Day 2

I woke up this morning and had some generic corn flakes and condensed milk. Note to self: mix the consensed milk with water before putting it in the cereal.

Last night we had a team meeting and I signed up for housekeeping duties with an Irish ex-pat named Sinead. I thought it would be a cake job that would give me some rest from the work done yesterday. I was wrong.

We are staying in an open air shelter, and I had to sweep the entire thing. I also did the dishes in the morning. The bathrooms were the worst of all. We have toilets, but they don't flush. We have to bucket flush them, which entails filling up a bucket with water, pouring it in the toilet and holding down the toilet lever. It can get messy in there, so I'll spare you the details.

After housekeeping, I did the lunch dishes with two other people. There are about 70 volunteers here, so it took us about an hour and a half to complete.

After that, I was on "tarp detail". We cut tarp, folded it and wrapped it for T-shelters (temporary shelters) for the Haitians. Oxfam is coming tomorrow to them up. The work itself wasn't tiring. It was the 90 degree temperatures that really got to us.

Everyone here is really nice. It is hard not to be. The Haitian people are some of the happiest people that I've ever encountered. If you say hello to them, their eyes light up. The children are so cheerful and eager to help. I don't understand their mentality. I've been so blessed in my life, and even the smallest things can sometimes get to me. One of the volunteers said to me that they can choose to be miserable in misery or be happy in misery. I'm glad that they chose happiness. The environment here is abominable. I can't imagine what it would be like if the Haitians attitudes matched the environment.

The internet connection here is very shoddy, so I'm not even going to attempt to upload any photos until I get home from my adventure, so please bear with me.

I really miss America.