Grand Opening 5th Gala Event!

I would like to personally invite everyone to attend or watch Center of Hope (Haiti) 5th Gala event. This Gala event will show the grand opening of the orphanage in Hinche, Haiti. The orphanage will open its doors to orphans in Hinche on October 20th and the opening will be recorded and shown at the Gala event.

Live webcasts of the Gala and opening of the orphanage can be viewed by making a minimum donation of $20.00! You can sign up by visiting:

www.centerofhope-haiti.org/galadonation.shtml

or

www.centerofhope-haiti.org

Trip overview

The trip was a great experience, I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to help Center of Hope (Haiti) in the opening of their orphanage. The orphanage officially opens up October 20th which is in just 2 days. The trip wouldn't have been such a success without all the hard work the board members of COHH do. Also all the volunteers I got to serve with in Haiti made the trip even more enjoyable.

Day 18 - 30

We'll to be honest I didn't keep a day by day journal for my last two weeks in Hinche. But I can recount from memory all my activities in a brief summary. The last two weeks I spent in Hinche was full of orphanage work and hanging out around Hinche. More work than hanging out of course. A typical day was like most days previously posted, waking up early, working on the orphanage all day, then heading back to the hotel for diner. Sunday is our usual off day and we go to church.



I did get more time to travel around Hinche and hang out with kids. Working with kids is my favorite thing to do in Haiti because they are such a pleasure to be around.


And of course they love taking pictures!



The highlights of my last two weeks in Hinche were:


Renting my horse! I rented a horse to travel around Morique, it's eco friendly but makes for a bumpy ride. I named my horse Prestige after my favorite Haitian brew.


Exchanging pictures with all my friends at the drink shop!


Hanging out will all my little friends in Morique!



Passing out barbies to all my friends at the drink shop!

Day 17

Today started at about 7:00AM. I headed to breakfast about 7:15AM without my nutella because it seems I have lost it… The first person I saw when I walked into the breakfast room was Marie and I immediately inquired about getting some spaghetti. She told me 30minute wait and I smiled and said I only have 10minutes, and she smiled back and said tomorrow… I said thanks and walked back to my room and packed for the days work.

We always stop at our usual drink stop on the way to work. I have become fast friends with all the little girls who mothers work at the shop. Yesterday I gave them all paper and color pencils so they could draw pictures.


Today I got to see all of their wonderful art work and gave them more paper and color pencils so they could draw more.




After getting water and ice we headed to the orphanage.

When we first got to the orphanage today I went to the kitchen to have breakfast. Dena had her salami and cheese out and I made a salami and cheese croissant. Today at the orphanage we were painting all the bathrooms in the visitors quarters and administration building. Four bathrooms total, the previous day we had scrubbed the walls to get them for painting. My job was to paint the tops of the walls and paint the trim. I got this job because I am the tallest one in the group thus making me the only one able to reach the ceiling corners and tops of the walls. I hate painting, I especially hate it when its hot and your crammed in a tiny room but my sweet painting outfit helped lighten the mood. It took all the way up until lunch to finish painting.


For lunch today we had popcorn and soda.


Healthy combination I know but the salami and cheese croissant for breakfast was pretty filling. Plus I hadn't made it to the market yet and didn’t bring anything else with me. The popcorn was exceptionally filling, I didn’t mind all the grease and would actually welcome more grease and/or butter. After lunch I took my usual nap, today I took a 45 minute nap instead of a 30 minute nap. I felt as though I had worked extra hard painting and deserved 15 more minutes of sleep. After napping I joined the rest of the group and we painted the doors of the visitors quarters and admin building. After we finished painting we cleaned up and headed to the market then back to the hotel. At the market I bought corn, tuna, gatorade, a can of pringles, and a big pack of Duetto’s cookies.

We got back to the hotel about 4PM. The time we were suppose to eat diner. I went to my room and changed and grabbed a few of my new snacks to add to diner. We played a couple hands of thirteen before diner finally arrived. Tonight for diner I had: Tunariceandbeansfriesketcupcorn. Just how I like it, My mood normally fluctuates through out the day, when I have food I am the happiest and the in the hour or two before getting food I can be somewhat of a grouch. I was happy to have tuna back in my diet.

