Kim Priore

Oh we’re rockin’ out people.  Choir practice is going strong…choir practice is where they sing the same song for roughly 2 hours at MAXIMUM volume…and then I get to hear it again in church tomorrow.  Woo!

So the word on Pastor Jephthe is that his malaria test came back negative but they’re treating him anyways…apparently this is common.  Kara tells me at the Pignon hospital they will give you 3 things: chloroquine (the malaria drug), vitamin C, and penicillin.  So we’re not sure what’s wrong with him, it’s possible that the test is a false negative, also possible that it’s some mystery illness.  He’s really bummed out about not feeling well, and I feel really bad for him.  However he was up and around a little bit today, unlike yesterday when I didn’t see  him all day and I basically retreated up the hill to Caleb and Debbie’s with Kara for the whole day.  I feel bad not hanging around the guest house more, but I can’t tell you how exhausting it is to feel like you’re being stared at all the time by people you can’t communicate with.  And with Jephthe ill I’ve been eating by myself which is just like the pinnacle of pathetic for me.  I have to like psych myself up to go out for breakfast, because when you’re the only one eating you can’t hide it if you don’t like it.  Anyways, sorry to vent but I was having kind of a bad attitude today.

BUT it got SO much better when Jephthe announced that “they” were doing “something” related to the water project, and that I could go down and see it and take pictures.  Woohoo!  I’m like what, 9 days into this trip and I get to start doing my job?  Sweet.  So it was great because Phenes and Joe and a bunch of the guys who live at Caleb’s took me and Kara down to the site and it was sort of a joint interpreting effort.  For those who were here before, it’s like the walk down to the river but just not all the way…but so basically climbing down a really steep sort of stream bed only with no water, just some mud…so I’m in a skirt…thankfully a shorter one today…totally neglected to put on the nice sturdy Teva sandals that I bought so I’m rockin’ like the cheap Target flip-flops, but I totally don’t care.  I’m like hopping over logs and from rock to rock (Dougie, totally like New Hampshire when we used to be all Indiana Jones and climb the rocks!) and snapping pictures and taking notes, and for like about 15 minutes I was Kim Priore, Intrepid Third World Girl Reporter.  I’m goin’ all Christiane Amanpour.  So anyways, they’re basically hooking up this big electric pump that will take water from the spring, pump it up to the top of the mountain where it gets processed, and then distribute it down the town.  Or something.  I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but hey, that’s Haiti.

Jephthe also assures me that he has “people” working on “reports” for me, and that he’s on top of the info for BH.  He was hoping the reports would be in tonight, but so far no dice.  So I’m just hoping they’re in with enough time to spare for me to read them over and ask any follow-up questions.  It looks like I’m most likely leaving Pignon sometime on Monday and spending the night in Cap for my flight out on Tuesday.  I forget what I’ve posted already and I’m too lazy to go back and look, but Kara has decided she wants to go home for a little break, so she’s on my MFI flight, as well as Ma Sidoine and some of the grandkids she’s flying back to Florida.  Or something.  Again, you learn not to expect details.  But it’s nice to know there will be a bunch of Pignon-ians on my flight back to keep me company.  At any rate it’s looking like tomorrow will be my last full day in Pignon!  Crazy.  I’m definitely ready to come home, and will be processing for weeks to come but at this point, am totally glad I came and it’s been a character building experience for sure, but just very different than I think I expected.  Not sure what I expected really.  I’m rambling, and that’s what my journal’s for.

So anyways, that’s all for now folks, hopefully I’ll get to do one last post, we’ll see, but for now, hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend!