Here is a picture of me donating blood for the first time! WHY IT TOOK ME to come to HAITI of all places to finally give blood is beyond me and somewhat an oxymoron...but enjoy seeing me nervous and worried! :) It didn't take me long at all because I was so nervous and I'm positive my blood pressure was through the roof!
Nutcracker Performance
The Nutcracker performance was amazing. I was extremely extremely impressed with what was possible in Haiti! Although it was very stressful and very LAST MINUTE (which is the Haitian way)...it was wonderful. The performance was held at a PUBLIC High School in Petionville (L'ecole de Petionville). This is not one of the schools that Embassy children attend but it was a good location. Thankfully the Director and her daughter both were very accomodating and moved the performance from the first proposed venue (which was located in a 'red zone' for US Embassy personnel). So myself and the other Embassy students would not have been permitted to participate. The school was located directly across from a flower market! How perfect! (and by flower market, I mean Haitians standing on the side of the street selling flowers). But they really are capable of putting together some nice bouquets - thank you Jonathan!
Day of the performance we were scheduled to do a dress rehearsal. I arrived at the school early (of course) and the stage was not even set up! There were people sweeping trash, no chairs set up or anything. I had to ask if I was in the right place. I was...I asked... "What is going on? Are we rehearsing?" and she goes "Megan, welcome to your first performance in Haiti. We're on curtain hanging duty right now and this is why my students are more experienced when they go to college than American students!" I had to agree with her, I never really had to set up a stage, hang curtains, set up chairs, paint and glue props, etc. the list goes on and on...and was all the DAY OF a performance! Once the stage was built, the Haitian employees began cutting down part of a tree and then sawing off the basketball hoops that were in the way. (I hope they put them back up for the kids of the school). Of course I drank a ton of tea that morning because I wanted energy for the dress rehearsal that was evidently not going to happen...There was nowhere to go to the bathroom. We finally got someone to open the schools bathroom and geeesh! Let me just say, I got a good quad and ab workout. I'll just let you ponder that on your own. The school in the end was set up like a theater! With balcony seating and everything because there were classrooms on the second and third floors that overlooked the basketball areas. Oh, this is all outside and outdoors by the way. There was no plan b, in case of rain. We were cutting it down to the wire, and we never did get to rehearse before the first performance. Overall it was somewhat stressful, but well worth the experience, and I was able to perform in the Nutcracker one more time!
Oh and thank you to two of our friends (who missed the performance) for decorating our house with streamers and signs! And thank you to everyone who came to the performance and supported us/planned shuttles and carpooled etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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| You can really see the two levels of the balcony in this picture. |
Housekeeper and Driver
I have taken a break from driving up to the ballet school (because some days it would take me 2-3 hours just to get there) and that was exhausting me. I am still teaching BalleNess at the Embassy though (my ballet fitness workout class). I had hired a driver to take me up to ballet/grocery store and down the hill 5 times a week, and unfortunately had to let him go. He did such a good job and was so nice and has a family of 5 children; he was great and it broke my heart to let him go, but I genuinely did not need him. Right now I am helping him to hopefully obtain employment as an Embassy Driver...please keep your fingers crossed for him, he got through ROUND 1 of applicants, so that is good!
We have also recently let our housekeeper go; another very stressful experience for me. I'm not going to share all of the details, but needless to say we have learned a lot from this experience. I also am very positive that the Foreign Service Institute should really teach the 'Tu' form in French, in addition to the 'Vous' form. At the time I didn't realize how IMPORTANT that is and how serioulsy it is taken because we do not really have anything comparable in English. To keep this story short, here is one phrase: I was too nice and friendly.
On a positive note! we have a new housekeeper and she is doing exceptionally! She interacts with Mardigan much better and definitely wants her job, because she knows what to do to make me happy. She literally took Mardigan's entire box of toys the other day into the other living room and played with him for about 30 minutes until Mardigan was bored...haha. Loved it - too cute. I definitely was spying on them for a little bit - shhhh! Agnes (NOT PRONOUNCED in the old grandma way) it is pronounced AHN-KNEE-ESS, had a genuine smile on her face when she was playing with Mardigan. And she does a good job walking him and lets him know that SHE is in charge of him! Which is great! :) Very happy with her so far! It has been one week.
Random and funny: The cleaning people at the Embassy are locally employed Haitians, and they do a very good job, but man do I lose it with them sometimes! There are three guys that normally come in to clean the Health Unit (the office that I work in). And I already am psychotic about using hand sanitizer EVERY 5 minutes because so many people are in and out of here, so when I see the cleaning people using this NASTY rag to wipe our counters and not using spray or anything I really get mad. But it is funny to think about...almost an oxymoron...these Haitians cleaning...haha. They are all very sweet though! Ti Cout is my favorite - I do not know his real name, everyone calls him "ti cout" which in Haitian Creole means Little Man. He calls me the little blonde girl (even though I tower over him). I always make him laugh and I gave him a present once and he started crying! It was a hat from the Martin Luther King Jr. induction in DC...Ti Cout always loses his hats when hes on Tap-Tap's so I wanted to give him one. (Everyone has a bajillion hats that they rarely wear, if you think about it). Sorry about that tangent, the point of that story is that every Wednesday I re-CLOROX Bleach wipe everything after they leave...
