Friday night a few of us went across the street to"Masaje" and danced in the rain! Sagar taught us some Bhangra, Nadine and Sedlin showed off their traditional Haitian dance skills, Lisa and Steph demonstrated the basics of salsa, and Annie and I danced in the way that white girls do: like fools!Despite my apparent lack of dance skills, I had a ton of fun blowing off some steam, dancing until the club closed and laughing until my sides hurt. When I knocked on Nicole's door to tell her that we were home, she responded with, "Are you sweating? Or is it raining?" I hadn't even noticed that I was dripping wet. "Uhh... a little bit of both...we were dancing the entire time... outside." This indicates two things: it was a great night, and I have completely abandoned the cause of keeping up my appearance. (See pictures for further evidence).
On Saturday we woke up early and went into the field. We got lucky and ran into a Haitian midwife (Miss Tiot), who had many fascinating stories about the hundreds of babies she has delivered since she was fifteen! We told her that we are having trouble finding people who know someone who has died shortly after childbirth (we know you are out there...come out, come out, wherever you are!), she advised us to make an announcement over the radio station. We found the address of the station and set out to find it, but once we got there, we saw that the building had been ruined during the earthquake. About to turn around, a woman pointed us to a "Chinese Red Cross" tent that was almost hidden behind the remains of the building. Unfortunately, the price they quoted for us was too expensive. I guess we will have to rely on old fashioned word-of-mouth to inform the population that we are looking for people to interview!
Saturday night, we met a group of people from All Hands Volunteers, an NGO that specifically works in areas that have been affected by natural disasters, at a restaurant called Joe's. They put on a talent show, and Nadine, Lisa, and Elisabeth managed to whip together an impromptu (yet perfectly harmonized) version of "Amazing Grace!" Mama Nicole was so proud, she said we can keep our privileges to leave the hospital (aka "the nest" or "the compound" and even "home" by now).
We went to a two-hour church service at 7AM this morning (doesn't that count for extra Holy Points?). Although the service was in Creole, and they sang the same song at least 4 times (I recognized the tune, if not the words), I still enjoyed seeing Haitians in their Sunday best (even the kids were dressed to kill) and was again stunned by the open-mindedness of my peers. Not all of us are Christian, few of us speak Creole, and none of us enjoy getting up early, yet all of us passed on a rare chance to sleep in (and breakfast!) in favor of exposing ourselves to something incredibly unfamiliar and exciting. Duke Engage Haiti really does attract amazing people!
After church, we went over to "Mon P'tit Village" to watch some Haitian kids show off their newly-learned karate skills! We got a kick out of "Clowns Without Borders" (seriously, it exists: http://clownswithoutborders.org/), who were also a part of the show. Once we got back to HSC, we ate dinner, which included goat, rice and beans, some veggies, and yellow cake for dessert!
Our (Lisa, Steph, Annie, Erin) room! Our white hospital beds in a line remind me of "Madeline." The only thing that we have that she didn't is white mosquito nets!
My favorite picture that I have taken so far! Steph was overwhelmed by the kids at the school, who wanted to see their faces on her camera!
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