Yesterday I arrived in Jeremie and I have already seen so much! We took a very small and rather unstable looking plane out to Jeremie. Even though it was kind of scary the views were absolutely beautiful. When I arrived Bette (HHF public health director/my host for the summer) took us on a drive through downtown Jeremie (see picture). The inn were I am living is like a resort. My room is very simple, but the views are gorgeous since it is up on top of a mountain overlooking Jeremie and the Caribbean sea. This week, while Judy is here, I am having all of my meals with Bette and her family, but next week I will start having my meals with the rest of the hotel guests.
Today I went to a Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) health fair in a local village. It took about an hour to drive there. The roads in Haiti are so terrible the car never gets out of 1st gear! The health fair consisted on the entire village gathering in the church to watch skits. Men, women and children all sang and danced about the importance of breastfeeding. I couldn't believe there were preschoolers singing about colostrum! At the end they invited me to get up and dance with them which was so much fun! I felt like I was able to make a connection with these people even though I was unable to speak their language. The kids all loved to have their photos taken which was very cute. After the fair we went back to the health agent's home where they served us fried plantains, sweet potatoes, rice and beans. Haitian food is much better than Chinese food!! I also met some student volunteers today that are about my age, so hopefully I will get to hang out with them more in the coming weeks. Tomorrow I will start preparing for my research!
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Kristen Pepin
kjpepin@gmail.com
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