Week 1

Jan w'bat tan bou-a, se konsa nou danse.

- However you beat the drum, that's how we'll dance.

I read this Haitian proverb first in a Amy Wilnetz book, and it remains one of my favorite. And as I set out on this crazy adventure, I find them words to live by.

A control freak at heart, this has been very difficult for me to accept, to follow while others lead, in a country and community that is so familiar, yet far from my own. And it is hard at times, when I'm sitting in the car and conversation and laughter surrounds me but I have only caught the words "yesterday" and "house". But it is also a welcome challenge, and I have found the isolation felt by not participating has forced me to attempt and stumble through Creole. It's gotten better every day, and tune in a month later and my posts might be nan Kreyol (but probably not).

SO in just this first week I thought I'd share with you a few of my adventures. I am still adjusting and working on my fluency so for the time being I am neither here nor there, but that also has granted me the opportunity to view so many aspects I've never seen in my previous trips.

1. Computer Science Kim - Daniel is one of Rea's children, and also one of the 13 students our UCLA group sponsors to go to university. I got to go with Daniel to his university (which focuses on computer science) in Port au Prince and see where the magic happens (not literally because they are on break now, he was fixing his computer). There I had a very interesting conversation with his professor (only a few years older than us). He had a drone and video stabilizer and he explained that he shoots and produces videos for non-profits, but his real passion was creating phone apps. He is working on an application to aid police in tracking escaped convicts and individuals accused of assault or theft. He explained that currently, the police post their equivalent of an Amber Alert on a rarely viewed police Facebook page. Additionally, there is no online database of car's registration, so when individuals are pulled over only physical paperwork is checked to confirm ownership (which is fairly easy to fake). He is designing an app that will pull car's registration and ownership from insurance companies' databases, allowing police to confirm ownership on a tablet if a vehicle is pulled over. He is also working on platforms to push alerts about criminals to several different social media platforms, in hope of capturing everyone's attention.

2. Administrator Kim - A majority of my time has been spent at CESAH, the newest site of our schools. I have been working to understand more fully and document in English the inner workings of SOPUDEP, CESAH, and SOPU-Orphanage. From recording and looking at the full monthly budget breakdown for the orphanage to how payroll is distributed to the teachers of SOPUDEP, I have been able to learn a great deal about how exactly things work. I also have been helping Rea with this proposal for solar panels at CESAH from Rotary International, performing a budget analysis of the current generator based on Diesel prices compared to the price and power produced by the solar panels. I also had the chance to sit in on the computer class for younger grades, where they're learning what a computer is, the basics of how it operates, and how to perform basic functions on the desktop.

3. Bi-Lingual Kim - In addition to work I have been blessed to see many familiar faces, including of course my friend Soloque's adorable baby Zoe. I met Soloque several years ago when he worked as the translator for one of our high school delegations. He runs a travel and tourism company in Haiti and taught me and Katie Creole via Skype over summer and fall. (Check out his awesome business here!)

4. Fit Kim - This morning I went to SOPUDEP (the first site of the school) where I got to participate in an exercise class that Daniel and Mackendy (two of our university students) have put together and run. They run it every Friday at 10 am and the kids love getting to jump around to the boom box, and I will not lie it was pretty dang cute. I've talked to Daniel and Mackendy about trying to incorporate some yoga into the classes, I worked at a girls empowerment camp a few years ago doing a fun more kid version of yoga and we surprisingly found the kids loved it. So we will try some downward dog in the next few weeks and see how it goes.

Well that is all for now -- back to my hammock I go! Thank you all for tuning in, don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a post, and as always DONATE!