first, i celebrated my birthday here. for lots of reasons, i'm not a fan of celebrating my birthday, it's usually just a let down. this year i figured it would pretty much be the same. that night, they had made me a cake that said, "Happy Birthday Patty the Hut" along with a Korea cake because it was Korean independence day too. That was so awesome! Being Korean- Korean independence day means a lot to me. Cause without it- I guess I wouldn't have my mom :).I also got some Goldfish- as that's the best snack ever- and some cards and best of all- a new workout DVD- I love workout DVDs. It was probably the best cakes ever though as you can see below:
We also moved another community in. This made our 6th full community. I believe we have over 500 families moved into communities and over 7000 shelters that are already built between communities and through our partners who build on the land that beneficiaries already have. 7000 families out of the rain. so, at this specific community in Darbonne- where we were the first NGO to build, I get there and see this:
the community had put up balloons and streamers to celebrate the move in day!!! all by themselves! gosh i love that community.
And I guess in other news: We had tried to start a new site near this amazing site that I'm talking about. Well, that place is so desperate for shelter, that about 125 more people than were supposed to showed up and started a mini riot. Long story short, our security and the UN came out as our first site dealt with the angry people to protect us. So, fearing that the worst, I was trying to give out flashlights to security committee. And the UN kept waiting for me to leave. and then our security guy said, "we have to get a hold of Patty". and Monica replied, "Oh, no one can get a hold of Patty". That made me laugh.
so, the next day, we decided to go back to put up a community board in order to somewhat cooperate with the community. i ended up finding the president of the community and talking to him about his concerns. we ended up negotiating decided that we'll come back. that was nice.
i ended up going back to the first community too, just seeing if they had any problems. turns out they didn't. and now monica and i are "THEIR blancs" (blancs is a term for foreigner). and how THEY were the ones who protected us, which is so true.
but after talking to the community, i finally realised something. that the loud, annoying, typical haitian-i don't understand them or their warped way of thinking- the reasons i despise this country.....i understood a part of them. i almost cried. they were only yelling because they are an uneducated people, who have no idea how to tell me about how they really feel. they can try talking to me, but i can't speak their language. i felt like that moment was what i really needed to somewhat get them. to stop being frustrated with them. it only took me 7 months. :)
Love
p
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