Cheers!

Ok I can start thinking about my vacation that will be coming up July 9th. Three weeks vacation...time enough to attend a couple of weddings, have a nurses night out with my friends at Providence, a BBQ with team Portland and see all of my family.

This weekend gave me inspiration to take days off! Saturday, Al, Kay (a volunteer PT), Yasmine and I spent several hours at the Metal Market. This is an area of town where most all of the metal work is made called Croix des Bouquet. We turned off the main street onto a rough, pot-holed road- not unusual in Haiti of course but as we drove down the street there were 'cinder block house after house with metal work being made or hanging for sale. After a drive to the end, we got out and walked from place to place, trying to decide what we liked best or who did the best work.

The metal work is made from the big 50 gallon oil drums. the are cut opened and flattened. Patterns of intricate designs to simple designs are then laid out and then cut out. The artists then using different tools pounds details into them to make a lovely mirror, or wall hanging, picture frames or lanterns, nativity scenes and on and on. There were hundreds of 'bare' gecko shapes laying in the sun. Young artists were sitting on porches 'stamping' the designs with paint to make the geckos that are seen hanging on the walls and art shops in Port au Prince. (The real geckos that crawl on our walls and ceilings don't have so much color- they try to blend into the wall so to better catch the bugs and moths).

This was quite enjoyable to see and I did buy a rooster to hang in the guest house and I put a down payment on a specific design I'm having made for Healing Hands for Haiti Klinic Kay Kapab. The young artist, Delpe said it would take 22 days to make and would be ready by July 18th. It will be pretty big.

After leaving the metal area, we all went up to Muncheez - a fast food place in Petion-ville to watch the US soccer match with another group of people from American Refugee Center- Al's wife Deb works for this organization and the group consisted of about 9 people from all around the globe. Most in the room not rooting for US but for Ghana. I don't follow soccer (futbol) so I'm pretty naive as to the why they choose a team or root for one over the other except that most Haitians either root for Brazil or Argentina first then depending on their alliance who they will cheer for after that. It was fun but the air-conditioning was soooo cold that when the soccer match went into over time, I thought I would be an ice cube.

Today we all went to the beach- Indigo Beach is just under a 2 hour drive up the north coast of the Island. It was formerly a Club Med back in the 80's and in resort style has a hotel with swimming pools, an entertainment stage, restaraunt, bar and a wonderful big beach. Today it was a glorious respite of sun, sand, sea and a bit of rhum in a raspberry slushy. Its such a far away place from the Monday through Friday part of our life- literally stepping into another world outside of the Haiti we see everyday. There is no rubble, no crumbled houses, no broken people. There are artists wanting to sell you a painting, a conch shell the size of a football (American style), jewelry or even a live lobster to snack on until its time for the big buffet lunch. Waiters are a wave of a hand away to bring you a drink on the white sand beach. The hot white sand that scorches your feet as you try to make your way quickly to the 'Caribbean Blue' sea. It was clear and warm and calm- its salty buoyancy beckons you to come in and stay for hours. The warmth of the sun stays with me now as I write this hours after returning home (mostly because I got a bit of a sunburn). The Pieces in me comes out when I am at the sea and its hard to leave.

The funny thing is that we ran into people we knew- Shaun and Shiri, and people from Handicap International. We had heard thunder throughout the afternoon in the distance but as we were driving home, it wasn't long before we were in the middle of the thunderstorm and pouring down rain but we had our day in the sun so could not complain at all.

PS. I did buy a necklace with a shell pendant for $5 and 3 drink coupons.