We arrived in Jacmel and went to our friend Emmet's home. Emmet is an American and works for an NGO called ACDI-VOCA. He has been in Haiti for two years now and his organization focuses on sustainable practices such as fishing, farming, clean water, and health care for local people. They are doing great work, and our group donated some tools for a program for Haitian men and women to learn how to build earthquake and hurricane proof housing.
Emmet's home was a welcome respite after such a long journey. It was open and airy, on a cliff overlooking the ocean and had a swimming pool in the back. We all had a swim and a nap and felt much better by the time Emmet arrived home from work. We had a delicious dinner together with he and some friends he had invited over that included stuffed squash, salad with avocados as big as a softball, bread, rice, and fresh lime and rum . It was a great chance to talk about Haiti from a local's point of view and talk about the politics of what's happening there. We stayed up late into the night talking and watching the heat lightning in the sky. I have never seen so many stars in the sky before my first night in Haiti.
The next day the three of us (Laurie, Lisa and me) jumped on the back of motorcycles, which are the local taxis, and headed out to visit the different places where our group would volunteer. The first trip we took could have been our last, but we were definitely being looked after.... All three of us were on a bike with the driver (what were we thinking?) and zooming down the dusty streets of Jacmel, when blam! the front tire blew. The driver was really good and knew just what to do. He got us safely to the side of the road and before we had time to even think about it, 3 more taxis had pulled over to take us on our way.
We visited a man named Jacques who runs a small orphanage in Jacmel. He has about 15 kids that we met and made arrangements to go back later in the afternoon and play with all the kids at the community center. Next we met Sister Bonite, who has a home very near a large tent city and feeds 250 children each day. She also collected donated clothing and other items for the people in the tents. She is an angel who cares for people in such a beautiful way. She is Haitian but lived in NY for 40 years and worked as an RN, but after the earthquake she says she was called by God to come back and take care of her brothers and sisters. She invited us to join her and the community at church services that Sunday.
We were starving by that time so stopped at a little shack on the side of the road to get something safe to eat. I had to laugh when I saw the sign because it has the famous golden arches on it. I think it was called "Millies". We got a grilled cheese sandwich and a bottle of Coca Cola to go and ate them as we rolled on down the road on the back of our motorcycle taxis.
We met up with Jacques and his kids and spend an hour singing some songs and playing games. It was very hot and were pretty tired by this time, so didn't have a ton of energy that day. But the kids are wonderful and sweet and so loving. They get a meal each day at the community center and get help with homework and time to be together in a relaxed way with other kids from the neighborhood. We told Jacques we would bring our group back and have some fun art projects and do yoga with the kids.
We made one last stop at the main tent city in Jacmel where Lisa volunteered earlier in the year with The Global Volunteer Network. She has some friends who are still there and they were so happy to see her. It was great for her to make those connections again and was fascinating for me to see the tent city up close. I still had so many questions about what life must be like there....
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