No not really on House Arrest. But I feel like it. Stuck inside with an almost 2 yr old! Somebody help me! No TV, very few toys for Odessa and no one else here to talk to...not like being snowed in with things to do in the states.
Today is the Presidential Election in Haiti. Odessa and I were going to go to church and then come back home to wait out and see if there would be rioting, demonstrations and violence afterwards. But after talking to some Haitians they ALL said we should stay in all day. There have been lots of riots and violence in Port au Prince the last couple days and we don't know how it will be here in Jacmel. Those of you who know me know I HATE being told what to do and especially what NOT to do.
Being told not to do something or that I can't has always made me want/try to do it that much more.
But you know how the saying goes, "Adopting a baby changes everything." Well it doesn't go exactly like that, but it does change things. I have Odessa to think about ABOVE myself now. Let me just tell ya this is a big role change for me. I even surprise myself sometimes in how I think about her before myself.
I have been bombarded with text messages on my phone asking me to vote for one candidate or another. I can't even vote! My dad sent me a panicked email last week saying that they just got 3 angry phone calls in Creole in a row and he thought I had been kidnapped. Then my friends who I have called on my Haiti cell phone started writing saying the same thing. When I turned on my US phone it immediately started ringing and there was a recorded election message in Creole. It didn't sound angry to me-it sounded like how everyone talks down here. But I remember before I could speak Creole I thought everybody was yelling at everybody too. So obviously Haiti doesn't have the same cell phone privacy laws that the US does. They had called everybody on my call list with the election message!
I have been taking care of a sick boy in Peredo this week. They called me this morning to tell me he is not getting any better and asked me to come see him. It is an hour drive though and on election day...I just can't do it although I really want to. I told them to take him to the Cuban clinic about 25 minutes away with the medication he is taking already so the doctors know what he is on. I called this evening to check on him and they didn't take him and are waiting on me to come to work in the morning. I am hoping the streets are OK and I can venture out.
There are so many Haitians who didn't vote b/c they were afraid to go out. We, Americans, truly are blessed. Others said that it doesn't matter anyways b/c all elections in Haiti are rigged. I would brush that off if I had just arrived here. But after working here on and off for 2 years-I don't doubt it.
Not for a second.
Well better go see what Odessa is into now!
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