I’m back.. for quite a while

I told my job I was resigning 3 weeks ago. It was official, I was coming to Haiti and there was no turning back. I haaaad to return. Since I came to the US 1 week after the earthquake, I’ve felt like I needed to go to Haiti and finish what I started. I wanted to finish the school year teaching, and was so eager to see my students succeed. But hey, at least I have a second chance and I took it.

So Minnieme (my dog) and I landed in Port Au Prince Sunday afternoon. The flight was great, besides the woman sitting next to me who thought it was cool to tap me and say “look out the window!” everytime RIGHT before I feel asleep, I was pretty annoyed and thought “Who the heck does that?” After contemplating if I should smack her or smile, I smiled and we had a nice conversation. Her English was pretty bad, and my creole is horrible, so we stuck with English. It took like 45 minutes for us to have a regular 5 minute conversation, I had to finish her sentences and attempt to interpret what she said in creole, but she was super sweet and I enjoyed the convo. As I was falling asleep and the plane started landing she used her index finger to jab into my shoulder and told me to look outside, instead of yelling “WTF MAN!” I smiled and looked out the window with her (like i’ve never looked out of the window while a plane was landing, smh)

You know, I used to get that unexplainable, extraordinary feeling whenever I landed in Haiti. But this time it was like routine, I was like, “okay, i’m home.”

The mosquitos missed my American a$$ that’s for sure, they are TEARING me up!!! And everytime I swap them or shoo them away it scares my punk ass dog who immediately hides under the bed. The first two days Minnieme stayed under the bed. I felt so bad and contemplated sending her back, but now she’s back to her normal self, running around, acting crazy…so on so forth.

This week was full of meetings at my school, car hunting, wiping sweat from my face, drinking water, getting sick (as usual, im just a sickly person), wiping sweat from my face again, and relaxing with my beautiful aunty who is the best person in this world (i’ll refer to her as Mom from now on, since everyone down here calls her my mom anyway).

I’ve been driving around the city, reminiscing a whole lot, saw at a lot of buildings that are still in shambles on the ground (most likely bodies are still in the rubble deteriorating), pointed to areas where buildings once stood, ate at some great restaurants, and am enjoying a whole lotta picklies. lol.

I’ve been hanging with my friend Fred who is an engineer. He’s freaking intelligent and knows so much about Haiti. People ask me so many questions about Haiti when I’m in NY and I can’t answer them, so I’m going to make a video of Fred and put him on this blog so he can answer all of your questions like “Where did my money go when I sent that “text for Haiti”, and “Are NGO’s doing anything to really help?” and, “Are people still living in tent cities? What are the living conditions?”

Tonight was a great night. My cousins and I went to a soccer game, about an hour into the game the lights in the stadium went out (surprise! surprise!) and the rain was pouring, but the game went on. It was quite an experience and very enjoyable (it doesn’t take a lot for me to be amazed by the things that go on in this country). I watched in amazement as these soccer players continued to play in the dark, in the rain.

On our way out, this woman was dancing completely naked (no there was no music playing) by herself in the rain, pointing to her .. “stuff” that has never seen a waxing strip, clippers, scissors.. or whatever it may be.. (it was a jungle down there, not to be disgusting but.. i mean it was like.. in everyone’s face!). Oh and for all of you who have asked me about the Naked Man, yeah.. I saw him while I was eating at a chicken spot, he was just walking by, doin the same ol’.. walkin’ and swangin’.. smh..

To be continued…