Thursday, August 04, 2011

uneducated meteorology report from the field

Emily stalled out overnight and is sitting south of us. There was some rain yesterday afternoon but it stopped quickly.  Right now in Port au Prince there are gusty winds and cloud-cover but no rain here yet. If you believe what the cyber weather people say, it appears that it will start moving again and be here later today. It will go mainly over the southern peninsula, dropping rain on most of the island.  (See www.stormpulse.com)

We saw information being distributed yesterday. Folks were told to leave their tents for safer ground. As you probably know, there aren't really very many options for places to go. It must be a bit maddening for them to be told to do something that isn't possible.

We have heard that many are praying, thank you for that!

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Yesterday we spent the entire day shopping for the things we still need for our school building and for the apartment for the Burtons (the teachers).  They are moving down in less than two weeks and we want to have their newlywed pad mostly set up for them.

It is rare for us (troy and tara) to spend an entire day together during the week  - it is especially rare to go shopping together.  We laughed all day long at all the ridiculous Haiti things.
  • Troy stood over a cracked table asking if there was another in stock and was told that the one he was looking at was not cracked.  He pointed it out. He was told that is how it was "supposed to be". We decided to call it some sort of cultural difference. 
  • We found a table we liked but the chairs hadn't arrived yet. When we asked when the chairs would be available the salesperson just shrugged. (We appreciated the honesty though.)
  • We liked a loveseat at one place. Troy asked how much? The sales person said, "It is supposed to have a price."  (awkward lull)  Okay.  But it doesn't.  She left.  She came back and said "That one is not for sale."  We're guessing the price was too hard to look-up.
  • Troy had an entertaining exchange over drywall screws. He'll have to tell it, I couldn't describe it as silly as it was.
  • At our last stop we bought a bunch of dishes and household basics for the teacher apartment. We noticed Apple Jacks cereal sitting on the clearance rack in a small grocery section. The only sign visible made it appear that they were $1 a box. The original price was $6.80/box.  Later when we checked out and tried to confirm that price and buy them out of all 15 boxes, 4 sales-people were all uncertain if that was the price for the Apple Jacks or for something else in the clearance section and no one could be sure. We left without the cereal.
  • Troy proudly showed me the oven/stove that he and John purchased for the teachers. I offended him by asking him where the teachers are going to get weensy little pans and pots to fit into the itsy-bitsy little oven. It is slightly larger than an Easy Bake Oven.  I measured with my phone. The oven is approximately three iphones wide.  (To Jimmy and Becky - Troy and John bought you a child size range/oven. Bring your mini-sized pans please. We are looking forward to eating tiny little things that you will bake us in your tiny little oven.)