Saturday

Today we took a road trip around Port-au-Prince and some surrounding areas. I was very happy just to be a passenger and not driving. There are only a few rules. Try not to hit another car. Try not to hit pedestrians. Anything else is a bonus. We drove by the Presidential Palace grounds. The fence is still up but the remains of the Palace have been cleared away. Driving around you can still earthquake damage that hasn't been repaired. Later we traveled by what remains the national Cathedral. I had seen pictures after the earthquake but it was much different seeing it first hand.







We drove through Petionville which was the epicenter of the quake. Eveline told us that this town recovered quickly then became a large, more prosperous, place. In Petionville we saw a few large supermarkets. Although they are smaller than what we are used to, they are the largest commercial buildings I have seen in Haiti. They come complete with well dressed security toting shotguns. We also drove by a Best Western, which also had pistol wearing security standing around the outside of the building.

Shotgun toting store security

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Toward the end of the drive we stopped at a natural park and walked around. It was a very nice place. There were a variety of different trees and plants. Even had a turtle. Ben and Simon spotted a couple of big lizards lurking around. These guys were 10-12 inches long.  We also encountered a man wearing a Cub Scout uniform.  Don't know exactly why but he was from Den 5.

We brought a Kreyol to English picture dictionary from home to help Petoucheka learn some English words and phrases. Shelby was working with Petoucheka and some of the other children. She had a couple of younger children hanging out with her who were more interested in looking at pictures than learning anything. Petoucheka was pulled away for bath time so we relocated to another area where we ran into one of my favorite older boys, Enoch, who knows a little English that he learned in school. He was interested at looking over our book. Soon I found myself under the instruction of Professor Enoch who was teaching me Kreyol words then harshly grilling me quiz style. Unfortunately for me the subject at hand was words and phrases used in the classroom. I was quizzed on things such as " 3 ring binder", "LCD projector", and "pencil sharpener". He was relentless in his quizzing. I now know that my pronunciation is lousy. I think that I am in for another lesson tomorrow. This time I'll try to find a page with more useful day to day conversation.

Eveline might come visit us at our home this summer. I think that would be a nice visit now that we are family.  Right now she is thinking sometime in July.  Unfortunately, I don't think that we will have Petoucheka by then but we would still enjoy Eveline's visit.  I'm guessing that she will continue to visit after Petoucheka is here.