Last Day in Haiti
Today is our last day!!
Last night we had a celebration with the remaining food we had with us (cheese, crackers, pineapple, mango, and wine) and toasted to a job well done; it was quite the feast. Sarah and Christie, fellow Fordham-ites, have been my partners since the group broke off and we are the only members of our team leaving tomorrow. The other team is composed of a Fonkoze employee (also a Fordham-ite, staying until September), someone who is living in Haiti, and another Fordham-ite staying until August.
As we enter our last few accounts this morning, I think to myself how glad I will be to never see loan performer again!!! This is the computer program that we have been helping Fonkoze transfer all of the files in to. It was developed in Uganda specifically for microfinance institutions to keep track of the loan clients. The 3 of us leaving are very excited to be heading back to Port-au-Prince in a few hours. I woke up this morning filled with excitement to see my family tomorrow, but I also felt a little sad to be leaving. As with all trips like this you learn so much about the country, the people, yourself...you push your limits by stepping out of your comfort zone (or leaping out of it in some cases) but in the end you appreciate the experience. Despite our trials and tribulations we have had a good time and got some work done too!
Tonight, we will shower and don clean clothes (YIPPEE!) to go out to dinner with Christie, our coordinator, and Anne, the director. I am most excited for the clean clothes! When we left Port-au-Prince in June, we were told to pack for a week and a half or so. Then it took us much longer to do what we had to do and have been gone 23 days!! So I've been hand washing my clothes...and I'm not the best at it! I give people who can do that well a lot of credit!
Tomorrow, we will head to the airport for our 10am-ish flight. We have already planned out our non-Haitian meal at the airport tomorrow during our layover in Miami. We are making a beeline to the first restaurant we see and we are looking forward to that very much!! Then Christie and I will say goodbye to Sarah, she’s flying to Maryland, and head on home!!!
Anyway, I must return to my last hours of work! Next post will be from Connecticut, USA!! Until then...
Last night we had a celebration with the remaining food we had with us (cheese, crackers, pineapple, mango, and wine) and toasted to a job well done; it was quite the feast. Sarah and Christie, fellow Fordham-ites, have been my partners since the group broke off and we are the only members of our team leaving tomorrow. The other team is composed of a Fonkoze employee (also a Fordham-ite, staying until September), someone who is living in Haiti, and another Fordham-ite staying until August.
As we enter our last few accounts this morning, I think to myself how glad I will be to never see loan performer again!!! This is the computer program that we have been helping Fonkoze transfer all of the files in to. It was developed in Uganda specifically for microfinance institutions to keep track of the loan clients. The 3 of us leaving are very excited to be heading back to Port-au-Prince in a few hours. I woke up this morning filled with excitement to see my family tomorrow, but I also felt a little sad to be leaving. As with all trips like this you learn so much about the country, the people, yourself...you push your limits by stepping out of your comfort zone (or leaping out of it in some cases) but in the end you appreciate the experience. Despite our trials and tribulations we have had a good time and got some work done too!
Tonight, we will shower and don clean clothes (YIPPEE!) to go out to dinner with Christie, our coordinator, and Anne, the director. I am most excited for the clean clothes! When we left Port-au-Prince in June, we were told to pack for a week and a half or so. Then it took us much longer to do what we had to do and have been gone 23 days!! So I've been hand washing my clothes...and I'm not the best at it! I give people who can do that well a lot of credit!
Tomorrow, we will head to the airport for our 10am-ish flight. We have already planned out our non-Haitian meal at the airport tomorrow during our layover in Miami. We are making a beeline to the first restaurant we see and we are looking forward to that very much!! Then Christie and I will say goodbye to Sarah, she’s flying to Maryland, and head on home!!!
Anyway, I must return to my last hours of work! Next post will be from Connecticut, USA!! Until then...
posted by Karol at 9:08 AM
1 Comments:
A belated comment, since I know that you're back in CT already... I'm a little slow on blog-reading... but yeah, I hear ya on the whole hand-washing thing. I don't think I'm any better at it now than I was 1 1/2 years ago, and I've lugged my laundry (all of my clothes, towels, sheets, etc.) halfway across the country (literally) if I knew that there was gonna be a washing machine where I was staying for an event or whatever. Give your laundry machine a hug for me! :)
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