Pictures

Two more pictures for you...this is a home in Gonayiv, with one of the women heading to sell at market and the second is Mass Transit in Haiti- the Tap Tap!

Another day, another million files

This is our hotel in Gonayiv, our temporary home! Well another day in Gonayiv...and we've found another filing cabinet we have to input!!!

On the up side, we heard from Anne that we will be staying at the beach this weekend!!! On Sunday we are heading to Calico Beach Club for at least a day at the beach...we may leave Saturday night, but who knows!

Things are looking up...

Well my sunrise for hope seemed to have worked!!! The team feels revived despite the daunting task ahead of us! Last night was Megan's birthday and we had a good celebration that definately brought all of our spirits up. This morning was a sleep in day, despite the fact that I was up at dawn anyway! The peace and quiet was definately nice though!!

This morning while waiting for our ride at the hotel we saw our good friends the United Nations drive by with some of their troops in the back of the jeep with their guns at the ready. I have to say that was an unnerving sight. So I took out my trusty UN planner and read about the UN mission to Haiti. MINUSTAH: UN stabilization mission in Haiti began in June 2004 and they are visible down here. We see UN trucks everyday, and with the exeption of the 1st day we drove in here and saw some UN troops at the border of one of the localities, today was the first time I'd seen some so poised for action.

It was very interesting. Now, no worries here, there are no rumors of violence or anything here and we are with people who know what is going on at all times.

We are preparing to leave for lunch, to go to the same restaurant we go to everyday. The waitress loves us there...she thinks we are hysterical and loves to chat with us either with our broken creole or through the 2 girls who know it well! Today I'm looking forward to it!

Talk about out of my comfort zone...

This is my Haitian Sunrise for hope....read on...

So I've hit that point where I've officially been here for a solid week. What does this mean?

Well I'm clear on the work that we're doing...which no matter how you frame it...is boring. But thats ok, we can get over that obstacle.

We have also had all delusions about the amount of files we have to input blown away. We've already input 549 groups of 5 people (2745 accounts) and now we are working on our 2nd drawer of 5 drawers in 5 filing cabinets (a lot). It looks like we'll be in Gonayiv for a lot longer.

This fact is sad. I was looking forward to going to the more rural areas of Haiti. I was thinking/hoping to feel more comfortable there. Hence the title of this post. Gonayiv is WAY out of my comfort zone!!! But I'm glad to be pushing myself.

Today we took a tour of Gonayiv and saw the hospital, the Bishop's house (which was gorgeous next to all of these very typical developing country homes), the port, and the general lay of the town. It was very interesting. Although we seem more interesting to the people living here.

Which is another thing to push me out of my comfort zone: the stares...we are stared at EVERYWHERE!!!! By EVERYONE!!!! It is intense and really uncomfortable. The others I am with are starting to get used to it, but I can't...way too much.

Everywhere we go, we go with our driver/guard/all around keeper, which is best for our safety in a town with a history of upheaval (almost as bad as Port au Prince), however is difficult for someone as independent as me. I'm not used to following the herd, as most of you know ;)!

And last, the language. Here they speak Creole. I do not. We are always with people who speak both, however it is very hard when you can't speak for yourself or understand what is going on around you. I have been fortunate to travel to countries where either English or Spanish (both of which I speak). When I was in Mexico it was so easy for me to get along, here it is a struggle.

So these are my struggles right now, which pale in comparison to the struggles of the Haitian people that I am trying to learn about. Anyway, sorry this post is kind of a bummer but its been a tough day for the Haitian crew. Tomorrow we are coming in late which will be a much needed rest from work for a little while.

Missing everyone today!!! 17 days until I'm home!

Gonayiv

We made it to gonayiv in one piece...considering the roads thats amazing! They remind me of the road we took to Sasabe in Mexico, for those of you who have heard about that. Essentially that means they are unpaved and very bumpy!

We have spent the last few days learning the computer system and inputting loans and accounts on the computers, and we seem to finally be catching on! We are hoping to be done with the Gonayiv branch by mid next week, but thats very tentative.

Last night Anne, the Director of Fonkoze, told us about the Hurricane that hit Gonayiv in September of 2004. She also showed us pictures of it- it was incredible. The roads were completely flooded, there were dead animals and dead bodies everywhere. The stench was outrageous she said. She also had pictures of the mass graves they had made to bury all of the bodies. I know that in recent times, between the Tsunami and Katrina we've seen so many floods and death, but this still touches me. It is almost worse than the other ones just because of the lack of global attention to their strife. Anne Said that there were a number of clients that had just recieved loans and all money or materials bought with that was lost. All of their money was literally blown away. That is intense.

We are staying in a hotel just outside of the "city." We've been lucky so far in that we've had electricity at night in the hotel and during the day at the office, even in Port Au Prince, until today. We had electricity problems this morning and couldn't work for a while- but at least we finally got a little bit of a break!

After Gonayiv, my group of 3 will head to Sen Michel, then onto Piyon. Then We'll get a few days off to head to the beach before hitting the central plateau. Then if we have time, we'll head south.

We've been working very hard entering the more than 6000 accounts and all of the June Loans. I'm trying to pick up some Creole too, hopefully I learn some essentials quickly- Its really hard not to know the language!! We've also spent some time learning about the people and the places we visit.

The internet is not always working, so I'll post when I can!!

Picture

This was the View from the hospice in Port Au Prince
Sorry its only one picture...I'm working on getting more up, it just takes so long!!!

Potoprens (Port-au-prince)

Hi everyone!

Well we finally arrived to Port-au-prince, Haiti last night. After a very long day of traveling, we arrived at about 430 or so and were at the Hospice before dinner at 6pm.

We are staying at the Hospice St. Joseph and our view is beautiful. We have a great view of the ocean and the city as we are on the top of the hill.

Today we spent the day at Fonkoze HQ and at the Potoprens branch learning about what we will be doing and about Fonkoze in general. Tomorrow we will be leaving at 6:45 for Gonayiv in the north to learn the software we will be working with. Then we will enter all of the accounts in the Gonayiv branch. We will then spilt up in to 3 groups of 2 and do the same to all of the branches in the north, then the Central plateau area. Then we'll stop back in Port-au-prince for a day before heading down south and handling the accounts in those branches. We hope to get all of this done before we have to leave!!!

This is going to be a really busy trip, but I'm really excited! Only some of the branches have internet access, so I'll post when I can. Here is a map of the branches so you can follow along where I am: Branch map