I am here safe and sound in America.
This will be my last blog entry and I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who was thinking of me and showing support.
Leaving at 4am from Gonaives was a little different than planned but it seemed that this was the new plan. Instead of heading to the walls Friday we just stayed at Actionnel's home in Gonaives. From there we left early for Port Au Prince. As we arrived in the airport the lines were long but they were atleast moving. By no means were we running late but soon some events transpired that caused some difficulty. I was traveling to Miami along with two of Actionnel's daughters who were on their way to Paris. There was some confusion with checking them in for their flight, I imagine because they are younger than 18. Anyways I was waiting near the security checkpoint for them when they began to rush my way saying we need to hurry or we will miss our flight. Our flight left in 10 minutes and we had two more security check points to go through. The girls had the advantage of being taken ahead in line by airport staff because they had the sheet for those under 18. I, on the other hand was waiting in line until someone realized I may miss my flight. I was moved to the front of the first security checkpoint and my bags were stopped. The woman slowly rummaged through my bags and I got away and through the second security checkpoint at a slow pace. I had to run on the tarmac to get to the plane but atleast I was getting on it. Such a relief it was to make it on the plane even though I was the last one to make it on.
Everything went smooth in Miami and Charlotte and now I am in Huntersville.
I hope you will check out James' Blog and support him as you did me. the address is in the post below. Thanks for everything
-Aaron
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
My Last Week
I have realized that I have done a terrible job at posting new posts on this thing and that I am putting avid bloggers to shame. I am sorry for that. But in my defense the internet here isn't always reliable. For instance, today James spent two hours trying to post on his blog even though he had already written the post and was just trying to hit the actual post button.
Anyways, I am only here in Bayonnais for two more full days. Friday I will spend the majority of the day traveling to Port Au Prince spending the night at the Walls guesthouse and in the morning making my way back to the US.
The past week has been great though. James and I have been going to the river alot to explore much of Haiti that I did not get to see on my last trip in December. Classes have been going well enough but I am sad that I will be leaving them most of all. Since I have invested time in some of the students and I have only been here so little time. I also feel bad that I will be leaving James here all by his lonesome. His next two months will probably be filled with some awkward language barriers but I am sure he will persevere.
I guess I can share with you a little bit about what me and James have been encountering more recently around night time. For the Princess Bride fans: Rodents Of Unusual Size have been living in our midst. They actually are sort of close to the ROUS's size as in the movie. But really they are around a foot long which is unusual but more importantly frightening. Also there are some moths that are the size of bats, at first we mistook them for bats but still anything that is big and flys near you is just as bad. So dodging air attacks from giant moths and trying to escape the ROUS's has made this last week quite an adventure. A big upside for coming home may be the escape from these creatures. haha
I hope you all are well.
-Aaron
Also if you really want to see a good blog you should see James and encourage him in his devastating time he will have without me. just kidding
jamesinhaiti.blogspot.com
Anyways, I am only here in Bayonnais for two more full days. Friday I will spend the majority of the day traveling to Port Au Prince spending the night at the Walls guesthouse and in the morning making my way back to the US.
The past week has been great though. James and I have been going to the river alot to explore much of Haiti that I did not get to see on my last trip in December. Classes have been going well enough but I am sad that I will be leaving them most of all. Since I have invested time in some of the students and I have only been here so little time. I also feel bad that I will be leaving James here all by his lonesome. His next two months will probably be filled with some awkward language barriers but I am sure he will persevere.
I guess I can share with you a little bit about what me and James have been encountering more recently around night time. For the Princess Bride fans: Rodents Of Unusual Size have been living in our midst. They actually are sort of close to the ROUS's size as in the movie. But really they are around a foot long which is unusual but more importantly frightening. Also there are some moths that are the size of bats, at first we mistook them for bats but still anything that is big and flys near you is just as bad. So dodging air attacks from giant moths and trying to escape the ROUS's has made this last week quite an adventure. A big upside for coming home may be the escape from these creatures. haha
I hope you all are well.
-Aaron
Also if you really want to see a good blog you should see James and encourage him in his devastating time he will have without me. just kidding
jamesinhaiti.blogspot.com
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
It is Tuesday- In case you didnt know?
