The cow in the meadow goes moo. The rooster at 2am goes CHHHHEEAASAAAARRRRRRRRCCCGGGHHHGGH

As I mentioned before, the house we are staying in is up a dirt road, out of the city a bit. This means a farm like feeling at times, but it also means cleaner air, a generally serene atmosphere, and lots of very restful (albeit sweaty) sleep.

Except for last night, when an animal(?) Of some sort, probably a rooster, decided to simulate a banshee getting strangled by a shrieking monkey at what I think was around two in the morning, which was odd - the roosters usually don't wake up until around 3:45 we've found. This of course in turn made every stray dog in the neighborhood howl and bark. Not sure what exactly was going on there...

But I digress. Meet little brother!

His name is not actually little brother, but I'm still not entirely sure how to spell his actual name (Creole, much like french, has lots of swallowed letters/sounds), so we'll stick with little brother. He lives at the EMPACT house permanently with Saul and Francois (I'll introduce them later, but Saul along with another person, Claudel, have been our main translators and guides - as well as both being Haitian EMT's themselves), and we see him every morning and in the evening when we get home. I'm only mentioning him because in conversation with Saul yesterday I realized he isn't actually Saul's "little brother." He's a 14 year old orphan, whom Saul (23, an orphan himself, I believe) Claudel (26), Francois (not sure how old she is, probably very early 20's) and Madame Jackie (The house cook, she's older, probably in her 40's) watch out for.

I guess it just struck me when I thought about it more how many Haitians are orphans, or how upended life still is in many ways for many many people down here, even if on the surface the city/country roars full steam ahead.

Didn't mean to get too philosophical on you. Insert sappy music and a cheap play for money here.

Anyway, Little Brother is awesome - spending his summer break playing soccer. His English is coming along, probably in large part to the number of Americans who stream through the house, and he's planning on becoming and EMT when they let him.

In other news, the latest adventure with breakfast - Sloppy Joe's. I had a picture, the internet decided that wasn't happening.

Tomorrow I'll try and write a little bit about some of the other people we've been interacting with on a regular basis. Class today went well, although explaining cardiac tamponade through a translator really doesn't work very well, I've discovered.

Cheers,
Nick