Busy Day

Today was busy, but lots of fun.  This morning was pool day and we took all the Elefants and Zandolits (the 2 oldest groups of kids) and put them in little kiddy pools.  A few loved it, others hated it.  Then we had a mini water fight between the volunteers and nannies.  I ended up getting pretty wet and didn't even get in the pools because there were too many people.  There was one little boy, around 2 who didn't want to get in the water any more, so I held him and then he fell asleep in my arms.  It was very cute.

After the pool Nick and I, and a group of short term volunteers went into downtown Cap Haitien.  Nick has never driven that part, and it was kinda stressful in some ways because there is so much going on.  There are a ton of pedestrians, people on bicycles and motos, and then tons of cars.  There aren't any lanes, so you can go where ever you want.  People will stop in front of you and you have to go around them even if someone else is coming head on towards you!   We wont' even talk about the road conditions!  We didn't get in an accident and didn't get lost which was good!

We went to the "tourist market" so that the volunteers could buy some gifts before they leave.  We were literally the only tourist there, there aren't many people who come to Haiti.  Next we went to La Kay (the House) which is a really good restaurant.  We had hamburgers, fries, good fruit drinks, and ice cream for $7 USD.  This is the first time that I have anything other than water since we have been here.  Next stop was the grocery store which was super expensive. We bought a 6 pack of watermelon pop (apparently it's good, we haven't tried it yet) and a thing of ketchup for 1000 goudes, or $13 USD.  A thing of cheap shampoo in the US is around $20 here.

Back at COTP we played with the children.  I am starting to learn all the older childrens personality and discovering where they could use extra help.  I plan on starting preschool with them on Monday which will give me a chance to really get to know them.  We played keep away from a bunch of the kids (we were nice about it), but it was so funny to watch them try and get the ball!  Super cute!!

Nick has been busy installing a new stove, killing rats, and fixing the 101 random things that have needed to be done since the last property manager left 6 months ago!

It's time for us to go to bed, we have to get up early to go to Milot and pick up our 3 children who have been in ICU there.

Nikki