03/28/2010

In Haiti, everything gets dusty and sandy. I like when it rains because it settles the dust and cleans things up a bit. However, when it rains it gets really muddy outside, so it's either muddy or dusty. It would be nice if it rained every three days at night....but that's thinking with my head in the clouds. A more realistic solution would be to have paved roads which would limit the dust tremendously. Most of the ground here is covered except for the dirt/rocky roads. Taxis (mopeds), cars, and trucks constantly are stirring up dust and everything gets covered. Also, with a road out front of your house which looks like the bottom of a river bed, you can expect to get plenty of sand in your house....even if you leave your shoes at the door. Sand gets everywhere and our floor is swept each day. Outside, we have a concrete mini courtyard. Once you enter our gate, everything is concrete. However, coming off of the street, our foot traffic brings in quite a lot of sand. We could sweep the concrete outside on a weekly basis and still be behind. I am amazed at the amount of sand that comes in.

Needless to say, our broom wears out quickly. We have two types. We have a typical household broom inside for sweeping the tile floor. For outside, we have a Haitian made broom. These brooms are very "green" as the handle is made out of the trunk of a small tree or bush while the bristles are made out of a thick grass or dried leaves cut into strips. I haven't found out exactly what tree the bristles are from, but they seem like palm leaves. They are then tied to the shaft and one nail is inserted to keep it all together. I just bought a new one this week because our old one disintegrated on us. It's nice to have something that isn't made out of plastic but they have to be replaced more often. The Haitian broom is great for outside as it is cheap and it is nice to have one broom for sweeping the dirtier messes outside and one for inside. Our broom that we use outside had been worn out for a couple weeks so we weren't able to sweep outside. This week, I saw a guy standing outside the school selling a bunch of these. I asked him how much they were. He said "kat dola" which means four Haitian dollars. I asked him again because I didn't think I understood. Four Haitian dollars is about fifty cents US.

Of course, most things are cheaper here as labor is inexpensive. However, this thing is hand made and unless I am mistaken, I wouldn't think it could be made quickly. Who knows; maybe it is easy to make. Either way, I was blown away by how inexpensive it is....the same price as a Coke here! Speaking of, if you like Coke, you should visit us. Now, I am not really suggesting that the trip is worth the Coke. The ministry should be your main draw of course...but the Coke here is pretty stinkin' good! They use Haitian sugar instead of corn syrup. It tastes very good and you can get it in half liter glass bottles! I don't have a picture of a Coke (I am sure you you can imagine what one looks like), however below is a picture of a Haitian broom if you are interested. If you aren't interested...don't look below.