I've been in Haiti for over two weeks now, and this lazy Saturday afternoon feels like the perfect time to tell you about my experience so far.

So, what have I been up to? Last weekend, we had two exciting outings. On Saturday night, we took the long and winding road to Pétionville, an affluent suburb of Port-au-Prince. For many of us interns, that was an evening of... mixed feelings. We were celebrating a birthday at The View, a very "first-world" restaurant with, as the name promises, an impressive vista. It was a nice change of pace and the food was pretty good, but it was quite strange driving up a mountain to eat an expensive meal, surrounded by white humanitarian/NGO workers, looking down on an expanse of poverty and strife. I enjoyed the good meal, but the whole evening was an unavoidable reminder of the stark imbalance in our world, and the immense privilege I have experienced.

On Sunday, we headed to the beach, which I think was a more universally enjoyable trip for everyone. It was beautiful and sunny and just wonderful to sit in the warm, salty water (I'll try to post a picture soon.) The ocean always has a way of making me feel at home, and it was great to share a moment of such relaxing bliss with the other interns.

And that brings me to this past week, which was... less than relaxing. I have to write my official blog post for the HAC website soon, so I'm going to try to get out my negative energy here (please take it with a grain of salt.)

I continued to teach the adult English class every afternoon, which I have very much enjoyed (we had our first test on Friday, WHOA) and I also started teaching a phonetics class to some of the more advanced students (who would have thought I'd ever be teaching IPA in Haiti...!) So, my afternoons have been good. The mornings have been... rather hellish. Our "summer camp" started on Monday, which means 150 children have been climbing the walls of our compound every day from 9 until 12. If you know me, you probably know that I (usually) love kids but... oh my. This is one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. The kids are out of control, I can't really communicate with them, there's no organization or discipline, and we have no resources. There are a group of girls who I'm positive are plotting against me. I spend most of the morning yelling or at the verge of tears. It's no good. Morale is pretty low around here. I'm hoping things go better next week. You should be hoping for me too. Maybe, when this whole ordeal is insulated in my memory, I'll share some hilarious/horrible stories. At the moment, it's too soon.

But, despite the homicidal rage I've been feeling every morning, life here is good! There's some MAJOR room for improvement in terms of communication, but I guess that's why all us interns are here? I'm just going to keep praying for patience and guidance. Oof.