A day at the beach...

We finally had a day off!!! It was so amazing! We went to the beach about 2 hours away from Gonyiv and it might as well have been a galaxy away. The sulfur smell of sewage was gone, the trash everywhere, the homes, the endless poverty ...Gone all of it. It reminded me that this is a place that should be paradise everywhere, not just in these resorts for rich people.

It was a nice change of pace for us, but it was not the reality of Haiti, more like the dream of it. We had an amazing day. Swimming in the ocean, laying in the sun, relaxing, and dancing! In addition to it being our day off, it was also the day off for members of the Brazilian Army stationed in Port-Au-Prince as members of the UN Peacekeeping force here. Did I mention that we had a blast!

They were all very friendly, and despite our lack of knowledge in Portugues, and their lack of English, we all were able to communicate just fine, mostly through spanish and gestures. It was a regular party! I spent some time speaking with their commander about the mission and we were able to get across that they were staying until December before returning to Brazil. So maybe the communication wasn't fabulous, but it worked. Most of the Soldiers were about my age, plus or minus a few years. They all spoke about missing their families in brazil and how hard it was to be so far away from them. I thought about my friends who are currently stationed around the world with our military and how hard it must be for them. I was also pretty sure that their days off were not spent at a beach club... Anyway, we returned to reality after our fabulous day and remembered what we were really doing here and who we were supposed to be helping. We inhaled the foul smells of the town and began our work again this morning with an extra bounce in our step after being revived at the beach!

Miss you! T-12 days until CT!!