I have not written a blog for almost 2 months. I have few excuses and none very good but time has really flown past since we got back. I suppose I feel we I don’t have much to say, thought you would never hear me say that?, but as everyday takes over it becomes norm and who is interested in norm?
Actually I’m interested in the norm. I love hearing all the little things from home. Who has seen who and what are they up to in school and work. I even read the village newsletter and look at “prime location” most weeks just to reassure myself home is still there and I’m keeping up at least a little. I also am very pleased to get the school newsletter even though I have no children at the school anymore.
Since we got back, actually since May, the girls and I have been home schooling. I never wanted to be a teacher and especially not to my own children. Kate, last years teacher, left on May 10th and was planning to return in October. The new teacher, Andrea, was also expected for October and Michelle would be back by then. Julian and I decided that 5 months of school holiday was too much and so we carried on with the books the girls has been using last year. They only started them in January so there was plenty left to do. We had 6 weeks off during our trip home and started up again on our return in August. 9 weeks later we are still at it. Kate decided not to return to Haiti and Andrea has not yet got all her money together in order to come, she is now due end of November. Michelle, quite understandably, did not want to teach 5 kids at different levels so is teaching her own boys and preparing some of the work for Rebecca, Ella and Haley. Heidi and I have been making up the difference and although it has been tough if has gone better than I expected. The difficulty has been to do everything else we are suppose to do whilst trying very hard to give the children the education they deserve. I believe that my wait may soon be over as a lady, Nancy, from New York has offered to come teach the children till Andrea arrives. I believe she may be here as soon as beginning of November, I can’t wait. I just don’t feel the girls are getting a good enough education with me muddling through.
The reason we do not have a date yet for Nancy’s arrival is due to Sandy’s expected arrival on the US East coast. We had the pleasure of Sandy’s fringes this past week and if she turns to snow it will be a lot. Sandy went over Jamaica and Cuba over the past few days, as I know lots of you have been following in the news. We just had the rain in her tail but there was plenty of it. The rain stated Tuesday lunchtime and with only a few dry-ish patches, dumped water over us steadily for 3 days. Some said we have had as much as 25inches but I don’t know who measured it. Every thing felt damp even the salt is all caked in the cupboard. The washing I did on Tuesday morning did not dry till Friday afternoon and suddenly our compound was transformed to a mud bath. The girls had lots of fun on several occasions but the fun wore off when we had no water Thursday. We have a cistern outside our house holding hundreds of gallons of water so we were not left dry, it just did not come out of the tap or refill the toilet cistern automatically. The temperature changed dramatically over the 3 days. Suddenly we had lows of 20C (68F) and would find both long sleeves, Jeans and fleece blankets. Its strange being cold when we have spent the last 2 months re-acclimatising to the Haiti summer ( 33+C/ 90+F and high humidity). I’m not quite sure how it will be to come back to England for Christmas and Denmark for New Year. The medical/ construction team we had last week, from Northern Maine, almost did not make it home. They had to change their flights to the following day, leave the island without permission from the harbour master and expect to meet Sandy again when they come home with huge amounts of snow. I think they were very pleased when they got to the airport this morning. They were a great team, worked very hard and was a pleasure to spend time with.
The hospital construction is coming on well. We also had a visit from the architect and structural engineer in the last 2 weeks. It was great to be able to show them how well Julian and the guys are getting on and I think they were pleased to see it in the flesh, so to speak. We are low on funding for the hospital and hopefully Julian will be able to start building a school in the mountains for Compassion. This will help keep the men employed while fundraising continues for the hospital.
2 weeks have now passed since i started this post. So I had better finish it. Nancy has arrived and is hoping to start school tomorrow. The girls are excited as she sounds like a lot of fun. I will crawl back into the medical store room and make an attempt to tidy it before the hospital summit in 3 weeks. I have a medical/ surgical team here at the same time as well as people I just want to catch up with. good job we have a little quiet time afterwards.
My parents arrive in PAP on Thursday. The girls and i are going into meet them bringing them back here on Friday. They are currently in Cuba and sent me a very amusing txt this morning. Those of you who know my parents will know that I laughed out loud. My mum wrote; “ This morning we have surpasses ourselves. We have written on horse back, smoked cigars and drunk Mojitos…..” Not something I expecting to hear but so glad they are having a good time away. I know they were a little anxious going with out a guide but sounds like they are managing just fine. We are very much looking forward to seeing them and to show them where we live. We have many plans to see La Gonave and to show them the beauty of Haiti as well as everyday life for us and the locals. They will be the first visitors here for us. We have made some good friends in people who have come but these are our first “own” visitors since we arrived in January.
Rebecca planned a Halloween Party for the compound kids. She used the decorations and sweets brought in by a very kind team in September and set up the guesthouse dining room. She asked all the families to bring a pizza and she made orange pumpkin cupcakes. All the children and some of the adults dressed up and we had a lovely couple of hours. Both Rebecca and Ella made their costumes including boots from cardboard. They love dressing up.
Ella is tryingg to learn the guitar. She makes a good sound and hopefully Morfar will be able to teach her a little more when he comes.
Our chickens have finally started laying eggs. We have had 6 this week so if that continues we will be having eggs most mornings. One week a month we will collect the eggs and send them for incubation. The chicks will then be given to a community on the island in the “Village Health” programme.
I’ll let you all go. Thanks for reading and sorry it took me so long.
Marie x
