Surprised!

Lex and Renee decided we should go to Jacmel, which is on the southern shores of the western side of this country, to take a little break after the fairly intense prior 15 days. We left around 11 and began the ride up the mountain to Jacmel, which is on the other side. I had already seen the scenery half way on the trip to Jacmel due to my travels to St. Etienne, where our second Fondespwa group started. Once past there, we kept going higher up the mountain with the road becoming windier, and the drop off to 100s of feet below more and more dangerous. It is even more dangerous, at least to me, due to the seemingly erratic driving on this island. It is just short of being terrifying. There is no speed limit and drivers are incessantly cutting each other off, with often times, three cars side by side on the two lane highway, with one going one direction and the two in the other, with barely inches separating themselves, as they pass. There is the constant honking which at least announces I am about run you off the road. You are always swerving from one side of the road to the other. On any trip, you will spend equal time in the oncoming lane. In addition, you will be spending similar amount of time driving on the shoulder. It is in general tough enough to handle, but doubly so when climbing these winding hills. We continued, at this pace careening back and forth until we came to the small villages where on the side of the roads, you saw the marketplaces similar to what I described in an earlier blog. Saturday, is the other national market day, so in each village we drove through, women were selling their hats, mops. mangoes, grapefruit, juices and clothes, etc. All very, very colorful with their fruit and clothes. They are hustling for sales and as soon as we slow down they are quickly walking to our car. On the side of the road, as you move up the mountain are goats meandering about, cattle munching on grass, men riding on mules, dogs darting across the road and myriads of people walking. And as always, there are the imaginative and vibrant tap-taps with semi trucks flying past you. Somehow though, it all seems to work out, as there are less serious accidents than one would imagine, though every vehicle and I mean every vehicle is plastered with big dents and massive scratches. By the way, there are no ambulances in the rural areas of Haiti so when an accident occurs either someone picks you and puts you in their truck or you die on the side of the road. Americans are told when they come to Haiti and they come upon someone lying on the road, they must keep going for if you stop and help, others may come upon you, think you have done this and will frankly, kill you. Lex, as I noted before who is Haitian came upon a massive accident a few years ago. It was a group of Americans whose bus had overturned and were very seriously injured. No one had stopped to help because no one can really help you any way but he decided to stop loaded 10 injured individuals into the back of his half ton, one on top of the other like so many bags of rice and on the way to the hospital one died due to bleeding. Moving on, the sights looking into the valley and onto the ocean is pretty impressive. We stopped at the nicest hotel in Jacmel for a few minutes, as Lex and Renee wanted to prove to me there was such a thing, because I to that moment had not seen a building that I would call a hotel, as we know them. This convinced me, however, it was colored white and blue, three stories and the main entrance and restaurant looked out and down to the ocean which here was clean. It was beautiful, and they told me this is where we had our reservation for 6. We then rode to an orphanage in Jacmel, called Hands and Feet that has about 40 orphans. Here is where I met Kirby the deaf two year old. I went into his room and as his nanny picked him, as he had just woken up, he took his two pudgy little fingers from each hand, pressed them against his thumbs, raised them together placing them to his mouth. Sign language for "I want more food." A little cutie. We then spoke with Michelle, who helps run the orphanage and she discussed the circumstances of why some of the children were here. Two of their stories very much struck me. I was going to detail them in this blog but it would come across as just to sensational so I am going to pass and say they are horrible, horrible. The systemic reason, however, of why so many orphans exist in Haiti, is due, as Michelle said, to their mothers being "dirt" poor. This is one of the reasons Fondespwa exists, so that these women can climb out of poverty, have enough for their children and not feel compelled to give up their kiddos. When Fondespwa helps one woman you are affecting not just one person but automatically at a minimum, 4 to 8 people, a family. It was soon time to return to Jacmel. It was now dark, when we arrived to the the hotel, for supper. We were told to go upstairs where our tables were reserved and where we could also look out and easily see the stars. I climbed to the top and when I hit the landing, I saw a large table in the middle of the floor filled with a number of people, which for a moment was confusing to me, until it registered, they were all the staff of Fondespwa, plus a few friends. It was a party for me! Today, is my birthday.