It's hard to keep writing in my blog, because I already feel like I'm just living my life down here. It feels odd "reporting" on all that I'm doing. I think at some point I'll appreciate looking back on all this though, so I'll try to keep updating.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday night we went out for a celebratory drink because we got a five year visa for one of the abandoned babies to go to the US and get surgeries that a Children's Hospital donated to her. She has some severe physical disabilities with her hips and legs, as well as some cosmetic ones on her hands. It was very exciting because it can be extremely hard to get visas, and Ivy and Conan were able to get this great visa with no hassle. So now Alessia is in the US with a bunch of orthopedists trying to figure out the best options for her! Definitely a reason to celebrate.

On Saturday, Ivy and I took a group of girls from the Don Boscoe high school program (girls that grew up at the St. Helene home, who are still in school) to go shopping at the Tabarre market. The girls piled into the back of the pickup, we stopped for a few more on our way there, and turned down the market street. Thankfully, one of the guys in the market took pity on us and let us park the truck in his little lot. Ivy and I were the only two white people there, in a crowd of a couple hundred. The girls loved showing us around and were hilarious trying to pick out bras for Ivy. Everything for sale is second-hand and its usually just hung up on a clothesline. There's lots of fruit and vegetables sitting on the street, bins of rice and beans, raw meat sitting out on little platters. It was really crowded, everybody pushing through the crowd to get to where they need to go. We finally made it off the street and into the actual market which was a series on tin roof shacks piled against each other. It smelled horribly like an outhouse, you had to walk over trash and sewage to get anywhere, but it was so much fun. I found a cute cotton skirt and Ivy got some flip-flops and some clothes for a little girl up in oncology at St. Damien's. When we came back there was a big soccer tournament going on at FWAL, so we stopped and watched for a bit. It was great because one of the volunteers just brought down a bunch of soccer uniforms, so all the kids were dressed up in teams and could actually run around. Normally they're playing soccer in sandals and pants that are ripped or way too big, so they have to stop every few feet to keep their clothes on. It's cute to watch, but it was really nice to see them looking all spiffy in their uniforms. We also stopped by the construction site for the Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ) schools. APJ is financing a large site of secondary schools for our kids who grow up at FWAL, including housing which is great. The buildings look really nice! I'm sure our kids must be excited to have such nice facilities.

On Saturday night we went out to Petionville, to a restaurant Harry's. It is right next to where the old NPFS hospital/volunteer house was. We talked a lot about how nice it must have been to be able to walk around the city and be able to go out without driving 30 minutes each way. At the restaurant, I made the mistake of ordering a mojito which was white rum with peppermint schnapps (or something to that effect). It was not good. Definitely made me miss Kayla and Maddie's mojitos at home!

This week has been a lot of fun because it's the end of summer school at FWAL and St. Helene, as well as Father Wasson day on Tuesday. I drove up to Kenscoff on Tuesday with the communications team to be a part of Father Wasson day. They put on a really great program with tons of music and dancing, the kids had costumes and played instruments, it was really nice. I took videos which I will post when I get a new computer cord, because I lost mine. Claudie, one of the boys who was probably about 10, sat with me through the whole ceremony and was so adorable. He had on a lime green dress shirt under his 'Pere Wasson' t-shirt and some sweet converse high tops. The boys who are 8-10 can be such a nightmare, but I love hanging out with them. If you can wear them out running around on the playground, they are total sweethearts for about 15 minutes before they get their energy back. I think they are hilarious when the test the boundaries of what's appropriate because you can totally see the guilt on their faces and then they burst out laughing and hide their faces because they're embarassed. After the ceremony, we ate some delicious food and cake and headed back to Tabarre.

Claudie and I at the Father Wasson celebration

Girls showcasing their work from the atelier

One of the many dance groups that performed

Yesterday was the end of summer program at FWAL, so I took some volunteers from Operation Blessing over to play with the kids and watch the ceremony there. They had great decorations up and a huge stage with two 'guest bands' that were there to play concerts for the kids! Diedvrek and Azgard, two of the guys who work for NPFS in our offices here, brought their band to play a concert for the kids. They were great and got lots of the kids dancing and even got them to put their hands in the air haha. I got to hang out with Vladimir a bunch which was nice because I haven't seen him in a while.

Boys at FWAL

Vladimir and I

Thumb wars

End-of-Summer Program

I had a conversation with one of our medical students this week about getting more support for the university students. We have a good number of kids want to go to university and have the grades to get in. Right now, we have money to send many of them, but there isn't a good place for them to live and almost no support while they are in school. These students (my peers... we're the same age) are so smart, it is hard to get into a university in Haiti because there are only two, so there is a lot of competition. If they had a house or a dormitory or something, in a location central to the two universities, they could support each other and not spend hours each day getting to and from school. Right now our med student is living in a tent here and studies out in the outdoor volunteer area, where everyone is cooking, talking and hanging out. Not exactly the best study space. It's hard because we want to reward all the work they've done to stay in school, but its another thing that requires resources and staff. And I know that they are willing to work to make it a reality... our med student has spoken with the university about getting scholarships for NPH kids. Hopefully we can make some progress on it soon.