Running in Circles
I have never been able to run in my entire life! I recently started running and thanks to my friends here, I have now been able to consistenly run a 5K. Please send any good music my way though, the scenery here gets pretty boring after the 10th lap...We run around the same loop over and over and over and over, which I loved at first! But now I am starting to get bored with it - hmm I wonder if Mardigan ever gets sick of it?....Nahhhh....Anyhow, running is going great and why not work out a lot here? There isn't a lot else to do! So that is a new fun hobby of ours! I run very slow, Jonathan still runs faster than me but distance-wise I'm runing further than him so we are even :) We usually run in the mornings or after work around 6/7:00 when it isn't too hot. I know I've been here too long when I am freezing at 70 degrees! I had to put pants and a sweatshirt on the other day! Whew, brrrr! (All of you people in the snow storms, feel free to insert harsh language at me here). After running the other day my friend goes "Megan! You have a new PR!" and me being equally excited just because said "YAY!!! Awesome!...What's a PR?" (For anyone who doesn't know PR = Personal Record). Mardigan enjoys running too! He usually lasts 1-2 miles and then wants to go inside and then stare at me from the window...
StareDown
Speaking of staring out the window! 16 minutes and a few seconds is how long this staring contest between Mardigan and the little gecko went on!! 16 WHOLE MINUTES, our dog sat still! (if you know Mardy, can you believe this?) and stared out the door because a gecko was staring at him inside. Needless to say, I didn't want to see any gecko tails flopping around so I never let Mardigan outside. The Gecko Won! *Gecko's release their tails when they are scared, and the tails keep moving, ewww...gives me the heebie geebies.
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Food
I think the Number 1 question while we were on vacation and seeing family and friends was "What do you guys eat there?" Well...to answer the question, nothing very different from what we eat in the States. We definitely do not eat OUT as much, but the grocery stores here are surprisingly amazing (and from what I've heard, offer a lot more foods than other posts) because of how conveniently close we are to Miami. I do think we have changed our fish eating to more Tilapia, as opposed to a lot of salmon and tuna. The local tilapia is great here and always available and inexpensive. We do also eat the local shrimp! I've tampered around with the conch/lambi but go in and out of phases with that. (same with the small local lobster). I'm definitely on an "off" phase from that after getting a rotten package of homards.
The best thing about living here is knowing that all of the produce we buy at the market, is FRESH! Yes we have to clean it in bleach and rinse with our bottled water, and everything is REALLY small compared to what you would buy in the States but who cares if you have to use 3-4 onions instead of 1 larger onion? I know that the Haitians are not pumping the vegetables and fruit with chemicals to give them a longer shelf life! AND the avocado's here are AMAZING! They are roughly about the size of my head, and at the market we can get them for about 20 HTG (Haitian Gourde) which is less than 50 cents. They recently started offering a market connected to the compound where we live...it is every Saturday, which is awesome! It is local produce sold by Haitians and sponsored by USAID. I think they make a good amount of money and they offer a lot, which is great. There are a ton of mango trees on our compound, so recently I have learned to scavenge and gather for mangos. I am positive that the guards are laughing at me and thinking "that blanc is crazy" but it is so worth it; they are delicious! I even made mango juice the other day! MM! Now to order a mango pitter...that is definitely necessary. Thank you for the idea Bobby Flay. And we are obsessed with passion fruit (called Grenadia here)! So delicious! Very hideous on the outside, but delicious on the inside!
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| Note the size of it compared to my hand! |
Gangnam Style
We recently did a flashmob at the Embassy to Gangnam Style choroegraphed by yours truly. It was fun and I've heard many people say "That was great! Really boosted Embassy morale!" Go us! Good work everyone! Once the video is compiled and launched I will send the link...I'm excited to see it.
Nightlife
Believe it or not there is some nightlife in Haiti! We just don't normally partake all that often because its a pain to drive up to Petionville, but there is a new restaurant/bar opened called The Irish Embassy. It is AWESOME! They are working on their service kinks etc. but besides that, the venue is just like any other Irish Pub you would go to in the States. It is really comfortable and fun! Very fun and I would love to visit that place or at least try to get up there once a month, it might help with our sanity! https://www.facebook.com/TheIrishEmbassyHaiti
Recently there have been two new hotels that opened. One is a Best Western and thats all I know about that, it looks really nice from the outside, and the other is the Hotel Oasis. The Royal Oasis apparently has ten little shops and nice bar/restaurant so we will need to go check that out. I will let you know how it is! Check out the website! http://www.oasishaiti.com/royaloasis/index.html
Haitian Art
I'm not a huge fan of the metal work, but they did have TWO ballerinas out of nowhere at the vendors the other day!! Someone must have 'tipped' this guy off that I was at the Embassy...my loving husband surprised me with both of them for my studio someday :)
We have been here a year!
I cannot believe it - time flies by here...we are about to hit the 1 year mark already! Craziness! Jonathan is doing great; he is very busy with work, as usual! Constantly on call and busy busy busy! It would be great if we headed to a post that was slightly LESS hectic and chaotic than this one after here...we are in the bidding process now for our next tour, so wish us luck and keep your fingers crossed for a great post! :) We will keep you updated.
Jonathan and I both won awards here at the Embassy (I mean so did like 95% of the employees) but it was still very nice and thoughtful and made us feel appreciated. I forget the title of both of them, sorry, that was just a random thought. No details, haha.
I did want to throw in a welcome to the family Josephine Rouland! We have a new niece and cannot wait to meet her! Hopefully in August of this year!
Our first born, Miller Milfinigus, the long living beta fish has passed away. He had a good life. I am hoping my grandmother gets a Milldawg2! (thats like an old AOL screename, HAH) We will see...
Hope all of you readers are doing great! Let us know if you have any questions. Sometimes it is hard for me to think of things to write about because we are so accustomed to life here now...
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| It's official! Mardigan and Sadie have gone public! He's planning their real first date to the dog park right now! |
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