The Presence of Nothing

My door has falling off, the roof has a a huge hole that soaks my kitchen and the chain to flush the toilet snapped in half trying to flush a stubborn pay load.

My house is falling apart piece by piece. I closed the door one day and the door didn't just fall off its hinges, the screws were too small for the hinges, so the screws stayed in the wall and the door fell off with hinges intact. The tin roof has a few holes that let water in then it runs down the grooves of the tin and settles on one of the wooden beams, once the beam is completely soaked it drips (pretty heavily) all over my kitchen counter. Not to mention, the water damage to the wood has already claimed the lives of two structural support beams. The old porcelain general decided it had its last flush and the chain that connects the lever thingy to the suction thingy snapped, forcing me to stick my hand in the rust water every time I need to flush my business.

Things have gotten a little more difficult since moving to Northwest of Nowhere. Luckily, I have a pretty descent landlord who has fixed 2 of 3 problems, and is promising a new roof in the future (i wont hold my breath). I DID get a new bed (gracias a mis padres), so I no longer sleep on an air mattress.

It is easy (and kinda fun) to complain, but I have been very humbled since coming to Restauracion. Many of the living conditions I have seen make me wish I had a bigger hole in my roof.

Really cant complain too much. In terms of work, I have been slowly chipping away at the massive block of wood that I hope to one day whittle into a majestic sustainable preventative health education system. I have only been in the site for 2 weeks but I feel like i'm wading through mud. I want to be moving faster and starting projects, but then I realize....i'm still kind of figuring things out.

I have started the diagnostic process in two different communities: one on the outskirts of the main town called Kilometer 1 and its sister village.....Kilometer 2(yea, for real) which is mostly Haitian and recently had an outbreak of Cholera. Another about 20 minutes down the mountain called El Carrizal, which is a pretty descent sized village (2,000+). I am attempting to train community members on taking weigh/height/length measurements on children under 5 years of age to chart their growth. The people of El Carrizal came out in droves to my community interest meeting. It was very encouraging to see how committed they were right off the bat(back?). Granted, I still need to figure out how to do all this stuff myself, so its a learning process for everyone.

I have been making friends in the community, and met a few solid kids that hang around my house when i am there. It has been nice. I have also come to be very close with a unique little family, a single older woman named Rosa raising a 12 year old Haitian boy named Miguel. We made dinner together the other night, and i made spaghetti (Italian style) with the sauce on the top. Dominicans make spaghetti with condensed milk, onions, peppers and tomato sauce and mix the pasta and all together, so its like macaroni and cheese, but spaghetti........get it?

Miguelito made fried plantains (tostones) to accompany the Spaghetti. The little dude packed away a ton of food. It has felt really good to find a solid family that I can relax around and talk about random stuff with.

There is a Haitian market here in town, and also in Dajabon the bigger border town. I just want you guys to see where all your donations and things actually show up when you send things to Haiti.

Where do all these fresh unopened packaged of shampoo and diapers come from?? Unopened first aid kids (don't sell those!) I have been told if you give a Haitian a bag of rice they will sell it and buy the half grain of rice (lesser quality) and take a little profit from it. Here is something to think about: would you want your donations to be used by the people or sold as a source of income? Who knows what the money goes towards. It is not a lot, but i'm sure most of it goes towards food. I also benefit from your donations :) The poor development worker that needs a new sweater or some toothpaste/pop tarts. I can get most things for pennies on the dollar. So.....thanks. I got a few pairs of sheets as well.

I came back into Santiago this weekend to pick up supplies for the diagnostic and celebrate Christmas with friends that are going home for the holidays. We had a nice dinner with smoked ham, mac and cheese and tons of desserts.

Potluck style!

Anyways, that's about all the updates for now. Keep the project (and my sanity) in your prayers as I prepare for our first group of volunteers to come in 2 weeks. Going to be exciting!

Adios