First week in Haiti

Good morning from sunny Petion-ville!

This is officially our first week in Haiti since embarking on this multiple year journey.  We are adjusting as well as we can and taking in the sites and sounds of our new environment.  We have lots of tidbits to share as well as pictures.  Christian will be posting a few lines later.

First off, we traveled Business class on American Airlines and this is definitely the way to travel! In addition to the extra leg room and large comfortable seats, the service was top notch!  We were offered these cute little egg roll looking hot towels after take off to clean up.  As I was unrolling my towel, I noticed a guy a few seats ahead of me take his towel and put it in his mouth LOL.  I guess it was his first time on business class and he thought that was the appetizer.!  The rest of arrival was fine though we were greeted with a short blackout while in customs...Welcome to Haiti! As for Christian, he was thrilled with business class. He took everything in stride, and I was proud of my little guy when he recognized the word "rue" on all the street signs.  I was even more impressed that he didn't mention anything about the dust, and bad roads we encountered on our shortcut to the hotel.  He did see a rooster and a big fat pig, and wondered if we could take home any stray rooster we found.  Of course I had to tell him all stray animals actually have masters.LOL (wi yo gen met)!

The hotel - Best Western is a really nice hotel in the heart of Petion-Ville.  It is two blocks from Place Boyer and close to several restaurants and other shops.  The decor is gorgeous, there is a pool, spa, restaurant and a few bars.  The staff is very courteous, and the restaurant although a bit expensive has great food.  Of course, this being Haiti,  the first morning when I tried to brush my teeth there was no water in the faucet.  I used bottled water and spit in the sink and splash!  the water fell on the floor.  When I took a peak under the cabinet, I noticed there was a piece of pipe missing, i guess it was never installed.  I called the front desk and it was fixed when I returned that afternoon.

 Restaurants - Since we are living out of the hotel for now, we're forced to eat out every day.  We usually order room service for breakfast, and for dinner we go to different restaurants.  We've been to Fior di latte, Mr Grill, and La Coquille, and Le Michel (the hotel restaurant) so far.  The average cost of dinner has been $US 50-65 for 2 with or without dessert.  We would return to all of them as the food was good.  The first night at the hotel, Christian had ordered a ribeye steak that ended up being bigger than his head LOL.  That's when we found out the hotel portions are huge so we should order accordingly, it also took us 6 days before we realized that there was a kids menu.  You live and learn I guess.

Summer camp - Camp Satigny is just awesome and I'm so glad I enrolled Christian even if it's only for two weeks.  The grounds are beautiful, the staff is nice and includes the owner, her husband and her daughter, they feed the children well and there are plenty of activities for them to do.  As soon as Christian came the first day he joined his age group in playing tennis.  For about $200/week including meals, and transportation to and from Petion-ville, it's a great value.  A large percentage of the campers are kids from the states on summer vacation so Christian had no problems integrating and making friends.

Housing - There is not much to report on this front as I'm still looking around for a place to stay.  One of my new co-workers referred me to a few places as he has also been looking for a place to stay with his wife.  So I visited some apartments in Pelerin 6 that were nice and spacious, fully furnished with balconies and great views.  The price was very reasonable too ($1200-$1500).  He also referred me to a hairdresser (she doesn't advertise, her clients are referral only) and the hairdresser referred me to a couple of her friends who lined up two houses for me to visit within my price range in Laboule 10, and Berthe.   Both properties were really ideal, but the best one for us is the one in Berthe.  It is 3 bedrooms 3 baths with dependance, terraces, a pool, huge yard big enough for plenty of cats and dogs.  To give you an idea of the location, imagine Turgeau from the 1980's transported to Petion-Ville.  I hope I am able to secure the lease on the property.  I'll keep you posted.

Christian's Corner
So my mom and I went on first class and the person that served us was really nice.When I asked for another chocolate cookie they didn't have any more :( .  When we got to the airport in Haiti there was a humungous blackout but the computers were still working.  We're staying at a hotel called Best Western Premier. On the second floor there's a restaurant.  My mom and I are on the fourth floor but I'm not going to tell you what the room number is.  I made lots of friends at camp and the hotel.  At the camp I got a 2nd place medal because I almost won a ping pong tournament.  I was so close to winning. It was 9 to 10.  If I got the point it would've been a deuce but the ball went too fast for me to hit it.  Bye because that's it from Christian's Corner!