Jellyfish to the Face

Hello all, 

I hope that you're doing well and are enjoying the full swing of summer. It's been summer since I got here, but hurricane season just officially started, so I expect a rain or two in the coming months. 

The most exciting news of this week is that we found an apartment! It's quite close to where I'm currently living, so it's a good distance between work and the after-work places we like to go. It's "homely" as Ian calls it, because not only is it furnished but there are paintings on the wall and it is a very comfortable place. The best part is that is has a big balcony, I imagine we're going to be eating a lot of meals and playing a lot of scrabble out on it. We should be moving in next week, so I'll send pics once we're settled. What most important for you perhaps is that it's a two-bedroom, so there is a bed for visitors :) Yes, that means you. 

I also got to get out of the city for work this week, which was nice. I went to Leogane, south and west along the peninsula from Port-au-Prince. I had only driven through it once before, and didn't see that much this time around, but it was nice to get out and see the rural areas of the country. There are lots of banana trees and agriculture around, and life is just as colourful but seems a bit less crowded - it's nice. Leogane was actually the epicentre of the earthquake, and I was surprised that there were still a lot of people living in tents - proportionally as much as PAP maybe. There were also a lot of transitional shelters - buildings meant to last 3-5 years as people save money to rebuild their own homes. It will be interesting to see how it develops in the next five years as many shelter projects draw down in Leogane, but health and education programming goes up. 

I got out to that side of the country again this weekend, as we spent today at the beach. There aren't any beaches (or at least ones you want to go to) directly in PAP, it takes about an hour outside of the city either north or south to get somewhere that you have a chance to relax. There are basically three types of beaches in Haiti:

1. Public beaches that we call "MINUSTAH beaches" (MINUSTAH is the peacekeeping force here), because inevitably a couple truckloads of soldiers show up, have the tunes blasting, have lots of beer to go around and are generally making a commotion. Depending on the nationality of these guys, they may also be staring at me. Not so ideal when one wants to relax. 

2. Beach resorts. These are very nice classy places, Club Med standard. But they charge an entrance fee to get in, and $20 entry or $40 with a buffet is standard. Pricy!

3. Smaller hotels that don't charge an entrance fee, you just buy lunch or drinks or whatever. This has been my preferred option since being back, I've been going to this great little place called Villa Taina near Grand Goave. 

Yes, those are bits of tomato on my neck. I guess my freckles mask the swelling but it's there!

So we went to the beach today, which was really nice and relaxing. There were definitely people there but it wasn't overcrowded, the water was warm and the sun was out. Everything was very idyllic, down to the Haitian man in a canoe (aka hollowed out tree) paddling to get the lobster in the traps for lunch. Ian had a couple pairs of goggles and we were able to check out some of the coral and fish below, although it was only a small reef. You can imagine after a morning of swimming, a lunch of lobster and then a last swim where I was alongside the fishes in the reef, I was pretty relaxed. I was! And then a jellyfish stung me in the face! I'm serious, it got my whole face and part of my neck! I'm still not sure how it happened, as I was wearing the goggles and should have seen it, but I guess jellyfishes are clear. 

I immediately got out of the water as the stinging was starting, then I splashed cold water on my face then the owner of the place took me into the kitchen where he gave me his home remedy: first he soaked a rag in vinegar and ran it all over my face and then cut a tomato in two and ran both sides over it. It didn't smell the loveliest and it attracted a lot of flies, but it worked! The stinging subsided and I was just left with a swollen face. It took about three hours for the swelling to fade, but that's gone now too. I don't think that episode took all of the relaxation out of me, so the trip to the beach was still worth it...