Gwomon

The view from our guest house.

Hello from the most gorgeous space on the planet!

We made it to Gwomon to find that we had another 4,000 files to tackle, but that did not worry us too much. The group I'm with has being such high spirits the entire time we've been here. We're situated in this gorgeous little town, where its safe enough to walk to work everyday. We are staying at a guest house, run by a couple of nuns, which is the worst part about being here.

The nuns with whom we are staying pretty much run the town in terms of charity work, including water sanitation programs and schools. However, they are not the most welcoming of people. They live in a very gated and heavily guarded place where, I think, the dogs are trained to bark at black people. The other horrible part is the Irish and American people who are also volunteering here. The Irish dress in such scandalous clothes that a Fonkoze branch employee told us to say something to them because they were ruining the children of Haiti. I mean its hot here, but not that hot. In terms of the Americans,vthere nice and all, just conservative religious republicans.

But, as I said before, this place is the most beautiful place ever. The river cuts through the mountains in such a picturesque way that you could swear you were in a movie.

The people here are different than in Gonayiv. You know these people have had their share of volunteers in the area. You can tell by the way they react to "blan" people walking down the street. You smile and say hello and the first thing they say is "I'm hungry". Here you can see a definite culture of giving from foreigners, but a lack of actual action and purposeful change.

We have met some friends, however. A cashier from the bank, Jacques Allen, took us to the river where we swam and played with the kids. It was a great Sunday. Also, we have a little friend, Valencia, who lives across the street from us. We took her with us to the river and it seemed like she had fun. I'm teaching her English, at which I'm horrible, but I try.

Valencia at the river

I think everyone is more happy here in terms of the work we're doing. Though our living arragements are a little unwelcoming, at least we have internet!