Sunday, March 25, 2012

work

eat

play

bathe

Play kitchen

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Busy days.

The bosses re-unite!

Bos Niko and the Bos who made the bed Niko was born on, working together to upcycle a table into a counter with shelves below.

In the background

That really is a fountain in the background at Place St Pierre! I'm so thrilled that they've found a use for all this water (rain) not been absorbed by the non-existent soil higher up.

Niko and Jean Simon, one of the many friends Niko has made here. Very friendly boy must have been the year in Manitoba! Jean Simon says I live Niko, he's my poltik. This sounds like a cool word I have to look up.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Dezam

Sand piles, people paths, tree-ripened fruit, not to mention hundreds of old friends to see and help Gabou and Niko remember Creole.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

kitchen table

play kitchen

Monday, March 12, 2012

More sharing

It was another of sharing, fevers, and tenderness. Marie France, Gabriela's biological Mama, called this morning to say that she was coming up for a visit. When she arrived we went to a hotel pool also with a neighbour family and Gabriela's friend Tad who is also 5. At the pool, i needed to know who was watching Tad since he is adventurous and has little experience at the pool. Luckily everyone was watching him! After a relaxing afternoon, we went up to see the memorial garden that the hotel had created in memorandum of those who died in the January 12th earthquake. Everyday (since we've arrived) I hear Haitians talk about the earthquake. They mention it without explanation. None is needed. The earthquake was not like a robbery in one neighbourhood, it was a national catastrophe. It was an international emergency. People share memories of the earthquake and after...like remember that? That was crazy...we're just lucky to be alive.
I remember just a day or two after the earthquake, I called a friend to ask her about adoption. I had heard that, under post-earthquake conditions, if we had already completed a Haitian adoption, we could complete another adoption overnight. That was the same day that UNICEF shut down all adoptions. When the other day, I mentioned to Jonna, the woman who used to hold Niko while I taught yoga classes, that I want to adopt again, she offered me her little son. Okay, I said, in my mind! "No, he needs you", I said out loud. This kind of selfless generosity which here extends from food to clothes to shoes etc. is too crazy for me. I need to know which shoes and which kids are MINE. I need to know who I'm responsible for and who will call me when I'm old and need the phone to ring. I need to know how many times you've shared with me so I can share with you that same amount and if I donate to your organization, will I get tax receipt? I need you to tell me that you can't live without my help like I can't live without yours. I need someone to tell me why I can't give up my favorite shirt but you can offer me your child!?? This kind of lacidazical attitude around what belongs to who, is ludicrous, not to mention enviable. Once I took Gabriela to a department store with tall shelves aisle after aisle. When it was time to leave, she couldn't. She just stood there and cried saying "I can't help it, I just want everything!"

Friday, March 02, 2012

Niko had a baby!

Niko's nanny Jonna showed up this afternoon with the gorgeous Givens who was born (at home with a nurse) November 26th. He's been nursing (exclusively) ever since!!!

Speaking of Haitian chicken : )

Gabriela was horrified watching the chickens thrash about after we slit their throats (and assured us that she wouldn't be consuming any). Niko thought it was fantastic.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Bos Stefan came over to build a shelf. You see his assistant in the photo and bos Niko. They are sawing and fitting and nailing but everyone is saying to me "So you're building a shelf?" meanwhile I'm lounging on a chair (albeit with the feverish Gabriela draped over me). This comment used to drive me cRRRazy especially when cooks would say to me: "You're making Haitian chicken and pikliz?" and then I'd give them money and they would take a bath, put on fancy clothes, go to the market, bargain for everything, carry it home including the live chicken, wash and chop and grate everything into identical pieces without a cutting board, kill, pluck, and boil the chicken, stand for hours tending several bubbling pots, wash the dishes and set them out, arrange the food in serving bowls...wash the dishes, go home, make more food, wash more dishes. This is the Haitian chicken that I !!!! was making. On the other hand, we all know that the chicken like the rice that will steam beside it, is not just mine, never was and never will be. Here in Haiti, where work is done outside, often on the street if not viewable from it, it's more obvious to everyone where things come from and where they go. The chickens are part of the daily symphony called dawn and later walk threw the neighborhoods in generous baskets on the top of market ladies heads. I buy rice directly from farmers that i know and whose fields i've visited. Anyone who has been to Haiti knows that the Haitian cook can not help cooking for a crowd, a hungry crowd!, and that there will be parts of the savory free-range chicken that no one in my little family will want to eat, like some organs, and if we're nice we'll give these out in foresight with the extra rice. The chicken bones will get sucked and any last meaty morsels will feed someone's dog.
My shelf is being built in my front yard by bosses who will go home with a days salary. My shelf will help me get organized during our four month stay and then will get passed on or sold cheaply to a friend or neighbor. The system in a Haitian neighbourhood is set up for community awareness and advantage...where everyone sees you come in and expects you to share what you've got whether you share voluntarily or not. The imported wood connects me especially to another place where in my experience sharing is a littler more voluntary and a little less risky and where wood is a little straighter and also cheaper. The bosses haven't told me how much they are charging for their 24-hour shelf building service.

buying paint for our craft table