7/31/07
I just had to write today and try to explain what is considered normal here. Our cook was working with a piece of goat meat that had been frozen and it had a large bone in it.  She called me over to help her and said she needed it cut with a machete.  I thought surely I can do this with a large knife, and proceeded to try.  It didn't work, so I promptly found myself in the kitchen hacking away at the piece of goat meat using Sarah's machete, (which I washed well with soap first).  I just had to laugh.  I told Mdm. Jislen (the correct spelling I found out from my teacher because she didn’t know how to spell it herself), and Mdm. LaLa that my mom would laugh if she could see me now.  It is very normal to see someone at the market or where ever they are working with meat using a machete to cut it into usable pieces.  I had just never done it before myself.

Last week Tim & I & Faith went to Port-au-Prince while the rest of the kids stayed at Gutweins.  We needed to go to the immigration office there to get our fingerprinting done and a picture taken for our work visas.  We left at 3:00 a.m. to try to get there when they opened at 8. It’s about 125 miles and by leaving as early as we did, we didn’t have to deal with near as much traffic as we would have later.  We made good time and got there at 7:30a.m. They let us in and because we were there for visas to come into the country instead of going out, we didn’t have to wait in the long line that was already forming.  We went to the office where the lady works who would take us to get our fingerprints and photos done.  She was not there yet, but one of the men who worked in the same office told us to just come in and sit down and wait. He said that even though the office opens at 8:00 that doesn’t really mean they start at 8:00. We sat and watched as each one of the workers wandered in and proceeded to start their day.  When the men would come in they would shake hands with all of their male coworkers and give a kiss on the cheek to all the women. When the women came in they gave each of their coworkers, male and female, kisses on the cheek.  They typically would come in their street clothes and then change in a small restroom there into their official uniforms.  First on the agenda was to plug in their cell phones. This office has 4 desks, one with a manual typewriter, one with a computer and I think a scanner, and the other 2 with nothing. None of the desks had phones.  After that then some manner of breakfast was eaten.  (There was a lady selling bananas out front and some of them had a drink that was made from a fruit of some sort.)  Then they were ready to start.  Our lady didn’t even arrive until almost 9, so it was after 9:30 before we were helped.  It didn’t take too long after that, except for needing a copy of our green cards, so we had to go outside the building and next door to a copy place and then fight our way back in through the huge crowd that had way more people in it than they would be able to take care of in one day.  Then we were finished.  Hopefully our visas will arrive in Cayes after a while since this was the last step in a process that I started way back in February in Illinois.

After some running around doing some shopping we headed back and arrived at about 7:00p.m.  The roads are better in some spots than they used to be and they are much worse in some spots than they used to be.  After bouncing around for about 6 hours on the way back, we were all pretty tired.  I’m glad Tim doesn’t have to make that trip every weekend like he used to when the work teams come.

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