Lazy Sunday morning

The base wakes up pretty early…by 6am, most folks are either up or at least awake. Music generally starts playing loudly on radios in the neighbourhood be 6:30, and then it’s kind of a noisy environment for the rest of the day, in between the various building projects, the generator, etc. You hear the same songs over and over again on the radio, and many of the guys here listen to English music rather than French or Creole, as in many parts of  the world.

Yesterday some of the folks came home with a goat they had bought (a wee kid, actually- very cute!). Apparently if there are goats or pigs roaming around the neighbourhoods (which there always are), they go ‘home’ at night to their household, and everyone respects that they can’t just take a stray goat home, even if they’re really hungry.

Yesterday morning I awoke to the site of a teeny tiny gecko on the upper screen of the tent (outside, of course). It was soooooo cute, I just had to take a photo.

We continued to have slow progress on the build yesterday; we didn’t get the missing strapping until late in the day (half an hour before dark, to be precise), but we got it on all the same. The rest of the day was spent installing blocking, straps, hurricane ties, etc. Oh, actually, fabricating the hurricane ties & straps first, of course. We take it for granted that if we  need building materials, we can just buy them, but here, building is all about improvising, making do with the materials at hand, , and being responsibly creative. Every dropped nail, screw, but of twine…all of these things that North Americans might overlook, are precious here.

It was payday for our two Haitian workers yesterday (they are the only paid members of our crew), and oh boy, I knew they weren’t being paid much, but I didn’t realize just how little it was. Yikes!

I worked the rubble crusher beside Jean-Louis yesterday, and got to chat with him a bit more. He said he doesn’t mind the work, he has to work, because he has a family. His wife is 4 months pregnant, he told me with a great big beaming grin. He only wants one child. He comes away from home and stays in the neighbourhood for the 6 days of work, and then goes home for one day off. I asked if he would choose to work, and he said if he didn’t have a family to support, he definitely wouldn’t work. I asked what he would do instead, and he said, nothing, I'd just get up, eat, hang around. 

There is a group of kids singing down the laneway- they’re singing Jingle Bells in Creole- oh no! I just can’t get away from it, might as well accept it! Wait- now it sounds like there's an outdoor sermon going on. 

Today, Alex is coming to pick up Martin & I to drive us out to the countryside to visit a priest who wants a school built in his community. I’m looking forward to what will only be my second official outing in a week (yes, I’ve been here a week already!). Then, we’ll go to the gingerbread house district (hopefully late afternoon so I can get some nice photos). Apparently there’s a good restaurant there in one of the houses, so we’ll likely eat there.

Saturday night is definitely party night here. I was feeling quite under the weather (almost flu like, but not quite), so went to bed pretty early, Am in tip top form today, thankfully.

Coffeed up, so now time to forage for food- we're on our own on Sundays, as the cook isn't in today.

Another rubble delivery. You can see the rubble crusher in front; it's relatively easy to operate, but labour  intensive to actually make plastering sand!!

The Ti Kay Pay (little straw house)

Look how awesome the gecko is!