I love my life!

There’s a song that plays incessantly on the jobsite radios, and pretty much anywhere I’ve traveled in Haiti: I love my life! I love that even the people who don’t know how to speak English belt out those lyrics. 

I’m so behind in my travels I’m not even sure where to begin. I may split it up into segments to make it easier to digest. 

I arrived back here at Grassroots on Saturday, and jumped right into working on the house. We took Sunday off, and a group of us went out to a town in the mountains called Kenscoff. We went to visit a woman whose family has created an oasis on the mountainside property. There are lots of different types of bamboo, banana trees, and a variety of flowering vines, trees, and edibles that would knock your socks off.

Grenada passion fruit- so beautiful!

We had a delightful meal with our most animated and beautiful host, Jane, who at 64 looks as fresh and alive as one can be. Jane's farm is called Wynne Farm. Sundays are drop in days for visitors and friends, and visitors quickly become friends in this warm and lively household.

Jane dancing with Fifa.

After lunch, we strolled down to one of the bamboo patches, and Jane encouraged us all to lie down (even me, once I put down my camera) and be still.

It was so wonderful, breathing in that fresh air that is in such contrast to the heavy air of Port au Prince (as I sit here outdoors writing there is actually a cool breeze tonight, and I can smell at least two burn barrels, one of which has plastic), listening to the peepers, hearing the various insects, kids singing off in the distance. Mmmmm, it was delicious.

I awoke from this reverie to the most beautiful guitar playing and singing, so roused myself to go listen. I have forgotten the guitarist’s name, but he was beautiful, the music was magical, and one of his songs brought tears to my eyes, as I sat there in this most lush garden, the sun beating down on me, looking at the magestic bamboo grove in front of me waving in the breeze, and enjoying a visit from a humming bird.

Guy, one of Jane's many friends, was drawn by the music. I love this photo- what a beautiful man!

After this lovely forty or so minutes of music, more musicians arrived, and the music moved indoors.

As you can imagine, I couldn't hold myself back- I had to stroke the faux fur. These guys were a lot of fun!

We got up and danced and sang and had a great time, until Alex arrived to take us home…sooner than I was hoping, but hey, it was a beautiful afternoon. When we got back to base camp, Andy et al. decided to go try to catch some of the pre-Mardi-Gras festivities. I had been planning on getting caught up on computer stuff, but decided I should go. So, off we went- caught our tap tap (Jean Louis & Samuel came along with us) and got to the thick of what I was hoping would be a terrific night of live music. Alas, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a gigantic float, advertising Digicel, the cell phone company here, blaring out piped music. Um, this wasn’t the live music I had dreamed of…the horns, the energy, but that didn’t stop the Haitian crowd of party-goers. Everyone was walking along behind the Digicel, dancing, smiling, and shouting with glee…until the Digicel turned around, and then we all had to turn the other way to avoid being crushed by the thing. It truly was gigantic, and the piped music was incredibly loud. We walked the other way hoping to find some more music, but ran into yet another gigantic Digicel, full of as many people as the first one. It was a lot of fun until Andy became very suddenly ill, right in the middle of Carnaval. We figure it was food poisoning. Being in downtown Port au Prince in the middle of Carnaval celebrations isn’t exactly the easiest place to leave, so Samuel went and arranged for a private tap-tap to bring us back to Grassroots. Andy had a slow day today, but thankfully, didn’t require anything more than rehydration and rest.

Today onsite there was a lizard fight-quite a crowd gathered round. It was quite vicious, but fascinating to watch in a way that surprised me. So, now I've attended both a cock fight and a lizard fight since I've been here.

The first coat of limewash went onto the interior walls of the straw house, and Mark busied himself hooking up the PV system. We almost have power-hopefully tomorrow night the galeri will be lit up and we'll be able to christen the house!

The shutters were painted this week- I think the blue looks fantastic!

And by the by, I do love my life!