Today the situation in our area of Haiti could best be described as an uneasy calm. The barricade at the bridge is still in place but it is unmanned and open to one lane of traffic. Traffic has been sparse but today all the employees made it to work. The ones that come by taptap (taxi) said the prices have risen considerably. Fuel and food is scarce as one the byproducts of the demonstrations and it will be awhile before the area gets restocked and supplies each this area from the main harbor in Port au Prince. The extra costs of transportation and food are putting a real burden on the locals.

It’s Day 14 of school closures and Karen, Joan and I continue to be busy keeping the kids busy with afternoon activities. Joan is much more creative than me but yesterday I was responsible for the special activity. Joan asked me what the plan was, to which I replied; “I’m going to go up and unlock the Playroom door then stand back and watch to kids rush in!!” It worked like a charm. Everyone chose a toy, or book, or colouring, or truck and legos. We had a grand old time.

Jofky struggles with math so he and I spent some time on addition and subtraction. His memory is good but understanding the concepts is hard. After some time adding and subtracting rocks we did the same exercise with a computer math arcade. That he enjoyed a whole lot more.

The older kids love their computer class as well as the free time on the laptops. They work on typing skills, exploring on an encyclopedia and in free time listen to music and play arcade games. I’m not sure how Magdela got in there with the boys but she had fun.

Joan and I thought we had done a pretty good job of insulating the children from the chaos going on outside. But I guess not. When returning to the room after getting more rocks for Jofky to count, Jonathan said:
“Keith, ou pa ka pase, se wout la bloke”
(Keith, you can’t pass, the road is blocked)
I asked politely to pass and Dickieson called his boss on the walkie talkie and I got through the barricade. And unlike their adult countrymen it didn’t cost me any money.

Stay tuned.
Keif