Friday 4. The orphanage

We have to find somewhere to stay that is nearer the orphanage  where we are going to work all next week. Today we were in a taxi one way and a truck returning for about 5hours altogether.The truck broke down going uphill but our driver finally got it going again in in a blast of hooting. Blazing heat, massive traffic jams,(bouteillage) cars, taptaps,dust clouds, lorries, indescribable things on wheels belching out fumes as they mount what might have been pavements, nearly knocking over little piles of goods-for-sale carefully laid out on piles of rubble.The biggest new buildings are American gas stations but don't get me started....

The orphanage where we are going to work doesn’t seem to have a name other than Croix de Bouquets which is the district it’s in just on the edge of Port au Prince. Our first meeting with the ‘chef’Gerald, was a bit sticky. I was struggling with my French and couldn’t understand his Creole. There were no water bottles to be found so I was drinking from a little clear plastic sachet  which once punctured, kept spilling all over my laptop.  Rachelle was manfully attempting to translate outcomes , sustainability, methodology, no-look-at-website-because-no-Wifi... It wasn’t going well. Luckily I had brought some FUNFORLIFE IN HAITI! balloons for the younger children who by this time were trying to clamber on our laps. So after  a bit of a session with the children finding a few ridiculous  things to do with balloons, I think Gerald began to get the idea of Fun. He finally smiled and it all got easier.  

The orphanage, housing 20 children from five to seventeen was built just after the earthquake There is an unfinished bathroom, a kitchen with no cooker, a boys dormitory with three beds and several mats on the floor and the same for the girls.There are three classrooms in one small tent to the side. Amazingly there is a large room with a clean tiled floor where we will be able to work.

Rachelle, our FRADES coordinator is beautiful. So many Haitians are. Probably early thirties. She announced that she was pregnant  but ‘No man good enough to marry.’

The struggle continues  to find somewhere near the orphanage to stay that is anything other than a sex hotel. Also to find a large car or small minibus under 150$ a day. This seems to be what European and American NGOs, journalists, politicians and medical organisations are paying.

we got hold of a Lonely Planet today . The opening sentence from memeory is 'Haiti will be a lot more expensive than you think.'

But we did manage to buy two oranges and some toothpaste with gourds today...