In order to get the juices flowing for a day filled with thesis writing, I thought I’d share an interesting encounter, with a nun. I have met more nuns and priests in seven months than I probably will the rest of my life. They are the silent (and in some cases not so silent) collective Atlas of Haiti.

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Quick note: I’m fine. I’m in New York City. I arrived here Monday evening to take a test on Tuesday, missing the earthquake by about 24 hours. Thanks for all the notes and emails from long-lost friends.

The day started at dawn. We were traveling to Baraderes, a small town on the northern side of the peninsula (Les Cayes, where I live, is on the southern coast). The problem? A small mountain range in between the southern and northern coasts. The two sides of the peninsula is only 29 miles apart, yet the drive takes close to 4 hours thanks to steep, rock roads made more for donkeys than cars.

We support a school there run by one of the funniest people I’ve met here, who has the added virtue of being a nun. My boss told me that if we weren’t careful, she’d take the shirt off our back, and he wasn’t kidding. Not five minutes into talking to her about how things were going (“oh, I can’t live here much longer—too hard! No power! My eyes are going. I have to go to sleep when the sun goes down!”), and she was trying to convince us to:

1. Pave a road
2. Get her newly purchased generators up and running for several blocks
3. Implement a midwife program

The third program we might actually do, if we can figure out what it would actually cost to do.

Best part of the day (besides the reams of data I was able to get from the school) was the drive.

(more pictures coming–internet connection this week has been horrendous)

It’ll definitely “skim” us down here in Les Cayes, but it doesn’t look like we’ll get the full brunt of the storm. Right now they’re saying 4-5 days until impact. See for yourself: Wunderground (weather underground)