Outings and Meetings

The city wakes up early- before 6am, horns are honking, people walking about, and I heard people chanting  a song far away- I don't know if it was in celebration, or protest, or perhaps just a ritual. Another night of roosters crowing all night long, and dogs running about in packs barking, which I'm sure I'll eventually block out. No gun shots or tire fires since I've been here.

We had a great breakfast- omelette sandwiches on these interesting buns. I brought some yeast, with the hopes of making bread at some point while I'm here (think I'll wait until this current round of 17 newbies go home tomorrow- I'm not THAT ambitious :). I haven't even seen the showers here yet- no indoor running water apart from the kitchen, but there are a couple of indoor toilets, but for the most part, it's outside composting toilets (no roof in one- fun in the rain!). Haven't needed a shower yet, as you can just rinse off outside in the rain.

Andy left this morning for the airport, so it's up to Martin & I to continue this project with Jean-Louis & Annio. I have a feeling that Martin (who is architect of the project, and managing all of the accounting & purchases) will be absent a lot due to other obligations, so it may be just the three of us.

It rained all night, but the rain has abated. However, the forecast for today isn't ideal, and Martin just suggested that Jean-Louis & Annio take the day off, so I asked if I could tag along with Martin when he goes to do errands. We'll go to the bank, the roofing warehouse, and a couple of hardware stores- I just love going to hardware stores in other countries! (Nerd? Yup, you bet!). I don't anticipate being able to get out very often (we have to arrange it with a local fellow who is our chauffeur), and really, there is a lot of work to do, so I'm going to jump at any chance to 'get out' of the compound.

Martin said on another outing we'll go to an area of the city that has interesting Victorian style buildings, built prior to the American occupation, that are quite beautiful. American tourists nicknamed them gingerbread houses in the 50's- they stunning examples of Haitian architecture. http://www.wmf.org/project/gingerbread-houses; images:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2004148,00.html

The houses sustained significant damage during the earthquake (some were completely destroyed) but the World Monuments Fund and other organisations are fundraising to repair the existing houses. I really hope we get to see them, and also, the Palais National that was severely damaged during the earthquake. So, will pack my camera for our excursion today, and hope to have more photos later. I'm trying to arrange a meeting this afternoon with my earth block contact here, and hopefully with a Canadian engineer before he flies back to Canada.