Communication

So, additionally to being frustrated about language and communication issue, trying to see where I can help with the school, what the community needs and adjusting to everything here, there are some surprises.

Tuesday evening, sitting in the office in the city, waiting for a car to take us back to the village. One of the sponsors of the project arrives at the office and is planning to video an infomercial the next day. Being the most qualified to show people the real Haiti (or alternatively, being without any important plans for the next day – you choose whichever seems more reasonable) we volunteered to accompany the photographer and show him around. Got some rubble/tent shots (very easy. Don’t need to look hard when in PAP)

,   some photos of our teachers training

 and went back “home” to get some school construction and cute kids photos. We called in advance to say we’re coming so that people are not surprised. We have A LOT of communication related mismatches here, so we didn’t even attempt to make the call. The project manager from the office called a committee representative to let him know.



surprise!



Not all kids made it into the photo...

After the initial shock, we took the kids to a parade around the town which should be excellent for publicity even if not really related to building a school.

parade

Communication is more than just language. One of my highest priorities is to at least identify when we’re agreeing with people where each party in the conversation understands totally different things.