Silence in my blogosphere can be interpreted in more then one way - it means life is so busy that there is no time to write or so boring that there is nothing to say....or as is often the case here in Haiti, so logistically complicated that there is just no way to say anything at all. My recent silence has been a product of the first and the last - too busy and no regular access to internet since I arrived back in
Haiti last week Wednesday.
To update you on my own recent days (but be sure to read about what is happening in Haiti above):
The A-exam: After 4 crazy weeks of reading, thinking and writing (as well as a little extra excitement in the week just before the exam when I lost 13 hours of work at 5:30 am on the day my proposal was due) my "A exam" was held on March 28th. It went really well – I passed without any provisions. I learned a lot in the exam itself - which is kind of inevitable when you have 4 well-established nutrition experts / academics focusing all their attention on you and your work for 2 hours straight. The success of my exam was definitely a team effort - including yet again my incredibly patient parents who listened to me cry more than one night about my lack of preparedness, my friend S’s company in the library, her culinary skills for many a free dinner and her willingness to take my bad moods like a sister, the Gabriels’ (including Baby G on the way) for opening their home to me for the month and not minding my anti-social ways, and the thoughts and prayers of many many others. Mesi anpil.
The day of rest: Most people take a week or two off after their A exam but I only had a day to recover before I had to think about my return to Haiti. (Not a mistake I am likely to repeat any time soon) I decided to take the day to do something I couldn’t do on this island and visited the Corning Museum of Glass. Only 30 minutes from Ithaca, Corning, NY is the hometown of Corningware, Pyrex and Corelle. It’s a company town – unusually cosmopolitan for upstate NY due to its large population of researchers and executives. The museum’s collection of glass fine art was truly amazing. Displays traced the history of glass making across the ages and continents. I didn'teven make it to the hands-on technology and glass blowing section during my 3-hour visit. I would definitely say that the CMOG has joined the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and the Seward House in Auburn, NY as one of my favorite museums the United States.
Back to the island: Between taxes, paying a ticket for an out of date car inspection, house matters, and packing, my return to Haiti was the typical frenzy where I only finished half of what I intended to in 48 hours. The highlight was that I got to spend one more night with the Scharf family in Manhattan before taking a 27-minute / $55 taxi ride to JFK airport for my direct flight to Port-au-Prince.
Public speaking: The reason I rushed back to Haiti so quickly was to present a 15 minute talk at a meeting on infant feeding and HIV. It was more of a duty than an honor - it wasn't on my personal work and I actually had to present a perspective that I didn't 100% agree with. I was pretty exhausted/laptop adverse after my previous four weeks and drank several diet cokes on the plane ride down in order to stay awake enough to finish the power point slides. I made it through - and a learned a few lessons about separating personal and professional life in the process. I'm sure some good things will still come out of it all but for now, am just glad to be done with exams and presentations for a little while.
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