Nail polish, Soccer, the Beach, and Salsa

These past few days have been so much fun! (I promise we are going to start our projects this week). On Thursday we went to visit the mountain community of Fondwa. In Fondwa, FHM sponsors an orphanage and school. I have to admit the hike to the orphanage was pretty strenuous…I am still sore! It was about 2 miles steep downhill going to the orphanage, which means steep uphill on the way back. But it was very well worth it! Playing with the kids at the orphanage was a lot of fun! I took out nail polish to paint their nails and all of them swarmed around me wanting to get their toenails painted.

Painting the nails of a girl at the Fondwa orphanage! Photo courtesy of Julie Rivo.

Friday was a very soccer-filled day. In Haiti, world cup fever is everywhere! In Fondwa, kids were humming “wave your flag” as we walked by. There are signs everywhere advertising places where the world cup games are being shown – “5 goudes per game” many of the signs display. All of the commercials during the world cup are so much more creative and lively here in Haiti than back in the States. In all the commercials, there is dancing, singing, and some product, whether it is a milk carton or coffee bag, playing soccer. In addition to watching soccer, we have been playing soccer with the kids around the community. Most of our games turn into keep-away instead of an actual game, but they are still very fun!

On one of our many walks. The roads are so rocky and rough that my teevas have already come apart! Here we are probably moving aside for a moto that may run us over if we dont move. Photo courtesy of Vivide Chang.

So on Saturday we took a trip to a beach in Leogane. I have to admit, I had very low expectations after living in California all my life. But the beach was pretty impressive! The water was very warm and relatively clear. We took a handmade canoe to an island…the “driver” of the canoe told us that it took 3 years to make the canoe and it would last for 12 years. Nitin, the canoe reminded me of your solar boat! On the island we went swimming for a while, ate coconuts, and ate conch until we got rained out.

Then, that night, we went salsa dancing! Julia is an amazing salsa dancer and she gave us all lessons before we went to this little salsa club. I was, of course, pretty shy to dance at first but Frandy and Vivide finally convinced me to and I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Oh, I don’t think I have introduced Frandy and Vivide! Actually I don’t think I have introduced anyone…so let me do that so you aren’t confused. So Julie, Julia, and I are the Duke Engage students here for the summer. Our project coordinator is Hannah. We are staying at Dr. Merisier’s clinic. Dr. Merisier lives here with his wife Diane and their son Junior. Junior is adorable, likes to scare me and watch me pretend cry afterwards, and use my contacts case as his race car and my ear plugs case as microphone to sing. Vivide and Genevieve are graduate students also living here for the summer and doing research. Missy is a FHM volunteer who is like our Haitian mother. She speaks Creole very, very well and has really helped us to get to know Haitian culture. Frandy is Dr. Merisier’s half brother. He is awesome because he helps us with our Creole but he is not so awesome because he is rooting for the Celtics! Yeah, its crazy, I get to sometimes watch Lakers games here! Its amazing how universal things like sports are.

Today we are meeting with the women’s group of Leogane to introduce our project and ask for their input. I am excited to start the project!