Finally arrived to Haiti and finding it amusing so far. My Haitian life seems to be working some rather interesting changes of character:
-- Spent four days cleaning the kitchen with a toothbrush...and it's still not really done. I sincerely hope it wasn't just mold and dirt holding that part of the house together, otherwise we're in some trouble now. Some of you are probably raising an eyebrow of surprise at the thought of me, notorious cleaning hater, spending so much time on this activity, and I would not blame you. But that's how dirty the kitchen was: even I could not bear it. What makes this all a bit funnier is that there is a maid who is paid to clean the house once a week. I actually spent most of Friday morning trying to be unobtrusive while she went about her business, taking four hours to clean a total of about 800 square feet. And yet, when I went into the kitchen afterward, it was dirtier than before she came, leading me to spend another hour w/toothbrush in hand and a bit of time generally wiping things down. Imagine -- a world where *I* am a clean freak! And what has my effort won me? A somewhat less repulsive cooking space and some Nas-ty heat rash. I thought only fat people and babies (who are really just tiny fat people) got that, but apparently spending four solid hours scrubbing a windowless kitchen in 100 degree heat can do the trick, too.
-- Given my complete inability to tolerate temperatures below 78 degrees and my reptilian need for heat and light, I had more or less decided that there was no place this side of Hell that was too hot for me. I was wrong. Port-au-Prince in August is, at times, too damn hot. We don't have hot water in the house, so we have to take cold showers, which during past visits I found disagreeable, even when it was warm out. No more. I have finally come to appreciate the value of a cold shower. In fact, it has been so hot the past few days that the water at the top of the cistern gets quite hot, meaning that when I turn on the shower, I get about two minutes of HOT water, which I neither enjoy nor dislike, but do find rather bemusing. I also get a slight happy sensation when I get in a car b/c that's the only time of the day that I can enjoy the wonder of air-conditioning.I spend a good portion of my day trying to strategically position myself to catch a good breeze coming through our barred windows and trying not to scratch my sweaty, itchy skin for fear of provoking another wave of heat rash. But I would still choose this over another winter in the Netherlands!!
-- Although I would hardly call my days regimented, I have developed a bit of a schedule, which starts with getting out of bed around 8am every day, a marked departure from my lifelong preference for late rising. I wake up around 8, watch CNN for about half an hour until Creole television takes back over, spend about an hour doing yoga or working out (funny how 'hot yoga' no longer sounds like an appealing challenge), an hour (or more) cleaning up around the house, take a shower, eat breakfast, spend an hour working on my Creole lessons, spend some time thinking about working on my thesis before deciding I can't be bothered with it (that bit of the schedule will have to change this week, sadly....), and then knit or read for a bit. Oh, and I am working diligently on being a better email correspondent/blogger while I have some free time, so keep an eye on your inboxes -- I may finally answer that email you sent me months ago! I have dinner in the evening with friends, when I get to practice my rudimentary Creole and my only slightly less embarrassing French, then I watch some television and read or knit until I go to bed about two hours earlier than I'm used to doing. Sounds boring, I imagine, but I'm kind of digging it. I won't be sad when I start working for real, it would be nice to get out of the house a little more often, but overall, being a stay-at-home-person isn't nearly as bad as I always thought it was. For now.
-- Despite my unfortunate history of herbicide, I have decided I want to grow a garden. I will have to wait until I move house, as there isn't space for a garden here, but I am planning a modest garden to include tomatoes, basil, thyme, hot peppers, arugula, and maybe asparagus. The produce in the markets here is rather disappointing and I don't yet know enough Creole to effectively negotiate w/the ladies on the streets, so I was thinking I should just grow my own crap. Or at least try. Even if it's a failure it should keep me busy until I can bargain a little better...I've already started growing some chili peppers, using the garden-in-a-pouch some of my lovely Maastricht ladies gave me for my birthday. The instructions were all in Dutch, which made for some linguistic fun on top of my adventures in Creole and French, but I think (hope) I got it off to a good start.
Overall, I really am excited about being here, cleanliness and thermoregulation issues aside. I had a great summer in the US (and a week at Haitian beaches) before coming here, revitalizing me after my nine month hibernation in Maastricht, and I regard as good omens the facts that I neither procrastinated in packing to move here (unheard of for me), nor experienced my usual last minute freak-out prior to making the move. It's a bit early to declare it a success, but I'm feeling pretty dang good about my new life, which is, I believe, not a bad way to begin.
