Weekend Adventures

Bonswa!

As we have been taking language exchange lessons from the CFO’s wife, we may slowly start to show off our new words. So far we have focused on learning Creole important for interviewing patients, as well as for bargaining in the market. In exchange, we are teaching English. Though we mainly also try to teach useful phraseology, we also got a request to learn “For my birthday, I will buy you a car.” Not sure if we will hear back from the CFO about not teaching certain phrases…

I’ve been given the task of updating you all about our weekend adventures. Saturday morning started, as always, with a brutally early wake up and exercise. I could never do it without the rest of the crew! Little did we know that we were only gearing up for the amount of movement that would ensue. At the suggestion of Professor Hyde, we took a one hour drive around and up the mountain to visit the market in Dondon. For some reason, nobody thought twice, despite Professor Hyde’s description of the road as “The worst road I have ever been on in my life, including where I lived in Africa”. Needless to say, I am surprised that all of our organs made it out alive, and seemingly in the right place. The market itself was incredible (see pictures). We saw so much amazing produce (of course it’s the first thing I would mention J ) – carrots, ginger, garlic, shallots, beets, tomatoes, eggplants, greens, potatoes, pineapples, hot peppers, okra, bananas, oranges, limes, mangos etc… I had to use all of my self control to remember that it would not be a good idea to indulge, as I am still trying to avoid the victimization Alex wrote to you all about (please note earlier post).

After lunch, we had an equally amazing experience of going to see Children of the Promise, an orphanage located ~ 2 hours from the compound. This was an absolutely beautifully run organization. They accept kids 2 years and younger—most of whom have lost their parents and have no family to take care of them. Though they first try reconciliation with any remaining family members, the majority of the kids get set up for adoptions (mainly in the US + Canada). The orphanage itself is an oasis in the midst of the “controlled chaos” we have seen everywhere else. Not only are there people 24/7 for care taking, laundry, food, etc, but also a plethora of temporary American volunteers for bringing joy to the orphanage. It was water day when we came, so we got to play with the kids in baby pools etc J Quite a feeling of relief to see that happiness now.

I’ll leave you all on that positive note!

-Sophia