July 7 & 8 - Update

I got up super early this morning to take advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures. I sleep on the second floor porch, outside, because inside the house it is always like an oven!

I inventories and counted all the frisbees and little dispenser bags, just to make sure that we made enough for the order. I am happy to report that we have 208 frisbees and 166 dog-poop-baggie-dispensers.

The difficulty in making them is that some ladies are so slow, one took almost three weeks to come up with four frisbees, that my math planning did not work out. I had given 20 women 10 frisbees to crochet...but then I ended up have to give the faster crocheters more frisbees to crochet because of the ones that were "tweedling" along...

I had the same difficulty with the little dispenser bags. One of the ladies, I did not think that she could finish her 15 dispensers in time and/or in satisfactory condition, so I had some other ladies crochet some extra dispensers, that is how we came up with 16 additional dispensers. However, the one slow/questionable lady's dispensers are not the greatest. I just did not have the heart to reject all 15 of them...

So, my bags are packed with finished frisbees, dispensers, pot holders, market bags (small and bigger ones), additional colored frisbees, earrings and stitch markers.

On Monday, I need to still go to about 7 schools to finish paying the fees. It is always so time consuming to do anything in Haiti. The streets are blocked with traffic jams, fumes and dust. It has been super windy here. The only way to get anywhere is on a motorcycle, which is kind of risky, considering all the bad and chaotic driving that happens here.

My cousin-in-law's car kept breaking down and half of my time here, it has been not working. So, I have been catching rides with friends and relatives or taking the motorcycle or walking to where I need to go. That really slows down things.

On Tuesday, I am getting together with the ladies one more time to teach them how to crochet hats. We decided on a cute style that should not be too difficult. Some of the ladies have really caught on so well to the crochet and do beautiful work.

We will be dispersing most of the yarn that came in the container from Miami. I have decided to sell the yarn at 5 Gourdes (about 10 cents) per ball/skein because I want to make sure that whoever gets the yarn is serious about making things out of it for sale. The ladies know how to crochet the triangular head wrap, baby shoes, frisbees, bags (small and bigger) and they will know how to crochet the hats. This way, they can make a little business for themselves in addition to our project's work.

Yesterday, a young man died at the camp on Santo 17. He had been in the hospital for several months and was recently released. He started bleeding profusely from his stomach, out of his mouth and nose. It was a LOT of blood! People said that he had bleeding ulcers, but can they be so bad that you bleed to death from them? It was a horrid sight! I felt so terrible for him and his family. His young nephew was home alone with him when this happened. The man left the house to get help... but there was no help for him. May he rest in peace.