The Island

After our long week of creole lessons we got a chance to relax on the beach. It was about an hour and a half drive through the hills of northern Haiti, but our destination was worth the travel. We arrived at a small fishing village on the coast in view of a beautiful island not far from shore. The whole village gathered around our truck before we could open the doors. We paid a local man to take our group of eight to the island on his boat. The tide was out and about 12 guys were needed to push the boat into the water. This process involved a lot of yelling and recruiting of additional help including someone to go get the motor.

The island was small with a great beach and a reef near by for snorkeling. The appearance of the island was very reminiscent of LOST. There were a few other Haitians on the beach but otherwise we had the island to ourselves. When we got to the island we got out the snorkeling gear and cautiously ventured out into the ocean. We are not experienced in this area and were hesitant to get too far from shore. Because of the reef, many colorful fish were easy to find. It was fun to see all the sea life until Laura got too nervous and had to go back to shore.

The locals told us about some ruins of King Christophe from the mid 1700's. We went exploring through some rough terrain. I think they call it bushwhacking but we forgot our machetes and got tangled in more than a few vines. At the peak of the island we found a cannon belonging to King Christophe from 1767. (the date was on the cannon) It was just sitting in a pile of overgrown brush. We also found the remains of a fort and a deep well.

Our first Haitian beach experience was a success and we are looking forward to seeing a few more. It's a lot different then going to a beach at home but we really enjoyed it.

We are back in Milot for week two of improving our Creole. We have a lot of spare time here and love to get e-mails, so keep us updated about what is going on back home.

Kurt and Laura, a.k.a. Sawyer and Kate

Milot

So we're here in Milot for the first week of three attempting to learn as much Creole as possible. We're staying in a volunteer house in a mission near the hospital and having lessons 2 hours a day. The lessons have proved to be quite frustrating (especially for Kurt:)), since our teacher doesn't give instructions in English and can be very hard to understand. We'll probably learn better this way in the end, but it's a tough way to start. With her amazing French background, Laura wins the prize for pronunciation, while Kurt overemphasizes the accent and drowns in the sweat of embarrassment. In the midst of Kurt struggling to survive, Laura helps a ton by giggling like a little girl in church. To make it even better, our teacher sits there falling asleep in front of us. But, when we're not focusing on our Creole, we have a lot of free time to read and relax and catch up on sleep without babies crying.

In our explorations of Milot, we walked over to the only somewhat touristy place, the palace of King Christopher. It's set up at the base of the mountains and a good place to sit and relax...except when you're trying to study Creole and a huge group of kids sit around you and try to help. It is nice when they wipe ants of your leg for you, but personal space is limited under the voodoo tree.

We're still waiting for one more box to come of our stuff, including the Heroes DVDs we got as a gift from the most awesome Bible Study ever. So when that comes, we will probably watch it all day long when not studying Creole.

Our host at the volunteer house is an American named Jess, who has been here for over 2 years. She started a program for street kids in Cap Haitian and has given us a lot of insight into Haitian culture.

-couple with constant back sweat

Arrival in Lagossette

We arrived safely to the village of Lagossette with few hiccups in our travels. We did end up waiting around in Fort Lauderdale airport for 3 and a half hours longer than expected. Our flight was smooth and Lynx Air improved service with a bigger plane and a stewardess with a New York accent.

At the orphanage we were not the only new arrival. Three new babies were admitted in the past 48 hours. This means more babies requiring special attention, including feedings throughout the night. It has been fun to see the growth of some of the previous babies we saw in March, especially the one we spent the most time with.

Our hours of sleep has decreased because we are taking care of a baby each night and are giving regular feedings. Good practice for ten years down the road. Adjusting to new people, food, pace of life, and a whole new kind of hot has been challenging. It feels strange to think we are not leaving anytime soon.

The village soccer team has invited Kurt to play with them. We're not sure if its the ball, access to a vehicle, or his actual skill level. Soccer is played on small dirt fields. As we wait for Kurt's soccer shoes to arrive we get to see him trudge around in a pair of old new balance tennis shoes.
Tomorrow we embark on our journey through the Creole' language in the neighboring village of Milot. We will stay in an old mission Monday through Friday for three weeks. The weekends will be spent back at the orphanage. More details to come but we are eager to improve our communication.

For some reason, it's not working to post pictures right now, so we'll try later so you can see where we live!

Happy Independence Day!

We are currently sitting in a hotel room watching venus and serena in the wimbledon final in Florida. We arrived yesterday and are relaxing on the beach until Tuesday.

We got a chance to say our goodbyes and had a great week spending time with friends and family. We loved spending more time with Graham, our host for the last week, and waking up to him saying, "mama, maaa-maaa!"

Here's some pictures from last week. Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July!

Homeless and unemployed

That's right...as of Saturday, we're officially homeless and unemployed. Big shout-out to all who helped us move this weekend. Everyone was speedy and efficient.

Helpful tip to anyone moving: always unscrew the TV cable before moving the TV out to the truck. If you don't, you will only get so far...

We're going to miss living in "the hill" and our first apartment together. But, we moved in with Drew, Amy, and Graham, and are taking advantage of their hospitality. Just finishing up some last minute packing and spending time with family and friends before we leave on Friday.

Goodbye apartment on College...we'll miss you.

Letter

We sent out a letter this week thanking everyone for their help and prayers. I hope you are receiving them. Laura is finishing up her last weekend shifts and then just has two more left on Wednesday and Thursday.
I am not sure how this blog thing works but i think you can respond to posts. If so, please reply without hesitation, it does not have to be well thought out or anything. This is my weakest post so far but i just wanted to start getting in the mode of blogging.

This is a picture of a Tap Tap, also known as a taxi. Little crowded.

-guy who is wondering how many people will actually read this

Update

We are leaving for Haiti on July 3, 2009. Our tickets are open ended and we are planning on returning around Christmas. In the last few months we have been getting ready to leave and be effective when we get there. Learning Creole is a challenge and we are not that good at it. I hope to do a blog in Creole eventually. Laura is excited to start taking care of babies medical needs. So, what is Kurtis doing? Well, I'm not going down there to paint walls. I have been doing some additional studying on Play Therapy. I will be doing therapy with the orphans on a regular basis. I am new to play therapy but am excited about using it to help these kids. I will not bore you with the therapeutic language that describes play therapy. Its simply a process of helping kids discovering self. The play therapy process should be fun and i think the kids will enjoy it.

Oh, no big deal but i will be graduating from graduate school in a few weeks. I can't wait to be done with school. Laura has 6 more shifts of work left before she is done.
We are going to start blogging more frequently now, i hope you find our post interesting and we will try to make it fun.

-couple who just got Chaco's to manage the treacherous terrain