Next Assignment - Haiti

HAITI

July 1, 2014

Maybe I can be better about keeping up my blog this time around.  So much has happened between my last entry and today, I can’t begin to catch up.  Our time in Algeria was filled with new adventures and exotic experiences.  We did so many wonderful things – mostly trips.   And yet my days were often long and lonely.  But our travels were always wonderful and happy.  We also made lifelong friends with whom we hope to keep contact and meet again in our journeys.

Here are a few of the things we did between 2012 and now, in addition to the things I already wrote about in previous blog entries:

·        We met up in Barcelona and Carcassonne early in 2012 before I actually moved to Algiers.  I never wrote about this trip; it deserves it own entry.

·       We visited our wonderful family in Virginia and Maryland several times.  Needless to say, these visits are precious, especially as the kids grow up so fast.

·        We spent several more long weekends in France: Marseille, and Aix.

·        We shared Thanksgiving dinner with colleagues at the ambassador’s residence.

·        We spent Christmas 2012 in Bruges and New Years in Amsterdam.

·        I volunteered often at the embassy’s Information Resource Center where I made many Algerian friends.

·        I spent a long weekend with old friends in Munich.

·        We spent 2 weeks in Paris – Baboo working at the embassy, me out and about.

·        We spent a long weekend in Rome and 2 weeks in Tuscany with our dearest wine-drinking Budapest buddies; we were joined by several other special guests as well.

·        We spent a week in London.

·        We traveled to Tlemcen in western Algeria.

·        We endured terrorist threats, lockdowns, and Ramadan; and Baboo participated in rescue operations.

·        We left Algeria in October 2013, traveled to Athens and boarded our cruise ship where we spent the next 26 days cruising around the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic to Florida.

·        After that, we picked up our new Jeep, spent some time with family in Florida (sadly Baboo’s dad passed away just a week after we visited him), Georgia, and a week on the Outer Banks.  Then home to Virginia for the holidays.

·        Since January 2014, Baboo was in training in Virginia until departing on June 30 for Port-au-Prince.

And here we are in Haiti for the next two years.  Getting here was super easy from DCA.  And no jet lag since we are still in the Eastern US time zone.  We were greeted at the passport-control area by a local band playing Haitian music.  I loved it. 

It is quite hot here as you would expect and so far very breezy.  And since there is still so much devastation (more on that later), the air is filled with dust and dirt all the time.  Our house is on a secured compound not very far from the airport.  It’s hard to describe the drive from the airport to home.  I’m not sure what we were driving on; they called it the main road.  But really, it was nothing more than a riverbed.  “Potholes” do not begin to describe the ditches we had to maneuver around and through, along with all kinds of “vehicles.”  I think driving is on the right, as in the US, but I’m not really sure as it was every man for himself.  It was a bone-rattling adventure and I decided I will not be driving much around here. 

Our social sponsors met up with us and took us to a lovely open-air restaurant not far from the compound.  We met the owner, who bragged about all his imported, non-Haitian and sanitary food.  We enjoyed our meal very much.  (I was so happy to be out in public drinking a beer with bare arms, something unheard of in Algeria.)  We stopped by a small grocery store and I was pleasantly surprised at the variety and quantity of things available.  I think we will be quite comfortable.



Our House



Bedroom closet



Our Kitchen

We are really happy with our housing assignment.  To be here on the secured compound is the best possible situation, especially for me.  The neighborhood is very pretty with about 37-38 residences.  Our new home is quite nice and very spacious.  Compared to our little apartment in Algiers, it’s a mansion.  We have a 3-bedroom townhouse with loads of storage space, more than we will ever need.  Being a storage-space junkie, I love it.  All the ceilings are VERY high, even in the closets.    And, as a special bonus, none of the walls are white!  We are next door to the community tennis court and pool and half a block from the recreation center, where we gathered with new friends to watch the World Cup.  We hope to meet lots more of our neighbors at the 4^th of July BBQ party this Friday. 

While I unpack our things and putter around our new home, Baboo is getting settled in at his new office.  Lots of bureaucratic administrivia to deal with this first week; he’s anxious to get into his responsibilities and start working. 

I hope I will be better this time about keeping up.