Welcome to the World of 2011!

It has been a fantastic new year's holiday! Friday morning (and Thursday afternoon) I worked on building and installing a playground at one of the local clinics. Friday we actually went over to the clinic and set up a swing set, slide, and monkey bars. The doctors there (Israeli's working through IsraAID) were really excited to see the play area get set up. We were given the afternoon off work. A huge number of the international volunteers left base for the weekend, going to Jacmel (beach town about two hours away) and to other various destinations. I decided to skip the hassle associated with Haitian travel and relax on base. I'm glad I ended up sticking around, as there were just some 15 or so people on base, so things were quiet and conducive to relaxation. Friday afternoon I walked around town with a couple other volunteers, Martin and Bruce. We stopped by a little store that sells Pringles, Ramen, and such. For dinner a bunch of us went to a restaurant called Masaje, which sells burgers, fries, and stuff like that. We all sat around, talking about where we were one decade ago (I was in Rome, listening to the Pope give a speech), and our most memorable moments from this past year (for me, it was probably dancing around Leogane to the song Waka Waka - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGkgBxORvs4). Shortly after coming to base, we headed to Joe's bar, next door. Our curfew was extended two and a half hours, to 12:30. Most people who stuck around base, and a lot of the local volunteers, hung out at Joe's for the night, playing Bananagrams and drinking Prestige (Haitian beer) and rum. When the clocks struck midnight, we banged pots and pans and joined arms, swaying to the beats of the music.

I slept in "late" Saturday morning. When I got up, a friend, April, was in the kitchen cooking made-to-order breakfast for everyone. I got eggs (with real cheese!), toast, and hot chocolate. I spent the entire day being lazy (except for my daily run with Jolinda). Dinner was Indian food! It's hard to make some things work with the limited resources available in Leogane, but we managed to have a meal with a squash mush-type-thing, dahl, couscous, and spicy peanut noodles. After, we watched Papillon, a 70s film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. It's a prison escape movie and was surprisingly good.

Today was another full day of nothing (again, except for running laps behind base). I've so far probably spent a solid six hours sorting through the shared music folder. There are nearly 16,000 songs to go through. It's nearing bed time and I've made it to the "m" section. There was an unfortunate incident on base today that has left a lot of people pretty pissed. Sometime this morning, some person or people managed to scale the wall of our base and get on the roof, slashing several tents open and stealing various things. We have guards and everything, but apparently there is a sort of blind area. I feel really bad for the people who got there things stolen. It's sad and frustrating to see something like this happen, but I guess, as the saying goes, "shit happens".

Tomorrow it's back to work. I've got a pretty annoying cold, but am looking forward to see what the week brings. I only have three more days of work, as I'm leaving Thursday. I'm going to make the best of my final days here!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic start to the new year.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. I took the picture above at a local watering hole Bruce, Martin, and I stopped at on our Friday afternoon walk around town. Apparently the bartender doubles as a mechanic and the bar doubles as a menagerie, where the dog was doing push-ups to impress the chicken and her chicks.