happy post-memorial day!

Jon S. teaching one of the guys how to use one of the finishing tools... (do i sound like i know what i'm talking about?!)


the bucket brigade...

the guys on the roof (don is in the red shirt)...

the whole production...

hi! so, a friend wrote me yesterday and mentioned her disappointment at having to work a holiday and for the life of me i couldn't think of what holiday it was! i usually look forward to memorial day and this year it completely slipped by me! haiti seems to have a funny way of doing that, time seems different here somehow... in some ways i can't believe that i only have a month left here, in other ways i can't believe that i've only been here for a month & a half! it seems like i've been here forever!

the guys have been working on pouring cement at the school yesterday and today... it's quite the production to say the least! people on the ground shoveling and carrying buckets of rocks, some shoveling sand, some dumping the concoction into the cement mixer, some gathering up the cement into buckets, then there's the "bucket brigade" that pass the bucket of cement up the ladder and those who send the empty buckets back down via a rope... it's interesting to watch! our american guys are up on top of the building with trowels & various "machines" doing their thing... obviously i'm not a knowledgeable concrete girl! anyway, it's hard work... blisters, sunburns, the intense sun/heat, etc.

sunday i got the opportunity to sing a couple songs in creole with 2 girls (ti-rose & ketla) for church... we sang 2 in creole and then one in english, it was fun to get to participate and i love harmony, so that was great too! talante, the nurse i work with in the clinic, said that if she hadn't seen me she would've thought it was a haitian singing! i'm not sure if she was being serious or just trying to encourage me, but it was sweet regardless! :)

i'm going to try to post some more pics later... we hiked up to the closest fort (there are 4 or 5 total) on sunday afternoon. it was beautiful! then we walked down one of the roads out of town toward the rice fields. at one point we had to jump a little creek, and me in my usual coordinated way ended up practically sitting down in the mud after jumping across... the kids thought it was pretty funny as i walked back into EGO with mud covering the back of my skirt! good times... anyway, it was a fun day!