It’s hard to believe I have less than a month less in Haiti. It feels like the time has gone quickly yet at the same time it feels like I left a long time ago. I am starting to count down the time until I leave, but I am also trying to make the most of my remaining time. Last Sunday I went to the beach with my boss, my boss’s friend, and my roommate. Out of all the beaches I’ve been to, this one was the nicest and the most expensive. There were waiters and waitresses to bring you drinks on the beach, and a nice buffet lunch. It was nice to rest a little bit before going back to work on Monday. Below is a picture of me with my roommate Famil at the beach.

It is now more than five months since the earthquake. Lately I’ve been asked by some people stateside how things are here. Although I have seen some signs of progress such as road construction or dump trucks clearing rubble, the pace is painfully slow. Next to Fonkoze’s Port-au-Prince branch, a group of young men were out this week with hammers and pickaxes separating concrete from steel and removing blocks from a collapsed building. It was difficult to hear that they discovered bodies under the rubble.

Because the government refuses to remove rubble from people’s property, many dump their rubble in the streets, causing traffic jams. Most buildings remain in the damaged state they were moments after the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands of people still reside in tent cities. I am beginning to wonder if many choose to live this way to save money on paying rent. The government has selected a couple of places to relocate tent dwellers, and although the selected sites are not in flood zones, they are not close to Port-au-Prince and (as far as I can tell) have limited access to necessities like a fresh water source. It almost seems like the Haitian government is putting them in the middle of the desert so that people can forget about them.

Last week my boss sent me to Jeremi, a small port town on the southwest coast, to visit more clients. Although there were numerous construction crews out repairing the route, it still was a 7 hour drive from Port-au-Prince. My boss had assured me that the hotel had satellite television so that I might be able to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but of course that hotel was booked and the one I stayed at did not. Luckily, I was able to rent an internet connection for a couple hours to listen to the game online, but was not able to hear the winner in overtime. I can assure you that when I return, I will watch a recording of the games.

We had some free time after finishing visiting the clients, so the driver and I went to explore the city. Jeremi is one of the greenest cities in Haiti and at some points I felt like I was in a jungle. I can’t imagine how pretty Haiti was when it all looked like this. There is a wharf that allows you to drive out a couple hundred yards from shore that I went out on to take some pictures of the city. Although the coastline is very pretty from afar, the beach consists of piles of garbage.

One of the hardest moments of my trip was when we were on our way back from exploring. As we drove by a group of 10 people or so walking along the side of the road, I looked back to see what was going on and saw people crowded around a girl whose face was coated in blood. I told the driver to see what happened and he had the girl come to his window to talk to her. She was getting water at a well when an older man waiting behind her hit her. After discussing with the driver, he did not think it was a good idea to bring her to the hospital as he claimed the cops would think we did it to her. I ended up giving her some money (although likely not enough) hoping she would use it to go to get some medical attention. However, I worried that one of the people she was with would steal it from her after we drove away. I wish I could have helped her more or would have thought to call my boss so he could talk to the driver to figure something out on how to get her to the hospital. Unfortunately, I feel like this kind of thing isn’t rare in Haiti.

On a more upbeat note, it is fun to be in Haiti during the world cup. I feel the country needs something to celebrate to get their minds off of things. The majority of Haitians are Brazil fans and the rest are Argentina fans. Parts of the city are saturated with Brazil and Argentina flags. I saw a man drive buy with a Brazil flag duck taped to the hood of his car.At first I was surprised because the unpopular UN peacekeeping troops here are Brazilian, but I have learned that Haitians merely cheer for these countries because of their soccer teams.

Whenever one of the two is playing, the city stops. Workers in the office circle around someone who smuggled in a little TV to work or has a TV on their cellphone. Whenever a team scores a goal in one of Brazil’s matches, either the Brazil fans are cheering for a Brazil goal or the Argentina fans are cheering for the opposing country’s goal. Suspiciously, we have never had electricity at our apartment go out during a world cup match.