Bon Swa!

I have finally made some documentary efforts on your behalf.  Below is an overview of the campus. The peace and quiet in these pictures are temporary, I'm sure, and a direct contrast to the streets outside. Today I attended two churches and a teacher meeting, skyped with a dear friend in Belgium, and tried hanging curtains for the second time. We lost power three times but it didn't stop any of the events.

It took me 40 minutes to load the movie and I'm not even sure it did load. Tomorrow we begin orientation for real. I have a schedule, and a classroom. I'll show you those later on. 

I also made my first solo walk outside of the gates... I know I will get in trouble for telling this story, but I must be allowed a little pride in the matter :-) After church we went to Epi d'Ore, a sandwich shop up the street, and three of us decided to check out the grocery store for things like dish soap. Well, halfway through shopping, I felt a little nauseous. Without a doubt it was the amount of rice I had been eating, but there was no un-eating it. I handed my bags to a friend and told her I was going to head home before it got worse.  It was a nice walk. Being outside cleared my head, and I felt oddly as if I was walking down the streets of New York. The sudden pockets of bad smells reminded me of the wifs of subway smoke you would get in NY, and so did the panhandlers. I only got called Blan once, and a bunch of boys called after me 'mon cheri, I luv jouuu' but since they stayed seating, I wasn't too worried. In all, it was a nice walk I look forward to doing again if I need groceries.

The Tour

The school is wrapped around the soccer field. My apartment, the chapel, office and snack shop are on the north side. The elementary school and second gate are on the west side. The library, workroom, high school and basketball court are on the south side. The East side is a wall running along 75 Delmas. 

A tour of my apartment

The library and faculty workroom

standing with library to my right, looking at the football field, with picknick area beyond

left is football field fence, right is high school parking lot and library

spinning around, so the library is at my back, the other entrance

elementary entrance

elementary side shot, with back to the football field

Quesqueya Chapel, my apartment is on the other side.

The view of the street from the high school girls' bathroom

same view, with the bars, in case anyone was worried.