After diner I headed back to my room to do some cleaning. I was expecting to have been moved out of the hotel by now and into the visitors quarters at the orphanage but we don’t have water at the orphanage yet. So I have been letting my room become a bit of a mess thinking that this might be my last day here at the hotel. So because of this I needed to do some cleaning. I’m not a big cleaner but my room needed a good sweeping. After cleaning my room I took a shower and will head to bed soon. I am a little over the half way point for my time here in Haiti this month and I am extremely tired.

Day 16

I woke up this morning at 4:55AM late of course and I scrambled to get things together and made it out to the van at about 5:05AM and we left on our way to Port-au-Prince. On the way out of Hinche we got in a traffic jam and then walked out of the van to find that the road was under about 8ft of water. When it rains heavy here some bridges and roads get overrun with water. So we stood on one side of the road and about 100m out was nothing but water and then the rest of the road. We decided to try the local airport in Hinche so James could fly to PaP, but they didn’t open until 8AM and it was about 5:30AM. So we drove back down to the flooded road and the water had receded some.


Enough for a landrover to cross.


After the land rover crossed several other vehicles followed and the next thing you know we were driving our urvan through the water.


Thankfully we made it across and we headed on our way to PaP. The dirt road were completely muddy which made handling on our urvan almost impossible but we didn’t have near as much trouble as the motorbikes did.



We finally arrived to Port au Prince and head to meet with Daniel Rouzier who heads Food for the Poor. We met him at a GM dealership next to the US embassy. We chatted with Mr. Rouzier about the opening of Center of Hope Haiti and he also explained to us about his Food for the Poor program. Very polite and professional man Mr. Rouzier is and it was a pleasure meeting him.

After that we headed to the airport to drop James off. Its been a fun two weeks working and getting to know James. He does a lot of hard work for Center of Hope and is a good friend.

Next we went to a hardware store in called Eko Depot.


There we bought a few construction supplies for the orphanage and then we headed to another hardware store. This store was called, MSC plus.


MSC plus was better priced than Exo Depot and MSC had prices in USD, and reasonable priced things in US currency. I bought two cans of pringles and a pocket calculator for $5.00!

After we finished shopping there it was time finally for lunch so made the long drive from the side of Port-au-Prince we were on to the restaurant we frequent in Petionville. The restaurant is called Les Jardins de Gérard.


It is one of the best restaurants in the country. I always order the Penne au Poulet, which is a chicken pasta.




After we finsihed eating we drove a short distance down the street to supermarket. This supermarket in Petionville is the closes thing I have seen to a supermarket in the states. They had refrigerated dairy products, a deli, fresh bakery, extensive alcohol collection, and of course regular grocery items. We shopped there for food for center of hope for when we move into the orphanage.


Once we were done with shopping we loaded back into the van and made the long drive across Port-au-Prince and then to Hinche which took all of about 5 hours considering the rain, traffic and rough road conditions.

Day 15

Painting all day yesterday really wore me out so I woke up late today at about 7:10AM I quickly hurried to the breakfast area so see if I could get a rush order of spaghetti before we left. Of course after explaining to the breakfast lady in Creole that I needed a spaghetti order in ten minutes she laughed and I settled for a few slices of pineapple and the grabbed 4 slices of old bread for my lunch. We left about 7:30AM and went straight to the orphanage.

Today we first had to move all the furniture back into the rooms we had painted yesterday and then put another coat of paint on the Fourier. We also had to paint the two rooms we had not finished from the day before. Painting sucks so I decided to spice things up and make a brand new painting outfit to lift every ones spirits. The shirt I got at a bargain store in the US for 7.00 and the shorts I made out of an old pair of slacks. I use some of the cut off slacks to make a belt as you can see in the picture, very eco friendly by the way.. I will keep you posted on what I do with the rest of the cut off leggings. Anyway we painted and moved furniture all day and finally finished painting the entire visitors quarters. After paint completion we moved all the furniture back into the rooms and put outlet covers back on. Once painting and moving furniture was complete we basically had the visitors quarters all ready to be moved into. The construction manager has to have water brought in and plumbing fixed before we can fully move in.