Madi, (tuesday)
We have been woken up the past few days by the singing of the church choir which is better than the normal alarm of a rooster but the downside is that the choir practice happens to be around 4:30am-5am. I am not sure why the choir practice is so early, Im sure American churches do not match up to this commitment.
The past few days have involved alot of setting up of lesson plans and some of those lesson plans acted out. The problem we found was that our beginner class was very beginner which led us to believe our intermediate class was in a similar state. Although they were not. So we had to dim down our beginner lesson plan and bulk up the intermediate. The advanced class is going great because it is just generally easier to speak in it. Everyone sort of understands most of what you are trying to say. Overall everyone is eager to learn which is the mentality needed and well appreciated.
On Saturday me and James headed out to the top of one of the mountains to maybe catch a glimpse of the sunset. Walking right after it had been raining for a couple hours was a little difficult and the steep terrain was extremely muddy. Arriving at what we thought was close enough to the top we realized that there were too may clouds and we couldnt really tell where the sun was. So we went higher until we found a little patch of grass where James and some Haitian children sat and I tried to go a little higher in order to see what was further. I did find something. that something was a bull. A random bull just hanging out on top of this mountain. I imagined that it was tied up so I tried to get closer only to find out it was night tied up at all. It started to move my way and I don't know alot about bulls. Never really thought i would need to know alot about them, but i do know that they have the tendency to charge things and usually that involves whomever they charge to be in pain. So I should have backed away, but my curiosity and possibilty for a photo opportunity fueled my steps forward. It all ended up that the bull was not going to charge but he seemed more timid and afraid of me. I tried to get a photo but i was nervous the flash would set him off into a stampede so I only got a picture of my bull in the dark with his eyes glowing at me. The trip also didnt really involve any good sunset pictures because of the mountain range and clouds.
Two days later James was still full of adventure I suppose and told me he was going on a walk in the morning. He came back after 3 hours and he walked in wearing sweat as his shirt. His story involved his uncanny sense of adventure to lead him higher up one of the mountains and then to find his "own way" back. The trailblazing James then retold this part of the story with great regret involving his treacherous return to OFCB accompanied by constant river fjording and other such incidents. But He is alive and well. even though he lost all of his limbs and is now in a makeshift wooden wheelchair with the wheels made of barbedwire. I hope he enjoyed his adventure. No, he is alive and well with all limbs.
I am having a good time here except for the frequent power outages and the water will stop running. Despite the loss of luxury amenities I am enjoying my stay here in Bayonnais and I really enjoyed teaching yesterday. I tend to teach the intermediate while James takes on the Beginner class, while we both have input in the Advanced.
I want to thank all of you who have wished my luck and said they were thinking of me whether that was through facebook, email or prayer. I hope all of you are well and I will try to upload some pictures.
-Aaron
We have been woken up the past few days by the singing of the church choir which is better than the normal alarm of a rooster but the downside is that the choir practice happens to be around 4:30am-5am. I am not sure why the choir practice is so early, Im sure American churches do not match up to this commitment.
The past few days have involved alot of setting up of lesson plans and some of those lesson plans acted out. The problem we found was that our beginner class was very beginner which led us to believe our intermediate class was in a similar state. Although they were not. So we had to dim down our beginner lesson plan and bulk up the intermediate. The advanced class is going great because it is just generally easier to speak in it. Everyone sort of understands most of what you are trying to say. Overall everyone is eager to learn which is the mentality needed and well appreciated.
On Saturday me and James headed out to the top of one of the mountains to maybe catch a glimpse of the sunset. Walking right after it had been raining for a couple hours was a little difficult and the steep terrain was extremely muddy. Arriving at what we thought was close enough to the top we realized that there were too may clouds and we couldnt really tell where the sun was. So we went higher until we found a little patch of grass where James and some Haitian children sat and I tried to go a little higher in order to see what was further. I did find something. that something was a bull. A random bull just hanging out on top of this mountain. I imagined that it was tied up so I tried to get closer only to find out it was night tied up at all. It started to move my way and I don't know alot about bulls. Never really thought i would need to know alot about them, but i do know that they have the tendency to charge things and usually that involves whomever they charge to be in pain. So I should have backed away, but my curiosity and possibilty for a photo opportunity fueled my steps forward. It all ended up that the bull was not going to charge but he seemed more timid and afraid of me. I tried to get a photo but i was nervous the flash would set him off into a stampede so I only got a picture of my bull in the dark with his eyes glowing at me. The trip also didnt really involve any good sunset pictures because of the mountain range and clouds.
