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[Deutsch unten<\/a>]<\/p>\n 30 October, 8am<\/em><\/p>\n This week went by much faster, or so it seemed. I continued with some projects (teaching English – by myself on Friday, because Stien went to Port au Prince for a couple of days; holding kids at Mother Theresa\u2019s; massages at the Rehab Centre) but also did some new stuff:<\/p>\n Ecole INAAF<\/u>: This a pre-school Kat discovered. There will also be older kids there in November, but right now it\u2019s about 15 2-4 year olds. As always the kids are utterly adorable, especially once they figured out that they were allowed to play with the balls and jumpropes we brought. We were asked to come back twice a week, but when Kris and I did so on Thursday it was very obvious that they didn\u2019t need us as \u201cteachers\u201d – what they need are resources. GVN is building them some benches and might see about installing a better roof on their temporary classroom (the house they used to be in was destroyed by the earthquake), but continually being asked for money (a big no-no for GVN projects, but it happens anyway) makes this an uncomfortable experience for us volunteers.<\/p>\n Vitamin distribution<\/u>: It feels very \u201cwhite\u201d to stride through the camps around our house and hand out vitamins to the kids (and some adults), but it\u2019s a nice opportunity to get to know our neighbours and see a bit more of how they live, be it in little houses or tents. By now I recognize some of the kids and their parents, especially of course the \u201cGVN baby\u201d (Jess was with her mother during the birth at the nearby birth centre), but also an utterly adorable little boy named Jeff, who like to climb me like a little monkey. <\/p>\n All of us volunteers tend to fall in love with some kids\/families, and this is usually where we choose to spend our donations – it\u2019s tough, because there\u2019s so much need. Still, I have decided that sending Jeff to school for the rest of the school year (his grandmother had been able to pay for the first 2 months) will be my first contribution, made possible thanks to my wonderful donors. <\/p>\n Trip to the beach<\/u>: Yesterday afternoon six of us took seven kids from the camps to a beach with (relatively) clean sand, palm trees and shallow water. They were a wonderful group of children – singing in the car and generally very nice and sharing with each other. And being in the water with them was great fun – the little girls liked to hold onto our backs and \u201cswim\u201d like that, while the two little boys jumped around in the waves. Naturally we were surrounded by locals trying to sell us stuff, but other than in some other places they offered their wares a couple of times and then pretty much let us be.<\/p>\n In our free time, the high point of the week was definitely the Eat So They Can party on Wednesday. Unfortunately it was pouring (a proper storm, drenching us all and turning streets into rivers of dirt water – but at least I got to use my new gumboots for the first time *g*) so there were only a few guests, but we still had a good time. Also, Sasha and Andrea, two of our nurses, came back from St. Marc because the cholera infections have slowed down and they felt they\u2019d be more useful here.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Jessica left for a two week vacation, and yesterday we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach (well, behind the beach – unfortunately the town beach itself is pretty much a garbage heap), which made for a lovely change. Personally, I\u2019m glad to report that my stomach problems have subsided. Also, I coped with water outage (twice this week) by going to Cap Lamandou, which always makes me feel as if I\u2019m on vacation.<\/p>\n And as a nice little weekend surprise there seems to be internet on the roof today – I\u2019ll try to post this from here instead of the internet caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n