After work was done on the orphanage today we headed back into town and since work took so long today we got in right when we were set to have diner. Today I used my last can of tuna at lunch… I also didn’t have any corn left or anything else to spice up the diner we receive here at the hotel. I did find 4 oat meal raisin granola bars in my frantic search for tuna before diner though. That definitely was a plus.

For tonight's diner we were getting goat meat instead of the usual chicken. I have eaten goat several other times when I was volunteering in Cap-Haitian and it isn’t that bad. It tastes a lot like beef just a little more chewy. The only thing I don’t like about goat meat is that goats eat anything and everything so its quite possible that the goat that I eat has eaten garbage, rocks, or anything else you can think of. Anyway I only found one small pebble in the goat meat I ate tonight. I made: riceandbeansfriesgoatketcup tonight instead of tunariceandbeansfriesketcupcorn.

After diner James, Dustin and I played a few hands of thirteen and waited for our construction manager Gaston to arrive at the hotel. Once he arrived we had a meeting about the progress of the orphanage and set some deadlines for certain projects to be finished. After the meeting we all headed back to our rooms. Tomorrow we are head to Port-au-Prince to meet with some people, drop James off at the airport, and pick up supplies for the orphanage. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 5AM… More importantly we are missing breakfast… Thankfully I have three of the granola bars left of the four I found this evening.

Day 14

Today started at about 7:15AM I woke up late and only had enough time to grab a few slices of bread for breakfast and then head to the van to make our 7:30AM departure time. This morning in Hinche was pretty overcast and it rained much of last night. We first headed to a few different shops in Hinche to grab some painting materials. After that we headed for the orphanage.

Today we started one of my least favorite activities, painting. We got in last night a high yellow paint called Yarbrough yellow for Port-au-Prince. We ordered basic yellow paint with our construction manager and this is what he sent us. Anyway we got started painting each room of the visitors quarters. We started first with the Fourier and then moved to the room i'll be staying in once we move into the visitors quarters. Our paint team included Dustin, Jenna, James, and I. James and Jenna had paint brushes and painted the borders of every room, while Dustin and I had the rollers and painted everything else. Painting isn’t much fun. Throw in the fact its extremely hot outside and even more hot inside the room your painting and you have four people in one room and it isn’t anymore fun than before.

After we finished painting our first visitors room we went on lunch break. Today's lunch for me was big because I didn’t eat breakfast. I had two tuna sandwiches, a can of pringles and a Pepsi. Not the healthiest thing in the world to eat but here in Haiti it will due. Its hard to explain the feeling of eating here: we don’t eat much and when we do eat it normally is the same thing, but I get excited every time. All the work we do through out the day and our meager diets don’t match up, but when ever I get a chance to eat anything I am extremely happy.

Even if it is the same tuna sandwich or slice of bread and nuttela I eat all the time. Food makes me happy. I kind of feel like a little kid because the hour before lunch or diner I usually don’t want to talk with anyone and am extremely irritable. Especially after working at the orphanage all day and waiting for our always late diner. Anyway lunch was fantastic and after eating I was in a better mood to paint. We painted two other visitor rooms and then after that called it a day. We just have two more rooms to finish tomorrow and we will be done with the painting aspect.Once done with painting we cleaned up and check on the electrical progress. All but one of our inverters worker properly and we have power in both the visitors quarters and administration buildings. After we sorted out the electrical business we headed back to the hotel.






When we got back to the hotel I took a shower or more like half a shower. The shower and water systems in each room run off rain water collected in reservoirs on top of each room. Obviously mine had run out after 5 minutes of showering so that was my shower for the day. I headed to diner about 4:15, 15minutes late but the food was just arriving. Diner was the same: tunariceandbeansfriesketcupcorn. After diner Dustin, James and I played cards for a while and headed back to our rooms for the night. Tomorrow is another 7:00AM wake up time so I decided to be in bed by 10PM and to not drink any wine being that waking up this morning with a huge head ace and not getting any breakfast wasn’t fun.

