Hello Friends!

     The past month has been full of new experiences. We'd like to share some of them to give you an idea of what daily life is like here in Haiti.

     Laundry: First of all, in case you have ever contemplated this, humankind's greatest invention is the washing machine. Our hands are slowly getting calloused enough so that we are not ripping the skin on our fingers anymore. Or maybe we have stopped worrying about getting our clothes as clean. We do the wash one morning a week, which takes about two hours or so. The key seems to be lots of soap. Haitians, men especially, are often bewildered with the fact that Benjamin has a wife but that he still does his own laundry. The women love it.

     Transportation: Our butts are also getting conditioned to our newly acquired hobby of mountain biking. We go into town almost every day and we either walk the three plus miles each way or ride our non-shock absorbing bikes on the extremely rough "roads". A friend of ours, Jinel, took us by bike to a local waterfall called Bassin Zim. He said it was a half hour away. Two hours later and numb from the waist down we arrived. That is another thing we have learned: not far to a Haitian is very far to an American. Haitians think nothing of walking two and a half hours each way to church on Sunday. Actually, we are really glad that our program does not provide us with vehicles and that we are forced to walk or ride bikes because it puts us on somewhat equal ground as our neighbors which they appreciate and it gives us the opportunity to talk to and meet people on the road.

     Food: We eat every meal of every day with the Little Brothers of the Incarnation, the Haitian Catholic order we are living with. While it is a luxury to not have the burden of trying to figure out how to cook meals over charcoal and with very limited ingredients, we can't say that eating has been a highlight of our time. Every meal has the same ingredients with just different variations: cornmeal mush, bean sauce, rice and beans, spaghetti with a tomato and fish sauce, boiled plantains and sweet potatoes, boiled vegetable soup with dumplings. All the above lack an essential element: flavor. Our favorite is when we get bread and fresh peanut butter. But, there are some things here that we savor and enjoy when we get them. The avocadoes, bananas, papaya, mango and coffee are much better than you would ever find in the States. Needless to say, since we have both started our non-dairy, vegetarian, no snacks diet we have lost weight. **And today we just found out that Haitian food can be wonderful. We ate with the Little Sisters, and they told us the Brothers just don't know how to cook. Their food was definitely better. We'll have to figure out how to get invited more often!

     House: As we mentioned before our house is great and we feel like boujwa (elite class in Haiti) with our inside toilet and shower and sink, and having it all to ourselves. Most of our neighbors have ten or so people living in one house. We are still at war with creatures getting in: tarantulas, cockroaches, fireflies, toads, geckos and other spiders. I think the animals are winning, so we'll just have to learn to live together in peace.

     We don't want this email to be too long, so we'll wait until next month to tell you about some of the projects we are involved in. But we have attached a cute picture of some of the boys at the Maison Fortune orphanage that we are volunteering at. The boys are so much fun and we really look forward to seeing them everyday. Their smiles take all worries away. And the other random picture is just a typical example of bizarre and new things that we get to experience periodically that we would never come across in the States. Yes, it is Benjamin and Brian, the other volunteer here with us, helping a group of Haitians pick up a massive pig and put it in the bed of a truck.

     If you want more information about us, you can access a website that Benjamin's mom has put together for us. She posts pictures, stories and a link to the Xaverian Organization newsletter that we submit reflections to each month. The address is: http://www.fawi.net/Baltimore/TheHaitianDiaries.html

     We miss you all very much and enjoy hearing how things are going for you as well. Thanks for listening!

     Blessings, Jana and Benjamin