Blanc on a Hot Tin Roof

Today, my first work day, was very productive and very tiring. It was nice and cool last night and I slept superbly. I woke up "late" this morning (6:45) and rolled out of bed for the Monday 7 o'clock pancake breakfast meeting. For work today most all of the volunteers went to one of the two school builds that are in-progress. I went to school six, where the progress is further along than seven. I spent the entire morning chillin' in the rafters, helping to put up the tin roof. Being that I know nothing about roofing, I mostly just assisted the three folks working up there. It was a little scary but a little awesome. I ended up covered in this roofing-tar-like-substance. The site was really cool in that there were tons of volunteers, local and international, as well as a lot of community members, children and adults. There were lots of people doing lots of different things but it all came together nicely. School building has definitely become one of All Hands priorities. This is very evident by how quickly the different steps in the building process are moving. Today's work was all-day, meaning that we didn't come back to base for lunch and break but instead had lunch and rested at the site. I ate Haitian food! It was as good as I remembered. We had rice and beans (no doubt), stewed onions, chicken, and some vegetables. It was delicious and comforting. I ate it with the beautiful scenery surrounding the school - mountains, sugar cane fields, cows.

The afternoon moved a bit slower and I stayed off the roof. I spent most of the time shoveling wet sand, putting wet sand out to dry, shoveling dry sand, moving dry sand, and sifting that dry sand. It's part of preparing for tomorrow, where we will do rendering. I'm not exactly sure how it works, as I've never done it before, but it is essentially applying a coat of cement-like material to the walls. Given that I am on the rendering team tomorrow, I should have a better idea of what it is and how it works soon. Anyways, we left the site and came back and had dinner. Dinner was a Haiti classic (in my mind, at least) that consisted of spaghetti with pink sauce (mayo and ketchup), bread, a triangle of bongu "cheese" (probably not actually cheese, but close enough), and some veggies. Again, it proved to be a very comforting meal.

After dinner we had our daily meeting where we talk about our work from the day, make announcements, sign up for chores, and sign up for the next day's work.. By the end I had volunteered to be on the Christmas dinner crew. I asked if I was allowed, being that I'm Jewish and all (apparently, yes, I am). So now I have to brainstorm ideas. Any input would be appreciated, by the way. After the meeting I had my first earned bucket shower. It was cold but completely refreshing. Straight after I went to beginner Creole class. It was taught by one of the local volunteers, Peterson. Some of the stuff I knew already but some of it was new, and what wasn't was a good refresher. I always regret the fact that I didn't learn much Creole at all last time I was here so I'm going to do what I can while I'm here this time. It seems like a pretty easy language to learn (relatively speaking) with a simple grammar structure and Creole seems somewhat intuitive to me. But we'll see. After my language class I came to where I sit now, the "internet cafe" AKA an area with a couple picnic tables where people congregate to use their computers. I'm sitting at a table with a lot of local guys/girl. My "professor", Peterson, stopped by for a while and listened to some Notorious BIG on my big headphones. This reminds me of another huge change on base I neglected to mention - local volunteers are allowed inside! Before, there was a rule that said only international volunteers and on-staff locals (i.e. translators, tap-tap drivers, cooks) could come in. There was a lot of opposition to the rule but when I left, it still stood. But now it's different and is really, really great. We work together all day and the local and international volunteers are often very close, so it only seems fair/makes sense that they should be welcome in our home. And now they are!

Now it is approaching ten o'clock and I'm wiped out. Nearly time for bed.

Goodnight.

Love,

Daniel