Returning to the village – aka round II

We were very tired at the time before the vacation. It’s an accumulation of a few months of work in non-standard conditions and of knowing that a vacation is coming. Inbal said we are finishing ‘round I’ and will be coming back for round II. We have an open debate on who won the first round.

I was very excited to be returning to the village. I missed the people and came back with a long list of things that need to be done and should be improved.

The first days were a little strange. Due to the long Christmas/New Year vacation it seemed to us like the village was full of new people. Instead of hugs/kisses/missed you that I expected, we got the “hey, white people!” response that we get from people that don’t know us. Many of the kids didn’t return from the vacation. We had a 60% attendance at the school instead of our usual nearly-full capacity. Some of our ‘regulars’ disappeared and we’re still trying to understand if they will return or not. We haven’t heard from our village orphan in a few days. We know the woman that took him in kicked him out, and we need to track him down. Yesterday at school, a woman came to return the books for one of the 5^th graders. We sat with the girl at recess and found out that this woman took her in to help her with house chores and now she doesn’t want her anymore. The girl still wants to go to school (getting to 5^th grade is not trivial in Haiti), but is now staying with a cousin very far away.

It also seems like the committee wants to be less involved, and some other people are looking for more involvement in community life. Since this is one of our major tasks for round II, it will be interesting to find out who the ‘new team’ is going to include.

Update: in the 2 days between writing and publishing this – some of our regulars returned and the orphan showed up again. Things are starting to feel more familiar.

Kaleta and me playing with a flashlight



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