Two days later James was still full of adventure I suppose and told me he was going on a walk in the morning. He came back after 3 hours and he walked in wearing sweat as his shirt. His story involved his uncanny sense of adventure to lead him higher up one of the mountains and then to find his "own way" back. The trailblazing James then retold this part of the story with great regret involving his treacherous return to OFCB accompanied by constant river fjording and other such incidents. But He is alive and well. even though he lost all of his limbs and is now in a makeshift wooden wheelchair with the wheels made of barbedwire. I hope he enjoyed his adventure. No, he is alive and well with all limbs.
I am having a good time here except for the frequent power outages and the water will stop running. Despite the loss of luxury amenities I am enjoying my stay here in Bayonnais and I really enjoyed teaching yesterday. I tend to teach the intermediate while James takes on the Beginner class, while we both have input in the Advanced.
I want to thank all of you who have wished my luck and said they were thinking of me whether that was through facebook, email or prayer. I hope all of you are well and I will try to upload some pictures.
-Aaron
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
It has been a week
Hello everyone
It has officially been a week since I have been here in Haiti and everything is going great. My last post i believe was on Sunday and now we will have our first class tomorrow. James, who is my roomate for these next weeks will be here all summer so together we have combined our genius sources to create a magnificent lesson plan to teach english. In other words we consulted the internet and found some good ESL lessons. I have found out though that creole maybe an easier language to learn because of its verbs don't have to be conjugated due to subject change or tense. Although having the same word, "li", for he, she, and it may be hard to suddenly switch to english. Now the simple creole "li" has three separate meanings. Teaching english may be harder than I predicted, but we have got classes sort of setup into three different groups. A beginner class which will be held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3:00; a Intermediate class which is on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:oo; and an Advanced class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:00. If you are somehow in the area of Bayonnais at these times, please stop by and see what we are doing. hah
Anyway today I went with Limareste into his garden which is in the awesome countryside of Haiti. When we arrived he just started to hand me fruit and sugar cane to eat on the way around the village. I tried my first coconut right from the tree and it was nice to get out further into the country around me.
When I got back, me and James went with the Engineers without Borders down to the bridge to move some rocks under the bridge foundation so it doesnt eventually fall. That took alot longer than I had thought and I ended up being completely wet do to wading in the water to move rahter large rocks.
Overall today was a great day.
wish me luck on the upcoming classes.
-Aaron
ps- I am going to try and upload some photos and I wanted to sort of narrate it for you. A half naked Haitian man you will see lying in a bed. This is Actionnel's brother who likes to come in and take naps on James' bed with his shirt off. It's hilarious to me that one he does it and two to listen to James' trying to get him out. Vital is the source of alot of laughter here in Bayonnais.
It has officially been a week since I have been here in Haiti and everything is going great. My last post i believe was on Sunday and now we will have our first class tomorrow. James, who is my roomate for these next weeks will be here all summer so together we have combined our genius sources to create a magnificent lesson plan to teach english. In other words we consulted the internet and found some good ESL lessons. I have found out though that creole maybe an easier language to learn because of its verbs don't have to be conjugated due to subject change or tense. Although having the same word, "li", for he, she, and it may be hard to suddenly switch to english. Now the simple creole "li" has three separate meanings. Teaching english may be harder than I predicted, but we have got classes sort of setup into three different groups. A beginner class which will be held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3:00; a Intermediate class which is on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:oo; and an Advanced class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:00. If you are somehow in the area of Bayonnais at these times, please stop by and see what we are doing. hah
Anyway today I went with Limareste into his garden which is in the awesome countryside of Haiti. When we arrived he just started to hand me fruit and sugar cane to eat on the way around the village. I tried my first coconut right from the tree and it was nice to get out further into the country around me.
