Saw my first mongoose in Haiti. Funny little creatures. Our driver was less than merciful toward it, shall we say. And we were then all quite justified in our condemnation of his swerving into its path. When the next one skipped along he shot a look back at me and I scowled, pointing my finger at him, and this time he didn't swerve. He then slapped his knee as if to indicate, "Ahh shucks. Missed it."
Our driver, Kissinger (yup, that's his name) is a very good driver. And his personality is kind of like that of a golden lab. Nice nice guy. And very protective.
The PDA-based survey attempt is likely to be a disaster. The whole thing was one huge challenge after another. There was absolutely nothing simple or straightforward or easy in the process. The workers picked it up quick. They're not the issue. If it does happen to yield any results it's only because of Haitian ingenuity and persistence.
Local politics in Pestel remains as dramatic as ever. I won't get into the details here, but let's just say that at 7:30am of the day we were to leave for Jeremie (at 8am) I received a bombshell phone-call that could have scuttled the whole program. Anderson and I went and smoothed the situation out, but when we were done (at 8:15am) we were both stressed and a bit shaken. Oh, the drama. Anderson did a fantastic job, as always. I know these conflicts are not easy for him, and God knows that I don't care for them. But good has always come out of these situations, as disheartening and discouraging and troublesome as they are at the time. I am learning to accept these difficulties as necessary pruning and shaping experiences. But they still exhaust me.
You remember that brown water hole in the video? I almost became personally acquainted with it. I got out of the truck on the first day into Pestel to take some photos, and didn't gauge the slippery-ness of the hard-packed red dirt. It is like ice when it gets wet! Think of slipping on ice--that's exactly it. And my two legs went sliding down at very different angles while my body twisted, and wham! Down on the hard, red ground. A woman yelled out horrified when she saw it happen, and I was going to call out "I'm alright!", but I really wasn't sure I was ok. And as it turns out, she doesn't speak English, so that wouldn't have helped matters. But I was ok. And I did not slip into the water-hole on my first day back in Pestel.
It was so hot and humid that we constantly dripped sweat from our arms and necks and head. If you'll see any photos of me it'll be with matted, wet hair--very inappropriate for my Hollywood persona.
Did you know that when they're working on smoothing out a road they use a big roller, grater, and water sprayer truck? We passed a work site, and fortunately Jon rolled up his window just in time as we passed the water sprayer truck. In the US we don't have to think about details like that because we don't drive anywhere close enough to the site to get soaked.
This trip Anderson didn't laugh at my attempts at Creole. I think that shows good maturity on his part. :)
Ben
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