A Day in My Life: Friday, Feb 1

5 am: Woke up when the electricity came on and hoped for a hot shower. Stayed in bed until 7, but the water didn’t get warm. Have to figure out what’s wrong.

9 am: Chaired the monthly office staff meeting and explained the yearly staff evaluation process.

11 am: A pick-up truck with 4 Haitian drummers and their drums beating a Haitian-roots rhythm pulled into the office. They’d been at one of the employee’s son’s school for a Carnival party and were meeting up with some other people. They continued their drum session for another 20 minutes.

12 pm: Had a meeting with our Connecting Peoples Specialist to figure out a home stay and language training for a new MCCer.

2 pm: Attempted to contact partners about the upcoming MCC country evaluation and answer e-mail in between phone calls.

2:15 pm: Gabriela (the 18 month old daughter of a volunteer) pooped on me while sitting on my lap at my desk.

2:16 pm: Hop in the shower and change. Luckily, I had a spare pair of pants with me for an overnight trip.

3 pm: Head to the airport and while waiting 2 hours for the flight (which was late by an hour), hurriedly make arrangements by phone for a tour of the city for the new employee and another woman staying at our guesthouse. Looked over staff evaluations from the Reforestation team unit.

5:30 pm: Land in Les Cayes with two people from a partner organization and we are driven to Guilleme to check on the progress of a school construction project being funded by an MCC constituent. (It looks great!)

8 pm: Head to a little restaurant on the Les Cayes wharf where I ate a plate of fresh Creole shrimp and had a rum and Coke.

9:45 pm: Take a call from a MCCer who needs more money when I get back to Port-au-Prince the next day.

10 pm: Crash into bed hoping there aren’t any bed bugs in an I-can’t- believe-this-costs-$50-a-night hotel. (There weren’t!)