April 15th, 2010

The days begin very early here- around 5am you begin to hear something- sheep, chickens, other staff/volunteers trying to find water to shower or to wash clothes or talking, dogs barking, or children playing and singing. Since we go to bed early and get enough hours of sleep, I don’t really mind.
Usually the first phrase I hear in the morning from various people is “no hay agua” meaning there is no water. I hear it from outside, I hear it from the bathroom inside of the house, I hear as it goes from mouth to mouth, while I’m in bed, half-asleep. At least this has been the case during the last few days- there hasn’t been water exactly at the time I wake up- it’s been coming later on during the day. Our alternatives during those mornings are either to not take a shower (I have never chosen this, some people do because they shower the night before), take a shower with some buckets of water that we have in the shower (I have done this a few times but the problem is that you don’t know how long this water has been there for and how clean it really is) or walk about five minutes, across the village, to a big field where platforms are set up for some temporary houses we are waiting for, and shower in these temporary showers (I have usually done this). During the past few days I have walked to the field and as soon as I have returned the water has come. So, this morning, around 6am, I decided that I would not walk to the field but instead I would wait for the water to come. Everyone was finishing getting ready and I was still waiting…. then.. most people were gone to breakfast and I was still waiting… by the time it was a little past seven, I gave up. I walked to the showers. What I had forgotten/didn’t exactly know was that classes began at seven. As I walked by, about 40 ft. away from me, the 6th and 9th graders (the only grades that have started school already) were singing the national anthem with hand on their chest. I walked by with my pajamas on, towel and soap in hand and I thought, this is so embarrassing, I shouldn’t have waited for the water. I looked straight forward and pretended it was no big deal. Hopefully not a lot of people noticed.

I feel lucky to be the one in the group to go to the United Nations base here. I go at least three times a week to pick up staff/volunteers, drop off a flight request or talk about/settle/ask for different kind of issues regarding logistics and food distribution. While I’m there, I get a feeling that I’m really important. You see people walk and drive around with cars and logos of different NGO’s like World Vision, UNICEF, Save the Children, among many others. You also get to see many of the thousands of UN vehicles (all sizes, all kinds, mostly white with a big UN logo on the side or front of them) that seem to controlling the country right now. The other day/two days ago (I think) Michelle Obama was at the base exactly at the same time that I went to pick up a form- of course the traffic was very chaotic. For some minutes I stood outside with many others who had their camera out and were just waiting for her to come out of an office. Unfortunately, we had to park outside and couldn’t make the chauffer wait too long, otherwise, I would have stayed there until she came out.
Last Friday I had to wait about forty minutes at the base so I went to the little supermarket that they have there and walked through the two/three aisles slowly, paying attention to every little product that they had, trying to memorize each one in case I ever craved it/needed it. I saw a lot of canned food, little or no fruit or vegetables. I was a little frustrated to see some things that I had packed all the way from Costa Rica and didn’t know would be available here- like some granola bars and Off repellent. Really- there is not much in this supermarket, but since there is even less at the Haitian supermarket I’ve been ( and well.. in general)then it does feel kind of special to go to it, to see products from the U.S. That day I bought some oatmeal, a snack mix and something I had wanted to get for a while: jelly. The only jelly they had was blueberry jelly. I would have preferred strawberry, but oh well.
I left the supermarket very happy with my jelly, but at the same time I got a feeling of spoiling my whole experience in Haiti… like I’m supposed to stay away from things that are really good, that remind me of my home and not enjoy those things until I’m back home because I’m in Haiti and to live the whole experience you have to eat what other volunteers/workers in Haiti are eating (then again, the people at the UN sleep on a boat and I heard they have a buffet every night.. but their perspective is different, I guess).
But, to continue with my jelly story… I had wanted to get jelly for many days before. A lot of times it was depressing to go have breakfast when all there was to eat was cereal (which I stopped eating) and bread, but, no butter or anything. Ever since I had first been to the UN supermarket, I had decided that one day, when I brought money, I would buy the jelly. Since this is something I had been planning on buying for some days, there was also something very important that I knew I had to plan…. a way to keep the jelly to myself. I knew if I brought the jelly in our “dining room” for breakfast, then it would be gone in one day- for sure.
I stored the jelly in the little pantry at our house (which has canned food left by journalists, etc), telling only a few of my closest friends about it. Actually, I told them about it, but never shared details like where I put it or anything. I figured that if someone was really craving it, they would let me know.. and in that case, then of course I’d share.
On Monday I walked to breakfast and put a piece of bread on the toast and then put butter on it (so things have improved, we got a toaster, which we can use whenever we have electricity, and then butter appeared at the supermarkets, finally…).
I walked the four minute walk to my house, with my toast on my hand, impatiently waiting to reach the pantry so I could open the can of jelly and finally spread it on the toast. I didn’t want any kid to stop me to talk or anyone to ask me why I was carrying a piece of toast. I just wanted to eat it with the jelly.
I told the Costa Rican nun who is now in charge of the kitchen about it and she suggested that every morning I just bring a little cup with a little bit of jelly. I considered this too, but then thought it would be easier to just have the jelly close to the kitchen, like at our office. So, I transported it five minutes away, to the office. But doing this was risky too, I had to find a way to hide it. There were no kind of bags at the house and I thought of something brilliant – to use the little bag in which our ponchos came. I put the jelly in this red, elastic, bag, one that it’s obvious it’s supposed to be used to carry a poncho/rain jacket, and I transported the jelly away from the house, into the office.
For the past two days, I have been eating some bread with everyone at breakfast, and then, when most start to leave, I go downstairs and grab the little red bag, go into the other side of the kitchen and put the jelly on the bread as discreetly as possible. No one has discovered this yet. I fold the bread in half so that the few people left at the table can’t tell there is jelly on my bread.