I'm staying:
Angeli Kirk
Foyer Culturel
Jeremie, Republic of Haiti

Final Preparations

I leave Monday, May 23 for Jeremie, Haiti, for another adventure. I will be there until August 13, doing an evaluation of a training for teachers, as well as a few other adventures. My cell phone and voicemail will be on hold from Sunday, May 22 until August 22. I will have email access (any of my addresses is fine) from time to time.

I've been running around like mad in the last few weeks, trying to get everything ready since school finished for the semester. Vaccines (typhoid, polio, tetanus, hep A and B) and chloroquinine for malaria. Insurance to get me out of the country and treated once I'm home. I now have a collection of skirts that fall past my knees (I'm a bit of a "creative" seamstress, my mother would now say) and shirts with sleeves, my uniform for the summer. A spare set of contacts and new glasses after I broke my old ones. Collecting sunscreen and bug repellent and mosquito netting to battle the elements. And on and on...

I'm still scrambling to finish a series of surveys that I'll administer in the schools, but we now have most of them in English and French. And what about Creole, you ask? Most Haitians speak Creole and only Creole. But very few read or write it, though this is changing. The literate population operates more often in French, so this is the language we will use in the secondary schools. Still, I hope to have all materials in Creole by the end of this project. AND, I hope to be speaking a bit of it by the time I come home!

Entry 1

I'm headed to Haiti for the summer. Rather than bothering everyone with mass emails that end up being labeled as Junk Mail, I thought I'd try a blog. I'll update it as frequently as I can in a town with one internet cafe (even one seems like a miracle, considering how irregular the electricity is).