Getting around on my own!

This week I spent some time working on my room.  I bought a mattress and I built a loft bed kind of like I had in college!  I made several trips to the hardware store myself...what a rush.  Hop on the dirt bike, ride downtown to the market area, navigate through a street full of tap-taps, motos, people, wheelbarrows, goats...find a place to park and head into the hardware store.

The hardware store has all of their items available for sale attached to peg boards in the aisles.  There are a couple of workers that will write up a ticket for you...I just grab one of them and bring him to the item and point at it!  You then take that ticket to a window to pay for it, then over to a counter to pick up your item.  They always remove the item from the box for inspection and testing if it is electrical.  They box it back up and send you on your way!

I had help from a local carpenter that I met when I was here in August...Jean Philippe.  He builds furniture at his home when he can...kind of "on demand" because he does not have anywhere to store or sell his products.  He speaks very little English, I speak very little Creole, but we were able to communicate through the language of construction.  We taught eachother as much language as we could while building, naming every tool that we used in both languages.  He helped me build the rolling locker cabinet pictured below.

Today should be the day that we get the second shipping container...It was supposed to be here several times, but things happen here at their own pace...and I am completely comfortable with that!  The driver is leaving Port au Prince at 10am, so, he should arrive around 1 in the afternoon.  We have plenty of people here, so unloading it by hand should not be that big of a problem.  The exciting part is that there is a backhoe on this container.  We will have to build a loading dock (shovels and sweat) to get the backhoe off of the container, but it will be worth it!

We have a large group coming in on Saturday, so the dymanics of the house will change quite a bit.  There will be so many people here next week that I have to be in my new room with some room mates.  We (the long term folks) might have to fend for ourselves for a couple of meals due to the large number of guests.  Not a big deal, I am starting to enjoy the local food from street vendors...almost like fast food...they stand there and prepare it right in front of you.