papaya smoothie with lime = babyfood with a kick

papaya is not my favorite fruit. why is a fruit made so large with so little taste? mwen pa remi. mwen remi mango.

being able to communicate with haitians in so little time makes me absolutely love language. taking lessons from a tutor is good, taking classes in college is good, but engulfing yourself in the culture itself, learning from the people by speaking with them, and listening to outside conversations have proven to be so much more efficient. i feel as if i've learned the first year of a language class in one week here. haitians are wonderful teachers.

i extremely dislike my habit of not being satisfied with where i am and this week i feel as if i've overcome it..i can't think of one place i'd rather be (except for south africa, hah).

in haiti i've been able to explore on my own, with little to no direction of where i should be going. i've trail blazed to the beach and back. i've learned huge amounts about bee keeping, an entirely new craft in my life. i've made beautiful little friendships with new people. i've been amazed with the human ability of connection, with basically any type of person--if you're willing and open, you will be able to feel connected. i've been able to appreciate the way different types of personalities clique and/or clash, i've been able to learn from it. i've also had a lot of down time, time to reflect. that's another thing Oles has taught me, is the importance of giving yourself time to actually reflect. i think he's learned a lot about life, about himself, about the way his community works, the appreciation of his place in this community--and i think most of this has been in his time for reflection. he wakes up at around 5 every morning and i think kind of meditates..reflects. i think that is something that takes time to perfect. it's really hard to be comfortable with yourself alone--especially to set a time aside for your own alone time--you have to be very 'not' self aware. you have to be very comfortable with you.
this week i've really focused on this, i'm already seeing rewards in it and i'm extremely pleased with that.