Week 3

"Mete zwazo nan kay pa di li mouri la dann."

- If you put a bird in a cage it doesn't mean he'll die there.

One of the most beautiful parts of this new life I'm navigating, is also one of the hardest for me to accept: the uncertainty of what the day to day brings. Culturally, Haiti is vastly different in that days, school, work are not a straight 9-5 with a clear path, there are all of these deviations and one day you might be on your way to working at the school and then find yourself halfway across Port au Prince checking out a budding Haitian hotel business and helping a friend of a friend with an application to a study program in the US. The uncertainty of each day brings challenges, and at times I feel myself missing the routine, but in other ways it has forced me to grow and open up to possibility and change much more.

As always my week was filled with a lot of the amazing students at CESAH and SOPUDEP, a lot of lunchtime futbol with the kids, and Soulouque's adorable daughter Zoe. This week I have gotten the opportunity to spend a lot more time with the kids at CESAH and feature them on our @haitisolidarity Instagram. I also worked with all of the kids to write letters to their future pen pals at Covington Elementary, a school in Los Altos, CA. We have been working on setting up this pen pal program for a while so it was really exciting to explain to the kids and help them to write about their interests. I don't think they understand the concept fully, so it will be really fun when they see their first response from their pen pal and can have a name to associate with the letters they're writing. Now I just have to translate 30 or so letters to English!

I got the chance to work my first event at CESAH's Auditorium, which is a space that Rea rents out and caters to community members for parties, graduations, functions, etc. in order to generate revenue to support the school. On Friday night we were hosting what I would most liken to a prom for a high school in Port au Prince and it was a lot of work preparing full meals for all 70 students, serving everyone, setting up, and cleaning up! But it was also really incredible to get the chance to see the events business in action as we have worked on the concept so much over the years.

I've also had a lot more opportunities to explore more of Port au Prince. I went with Soulouque to his home neighborhood of Tabarre, and got to meet his mother for the first time after having heard so much about her over the years! On Sunday I got to go downtown to a Democrats Living in Haiti meeting, which was awesome. I was brought by a good friend who also lives with Rea, T-Paul, who also holds US Citizenship. He let me tag along to the meeting, which included all of these different Americans living in Haiti that work to stay connected to the political situation in the US and host different events to spread awareness and involvement from all of the Americans living in Haiti. It was very interesting to meet all of them and hear about their lives and the work that they do in Haiti. I really look forward to getting involved with them in the future and the programs they will hold!