May 7th, 2010 Haiti Blog: Disney in Haiti!

So, for the past two days I have been packing 5 kilo bags of corn for farmers who live up in the mountains for the UN to distribute. Sounds boring right? Well, I thought so too until they asked me to go help them distribute them all the way up in the mountains. Oh, did I also mention that with their corn I also have to hand them a giant machetti and hoe. Now, maybe I'm a bit uncultured, but when I think of a machetti I think of Friday the 13th and lots of death. Apparently here and other countries its quite common to see little girls and boys wielding machettis instead of pencils. So, for the past two days I've handed out over three hundred machettis, hoes, and bags of corn to the local farmers so that they can eat and possibly make it rain if they have the good corn to sell.

In order to hand out the items we had to first survive the ride up the mountains. Imagine a hiking trail leading up the biggest mountain you've ever seen. No barriers or walls and when you look over the side its nothing but a dropoff of thousands of feet. If I had to describe it, I would say it was just like an amazing Disney ride without any rules or regulations. Basically, if the driver misses a clutch or break, we die. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life. You bounce around and it is astonishing that every single tire doesnt pop within the first two minutes of driving up these mountains. Their isnt a single ten foot stretch of flat land. Everything is rocks and debree. It takes about two hours to get up the mountain and as you go up, the view becomes more and more worth it. By the time you get to where you need to be, you are shoulder deep in clouds and head to toe in beauty. My words arent even powerful enough to fully describe it. Pictures will obviously be posted when I can, but as you know I can't do any of that when I am here.

Also, I have a bunch of pictures of me handing the locals the machettis etc. So, that should be some hilarious stuff as well. The ladies from the UN were kind enough to take them for me and take my email so you could see, this really happens haha.

Nothing else much has been happening. I have been taking creole lessons every night and by the time I'm done that I am barely making it into my bed before my eyes close for the night. We work from basically 7am to 5pm than a meeting at 6-7. A local kid and myself are doing the creole on our own and it's pretty much a one on one lesson everynight and it's cool as shit. He teaches me Creole and I'm teaching him how to make it rain. LOL.

I've made a few really good friends out here and their time is coming soon to leave. It's gonna make me really upset but I want to try and really stick it out and continue on the quest. The days are starting to blend together and fly by and it seems like I just got here yesterday. Soon, it will be two weeks! I think my return date will be May 25th due to the mandatory mental health break we have to take every thirty days. You think Philadelphia is dirty? I will lick the ground when I get home and compared to Haitian money, I would suck on american coins, because the Haitian money is so filthy. This entire country is a ball of dust mixed with palm trees and rubble. It's quite a site.


Can't wait to see my friends. Cant wait to see my family. Cant wait to see a flushing toilet and working shower head. Love you all and keep the love coming back.

LOVE

Dan