Day 13

I’m finally getting use to waking up early now, its not as much of a struggle to get up this early as the previous eleven days. I got up around 8AM today and headed for breakfast. For breakfast I had pineapple and nutella on bread. After breakfast I headed to my room to get ready for church. I decided I have gone long enough without washing my hair to I hopped in the shower. I normally wash my hair once every two weeks. The longest I have gone without washing it is probably a month. I would wash it more but it takes forever to dry. I have to use a hair dryer and it takes about a half a hour to get my dreadlocks completely dry. I wasn’t planning on washing them at all on this trip because they are just going to get dirty all over again but I changed my mind and I’m glad I packed my hair dryer. It kind of makes me feel like a girl to have to sit with a hair dryer and dry my hair, but I love my hair and kind of try to take care of it. What I like most about my hair is I don’t have to do anything to it most of the time. No hair cuts, no combing, wash it every once and a while and that’s pretty much it. My hair never stinks like most people might believe because I rarely wash it. When I do wash it I use a dread shampoo bar made with hemp seed oil, coconut, and other natural ingredients. Anyway enough about my hair.

We left for church about 9:30 and got their about 10:00 and service got over about noon. It really is hard to sit there for that amount of time in the heat and listen to a sermon and songs in a language I don’t fully understand. I understand bits and pieces of the sermons and songs but I find it hard to stay awake during the prayers. The prayers here are a minimum of five minutes long and I frequently fall asleep during them. After the service we had more stuff to pass out. James had more toiletry items to pass out to the kids that Jewish kids from New York put together. Dustin and Jenna passed those items out and passed out deodorant sticks and Kleenex packets. Passing stuff out this time was even more difficult than last time. You basically get mobbed by kids and adults everyone pulling and tugging asking for something… It’s a real big headache and I can now see why some groups rather not pass out anything at all.

After passing items out we headed the short walk to the orphanage and check on the progress of the electricians. They were still working on installing the generators. After checking on that we headed back to the van and went back into town. In town we needed to stop and pick up some drinks and ice. We visit the same shop to purchase our drinks and ice and I have become pretty good friends with some of the workers and their kids. Here are my friends Yoland, Ci Ci, and Stefanié:


Once back at the hotel we placed our diner orders then everyone headed to their rooms. During the day the hotel has no power so when we have a day off we are stuck at the hotel with no power. No AC… I decided to make some lunch and have a nap. For lunch I had a tuna sandwich, pringles and a coke.

Diner was only 30minutes late tonight which isn’t too bad considering how late it usually is. Instead of french fries we got plantaine. Which sucks because I don’t really like plantine. Instead of my usual diner of: tunariceandbeansketcupfriescorn , I had: tunariceandbeansketcupcorn. The food change really hasn’t bothered me a bit. I just get extremely irritated when I fix my plate and have to wait on the ketcup. They bring our meal to us on plates from the kitchen, and the last thing they bring is the ketcup. I usually fix my plate and have everything mixed up and ready to eat, but I have to wait for the ketcup to arrive. I try and be patient but if it take them more than five minutes to bring me the ketcup I get up and go to the kitchen myself.


After diner we played a few hands of 13 and then went to the market to do some shopping. Having done some shopping yesterday I only needed to get a few things. I got a bottle of Santa Ana a Cabernet Sauvignon produced in Argentina and a can of sour cream and onion pringles. I’m getting better at figuring out how much items are while shopping. The display price is in Haitian Dollars but you pay in Haitian gourdes. To convert Haitian dollars at this market to Haitian gourdes you just multiply Haitian dollars by 5 and you get the price in gourdes. For example the bottle of wine I bought tonight cost 50 Haitian dollars and the pringles 22 Haitian dollars. In Haitian gourdes the wine is 250 Haitian gourdes and the pringles 110 gourdes. So my total was 360 gourdes. In US this $9.00 with the exchange rate from gourdes to USD at 40 gourdes for every dollar. $9.00 pretty good deal for a bottle of cheap wine and a can of pringles.

After we finished shopping we headed back to the hotel and made plans to leave tomorrow for work in the morning at 7:30AM. We have just received some paint we ordered from Port-au-Prince and will now begin to paint the visitors quarters.
Tonight I watched the movie Once which is a low budget movie about a guitar player from Ireland. It was a very good movie with a good soundtrack.