Haiti Sneak-Peak

A few days ago I enjoyed receiving an email from a SOIL administrator in Haiti answering a barrage of my questions – until then I had no idea what any of the practicalities of my accommodation would be! It turns out there is a house near the SOIL office in Port-Au-Prince that is shared by a couple of other NGO's working in the area. The house itself is used as common space, and most people sleep in the yard in a tent. I was highly amused by the tentative-sounding email asking if I would mind sleeping in a tent the whole time I will be there...and further, if I could possibly bring my own tent! Luckily I was planning on bringing a tent anyway for the first couple of days on bicycle when I'll be sleeping in national parks! So instead of leaving that with my Great Aunt Jane in Tampa, I will bring it to Haiti. (I'm leaving my bicycle with her. Everyone is always curious what I will do with it! Then I take the Amtrak to Miami and fly from there. Tampa to Miami is an impressive 250-280 miles and I don't have the time to ride almost 1,000 miles!)

I will also be responsible for paying for my own food, which luckily will cost only about $5 per day. My first week I will likely get a tour of a compost facility that is being built in Port au Prince, I'll get a “toilet tour” (whatever that is!), and probably get to see a public composting toilet being built. I'll have a lot of flexibility and independence in my schedule since everyone is so swamped with projects and work, so I'm hoping I'll find a project that I'll naturally want to attach myself to and go from there.