What I've Learned So Far

I’ve been in Gros Morne a little over a week now and I’ve made some progress. 

I can find my way to and from our house.  To get to the house, you go up the main road. If you get to the river, you’ve gone the wrong direction.  Turn left at the “Love Bar” and then left up the tree lined driveway.

I can ask who’s knocking at the front gate but, of course, I have no idea what they say back. I get a 1 ½ hour Creole lesson every weekday but then I rarely have time to really study.

I found the peanut butter.  It’s in the 1 gallon Creole Vinyl Acrylic Paint bucket. And, yes, the bucket is full to the brim with peanut butter!

I know to be dressed and ready to go at all times because there’s never much advance notice of where we’re going or when.  Like last night, we were eating dinner at 6:30 PM when Sr. Pat gets a call inviting us to a birthday dinner party for a local priest which was to start at 7:30PM.

Speaking of Sr. Pat, I don’t know how she does it. Her phone rings incessantly, usually with somebody wanting something.  And, you can’t walk out the front gate without somebody accosting her.  There’s a staff person whose primary job, it appears, is to screen the visitors and there are plenty of those who make it inside.  So, the ones waiting outside are the ones that didn’t pass Madam’s “smell test.”

Normally, there are two Religious of Jesus & Mary sisters here (they’ve both been here about 15 years) but Sr. Jackie is now in France (where the Order originated) on a renewal program.  That means Sr. Pat is wearing two hats.  Not only that, but only one of us 3 volunteers can even remotely function in Creole so we’re really not that much help to her yet. She’s also the only person here who can answer all our questions.

Sr. Pat is primarily responsible for the tree nursery and the reforestation projects, among other things.  I think she started with the trees here at the house because I’m told that the place only had 4 trees when they built it.  Now, we’re completely surrounded by trees, including the long driveway up to the house.  It’s really quite beautiful. She’s come a long way from a city girl raised in the Bronx!

I know which lights to turn off in the morning.  This one is fairly critical because, if you don’t, we will eventually lose power.  We have solar power and large batteries, but we still have to be careful. There’s also a generator that is used as needed. By Haitian standards, of course, we live in luxury.

I visited the court house where I met all three judges.  I’m not sure why there are three since there’s only one court room and, when I was there, no litigants.

I’ve been to the hospital, Alma Mater.  It is probably a stretch to call it a hospital but they do perform some surgeries there.  Most beds that I saw didn’t have any sheets; just a plastic cover which can’t be too comfortable in this heat. There’s really no privacy at all as we (my Creole teacher and I) walked into any room we (he) wanted. There was a line of people outside the gate and more lines once you got past the guards. I guess we shouldn’t complain about our emergency room waits.

Thanks for all you prayers of support, emails etc. It means a lot to me.