When I got back, me and James went with the Engineers without Borders down to the bridge to move some rocks under the bridge foundation so it doesnt eventually fall. That took alot longer than I had thought and I ended up being completely wet do to wading in the water to move rahter large rocks.
Overall today was a great day.
wish me luck on the upcoming classes.
-Aaron
ps- I am going to try and upload some photos and I wanted to sort of narrate it for you. A half naked Haitian man you will see lying in a bed. This is Actionnel's brother who likes to come in and take naps on James' bed with his shirt off. It's hilarious to me that one he does it and two to listen to James' trying to get him out. Vital is the source of alot of laughter here in Bayonnais.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sunday June, Something
It has been a great day of playing futbol and Dou' which is the haitian version of jacks but with rocks. It was extremely hot today but it was bearable. Everything in this side of the world is going great and I hope the same for you all. I have been told that me and my roomate James will start our english classes maybe on Tuesday with around 20 students. With one class in the morning and another in the afternoon it should make time go alot faster while I am here which I kind of do not want. I have seen alot of great stuff but I feel like there is so much more I want to do, like go into the countryside and meander with some people who have no idea what I am doing there. Time may be my enemy here in theses next weeks.
I have added some more photos to the slide show above and there is one picture of the infamous King Cola. yes it is a banana flavored and the best way i can describe it is a liquified, carbonated banana laffy taffy. haha I took to sips and it was too much. For all those King Cola drinkers out there I hope your sweet tooth doesnt fall out.
-Aaron
I have added some more photos to the slide show above and there is one picture of the infamous King Cola. yes it is a banana flavored and the best way i can describe it is a liquified, carbonated banana laffy taffy. haha I took to sips and it was too much. For all those King Cola drinkers out there I hope your sweet tooth doesnt fall out.
-Aaron
Friday, June 6, 2008
Friday the 6th
So today was my first full day in Bayonnais and all went well. The days go long in Bayonnais, it feels like you are up for two days because you go to sleep when it gets dark, which may be 6 or 7 o clock and then you wake up early because you went to bed so early. Its really a circle of behavior that my college habits are not accustomed to. In other words... I dont like it haha. But since the days are so long it seems like I dont have too much to do. Most of the students are out of school so they just try to teach you creole and by teach I mean tell you louder and louder until you just repeat what they said. But the older students you can really carry a conversation with. I went with the Engineers without Borders (EWB) to the river today and helped them survey it and get the flow rate, I really enjoy what they do. And I suppose if I was tempted to lean towards engineering thats where I would want to be. It was another Hot day but I ate 3 mangoes so... yeah It was a good day.
I hope all is well with you all. The computers here are kind of slow so I have only uploaded 5 pictures out of the 60 I have taken. I will upload more later. I hope you enjoy
-Aaron
I hope all is well with you all. The computers here are kind of slow so I have only uploaded 5 pictures out of the 60 I have taken. I will upload more later. I hope you enjoy
-Aaron
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I Am Here
Well I originally had thought that I would be in Bayonnais yesterday but instead I spent the night in Gonaives at Actionnel's home there. It made more sense to wait to come to Bayonnais because of the group of Engineers without Borders who were coming today also. It has been an interesting two days so far but right now I am just glad that I have arrived. I was very anxious to get here but the anxiety has turned into, I guess, awkwardness now that I am here. Being in the Port Au Prince and Gonaives yesterday really just made me feel awkward being the only American around. I was stared at all the time from curious onlookers and I couldn't really have a conversation with anyone very well. It can be difficult to speak when you have to lay out every word so you know it is in simple terms and also repeat yourself. I am glad to be with other Americans for sure now but I feel that my time in Haiti will be one of awkwardness until I really get some creole down.
I have no pictures yet, I didnt want to take pictures of those in Gonaives because I didn't want them to feel anymore weird about me being there. Also Gonaives is not the most happiest of places. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.
-Aaron
PS: It is HOT. hace calor, caliente. Es cho ,O my is it hot.
I have no pictures yet, I didnt want to take pictures of those in Gonaives because I didn't want them to feel anymore weird about me being there. Also Gonaives is not the most happiest of places. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.
-Aaron
PS: It is HOT. hace calor, caliente. Es cho ,O my is it hot.
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