March 13th: Football, Feminism and You

Greetings, earthlings. I say it's time for a blog post, do you agree? Excellent.

Where did I leave off? Oh I was going to tell you guys more about REBUILD Globally! It's a simply smashing organization, one that I'm really lucky to be a part of.
Here's the skinny on what I'm doing there- W and I have been weeding the garden like crazy. It was in use about a year ago, when some Irish volunteers got it up and running, but then they up and left, so the garden went fallow (I think that's the correct term, isn't it?). We've figured out the irrigation system that the Irish set up still works, which is a plus. Now all we have to do is get some more seeds and plant them. The soil is really rocky, which is not great, but we'll work with what we have.

An additional part of REBUILD (aside: REBUILD is an acronym, which is why I always put it in all caps. I don't quite remember what it stands for, but it's not important at this moment)  is the Saturday Apprenticeship Program. Various young adults (probably aged 15 to mid twenties) come from 9-12 on Saturday mornings to learn crafts, English, business management, and other applicable skills. Sometimes they just do world geography- E, one of the girls who works there- did an entire presentation on her time in Africa. W and I want to do presentations on Minnesota & Wisconsin, because the kids have never been anywhere so completely different from Haiti. I'm going to find pictures of the crazy amounts of snow we get.
W is also doing an individual project on American sports like basketball, baseball, American football and soccer. He wants to clear out some of the land that REBUILD owns and make it into a soccer (or as the Haitians call it, football) field. He's making a plan to build goal posts, which would be amazing.

This past Saturday, one of the Haitian workers at REBUILD gave a presentation on violence against women, something I feel very strongly about. In case you are not up to date on the goings on at Capitol Hill, the President just signed a bill that strengthened the Violence Against Women Act. I won't go into many details, since I sincerely hope the majority of you already are aware of this fact. Furthermore, February has been officially declared as Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. (YAY! LOVE IS RESPECT!)
We discussed the topic of VAWA with the Haitians, who were surprised that violence against women occurs in the United States. Several women spoke of their experiences - in Creole, so we had a translator - and then we had an interesting Q&A session. What is abuse? What are the different kinds of abuse? What are the signs? Why do you think some victims stay with the abuser? We also discussed how domestic violence is not just limited to women, that men are abused as well. It was really fascinating to hear what they knew and didn't know.
Typically, the role of women in Haiti is what you'd expect. It's the woman's job to cook and clean and raise the kids. Of course there are exceptions, just like in any society. We discussed feminism and female empowerment, which made me realize how progressive the US is compared to this country. There is still a lot of work to be done in the States, but compared to Haiti we're way ahead.

After that presentation, I felt really drained. While I have never been abused in any way, I get really uncomfortable discussing it, particularly rape. I guess I find it the most disgusting, horrific crime and hearing their stories made me feel physically sick.  My therapy? Going back to the orphanage with W, S and E. Something about holding a small child made me feel infinitely better. S and E brought along a three week old kitten from REBUILD so the kids could see it. I sat on the floor with one little girl in my lap, and as soon as I sat down five or six of the older girls came over and started playing with my hair- I doubt they see blond curls very often. The kids were so sweet, oohing and aahing at the kitten, offering to share their crackers with us, stretching their arms out so we would pick them up. It was a great way to shake off the stress of the morning. It's times like that when I feel I can do something of worth here.

On a much lighter note, part of our HHE- household equipment- arrived last week which means we have things like hangers, more clothes, our consumables (canned/boxed food) and most importantly, my owl shower curtain. Sadly, this half of the shipment did not contain my books :( I was more upset than was reasonable, but I've read all the books I have here so many times, since I had them with me in DC as well. Alas, I'll just have to wait.

Furthermore, I've been writing like a fiend on my typewriter. It's so much more appealing than a laptop- maybe it's the clackclackclackclackDING! It's a Smith-Corona Silent and I'm pretty sure I'm in love with it. I must apologize in advance to any future roommates because you'll have to put up with my typewriter as well as my excessive loud spontaneous singing. Maybe I'll put that as a disclaimer on my roommate application.
"WARNING: Applicant is in possession of a Smith-Corona Silent typewriter that is in NO WAY SILENT! Applicant will make it up to future roommate with brownies and a 'coupon' for one essay per term that said applicant will type for said roommate on aforesaid machine."

Think it'll work? I totally do.

That's all for now, ladies and gents. I'm off now.

P.S Please feel free to leave comments on my posts! I'm not sure who is looking at this blog, but I'd like to know! Comments don't need to be related to the post, just say hi or let me know if you're enjoying reading my blog so far. Thanks guys!