More Painting, Weather, Accommodations

Weather. It’s been quite cool by Haiti standards and not as humid as I remember. The day temps are in the mid-high 20’s. At night the temp is cool and a few nights now we’ve been so chilled we needed a blanket (typically you sleep with just a sheet). It’s cloudy today and the temp this morning was 22. The Haitians are wearing light jackets and sweaters and that is VERY rare! The cloudy day not only means it’s not hot, it also means that the Mosquito’s are out in full force all day long. Normally you have a reprieve from the mosquito’s until about 4-5pm. Due to the bugs and Mosquito’s here all doors snap closed automatically. Luckily by 11am the sun was out, the jackets came off the and high was 33.

Accommodations. On the second floor of Mom’s house/the offices, there are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a covered open area. The boys are sleeping in the mosquito tents in the open area and loving it. Alexa is a bit scared so we’ve slept inside each night so far. It’s quite comfy! These mosquito tents are very hard to find, if you ever see any anywhere please let us know!

Our Room

Mosquito, and other bug, tents

Internet. It’s PAINFUL! It’s not supposed to be painful, it’s technically high speed satellite internet… it’s actually worse than the worst dial up I experienced. Checking email takes a long time and when needing to open a website I start it and then write a paragraph of the blog before I even check to see if it’s loaded, often it’s still working on it. I cannot comprehend how Mom gets any of her online work done! Once I write a blog and go online to send it, it’s at least 10 minutes for it to send. Mom thought it was her computer until I got here and told her it was painful on my new laptop too. I wish I understood more about internet down here so I could send down a new modem or router! I’m sure a good hour a day is wasted here by me ‘waiting’. I’m not good at waiting! I’m actually ready to toss my laptop into the concrete wall. Clearly I’m meant to develop patience. Mom says the Haitian’s are very patient people since their whole life is waiting for people. Two ladies showed up for goats today and we hadn’t been given the goat receipts, so they’ll sit here and wait until the someone can run off in their moto to find the men who brought the goats. NOTE: I sent this Blog 8hrs ago and only when it wasn’t showing up did we realize the internet had timed out and it didn’t send. Will now check after sending to be sure things go out!

Today’s Projects: So while I’ve been fired from building painting I was still allowed to do bench painting once Jacques sets up the tarp… I think I could set up a tarp… Maybe not, lol, based on yesterday. I think since the boys had another project today Mom felt safe to allow me to paint since it would be just Alexa and I. I decided to use up the small bits of paint so that it would help empty out the Depot. I grabbed 3 cans and popped the lids. Within minutes I was surrounded by little people. Mom had the Generator turned off as she was heading out to copy papers for school reports (it gets turned off right after the laundry is done) and the kids that were watching a video had the movie come to a screeching halt so all were all there anxious to help. I allowed the 3 oldest boys, Vladimy, JJ and Moise to help (and tell them they have to share a brush while I’m getting organized) and got them started on Yellow while I stirred the blue. It had a thick ½ skin on the top so I plunged my hands in and squeezde the extra paint off the skin (can’t waste anything here) and then jumped up to wash my hands. Wait, I can’t open the door. Okay, nobody is listening to me. They’re all swarming around the paint. Finally I catch Leica’s eye and she helps me into the house and turns on the tap for me. I scrub and nothing comes off. Oh Shoot, are you kidding me? The small cans aren’t water based like the paint I used yesterday? Okay, think clearly. If they have oil based paints they must have paint thinner! I walk back outside calling to Alexa to come to the depot, undo the lock, go inside and look at the jugs. We find paint thinner, I get cleaned up. By this time I’ve been gone at least 10-15mins… I go back to the front and now instead of 3 boys helping with one brush ALL the brushes I brought out, plus more they’ve helped themselves to, are dipping into the yellow and dipping ½ way up the handle. There is paint everywhere, a little is on the benches, more is on the tarp (yay for Jacques) and most is on the children. Oh man, where is Mom, she’ll be THRILLED with me when she gets back! Mom comes and restores order. Actually at the sounds of her honk at the gate (to alert the security guard to open the gate) many little heads snap up and they say ‘Mama’ and scurry over to sit down like they’ve been quietly watching the entire time. The children are informed by Mama they are done painting for the day as soon as their benches are done. Mom asks them how come they weren’t more careful and why do they have paint everywhere. Mirlande informs Mom that JJ painted his new sneaks so if he can do that they can all be covered in paint… As we look at JJ’s shoe we realize he was trying to make his new sneaks look like Jared’s Pumas. The kids are all sent off to see the security guard to get cleaned up with Gas. I’ll fix up the paint later. I sheepishly came in to eat lunch and blog. 10 more goats are arriving soon so I need to get my lunch (2pm) eaten quick!