Day 3: travel to rural field site, thoughts on thankfulness

(Photo 1: Road to Les Keyes, reaching the southern side of the peninsula and seeing the crisp blue Caribbean)

Saturday, 17 February 2018

Well today was quite a day. We did a lot, and not much got done, at the same time. I am writing this late, so please excuse my randomness of thoughts.

Today I:

Woke up, repacked my overstuffed bags, hopped into a car with a friend of a friend and Elisson, my dear friend since I first came to the rural reaches of Haiti’s Central Plateau. We drove through 2-3 hours of Port-au-Prince and Leogane traffic and 6 hours of total driving without stopping to eat or use the restroom!

We got lost in Les Keyes, saw the beautiful blue ocean, got into awkward situations when people saw a foreigner parked on the side of the road, reengaged with

people I knew from trips past, got to a point where our important contacts could not be found, a

nd eventually located the house I am staying at. After that, I took a bucket shower.

I then sat down to enjoy a nighttime bite of local chocolate… only to find that I had accidentally bought (and thus bit into) a bar of concentrated, unsweetened cacao, similar to baking chocolate in the US.

I worked for 1.5 hours to try to get my USB internet drive to work so I could speak with my wife and kiddo to let them know I was ok.

Today I have eaten 2 eggs, a piece of beef jerky, and oatmeal, an

d I finish the day a bit hungry.

But, I think to myself, it feels good to be hungry. I haven’t been truly hungry in so long.

I ended my night by plugging a fan into a little portable battery pack that I brought, and I feel very thankful for the little blessing it is.