We have a motto here, T.I.H., which means “This Is Haiti.” It really means to expect the unexpected and welcome change. It also entails “Haitian time” which can be measured by the formula of “Garner time” plus time and a half. Yeah, that bad. Haitian time has thwarted many of my plans.
I often described Haiti to some people back home as a place that’s been to rough to rough. You can’t rough it here like my other backpacking experiences and world travels. I have a fearful eye towards the rough realities of life here. It’s just not easy.
In light of that, the staff and participants of AIM live meagerly, but still comfortably.
We sleep on cots back at our base house and at our camp sites we sleep on mats inside our tents. Typically the low temperature every night is 80 or 82 degrees. Too hot. Actually this past week was unusually cool due to some afternoon showers and overcast days. The concrete walls on the rooftop of our site created a tunnel for the winds at night. At times they became pretty turbulent and I remember waking up in the position of a snow angel trying to stop the bottom of the tent from swallowing me whole. Crazzzzzy.
We sleep on cots back at our base house and at our camp sites we sleep on mats inside our tents. Typically the low temperature every night is 80 or 82 degrees. Too hot. Actually this past week was unusually cool due to some afternoon showers and overcast days. The concrete walls on the rooftop of our site created a tunnel for the winds at night. At times they became pretty turbulent and I remember waking up in the position of a snow angel trying to stop the bottom of the tent from swallowing me whole. Crazzzzzy.
Other than that, things look pretty simple. Electricity here is unreliable at best. We actually have window units in our base house for AC and sometimes run a generator for power for short periods of time since diesel here is really expensive. The power has been strangely consistent when the World Cup is on. Go figure. One person told me it’s because a phone company who runs advertisements during games helps pay for the power to stay on. Nice!!!
Showers are occasional due to water conservation efforts here. I’m cool with that. We even have a rule for toilet flushes – “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” That I’m not so cool with. I chose this picture, but you know what I could have downloaded, don’t you? 
People also often ask what we’re eating here everyday. It’s pretty simple. A typical Haitian meal is rice and beans with fried plantains or some other simple extra for dinner. We have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday for lunch or sometimes Ramen, Easy Mac, or Oatmeal packets to munch on. If they added milk and cereal to the rotation, then I’d say welcome back to college!! But we also treat ourselves with some cliff bars and other surprises from time to time.
The typical mode of transportation here are “tap-taps” and “Haitian buses,” which are both hilariously painted in Caribbean style colors. The tap-taps are the smaller old pick up trucks with converted, covered beds to carry people around town. You simply tap or hit the side of the truck to get on and off. The Haitian buses have live music and a little more flare and style to their transportation.
Honestly, I love many of the adjustments we have to make here. The Lord has blessed me with health in the midst of a lot sicknesses and injuries. I know I’m covered in prayers from brothers and sisters in Christ interceding for me. I love knowing that and it makes life much better here.
Great write-up. More please. I’m intrigued by the voodoo you referred to recently. I’d love to hear more about the daily happenings of your experience there. Stay safe. Keep up the blogging, and tweet if you can.