Ashleigh and Katie, kicking it in Haiti: Machine

This Thursday, thanksgiving, we are preparing, cooking, and consuming a thanksgiving feast! On the menu: green bean casserole (a staple), mashed potatoes (obviously), a green salad (we are dying for some fresh vegetables), cornbread (why not), gravy (what is mashed potatoes without gravy), sweet potatoes with apples (Michael's speciality), mirliton (something haitian) and Rotisserie chicken (we don't want our first attempt at a turkey to be in Haiti with a temperamental gas oven). We are going on Wednesday night and waking up at dawn to start our feast-ival!
Now that is am salivating I will catch you up on what has been the happenings here. We have had many of visitors, day and nighters (my terminology for people who stay for longer than day trips). It has been a blast! We have gone on a couple of treks to Kenscoff and up our favorite hill! One of my favorite visits was just a stop by and it was a man with a bunch of "machines." These "machines" are glorified hand cranked tricycles! They are the coolest mode of transportation ever! Peterson puts his backpack in the trunk and cranks away with his laundry loading arms!(he does the laundry everyday) he made sure to be courteous and voice "BEEP BEEP!!!!" Such a gentleman! Steve on the other hand made sure to drive into anyone and every one possible while cackling! Ashleigh's knees were a little bruised and my toes were crunched. Kerin had the marvelous idea of hopping in Steve's trunk and we all followed. I was in David's (this David is different then tour guide David. This David looks like chris rock's long lost Haitian son) trunk and Ashleigh of course got the lean mean peterson machine! We had ourselves a good ol' fashion chariot race around and around on the porch! The day we hiked to Kenscoff, we had to leave late. We were a little hesitant just going with David (tour guide) so we waited for Alcindor. We also had a guest named Lara who was more than willing to venture out and see what trouble we could get into. We started walking and the walking slowly turned into panting and the panting slowly turned into crawling. It was totally vertical. Alcindor told us that in his "prime," he would run up this 3 to 4 mile hill. My hip flexor was throbbing and my back was sweating. We went through a couple of markets and took a few pictures. We got to a bend in the road and Alcindor said, "Okay, what do you want to do now?" We quizzically looked at him and said this is Kenscoff? And his response was, "No, we passed that about 30 minutes ago." "Huh. Okay well on the way back will you point it out please?" So we turned around and started back. We walked and rolled as the sun was setting. He then announced that we were in Kenscoff. Hooray! We kept going. The trek was a good workout at least. We got back into town after dark and that is where the party is at! There were dance parties to my left, to my right, straight ahead, and the best one was our dance party. We hung out for a little bit in town to absorb the environment and celebrate that we made it home safely. We stopping in at the bakery and picked up some bread and finally made it home to Wings to eat some soup! Great reward!
Sunday, we had the privilege of playing darts after church! These boys are a lot more competitive then our Friday dart game. They heckle each other and us too! The pressure was on! I won a protein shake and a soda. Ashleigh one a soda (her team came in first), and Kerin came in last however she won two protein shakes and bomb cookies! Don't know how that happened but she shared. We newly discovered that Renee has a blockbuster in her room! So we rented Bridgette Jone's Diary and enjoyed some chocolate wafers. I can't wait for the next movie night and to have popcorn!!
Wish us luck on our thanksgiving feast-ival! And Happy Turkey Day everyone!!